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Kindly pass the word along (TELL YOUR CLASSMATES! TELL YOUR FRIENDS! TELL YOUR EXTENDED FAMILY! WRITE IT ON YOUR FOREHEAD!) about the following two events:

1. Professor Glebov will be speaking on Tuesday, APRIL 7th at 6:30 PM in Seelye 211. He will probably be talking about his research in Siberia!

2. Professor Goldstein (Russian Politics teacher) will be speaking on Tuesday, APRIL 14th at 6:00 PM in Seelye 211. This historical talk is going to discuss the movie we are showing that night, Burnt by the Sun.

Don’t miss out on these wonderful opportunities!

P.S. This afternoon the Russian Club purchased a samovar similar to this one:

Hopefully that will arrive within the next week so we can enjoy tea and cookies at our get togethers!

An important day for Russian Club. In custom with the tradition started last year, Russian Club gave out carnations in the Campus Center from 10-1. For future reference, we bought 180 stems from Stop and Shop. We set up camp at the table in front of the post office on the lower level with the informational poster and handed out carnations to the passing students. Most looked confused at first, “Wait, do I have to pay?” but then overwhelmingly pleased. An excellent outcome, I’d say.

In the evening Ruth, Shana, Nina, Sofi, Liza, and Lara gathered in Talbot basement for the Russian banquet. The main dish was chicken grilled and then boiled with plum tomatoes, tarragon, Spanish onions, garlic, basil, parsley and cilantro, and was accompanied by the traditional staple- pilaf. The vegetable dish was asparagus with lemon juice, butter and garlic sauce. Mmm, garlic. The asparagus turned out nice and tender, and the lemon juice wasn’t too overpowering. Dinner was followed by Russian baba cake, which was covered in a syrup of Godiva liqueur, and accompanied by maple walnut ice cream. All in all, a delight to behold.

This evening the group gathered in Seelye 211 and learned the card game “The Fool.” Relative fun was had by all.

Katia sent me a wealth of film information, as follows:

Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears — more serious, it follows the lives of three women who move to Moscow from the provinces and start new lives. It won an Oscar in 1980 or 81. It is a really interesting look at society and the role of women in the Soviet Union. Also, it has a great song.

Mongol— This came out a couple of years ago and was nominated for an Oscar. It’s a historical-fictional film about Chinggis (Genghis) Khan. It’s epic and has armies and battles and a love story. I can’t think of any great songs in this one…

Cheburashka — This is a Soviet cartoon about Cheburashka and his friend Crocodile Gena. Very popular and with great songs! The birthday song in the cartoon is apparently popular. Cheburashka is very cute.

Russian Ark — This came out in 2002 and is amazing. It was filmed in a single take in the Hermitage and surveys 300 years of Russian history. It is fairly arty and surreal and confusing at times, but it is an excellent film.

The first would be especially appropriate to view around International Women’s Day.

On the advice of Katia, the Russian Club watched Diamond Arm tonight in Seelye 211. What an excellent suggestion! There has been some trouble obtaining a consistent meeting place, but I have finally procured Seelye 211 for all our future meetings. Apologies for the movement. This said, feel free to change the meeting place on the posters around campus if you see one that is wrong. Thanks for your help!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• “Unfamiliar Terrain: Sufis, Scribes, and the Creation of Russia’s Southern Empire”

Wednesday, February 25th at 8:00 in the Amherst Russian House.

Kelly O’Neill ’97, assistant professor in the History Department at Harvard University, will present a talk at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, February 25 in the Russian House of Amherst College. Her focus will be the development of the Russian-Crimean relationship after 1783, using colorful episodes and excerpts of archive documents. She will talk about how an historian goes about interpreting and contextualizing sources and, eventually, writing the history of an empire. Her talk will be of particular interest to students who are themselves thinking about undertaking historical research projects in the future. Reception to follow.

• “Catherine the Great’s Memoirs: Of Horses and the Political Animal”

Thursday, February 26th at 5:00 in the Russian classroom (Hatfield 107)

A lecture by Hilda Hoogenboon who translated The Memoirs of Catherine the Great.

