Another busy day was on the books this time. We had so much planned that lecture was canceled today to fit everything into the schedule. First on our list was visiting the Duma, the Russian parliament. The outside of the Duma was surprisingly unimpressive. It looked like a rectangular office building that was plopped in the middle of nowhere. After going through three security checks, we were given a "tour" of the Duma. I put "tour" in quotation marks, because most of it was just a standing and walking lecture of Russian politics. The Russian system is unique in that it has a semi-presidential system, which consists of both a president and a prime minister. The prime minister would be roughly equivalent to the Speaker of the House. It also has a multi-party system. United Russia, the party of Vladimir Putin, currently holds a majority of 238 seats in the Duma. Coming in second is the still-prominant Communist Party with 92 seats. A Just Russia Party, who are basically a more socially democratic version of United Russia are in third, with the Liberal Democratic Party, which is commonly labeled as "neither liberal nor democratic." Dr. Goeckel told us that Russian parties tend to center around personalities rather than ideologies. People vote for and join a party based on whether they support the ideas of its top-ranking member rather than its platform as a whole.
The one thing we were able to see was the Duma in session. They were debating whether or not to have a government-run broadcasting network (on top of the other networks that basically take orders from the Kremlin). We sat on the balcony of a large, rectangular room with comfortable seats to watch parliamentarians squabble away in Russian about the morality of public broadcasting. United Russia (the pro-Kremlin party) was for it, while all of the minority parties seemed to be against it.
We then made our way up the tiny elevators to the 9th floor of the Duma. I had asked Dr. Goeckel a week ago, and he managed to get us, a meeting with members of the Communist Party. Entering the room was an experience all in it own. We heard loud shouting and laughing in Russian beyond the narrow hallway. The walls were lined with Pravda articles from the Soviet period that spelled out the success and achievements of the communists. Our group sat at opposite ends of a long horseshoe table. At the crux of the horseshoe sat three Communist Party members. One was in charge of the internationalist department of the party, one was a staff member who acted as our translator, and the last was a professor and current member of the Communist Party leadership.
The professor spoke for most of the time. He opened with some very unapologetic and controversial remarks. According to him, the results of every election since 1996 were fraudulent and if the Communist Party were allowed to check the ballot boxes, Gennady Zyuganov (who has been the party's candidate for the past eighteen years) would have won. The Communist Party is still significant in Russia, coming in second place in almost every election since the fall of the Soviet Union. He attributed the fall of the USSR to "American imperialism" as well as the to the fault of the Communist Party for not following the trends of the rapidly changing world of the 1970's and 80's. He also spoke of a wave of economic crises in the near future that would eventually bring an end to capitalism. When I asked about what he thought of Stalin, he referred to him as a strong command-in-chief, a great industrializer, and said that historical background must be taken into consideration when analyzing his rule. He basically used the good old excuse that every society goes through its rough patches, so it is perfectly alright for him to have killed 20 million people. He had a lot to say about higher education, saying that the four-year undergraduate system should be replaced with five years and that the entrance exams should not be multiple choice. Lastly, he said that US-Russian relations will only improve if we don't suspect each other of "dirty tricks," citing US intervention in Libya as a campaign in support of human rights that turned into an effort to depose Mr. Qaddafi.
All in all, the man was passion and set in his ways, but very chummy. He made several jokes, telling us that we will be communist by the end of the session and acknowledge his proclivity for American basketball. Dr. Goeckel later said that the communists we met were from the Brezhnev era and represented the old guard of the party. It would be interesting to understand how the younger communists view the state of things in Russia.
Next was the Sakharov Museum, dedicated to Andrei Sakharov. Sakharov was a prominent dissident during the Soviet era, who worked on the Soviet nuclear arms program and eventually went on to criticize the Soviet Union, only to be arrested and thrown in the gulag until perestroika in 1986. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his writings against the Soviet Union, but was not allowed to leave the country in order to accept it. While I was looking forward to learning more about the life of Sakharov, the museum focused mostly on the gulag and life in the internment camp. Having received more than my fair share of Holocaust education in Hebrew School, I wasn't very interested in life in the gulag. A small section of the museum was dedicated to Sakharov; however, and I did enjoy learning about his movement against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
After a quick lunch on the street, we went to Moscow Conservatory. The area was and still is a world-renowned school for musicians. The most notable graduate would be Tchaikovsky. The students of the conservatory often do cheap performances in the gargantuan theater built by Nicholas II in order to help them practice for larger events when they are older. We were one of the lucky benefactors of this deal and received balcony seats that seemed as if the builders decided to make a right angle with two blocks of wood.
