Two additional posts were written by Brennan Hylla. He added them to his personal blog and they can be read here.

By Michael Martin

I thought that I should be the one to write about the “Russian Train” topic, because even though we all went to Moscow on an overnight train from Saint Petersburg, I was the only one also riding back to Saint Petersburg on a train, but this time, during the day. We did not talk much about trains during the course or over the trip, but still, I think that trains are interesting. We have trains in America of course, but I do not think that most people use them that much or think about them that much. I mean, people use the trains in America, but I think that they are a much smaller part of the story of how people get around there. We have a pretty good interstate road system that people use to drive themselves from one part of the country to another. Then of course there are planes which is how most people in America go from one part of the country to another.

In Russia, however, it is often cheaper and easier to go by train. For one thing, in the big cities like Saint Petersburg and Moscow at least, a lot of people do not have cars. Public transportation is good enough, and the roads are bad enough, that it just does not make any sense for most people to even own a car. So they are not driving between the cities so that they can bring their cars with them, like many people do in America. There is not a lot of difference in price between a plane ticket and a train ticket, but the train is the much more comfortable method of travel. The train may rock a bit, but so do planes and there is no turbulence on a train. There is also no ear popping from quick pressure changes. The overnight trains also have the added benefit of being able to lay down and get some proper sleep (depending on how loudly your cabin mates snore, sorry guys!), which can also be seen as saving one night’s accommodation. The train may take longer than a plane, but if you consider having to get to the airport early, checking in, possible delays, and this sort of thing, you will that the time basically evens out.

I found this website, https://www.seat61.com/Russia-trains.htm. According to its guide to “Moscow to Saint Petersburg by train,” Moscow to St Petersburg is the most popular route in Russia. Well we did the opposite, Saint Petersburg to Moscow. Probably still pretty popular. The beds and the dining car were a nice change of pace from the cramped seats of airplanes, or the huddled masses of people, not all of whom bathe on a regular basis, of the city metros. Speaking of bathing, the train had showers! I did not use it because it felt like too much of a hassle right before we were all about to walk around outside all day, but it is nice to have the option.

There were the other trains too, of course. First there was the trip to Masha’s dacha. This train was much simpler. It was not going anywhere overnight, our trip was about an hour, and it was pretty much straight to the point. The seats were not particularly comfortable, but they served their purpose, like the train itself. I was able to get a few pictures of Russian countryside. Then there was the train back to Saint Petersburg. It was somewhere between the other two in terms of comfort and general niceness. The seats were like airplane seats, but with a little more leg room. There was a bit of confusion boarding. I was told a seat number by the lady scanning passports, but someone else was in that seat. A few others were in the situation too, including an older lady who really looked like she needed to sit. We stood and waited for them to figure it out, and eventually they put us all in the next forward car, which actually looked a little bit nicer. I do not know if this disorganization is a Russian thing, or a company thing or what, but it felt a bit unprofessional. The train employees were great about it, and dealing with me not understanding them, but how do mistakes like that happen? I got a few pictures out the windows of that train also.

Some people say that riding the train in Russia is part of the “Russian experience.” I don’t know about that, but it is something a lot of Russians do, so maybe. I do not think there was anything in particular about the trains that influenced my perceptions of Russian culture. Perhaps just that it was another setting to interact with Russian people. The more I do that, the more I feel like even though there are unique aspects of Russian culture and people, just like there are with all cultures and people, they are not so very different, enigmatic, or mysterious.

By Michael Martin

The 22nd of May 2018. It was day 18 of our Russian study abroad trip. We went to see Vladimir Lenin. It was interesting to visit not only an important historical figure’s grave, but to see the person’s body, or what is left of it, preserved for the purpose (I have to assume) of allowing us, the visitors, the tourists, the students, and maybe even some Russian people, the opportunity to witness this great leader of Russia, just as he was when he was alive… or as close as possible. Such an attraction leaves one with many things to think about.

First, who was Vladimir Lenin? Born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, he was a hugely influential figure in Russian history. He was the leader of Russian Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union. He and his ideas helped take Russia from a monarchy, to Communist superpower, to what it is today.

So why keep him preserved like that? No one else is afforded this honor, if you want to call it that. I have heard some people (not Russians) say that it is disrespectful to keep him like this. That they should just let him be buried already, leave his body alone, let him decompose and return to earth, and that sort of thing. I do not know the exact process, but to keep preserved like that somebody has to touch him. They have to manipulate his body, put stuff into it, maybe take things out, he is probably naked during some parts of the process. Many things have to be done that would normally be considered “defiling a dead body” in almost any other circumstance. If the idea is to honor a hero, is this really the way to do it?

