 |
Moscow Study Trips |
 |
|---|
| |
Moscow Study Trips |
|
|---|
| Moscow
study trips: 2009
will mark nearly thirty years since the first of
these
affordable "fact-finding missions" to Moscow and other
cities to
examine the political, economic and social transition in Russia.
Interested adults from any country are welcome.
Previous participants ranged in age from 18-78 and came from various countries and backgrounds. No knowledge of Russian required. American university credit, for participants who are students and desire it, is possible on some trips. Our Moscow host is the Academy of Labor & Social Relations, founded in 1919 , a reliable partner since 1980. |
 "Home" in Moscow Academy of Labor & Social Relations |
Why go? |
When? What cost? |
Information, past & future |
|||||||||||
| We all need to understand the transition there. The cold war was dangerous, but stable. The new era of change is less predictable. The Iraq conflict and chances it could permeate the Middle East, disputes between Russia and former members of the USSR, China's emergence, West Europe's economic difficulties, export of weapons & drugs, spread of resistant diseases, American encroachment on Russia's sphere if influence, oil and gas politics, expansion of NATO and the EU toward Russia's border, growth of nationalism and religious fundamentalism, power realignments within many countries and globalization are just starters. On the previous trip, our host institution assigned a dozen of their students to our group, and at least 4-5 of them were with us every day. The experiment was a great success. Our people quickly made Russian friends and they got to know Moscow and learn about Russia more quickly than previous groups. The Russians got to know us and to pratice English. We hope this experiment will be repeated in 2008. |
=>
Siberia extension option <=
A 10-day trip to
the Kuzbass may be possible after a June Moscow study trip. Learn the
situation in Russia, then study one region intensely. See the sample Siberia schedule
and
conditions.
Cooperation with your institution? The 2008 trip will probably be offered in cooperation with Eastern Michigan University and Hiram College. Your institution can join in offering a travel course without having to recruit a full group or handle practical details. |
|
On
ramps to anecdotal accounts of the origin of the Moscow trips, of
pre-Gorbachev years and of
several that occurred in the early years of Russia's post-Soviet
transition. It will be for you to discover the present.
|
||
 1980
FULL TEXT (71K) Luckily I was in my office when the phone rang that winter day in 1979. The Soviet way of saying "yes" came without prior notice and might never have been repeated. "There's some guy from Moscow who's going to be here in half an hour, says he knows you and wants to see you." Walter Pflug, the Deputy Director of the Walter Reuther Labor Archives, was calling. "I don't know anybody in Moscow, but I'll be right over." |
1982 FULL TEXT (25K) I thought the Soviet study trip was a one-off affair until Anatoly Zayatsky telephoned one day in 1982. How would I like to bring another group? This time there was no struggle over our going. The Soviets were still in Afghanistan, but after the Olympic boycott that fact became part of the wallpaper. The deterioration in bilateral relations were being helped by some anecdotal events: Ronald Reagan’s voice test quip over an open radio microphone about bombing the Soviet Union in five minutes and his “evil empire” speech. Learning and dialogue were even more appropriate. |
|
| 1983
FULL TEXT (30K) There would never be an attempt at an exchange after 1982, but we were invited to continue to return with groups. Zayatsky put it simply: “The two sides should keep talking and if the only place we can do it is Moscow, so be it.” Getting to the conversation in 1983 wasn’t easy though. Just weeks before we were to come, the Soviets shot down the Korean Air Lines flight. I had discussions with several of the participants. One explained that she lived in a small American town and to go to Moscow after that event meant neither her relatives nor neighbors would talk to her again. Another said how angry she was, and I suggested she had two choices: stay home with her anger or come to Moscow and tell the Soviets how she felt. I promised we would raise the issue. She liked the second idea. |
1984
FULL TEXT By the fourth trip, and especially after what happened in 1983, I did not wonder whether getting to Moscow would involve a crisis but what it would be. There was no disappointment in 1984. The problem was simply that our visas were late. First it was just a nuisance, then it became disquieting. I contacted Moscow, but they were calm there. All the proper papers for our invitation had been filed as usual in the right places. The departure date approached. No visas, no worries in Moscow. When leaving was even more imminent, I asked Vladimir Nikitin at the Soviet Embassy to help. He was also unable to learn what, if anything, was wrong, and he reminded me that one could not go to the Soviet Union without a visa. 1992
FULL TEXT (36K) The Aeroflot flight from Brussels felt "normal." A carton with a VCR was wedged between the crew seat and the emergency exit. It annoyed the attendant when I asked that it be removed. "Do you plan to use that door while we're flying," he asked? "It's an emergency exit." "So, do you have a habit of looking for emergency exits? In that case, we have others at the back of the plane." ... |
|
| 1993
FULL TEXT (33K) Aeroflot's flight from Brussels started almost as usual. If the new carpeting--attached flat to the floor at least in most places instead of bunching up to trip the unwary--was a surprise, the baggage piled in front of the emergency exits but unnoticed by the cabin crew was not. My first request to a flight attendant got him to move the baggage... and to jam it behind the hinges so as to defeat any attempt to open the door. Finally I moved it myself under seats in business class--to the smiling approval of all the flight attendants, who were taking advantage of that empty cabin to flirt with each other before takeoff. ... |
1994
FULL TEXT (38K) "You bastard! You're on my territory now. Bastard! You come to Russia, and I'll kill you!" It was as foreordained as the beginning of a play. We were seated and waiting to take off for Moscow from Brussels when we heard this exchange [offstage?] and a scuffle at the plane's entrance, whose view was blocked by a closed curtain. The curtain opened and the words' author, blood on his face, came forward to take a seat, then had another idea, turned and threw a parting punch at the Belgian gendarme who had escorted him. "Bastard!" ... |
|
| 1995
FULL TEXT (31K) We didn't know we were about to face Moscow's most torrid June in a century, and the announcement was rude. The day we flew, the only functional runway at Sheremetevo buckled and the airport was closed. My group was lucky, left on time after a stop in London and was delayed "only" two hours circling and waiting on the tarmac. Earlier flights had been diverted to other Moscow airports where, on the excuse there were no immigration facilities, passengers spent hours sitting on the planes in the heat. I flew from Paris. The plane coming to fetch us couldn't leave Moscow for 8 hours, so we got to Sheremetevo at 2 am. The taxi sharks would be ravenous at that hour... |
1996
FULL TEXT (28K) This year Moscow began during our stopover in Brussels. A Russian businessman checking in ahead of me behaved with all the pretension of the newly rich occupying a 5-star hotel, except this residence was... a youth hotel. With him was a bodyguard, typically muscular and in jogging attire. Hearing the room price, all of $20, the businessman nodded at his bodyguard, who drew a wad of bills from a hidden pocket, methodically peeled off the amount, solemnly took the change and then returned everything to its cache. ... |
|
Photo List
|
||||||
| Our residence | Soviet food shop | 1997 group | 1988 group | |||
| Farm field trips | Troubled factory |
|
Victory
Day, Gorky Park |
|||
| Kids | The talking part | Communist demonstration |
School 1198 | |||
| 2001 group |
l |
. |
||||
