Feminine dissidents in Russia

  

Pussy Riot, Feb. 14, 2012/By Denis Bochkarev, Creative Commons, Wikipedia

Russia has many feminist groups, but it has not been easy for them to connect or learn about the existence of similar organizations since communication isn't the greatest.

Thanks to samizdat and other means, though, that is changing.

This was the account by Ella Rossman and Dimitry Kozlov, both from Moscow's Higher School of Economics where Ms. Rossman is an historian and research assistant at the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II, and Mr. Kozlov is a research fellow at the Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities. 

With Valerie Sperling, political science professor from Clark University, they spoke and answered questions at a webcast titled Feminism in Russia: From Soviet Samizdat to Online Activism.

The Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars was the host with the Institute's Izabella Tabarovsky moderating.

Dr. Kozlov presented a brief history of samizdat, an underground system of communication which publishes and distributes by hand content free of the censor's pen. The purpose is to the plight of women in Russia, including inequalities they endure and assaults at home. 

Covid's rampage has alarmed authorities who worry the disease is causing an uptick in domestic violence. Many women are stuck at home with abusive husbands who are irritable from job loss and lack of work. 

The U.S. treats domestic violence more seriously than Russia where the crime dates back hundreds of years. In the 16th century, German Ambassador to Russia Baron Sigismund von Herberstein reported a man who beat his wife constantly (at her invitation) until the man finally beheaded her. He was not charged with any crime.*

Dr. Sperling, the author of Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia, briefly outlined the rise of the Russian feminist movement and its values which are perceived as threats to men.

"Feminism is dangerous precisely because it explicitly reveals and questions that patriarchal hierarchy where masculinity is valued over femininity.”

She continued: There is a need for action to protect women and to allow them voices in today's society. Religion is the natural enemy of all feminist values because they conflict with tradition.

Indeed, Yelena Mizulina, longtime member of the Russian Parliament, believes women should stay home, give birth,  raise children, and avoid the practice of science.

A major difficulty in the march towards freedom, acceptability, and equal rights in Russia has been myriad women's groups which, until more recently, were unaware of similarly likeminded gatherings, said Ms. Rossman. More than 300 events were produced by women in Russia last year.

She reported that between 30 to 40 feminist groups existed in Moscow in 2019 with many more found throughout the nation. Five years ago, feminist art galleries were "booming" in St. Peterburg.

Dr. Sperling described a 2015 account of a jailed rapist who received a prize from an art gallery which provoked a rebuttal prize from a woman's group to the gallery for its "amorality."

In 2014 a feminist group began giving awards to the biggest sexists of the year including one to a Russian leader who boasted that "when we take over America" (which Dr. Sperling noted didn't seem as strange now as it did then), anyone can punch anyone in the face in the U.S. whenever he hears the word "sexist."

Supporters attending a 2015 labor rally for women were sprayed with urine.

Trying to stop the feminist movement is like trying to hold back ocean waves. The movement grows, although at a much slower pace than many would like.

The webinar was spoken in Russian and English with translations available.

The Kennan introduction described the program:

Forty years ago, the Soviet Union expelled females dissidents for pubishing a samizdat journal where contributors considered pressures on women, the double standard in the nation and unequal treatment they received in the "supposedly egalitan society." Since then, many new groups of female activists have emerged in Russia demanding equality and recognition.

*Notes Upon Russia, A Translation of that Earliest Account Of That Country translated to English by R.H. Major of the British Museum and the Hakluyt Society by Baron Sigismund von Herberstein, Ambassador from the Court of Germany to the Grand Prince Vasiley Ivanovich in the Years 1517 and 1526

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At the think tanks: Dr. Fiona Hill

Fiona Hill/Wilson Center

Yes, that Fiona Hill. The one who testified at Trump's impeachment trial.

A former member of the National Security Council (2017-2019), she is a senior fellow at Brookings who spoke last week on a webcast hosted by the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. 


Kennan director, Matthew Rojansky, led the discussion in a program titled: The Putin Profile: A Conversation with Dr. Fiona Hill.

Fiona Hill, center left, next to John Bolton, then U.S. National Security Advisor, meeting with Vladimir Putin, across the table, and other Russian leaders at the Kremlin, June 27, 2018/Wikimedia Commons, Kremlin.ru, CC

Vladimir Putin has practically sucked all the "oxygen" out of Russia with his international agenda and his neglect of domestic affairs, Dr. Hill began her talk. Hence, demonstrations throughout Russia (particularly in the Far East).

"Soviet times" had many more "checks and balances," but since 2000, Putin has become "the state."