• Mt. Holyoke Russian Club celebrates Pancake week!

Friday, February 27th at Mt. Holyoke in the ACE House from 5:30-8:00. Here’s the Facebook group:

Maslenitsa!

A group of worldly, curious, intellectually endowed women gathered in Seelye 302 on a dark, but rather mild temperatured night. They crowded in a semi-circle of rickety chairs and read fables from the old country. The crisp prose of Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev sent morals flying this way and that. Natasha provided sweets with colorful wrappers. They watched, grinning, “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” and marveled at the very silly turn of events. Date changes were discussed.

International Women’s Day: changed to MARCH 10th, from 10-2 in the CC at a table in front of the green couches.

Brighton Beach: changed to APRIL 4th

Tonight was full of delicious fun. We ate spice cake, decorated posters and settled on dates for activities. Following is a comprehensive list of activities this semester. Everything listed on a Tuesday will take place at 6:30, everything pertaining to food will take place in Talbot House basement, and for everything else we will meet in Hatfield 107 .

• TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17th: Poetry reading followed by showing of Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
• MONDAY, MARCH 9th: International Women’s Day. Giving out carnations by the green couches in the Campus Center between 10 and 2 in the afternoon.
• TUESDAY, MARCH 10th: Russian banquet
• SATURDAY, MARCH 28th: Road trip to Brighton Beach
• SUNDAY, APRIL 5th: Day trip to “Victory” in East Springfield
• TUESDAY, APRIL 14th: Decorating eggs for Easter. Ours might not be as fancy as the ones on Wikipedia. The Hutsuls -the Ukranians of the Carpathian Mountains- believe that “as long as the egg decorating custom continues, the world will exist.” We are saving the world.
• SUNDAY, APRIL 19th: A concert by the National Philharmonic of Russia at UMASS, a speech starting at 6:15, and the concert starting at 7. The tickets to this are $15 for students.

I’ve requested that if possible, members attend LEAP meetings. You just pick one that sounds interesting, sign your name next to the Russian Club on the sign in sheet, and email me that you have gone so that we don’t go to more than are necessary. Here is the schedule.

Remember, we meet every Tuesday. Mark your calendars!

I found this funny clip site.

Then I got inspired, YouTubed Russian music and found some fun stuff. Here’s something to start you off.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOFxS7BvUfQ&feature=related[/youtube]

1.

WHAT: ICONS “R” US: Aesthetics of Representation and Liturgical Icons

Nektarios Antoniou, conductor, icon collector and workshop host will provide an in-depth look into the creation and liturgical function of icon paintings, using video clips demonstrating the art of icon-making, and discussing the Russian and Greek icons currently on view at the Mead. Following the presentation, Dr. Antoniou will be available for informal discussion in front of the icons displayed in the galleries. The event is free and open to all.

WHEN: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13th 1:00-2:00 p.m.

WHERE: Mead Art Museum, William Green Study Room at Amherst

2.

WHAT: The War in Tolstoy’s War and Peace

WHEN: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10th, 7:30 PM

WHERE: Andreola Room, Willits-Hallowell Center, Mt. Holyoke

Lara bought to my attention Moscow’s Sex and the City, which was created by a Smith alum! Here’s a blurb from Sasha:

Moscow’s Sex and the City, a documentary film produced this year by Victoria Gamburg ’93 for the PBS program FRONTLINE/World, was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy Award in a new category for work presented on the Internet. The story, which borrows its title from the popular HBO television series and Hollywood hit, depicts the experiences of young, single women in today’s Russia. Gamburg, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, but grew up in the United States, compares fictional characters in Russia’s popular TV series Balzac Age with the lives of real women in Moscow. Gamburg has produced several documentaries from her cross-cultural perspective. Emmy Award winners will be announced during a ceremony at the Lincoln Center in New York City on September 22.

Maybe we can discuss the image of Russian women at our next meeting!

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