5/31: 19th Century Literature, The Old Tretchikov Gallery, and Meeting Ambassador McFaul

We had our fourth lecture with Professor Valshenko today. We covered Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekov. At the end of the lecture, I asked the professor what the communists thought of and did with the old Russian literature after the Bolshevik Revolution. His response was interesting. He said that some were in the avant-garde mindset and believed that anything old should be dismissed. Communism was the wave of the future. It was the dawn of a new era, and we cannot learn anything from our past. Others, such as Lenin, used authors from Russia's Golden Age to legitimize communism. Tolstoy, for example, was an aristocrat who found virtue in the peasantry. Lenin would have said that Tolstoy would have been a communist if he were alive during the Revolution, because his work appealed to the proletariat.

Ambassador Michael McFaul

The night before, we learned that we had been invited to a reception at the home of US Ambassador Michael McFaul. McFaul is famous for being a loose cannon in his role as ambassador to Russia. He is not a career diplomat, but rather a college professor, who has written numerous papers on how Russia is not a true democracy and how the United States should play a more active role in reforming the Russian political system. On Wednesday he faced criticism from the Putin administration for accusing Russia of having bribed Kyrgyzstan in 2009 to close down its US military airbase. The Russian government called his remarks "unprofessional" and "undiplomatic."


 Having forgotten to pack black pants and a belt, I went shopping that night to purchase the necessary items in the last thirty minutes before the shopping mall's closing. So excited about my new purchase, I wore dress pants to class today, assuming that we wouldn't have enough time to change before the reception. Apparently, I was mistaken, as I was the only one who looked as if I was going to see an opera as I sat in class. 


Before the reception, our group went in fancy clothes to the Old Tretchikov Gallery, where we saw neoclassic, naturalist, and impressionist art. There were portraits of Catherine the Great, Anna I, Elizabeth, Ivan the Terrible, and Peter the Great. Some of the paintings were gargantuan. Some had whole rooms dedicated to a single piece of art. One painting was so large and detailed that it took the artist thirty years to complete. The room not only had the painting in it, but also framed sketches of parts of the painting that the artist had to make before completing the final project. There were also a lot of paintings about nature. One painting that struck me showed a beaten path going into the distance as a storm formed from above. It seemed to be about fate and how free will is nothing compared to the powers of nature. 


After a quick stop at McDonald's in our nicest clothing, we were off to the ambassador's house. We took the metro one stop, walked down Arbat Street, took a left down an alley, passed the Spanish Embassy, and arrived at McFaul's residence. Entering his house, I saw a statue of JFK, and several pictures of McFaul with the Obama's. There were also older pictures of previous ambassadors with presidents as we walked up the stairs. The political science and international relations majors among us were completely starstruck to be in the house of an ambassador. We proceeded to the main reception room, where there was a large circular table of food below the largest chandelier I have ever seen. We schmoozed a while with some lady who apparently lived in Geneseo and moved to Russia to raise her child in the Anglo-Russian school. I should mention that the reception was meant to be for Russian high school students who were interested in going to American colleges. We were invited because Dr. Goeckel spoke to someone at the American Center a couple days ago. As we were speaking to the lady, I spotted Dr. Goeckel speaking to the ambassador. Isaac and I went over and awkwardly made our way into the conversation and introduced ourselves. I was too starstruck to speak to McFaul, but Isaac had a bunch of questions already lined up. He asked him about Mitt Romney, campaigning with Obama, and his interest in Russia. One thing he said that interested me was that if he got fired, his salary would increase tenfold and he would be doing significantly less work, because he had a guaranteed professorship at Stanford University (his alma mater). Because this incentive was in place, he must not have been afraid to speak truth to power when it came to calling on Russia to reform. Time and again, he has gotten in trouble over supporting the protestors and having a generally anti-Kremlin mantra. Putin himself has told McFaul to act more diplomatic, but McFaul isn't afraid of getting fired, so he does what he wants and thinks is right, rather than what he thinks will keep him in his position.

Our group with Ambassador McFaul (center back)

Slowly but surely, the rest of our group crept up and formed a circle with the ambassador to shake hands with the political equivalent of Rocky Balboa (maybe Rocky was a bit more famous) . He was good-spirited about everything. He spoke with us for a good ten minutes, probably because this wasn't a political event and he didn't have government officials trying to get his attention every time he took a step. I think Dr. Goeckel mentioned to him that I wanted to take a picture with him, because when he invited us into the other room for the presentation, he pointed to me and said that we'll take a picture later. The presentation involved six admissions representatives from Stanford, Mount Holoyoke, University of North  Carolina, New York University, and Carnegie Mellon (I forgot the last one). They each made a pitch about how their respective institutions would be the most appealing to a student from Russia. A lot of it was the same mantra that I was given two years ago when I was searching for schools. When one parent asked about the financial burden that these colleges gave to their students, they gave the same response of need-based aid and scholarships, ignoring the fact that private colleges are still incredibly unaffordable despite these reductions. Although the presentation wasn't applicable to us, it got me thinking about graduate school. I spoke to a representative about what colleges are looking for the most for someone applying to a business school. They said that they put heavy weight on work experience. That's why internships are so incredibly important.

After the presentation, we posed with the ambassador and took twenty million pictures of the ambassador's residence like the weird little political science nerds that we were. All in all, it was a very fun night.