Today was a very busy day. We met in the SUNY Office at 9:00 AM to walk to FFL early that morning. We were to meet several teachers of English, who were apparently interested in hearing from American students. Olga was the one who introduced us and it felt more like walking onto a gameshow than going into a classroom of teachers. We entered to applause and were told to shake hands with everyone there (I would say that there were about 50 women in the audience and we gave up after realizing that we couldn't get to them all). The teachers were taking pictures of us as we marched down the aisle and lined up in a row in the front of the classroom. We had planned beforehand to each say our name, the codename (or kalichka) that we came up for each other at dinner one night, our favorite part about Russia, and our favorite thing about America. My kalichka was "angry bird," because apparently, the profile of my face looks like an angry bird. I told everyone that my favorite thing about Moscow is how everyone thinks that Americans are such a spectacle. Everywhere we go, people take pictures of us. It's very amusing. My favorite thing about America is the free toilet paper in the restrooms. You can't beat that awkward moment when you forget to bring kleenex into a Russian bathroom with you.
Professor Dobrosklonskaya finished her lecture on Russian media by telling us about the popular television stations and internet sites that Russians count on for their news. An interesting point that she made was that international television stations are trying to gain viewership by making their programming available in English. She referenced RT.com, which tries to give world news from the Russian perspective. I also read an article in today's Moscow Times that said that RT has the most viewership of any international news network in the United States.
In the afternoon, Professor Dominina spoke of Russian Music. It was surprising how much classical music that I already knew, which happened to be Russian. "Sinbad the Sailor" was a song composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsorov, a military elder and Russian composer who borrowed songs from the East. The song is the main music in Fantasia. It carries a lot of emotion in the melody, so much so that you can hear the waves crashing against the ocean each time the symbols are sounded. "Peter and the Wolf" was written by Russian composer Sergei Prokoffiev. I remember seeing the ballet at the Geva Theater in 2nd or 3rd grade. Prokoffiev gets creative by having each instrument represent a different character. The grandfather is played by a bassoonist, the cat by a clarinetist, the bird by a flutist, and the duck by an oboist. Prokoffiev was good at writing music so simple that a child could understand it, but so complex that professional Russian dancer Galna Ulanova would refuse to dance to it.
At 3:30, we went to a private concert hosted by Alexander Malkus, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, and his wife, Marlene Mosh. Both are personal friends of Dr. Goeckel and he was able to get them to perform a free concert for us out of the goodness of their hearts. Malkus was on the piano and Marlene sang. Malkus had so much emotion in his playing. You could really see the passion as he thrusted his whole body forward to press the keys of the piano as hard as possible. Marlene sang ancient Armenian hymns and although no one could understand what she was saying, there was really no need to, because her singing did all of the work for you. You could tell if they song was sad, happy, hopeful, or melancholy based on the tone of her words. It was a wonderful concert and it was a shame that we had to leave early to make it on time to Stalin's bunker.
When Dr. Goeckel mentioned to us that we are going to be the first group to see Stalin's bunker, I immediately though of a small underground cabin filled with leftover banana peels that Stalin had left behind. The actual bunker was nothing of the sort. Our tour guide came off as a typical Soviet soldier at first, speaking as if the tour was very scripted and telling us not to press any buttons or touch anything if we didn't know what it was. He also warned us against pressing buttons or touching things if we knew what they were as well. After the introduction, we went down eighteen flights of stairs to the very bottom of the bunker. It got colder and colder as we descended into the dark and dank abyss. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hide in this place, but I guess when you are trying to avoid nuclear destruction, you really have to appreciate what you have. Apparently, the bunker was completed one year after Stalin's death, so it was never really used by Stalin. He just commissioned it.
After showing us the tunnels, our tour guide took us to a movie room, turned on the project, and left the room saying, "If you are frightened, don't worry. You are in the safest place in Moscow." The movie was a 30-minute propaganda video created by the KGB, explaining how the Americans recklessly used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and were willing to use it on the Soviet Union, which is why the USSR was forced to retaliate and develop its own nuclear arsenal. The movie was actually humorous at some parts as to how inaccurately biased it was. The narrator basically labeled Gorbachev as a western conspirator who worked with the US to dismantle Russia's nuclear arsenal, not even laying credence to the fact that the US destroyed plenty of its own missiles during the negotiations as well.