There is another part of this that I do not think is discussed enough. Looking at him, I remember thinking that he did not look real. He looked like a wax dummy. A really well done wax dummy, but still, a wax dummy. A few other students said the same thing. I have seen dead bodies before, both in funerals and unfortunately, not in funerals. There is a similar thought looking at any deceased person, no matter how recent or how well preserved they are. So why go through all this trouble? Why not put him to rest, and make a wax dummy that people can see?

I have tried asking a few Russian people about their thoughts on the subject. There seems to be a mix of a little bit of nostalgia as a lot of older Russians do miss the Soviet Union, a little bit of “this is the way it is and has been,” (the Russians do seem to like their traditions), but mostly it seems as though most of the Russian people do not really even think about it at all.

Maybe it is just a draw for tourist revenue. Maybe it is a form of “honor” that I just do not understand. Earlier in the trip, I tried to argue that Russia is unique to the East and the West, and ended up with the conclusion that they are not so very different. But perhaps in this way they are, because this is just not something that people do in civilized society. I am not trying to say that Russians are uncivilized, but this practice of preserving and displaying Lenin’s body feels rather uncivilized.

There were no pictures allowed to be taken inside, but I took some pictures of the building outside, there is also a picture of Lenin from British newspaper, The Guardian, taken from this website: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/15/lenin-body-moscow-burying-news.

While in St. Petersburg we had the opportunity to take a cooking class. We learned how to make traditional Russian pancakes- блины, and dumplings- пельмени, these usually have meat- pork, veal, and beef, but for vegetarians we made вереники, which were filled with potatoes and onions. Блины are typically served with either sweat toppings like cottage cheese and jam or savory toppings like cabbage and eggs. Блины are also are a very common food in Russia. Tea, чай, was served and is commonly served  as well.

Our mountain of блины

блины cooking

I find great comfort in cooking and had so much fun learning about Russian traditional food and culture. Food brings people together no matter where you are or where you are from and I had so much fun with my classmates learning how to cook some Russian food. I had some previous perceptions about Russian food. Mainly that there’d be a lot of pickles, cabbage and beets. In reality yes there are the previously mentioned foods but a lot of other things- sour cream, dill, potatoes and more. I honestly didn’t have high expectations. I actually really liked some Russian food. There are Russian doughnuts (пышки), and rolls filled with cabbage and others with mashed potatoes- if that doesn’t sound good I don’t know what does. Borscht (борщ) a traditional beet soup is delicious and can easily be made at home and vegetarian. Russian food gets a bad rap- but if you try it you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Below is a recipe for блины that is easy and delicious for everyone to try.

I guess that my point is where ever you go- even if the food is far from familiar you can always expirence another culture’s food and traditions and learn from it/them. You may not like everything but you’ll learn more about the people and customs. It is important to not look at everything through your own culture’s point of view- nothing is “better” or ” worse” it simply is. Each culture has their own customs, traditions, or habits. Through looking at it this way you can question your own culture and why you do the things that you do. Further you can expand your mind and learn about another way of life- one that you can learn and adapt from.  For example Russians often toast before drinking and often don’t wear shoes inside- instead they wear slippers known as тапочки.

Russia was a truly interesting place and I found that making and eating Russian food opened another window into their culture.

Here you can see us making пельмени and блины:

A basic very casual recipe for блины:

one cup/glass of flour

one egg

** tip from our instructor: crack the egg into a small bowl first, that way you can check that the egg is good ( if its not and you cracked it into the batter you’d have to start again:(  ) and that way you can easily remove egg shells too.

a good amount of sugar

salt- to taste

one cup/ or glass (same size as one for flour) of milk

whisk together… the batter needs to be thin. If it needs to be more thin, then keep adding milk.

Heat the burner to  high heat and add oil to a flat bottom pan.

After the oil begins to smoke a little grab a ladle and pour a small amount of the batter into the pan. Distribute the batter evenly. This should be a thin layer of batter.

It should cook quickly. You can tell that it is done by a dry appearance- and through my expirence when bubbles start to show up.

Flip it over and leave it for a very short amount of time, somewhere around 5 seconds. The goal is golden brown.

After,  eat it however you want, I recommend jam and sour cream, Enjoy!

The Hermitage is a giant complex of museums containing the winter palace originally built for Peter the Great’s daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth died before the building was finished but was used by others- such as Catherine the Great. The art collection was started by Catherine the Great and has continued to grow. Interestingly Catherine purchased art that was originally intended for Fredrick II from Prussia.  Most of the art isn’t on display. It is the biggest museum of art in Russia and one of the biggest in Europe. There are 5 buildings in total (Winter Palace, Large Hermitage, Small Hermitage, New Hermitage, and the theatre). The Hermitage contains 233, 345 square feet of museum, and 1, 013, 653 pieces of art. It’s honestly mind blowing.