Rather than paying attention to Russia, Putin focuses on the world at large, vying to become an "elder statesman." He wants to regain Russia's "seat at the table" and get Russia back in the mix as a great power with big global ambitions which explains his interest in Syria, Venezuela, Libya, the Middle East, and Africa. 

"'Hey!'" Putin says (quoting Dr. Hill): "'We've still got the ability to project force" and "be at the table."

He's "obsessed" with the U.S., but this "mud wrestling" does not advance his program.

One of the reasons Putin's leadership role in Russia was extended until possibly 2036 by approval last month of constitutional amendments, is because he was (is?) "increasingly seen as a "'lame duck.'"

"Where are all the fresh ideas?" to make Russia great? Perpetual cycles of conflict are "not very helpful." 

Answering a question from a viewer about Trump's  re-election, Dr. Hill said Putin has more to gain by "upsetting America" and "sowing discord" which will be more difficult for Russia to achieve if there's a large voter turnout in the U.S.

"It's clear he wants to see a weaker U.S. president no matter who he (sic) is." A "fairly diminished U.S. president" will be good for Russia. 

"The more we're in a fight with Russia," she said (she became a U.S. citizen in 2002), "the less we can focus on bigger issues."  Arms control is a "necessary endeavor."

The "heavy breathing" and "hysteria we have" in the U.S. about Russia cannot compare to what "we" should be focusing on when it comes to China.

She has met Putin several times and "in some respects, what you see is someone who's grown much more comfortable" in his role(s).

"He's decided to put on many faces," a man "who has thought a lot about his brand" (which threatens to grow stale), riding shirtless on a horse. All these actions "appear deliberate to signal his vigor to the rest of the world, because, 'Hey! Don't mess with me!'" is the message he tries to convey.

She was not saying, she emphasized, that "he's lost his edge," but he's "kind of lost [with] what's going on domestically."  

Mentioned several times during the conversation was her book, Mr. Putin: Operative at the Kremlin (2013), co-authored with Clifford Gaddy.

patricialesli@gmail.com

At the think tanks: Czar for life?

Vladimir Putin, Feb. 20, 2020/Wikimedia, Kremlin


A tour guide in Moscow laughed when I bought a magnet at a gift shop with Vladimir Putin on one side and Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president from 2008 to 2012, on the other side. With a gradual turning of the magnet, the pictures morphed into likenesses of each man.

"Putin will be premier for life," the tour guide joked. Seven years later, and it looks like she may be right.

Vladimir Putin meeting with permanent members of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, July 17, 2020/Kremlin

On July 1, 2020 Russian voters amended their constitution giving Putin the right to run for office in 2024 and extend his reign as Russia's president until 2036 when he'll be 84 years old.
 
Writes Oksana Antonenko in a report this month titled Winning the Referendum and Losing Legitimacy in Putin’s Russia:

"Once again [referring to the 1991 referendum], over 77 percent of voters (according to official results) voted in favour of the proposed package of 206 amendments. The large number of amendments was deliberately intended to disguise their true intent: to abolish the term limit for President Putin and to allow him to run again in 2024."*
 
Dr. Antonenko is a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Kennan Institute and based in Cambridge, U.K.

Last week at the Kennan in a Facebook live talk, scholars Eric Lohr from American University and Matthew Rojansky, Kennan director, discussed Mr. Putin's reign, What Two More Presidential Terms Mean for Putin’s Legacy.Without a hint of sarcasm, they referred to Putin throughout the presentation as "czar" .

If Putin makes it to 2036, Dr. Rojansky said, he will have served as Russia's leader longer than Joseph Stalin and Catherine the Great. (Ivan the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, were named, too, in different contexts.)

Dr. Lohr laughed when Dr. Rojansky asked him to project the likelihood of Putin making it to 2036: A lot can happen between now and then, he said. Events have a way of "suddenly turning."

In its 1000 year history, only two Russian leaders have retired from office before they died. (Test: Who were they?**) "Counter-acting forces" Dr. Lohr hinted, will likely end Mr. Putin's reign before 2036.


Dr. Lohr described Russian youth as "pretty apolitical now," but the Russian scene can change quickly and this group can "become something very powerful."  

Dr. Lohr noted that in France Napoleon won the title of consulate for life, but things didn't exactly work out that way.
 
Putin is able to blame local governments for most problems in Russia, said Rojansky, since nothing bad happens because of the president (paraphrasing Putin's nuances), ensuring his tenure, at least, for the time being.

Lohr explained that Russia's oligarchs want to keep Putin in office since they rely on him for their wellbeing and who wants to start all over and train someone new?
 