The tour guide took us to the control center when the movie was over. This is where guards had to sit, ready to launch a nuclear weapon when the orders were given. They had two men at the station at all times, and rotated in twelve hour shifts to make sure the guards were not asleep at the wheel. Our guide then chose Isaac to do "destroy the world." He had him sit and one of the control desks and press the button that would have launched a nuclear bomb. The room got dark a screen showed total annihilation of the free world. Nice job, Isaac!
We were then brought into a separate room and allowed to take pictures of ourselves wearing gas masks, holding kalashnikovs, having on Stalin's hat, or grabbing any of the other things in the war room. The kalashnikovs were real, by the way. After a smoke-infested room, and a barrel with the body of an upside-down soldier in it, our guide took us to a room which was being turned into a club and restaurant, complete with neon lights. When the tour was over, I was one of the daring people to go up all eighteen flights of stairs rather than use the elevator. At the top of the stairs we noticed that it was raining extremely hard. Everyone's clothing go drenched as we attempted to make our way to the subway, stopping instead underneath an overhang until the rain subsided. Sopping wet head to toe, I could confirm that today was tiring, but also a lot of fun.
Professor Dobrosklonskaya finished her lecture on Russian media by telling us about the popular television stations and internet sites that Russians count on for their news. An interesting point that she made was that international television stations are trying to gain viewership by making their programming available in English. She referenced RT.com, which tries to give world news from the Russian perspective. I also read an article in today's Moscow Times that said that RT has the most viewership of any international news network in the United States.
In the afternoon, Professor Dominina spoke of Russian Music. It was surprising how much classical music that I already knew, which happened to be Russian. "Sinbad the Sailor" was a song composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsorov, a military elder and Russian composer who borrowed songs from the East. The song is the main music in Fantasia. It carries a lot of emotion in the melody, so much so that you can hear the waves crashing against the ocean each time the symbols are sounded. "Peter and the Wolf" was written by Russian composer Sergei Prokoffiev. I remember seeing the ballet at the Geva Theater in 2nd or 3rd grade. Prokoffiev gets creative by having each instrument represent a different character. The grandfather is played by a bassoonist, the cat by a clarinetist, the bird by a flutist, and the duck by an oboist. Prokoffiev was good at writing music so simple that a child could understand it, but so complex that professional Russian dancer Galna Ulanova would refuse to dance to it.
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| Marlene Mosh |
When Dr. Goeckel mentioned to us that we are going to be the first group to see Stalin's bunker, I immediately though of a small underground cabin filled with leftover banana peels that Stalin had left behind. The actual bunker was nothing of the sort. Our tour guide came off as a typical Soviet soldier at first, speaking as if the tour was very scripted and telling us not to press any buttons or touch anything if we didn't know what it was. He also warned us against pressing buttons or touching things if we knew what they were as well. After the introduction, we went down eighteen flights of stairs to the very bottom of the bunker. It got colder and colder as we descended into the dark and dank abyss. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to hide in this place, but I guess when you are trying to avoid nuclear destruction, you really have to appreciate what you have. Apparently, the bunker was completed one year after Stalin's death, so it was never really used by Stalin. He just commissioned it.
After showing us the tunnels, our tour guide took us to a movie room, turned on the project, and left the room saying, "If you are frightened, don't worry. You are in the safest place in Moscow." The movie was a 30-minute propaganda video created by the KGB, explaining how the Americans recklessly used the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and were willing to use it on the Soviet Union, which is why the USSR was forced to retaliate and develop its own nuclear arsenal. The movie was actually humorous at some parts as to how inaccurately biased it was. The narrator basically labeled Gorbachev as a western conspirator who worked with the US to dismantle Russia's nuclear arsenal, not even laying credence to the fact that the US destroyed plenty of its own missiles during the negotiations as well.
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| Tunnel in Stalin's Bunker |
We were then brought into a separate room and allowed to take pictures of ourselves wearing gas masks, holding kalashnikovs, having on Stalin's hat, or grabbing any of the other things in the war room. The kalashnikovs were real, by the way. After a smoke-infested room, and a barrel with the body of an upside-down soldier in it, our guide took us to a room which was being turned into a club and restaurant, complete with neon lights. When the tour was over, I was one of the daring people to go up all eighteen flights of stairs rather than use the elevator. At the top of the stairs we noticed that it was raining extremely hard. Everyone's clothing go drenched as we attempted to make our way to the subway, stopping instead underneath an overhang until the rain subsided. Sopping wet head to toe, I could confirm that today was tiring, but also a lot of fun.
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