The Hermitage is the kind of  place I had only dreamed of going. It is a beautiful building filled with beautiful art created by masters- Matisse, Picasso,  Van Gogh, Renoir, Vallotton, Degas, Monet, Rousseau, Michel Angelo, DaVinci, and more. Yes, you can Google this art and see pictures of it- but standing in front of a masterpiece, something I had only seen in textbooks and seeing the texture of the paint and the detail is simply unreal. It is seeing a piece of notable history- something that is read about, talked about, and analyzed to this day years after it was created. It is an honor.

It is an overload of beautiful art. This is due to the building being is art itself. The Hermitage is full of ornate rooms gilded with gold and with incredible murals and detail. One can see a throne room and then go see a Da Vinci- talk about an expirence.

Not only is the building and the art beautiful, the location of the building is incredibly scenic. The Hermitage sits on the Neva river. So whilst in a beautiful room looking at wonderful art one can look out a window to an amazing view of the Neva river or the palace square which is also a beautiful view.

I had no idea that Saint Petersburg was a city of ornate beautiful palaces or that it has one of the biggest art museums in Europe. So in that way, my view point of Russia changed. I knew Peter wanted a western city so I expected more Italian architecture. I also knew it was a city rich in history and further I knew Russia had an abundant culture but I wasn’t expecting a gilded, canal filled, pastel colored city. Others assured me it was a cold grey block city, remnants of the soviet union- a result of a horrible stereotype and I hope that I can show them otherwise. Saint Petersburg is a more diverse city than I thought and a more picturesque city than expected. However, in general I don’t think Russia is much different in terms of museums- don’t get me wrong- the Hermitage is unique but there are several other very large museums that hold similar masterpieces. What sets it apart, from what I can tell, is the building itself. Each room is a historic piece and an art piece and is a must see if one is in St. Petersburg.

Walking through the Hermitage it gave a window into the past- of what life must have been like for Catherine the Great and those who lived there.

** you can click on any of the pictures to see a bigger size. The following are just a few examples, if you have the desire to see more of the buildings or the art you can see their online collection  via the Hermitage website:

http://hermitage–www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/explore/artworks/?lng=en

The Dancer – Degas
One of my favorite pieces of art that I saw

Cites used:

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/hermitage/

http://hermitage–www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/explore/history/?lng=en

http://www.hermitagemuseumfoundation.org/the-museum/history/

The venue for this activity was a little ways away from the dorms we were staying at. To get to the building the ball was being held at we had to take the subway, walk through a little suburb type area and then through a park. The ball was in a building kind of in the middle of nowhere all by itself. The normal building was under reconstruction or restoration, so they were holding it here. We had a few extra people join our group in order to make a participant requirement. We started by having to take our shoes off and put on these thin flat shoes. Then the boys and girls were separated to get their outfits on. The girls were taken into a room with racks of poofy dresses. We had to put on the hoop skirt and all. Then the ladies that worked there assessed our dress sizes by looking at us and pointing us in a direction. Once we picked out our dresses and were zipped in, we got gloves and head accessories.

The dressing up was easily the best part. We were then led downstairs again to the ballroom where we took so many pictures. It’s not every day that you get to dress up in ball gowns! Once the boys joined us in their costumes, our instructor joined us. He did not speak English, so this woman had to translate for us, but he was very passionate about the dancing and customs.

He taught us three or four different dances and they ranged from very slow and simple to fast paced and more complex like the polka. It was a ton of fun. We had to switch partners and go around in a big circle. Then we learned the language of the fans. Different fan colors as well as different gestures have different meanings. Some of the gestures include twirling it, putting it over certain body parts, and holding it in different hands. It is a rather complex system for having a fan be the only thing that conveys meaning. Then all of the ladies in the group got white fans and we learned dances where we used the fans as props, it was also really hot in that room, so we did use the fans as fans. After we finished learning all of the dances, we took more photos and then the boys and girls went our separate ways to change back into our normal clothes.

Reference for photo – www.fancircleinternational.org

Overall I thought this experience was amazing. This activity was so cool and unlike anything I have ever done and probably will do again. Dressing up in the ballgowns was so cool and it was so interesting to have to wear a dress that big and have to be so aware of your surroundings. That wasn’t something that I had ever considered before. Learning the dances was very interesting and finding out that there is a fan language. I would definitely recommend this for anyone going to Saint Petersburg. It was just very unique and the people that worked there seemed to really love their jobs and they seemed to be incredibly knowledgeable about all of that stuff. It was just such an awesome experience and I cannot stress that enough.

Refernces

http://www.angelpig.net/victorian/fanlanguage.html

https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/tag/language-of-the-fan/