By Dr. Chad Stebbins As part of the overall internationalizing of Missouri Southern State College, Dr. Mark Comstock and I received a marvelous opportunity at the end of the Spring 1997 semester - a visit to St. Petersburg, Novgorod, and Moscow, Russia. We received faculty study grants to attend a seminar titled "Russia Through the Eyes of the Media: Reform and the New Social Landscape." CIEE, the Council on International Educational Exchange, sponsored the week-long seminar along with the Russian-American Press and Information Center (RAPIC). It was my first time to go abroad, but Mark, an assistant professor of accounting at Missouri Southern, had been to England in April. Mark flew from Chicago to Moscow via Aeroflot on May 24 for a week of sightseeing on his own. I took the CIEE flight on Air France from New York to Paris to St. Petersburg on May 31. At the Air France terminal in New York, I met Dr. Carl Mills, an associate professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, who happened to be my assigned roommate for the entire seminar. Our overnight flight to Paris took nearly seven hours and was at least 30 minutes late arriving. As a result, it took a desperate scramble to make the connecting flight to St. Petersburg. On the shuttle bus, Carl and I met two more Russia seminar participants: Dr. Tamara Gillis, an assistant professor of communications at Elizabethtown College; and Dr. Sheila Weiss, an associate professor of history at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. After a three- or four-hour flight from Paris, we arrived in St. Petersburg, where we met other seminar participants who had unknowingly been with us since New York. Other members of our distinguished group were Dr. Gary Brock, an associate professor of sociology at Southwest Missouri State University; Dr. Thomas Cassilly, an adjunct professor of political science at Montclair State University; Dr. Linda Dolive, a professor of political science at Northern Kentucky University; Vallye Ezell, who teaches U.S. history and Russian history at Richland College in Dallas; Dr. David Felix, a professor of history emeritus at Bronx Community College; Dr. David Finley, a professor of political science at Colorado College; Dr. James Krukones, chair of the history department at John Carroll University; Dr. Mark Lusk, director of international programs at the University of Montana; Dr. Kathryn Martell, an associate professor of management at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville; Dr. Vladimir Wozniuk, an associate professor of history and government at Western New England College; Dr. Hussain Al-Fadhli, an associate professor of sociology at Tougaloo College; and Debra Greene, an instructor of history at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo. Karen Dubrule was the CIEE representative who accompanied our group. Anna Sharogradskaya, regional coordinator at RAPIC's St. Petersburg office, was our hostess for the first five days of the seminar and did everything possible to accommodate the group, even arranging tickets to see the ballet Silfida at the world-renowned Mariinsky Theater. Lodgings: In St. Petersburg, we stayed four nights at the Hotel Moskva, your typical Soviet monstrosity. Guidebooks described it as "unimaginative and depressing," which turned out to be accurate. Once you exited the elevator, you had to walk the equivalent of several blocks before reaching your room. We had hot water for showers half the time; on other occasions, the tap water was brown and left a gritty residue in the sink. We initially had a bar of soap in the room, but the hotel maids removed it one morning while cleaning. A request to the "floor lady" for more soap did not produce any, but fortunately Carl and I each had packed a bar. The best thing about the Hotel Moskva is its location. It sits across the street from the picturesque Alexander Nevsky Monastery and at the end of Nevsky Prospect, St. Petersburg's "Main Street." In Moscow, we stayed two nights at the Hotel Ukraina, which was much nicer. It is located in one of the seven Stalin Gothic skyscrapers across the Moscow River from the Russian "White House." Curiously, neither hotel provided a wash cloth, the one thing I regretted not bringing on the trip. Hotel Moskva and Hotel Ukraina A word about the water: St. Petersburg's water is drawn from Lake Ladoga and the Neva River, where large farms and heavy industries dump their waste. Tests allegedly conducted on the city's water supply by a commission of the Paris Health Department found that one of every 20 test tubes extracted from the city's drinking water supply contained hepatitis A. The drinking water supply also contained 200 times the acceptable level of the bacteria that causes dysentery and from double to triple the minimum world standard levels of heavy metals. Vodokanal, St. Petersburg's water monopoly, hopes to receive a 10-year $73 million loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to upgrade its ancient plumbing and purification system. Scenery: St. Petersburg is a beautiful city, covering more than 100 islands and crisscrossed by more than 60 rivers and canals. It reminds many visitors of Venice and others of Rome and Paris. I particularly enjoyed Palace Square, the site of many famous events in Russian history. One entire side of the enormous Square is the General Staff Building, the longest building in Europe. On the other side is the Winter Palace, which was the residence of Catherine the Great and other Russian czars. The Winter Palace is now the Hermitage Museum, one of the world's largest art museums. We saw paintings by Van Gogh and Picasso and Michelangelo's "Crouching Boy" statue during a two-hour visit one afternoon. Supposedly, a person who spent one minute viewing each object on display would need an entire year to see everything. Russia is known for its many breathtaking cathedrals topped by onion domes of various designs and colors. We saw countless ones during our week-long stay, but the most magnificent was the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg. Also known as the Church of the Bleeding Savior and the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, the cathedral was built at the turn of the century as a tribute to Tsar Alexander II. The church's altar stands on the spot the Tsar was assassinated by a terrorist bomb in 1881. Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood The alphabet and language: Many signs were written both in Latin and the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. You could often figure out something that appeared in Latin, but Cyrillic was a different story. One afternoon in St. Petersburg, Mark Comstock and I decided to walk to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Coming back, we decided it would be much faster to take the subway, as there was a stop at our hotel. Once we had purchased a token and entered the subway, we were lost. The signs were entirely in Cyrillic. Mark had a detailed map of St. Petersburg that included a layout of the subway, but we were unable to match anything on his map with what we saw. Although no one around us spoke English, I came up with the idea of pointing to the stop we needed on Mark's map and asking for help. The person we asked indicated the way we needed to go and held up two fingers for two stops. Once we were actually on the subway, we showed the map to another person who confirmed that we were indeed heading in the right direction. Once we exited, we took a right turn thinking that was the way to go. A woman who had been riding the subway with us grabbed us and pointed us to the corridor that led to our hotel. It is possible to survive in Russia speaking only English. Many of the waiters are quiet fluent, as are as the street vendors. Our hosts, guides, and interpreters all spoke good English, so there wasn't a language barrier. There is a movement in Russia to preserve the purity of the Russian language, which President Yeltsin and others claim is being spoiled by American and other Western advertisements. The mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzhkov, has ordered shop signs to be in Russian only and goods in shops to carry mandatory descriptions in Russian. Sunbathers at Peter and Paul Fortress Russian political parties: In St. Petersburg, one of our seminars focused on the many different political parties. Representatives from 11 different ones spoke to us; there are now at least 60 parties in Russia. There is even a registered Beer Drinkers Party which ran a candidate in the last election. Most interesting to me was the Bolshevik Communist Party, which still gets about 15 percent of the vote. The representative who spoke to us talked of restoring the former Soviet Union, with force if necessary. He pointed out that under the Bolsheviks, Russia had been transformed from a backwards agricultural nation to one that launched the space age. Climate: We visited Russia during the White Nights, when it is daylight most of the time. It's particularly noticeable in St. Petersburg, when at 11 p.m. there would still be plenty of light. Some members of our group had trouble sleeping, but I was always so exhausted that it didn't bother me any. Temperatures were very pleasant, never too chilly or too hot. I would think that June is the ideal time to visit Russia. Smoking: I was struck by the number of men who smoked. In Moscow, two officials even lighted up while speaking to our group, which bothered those who were especially sensitive to cigarette smoke. We saw numerous Western cigarette ads on billboards. I read where 32 percent of all male deaths in Russia can be attributed to tobacco usage and the life expectancy for Russian males has dropped to 58 years. The anti-smoking campaigns really haven't kicked in yet. Poverty: I recall seeing many more homeless people in the large U.S. cities than in St. Petersburg and Moscow. We encountered a few children and elderly women begging for money, but not a substantial amount. (One woman in St. Petersburg did "bless" our bus in exchange for a few dollars.) We didn't get to go to the rural areas, where the standard of living is much lower. We were told that it takes a minimum of 1 million rubles a month to live in Russia. Most people hold two or three jobs in order to make that or a little more. College professors, incidentally, make about 1.1 million rubles a month (about $200), the same wage as floor and office cleaners. Retired people have a very difficult problem, because the average pension is only $50 a month. Most still have to work in order to support themselves. The train ride: To celebrate our last night in St. Petersburg, the Russian-American Press and Information Center (our hosts) gave a farewell dinner where the vodka and wine flowed freely. We were then taken to the train station for the overnight trip to Moscow. RAPIC had reserved an entire car for our 18-member group, two people per compartment. Several members of our group purchased alcohol aboard the train to continue the partying. There was much singing, loud talk, and even some dancing, which brought a few policemen to our private car. They asked to see the passports of the main participants, then demanded money. Vladimir Wozniuk, the only member of our group who could speak Russian, claimed to have been told by a policeman: "I can make it so that you never see your country again." He replied, in Russian, that he didn't understand. The policemen advised the revelers to go to bed, which they