Everyone applauded when the conductor took the stand. I enjoyed watching him conduct. He was very animated and made it feel like the musical experience was a scene out of Fantasia. He moved with the music, swaying back and forth with the flutes and jumping up and down with the fast-paced blow of the trumpets. It was as if he were a wizard, attempting to control the massive force of music before him with his magic wand. The sounds emanating from the orchestra were incredibly powerful, but I probably would have enjoyed them more if it were not the end of the day and were the balcony air conditioned. I was tired, having been on this trip for several weeks with little time for rest. The concert was enjoyable nonetheless, and although I was tired, I know that I'm going to thank myself later for experiencing all that I can in Russia.
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| Duma in Action |
The one thing we were able to see was the Duma in session. They were debating whether or not to have a government-run broadcasting network (on top of the other networks that basically take orders from the Kremlin). We sat on the balcony of a large, rectangular room with comfortable seats to watch parliamentarians squabble away in Russian about the morality of public broadcasting. United Russia (the pro-Kremlin party) was for it, while all of the minority parties seemed to be against it.
We then made our way up the tiny elevators to the 9th floor of the Duma. I had asked Dr. Goeckel a week ago, and he managed to get us, a meeting with members of the Communist Party. Entering the room was an experience all in it own. We heard loud shouting and laughing in Russian beyond the narrow hallway. The walls were lined with Pravda articles from the Soviet period that spelled out the success and achievements of the communists. Our group sat at opposite ends of a long horseshoe table. At the crux of the horseshoe sat three Communist Party members. One was in charge of the internationalist department of the party, one was a staff member who acted as our translator, and the last was a professor and current member of the Communist Party leadership.
The professor spoke for most of the time. He opened with some very unapologetic and controversial remarks. According to him, the results of every election since 1996 were fraudulent and if the Communist Party were allowed to check the ballot boxes, Gennady Zyuganov (who has been the party's candidate for the past eighteen years) would have won. The Communist Party is still significant in Russia, coming in second place in almost every election since the fall of the Soviet Union. He attributed the fall of the USSR to "American imperialism" as well as the to the fault of the Communist Party for not following the trends of the rapidly changing world of the 1970's and 80's. He also spoke of a wave of economic crises in the near future that would eventually bring an end to capitalism. When I asked about what he thought of Stalin, he referred to him as a strong command-in-chief, a great industrializer, and said that historical background must be taken into consideration when analyzing his rule. He basically used the good old excuse that every society goes through its rough patches, so it is perfectly alright for him to have killed 20 million people. He had a lot to say about higher education, saying that the four-year undergraduate system should be replaced with five years and that the entrance exams should not be multiple choice. Lastly, he said that US-Russian relations will only improve if we don't suspect each other of "dirty tricks," citing US intervention in Libya as a campaign in support of human rights that turned into an effort to depose Mr. Qaddafi.
All in all, the man was passion and set in his ways, but very chummy. He made several jokes, telling us that we will be communist by the end of the session and acknowledge his proclivity for American basketball. Dr. Goeckel later said that the communists we met were from the Brezhnev era and represented the old guard of the party. It would be interesting to understand how the younger communists view the state of things in Russia.
 |
| Andrei Sakharov |
After a quick lunch on the street, we went to Moscow Conservatory. The area was and still is a world-renowned school for musicians. The most notable graduate would be Tchaikovsky. The students of the conservatory often do cheap performances in the gargantuan theater built by Nicholas II in order to help them practice for larger events when they are older. We were one of the lucky benefactors of this deal and received balcony seats that seemed as if the builders decided to make a right angle with two blocks of wood.
Everyone applauded when the conductor took the stand. I enjoyed watching him conduct. He was very animated and made it feel like the musical experience was a scene out of Fantasia. He moved with the music, swaying back and forth with the flutes and jumping up and down with the fast-paced blow of the trumpets. It was as if he were a wizard, attempting to control the massive force of music before him with his magic wand. The sounds emanating from the orchestra were incredibly powerful, but I probably would have enjoyed them more if it were not the end of the day and were the balcony air conditioned. I was tired, having been on this trip for several weeks with little time for rest. The concert was enjoyable nonetheless, and although I was tired, I know that I'm going to thank myself later for experiencing all that I can in Russia.
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