did. Upon our arrival the next morning, we were met by Natalya Yakovleva, the Moscow program coordinator of RAPIC. Souvenirs: We were taken to a huge outdoor flea market in Moscow, as nearly everyone in the group wanted to take home mementos of the trip. The primary export for Russia has to be the matryoshky (nesting doll). They literally make millions of them. We saw Bill and Hillary Clinton dolls, Beatles dolls, Michael Jordan dolls, and dolls bearing the likenesses of recent Soviet leaders in addition to the more traditional dolls. The vendors spoke remarkably good English, and you were able to barter with them very easily. I was struck by how aggressive the male vendors were at other places in Russia. They would attack us as soon as we stepped off our tour bus, and they wouldn't take no for an answer. No matter how many times you told them no, they would keep following you. Some would even attempt to board our bus while we were waiting for everyone in our group to return. Comstock at St. Basil's Cathedral Other observations: The people in the cities struck me as being well-dressed. We were told beforehand that Russians mostly wear really dull colors, but I didn't find that to be true. Someone in our group commented how fashion conscious the Russian women now are. On a curious note, I was also amazed at the number of weeds and dandelions I saw. We visited several famous cathedrals and historic places that were surrounded by the most unkempt yards I have ever seen. Lawn care, apparently, is just an American-European tradition. In conclusion: Thanks to Missouri Southern's Institute of International Studies, Mark Comstock and I received a pretty good taste of all that Russia has to offer. I now have a fascination with Russian history, which was almost completely unfamiliar to me before the trip. I was aware of the rise of the Soviet Union, but knew next to nothing of Russian history before 1917. We were told about Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, other various czars, the beloved poet Alexander Pushkin, and such historical events as the Decembrists' uprising of 1825 and Bloody Sunday in 1905. I'm now interested in reading more about Russian history, and just recently finished Robert Massie's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Peter the Great. Peter the Great bust and cottage Mark's thoughts and observations: Russia proved to be an extraordinary nation in the midst of a dynamic period of change. One of the most interesting things about contemporary Russia is the rapidly evolving political and economic environment. There is an enormous divide between capitalists and communists. The communists are primarily older citizens. To many Russians, capitalism means unlimited profiteering without principles or law. This fundamental misunderstanding of capitalism has resulted in growth in organized crime. On the other side of the spectrum are the communists. The communists whom I met, who now wish to be called "Bolsheviks," have among their declared goals the Russian reacquisition of Alaska. One of the most interesting things I noticed about the people of Russia was a great interest in spiritual thought and activities. After 75 years of official atheism, the people I met expressed an enormous interest in western churches and religious perspectives. Essentially, the only religious organization in the parts of Russia that I visited was the Russian Orthodox Church. I found this interest in religion to be a recurring theme among the Russians with whom I had conversations. The American embassy assisted me in providing information for Joplin businesses who are interested in doing business in Russia. Embassy personnel were courteous and helpful. Each morning, a line stretched for blocks from the embassy door. These were people trying to get permission to emigrate to the USA. Pol Vitold is the Russian manager of Fadroma Industries, a subsidiary of Bumar, Ltd., a Polish firm. Fadroma specializes in mining and manufacturing equipment, and Mr. Vitold was quite receptive and interested in doing business with manufacturers in our community. There may be opportunities for Joplin-area businesses in the future to conduct commerce with Fadroma and other potential customers. In general, those interested in doing business in Russia should be aware that there are huge risks associated with the emerging markets to be found there. Everyday life in Russia is much more primitive and difficult than that in the United States. The finest Russian highways between cities are overwhelmingly two-lane roads without shoulders. Faculty members at Moscow State University, one of the nation's most prestigious learning institutions, share a desk among three or more professors. The selection of consumer goods is limited and of poor quality, except for the wealthiest of shoppers. Public buildings are in a state of decay. There are almost no single-family dwellings in the cities that I visited; everyone lives in apartments that are small by American standards. Many of the people live in fear of the military and the police, who insist on being treated as superiors. The primary reaction that I had after visiting Russia was an increased appreciation of the limits and dangers of state control. Seventy-five years of state control has left the economy in a shambles and the infrastructure undeveloped - this in a nation where central planning was supposed to be a strength. There are tremendous lessons to be learned from the Russian experiment with putting their ultimate trust in government. Some of the information used to identify the accompanying photos came from Fodor's Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev '96 and the St. Petersburg Times.
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