“It’s not just Putin’s will that matters here: it’s those with wealth, the so-called oligarchs, around him. They have an enormous amount to lose if he were to go, because then someone new would come in and redistribute wealth and power and etcetera. So I think it’s just as important that they are unwilling to see him go, but divining what his true intentions are is something that is beyond I think the skills of any of us Kremlin watchers.”

There's not a legitimate means to transfer Putin's power.

Most Russians today, Dr. Lohr said, are not thinking too much about politics: They are thinking about their mortgages, their children's schooling, and the economy. (For the past two months, Russia has sold more gold than natural gas, a first.)
Putin is "riding the nationalist tiger," said Lohr, especially after the Crimean invasion. A "turning point" can ignite "a sudden turn" in the environment.
 
The most important lesson to be learned from 1917, the start of the Russian revolution, Dr. Lohr said: "Never do it again."

Past czars had tradition and religion "on their side" but Putin has neither.

Answering a question from a viewer, Lohr said it was difficult to know if Putin holds more assets and is the richest person in the world. One of the new constitutional amendments passed prohibits elected leaders from holding foreign bank accounts, but it is suspected that a lot of Putin's wealth is tied up in other names, accounts, groups, funds, etc.
 
Dr. Lohr noted the Russians were "angered" that Russia was not invited to the 75th anniversary of the D-Day commemoration last year.

According to Dr. Lohr, "violence is usually a last resort" that governments use since it is a sign of weakness, not strength. (Writer's note: Portland, Oregon.)

When asked to cite good books to read, Dr. Lohr laughed and said he likes to get away from politics because "it's so depressing," but he is reading great Russian literature again, specifically, The Brothers Karamazov, this time with his son.

*Proposed amendments included acknowledging God, enshrining a minimum wage, banning same sex marriage, strengthening the powers of the State Duma, and banning territorial concessions.

**Yeltsin and Khrushchev

The grave of Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971). See Khrushchev's  bust in the center of the tombstone. Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The grave of Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) at Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow/Photo by Patricia Leslie

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At the think tanks: 'A Journey to the Gulag'

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Last week at the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,  Štěpán Černoušek, founder of the Gulag.cz Association, presented A Journey to the Gulag, a film he made of a 2016 trip to a Gulag camp in Siberia.

The camp was one of the labor prisons which originally got their start in 1919 under Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) and surged under the leadership of Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) who used them for cheap labor and as a place to stash recalcitrants or anyone who remotely may have been deemed suspicious of Stalin's goals, whatever they were. 

Mr. Hynek Kmoníček, the ambassador of the Czech Republic to the U.S., welcomed guests to the Kennan Institute and introduced Mr. Černoušek/Photo by Patricia Leslie


With a team of photographers and videographers, Mr. Černoušek's group traveled by air, water, and foot to an abandoned camp in a remote region 120 miles from the closest town,  one of four labor camps Mr. Černoušek visited between 2009 and 2016.

On the way, the boat they rented for lake travel broke down, and they had to wait for a passing rescue vessel to carry them on their journey, rushing, since time was limited for them to catch a return flight home before winter advanced.

It is cold in September in Siberia, especially when traveling at high speeds across a lake in an open boat.

From left are Mr. Štěpán Černoušek and Steven Barnes at the Kennan Institute/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Reaching the coast, the men tore their way through the thick  tagia to the site, fearful of bears but none were shown.


In the remote forest they found a ghost site with few remains save broken railway tracks covered by the tagia, and barbed wire, practically hidden by the overgrowth.


The tagia is beautiful, like jewelry treasures of the woods with its stripes of many colors and varying heights and widths, reminiscent of giraffe statues, in contrast to the harsh conditions the former residents lived at the camp.

 The tagia and 'Part of 'Project 503' to build a railroad from Salekhard to Igarka near Turukhansk on the Yenisey River, close to the site Mr. Černoušek and his group found /Photo by  Dr. Andreas Hugentobler - Own work, CC BY 2.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=818367

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018



At the remnants of the camp's hospital, the men found a prisoner's diary written by an engineer, and a dark, sad solitary confinement cell about the size of a parking space with four high walls and single window near the ceiling, much like today's solitary cells in Virginia prisons. (Thank you, ACLU of Virginia for filing a class-action lawsuit.)

An estimated 20 million persons from Russia, the U.S., Poland, France, the Netherlands, and other European nations were confined in subhuman conditions to the camps.  (Americans ventured to Russia to work on construction projects, Mr. Černoušek said.)
  He finished the film in February.

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia,  a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

Outside Yekaterinburg, Russia, a memorial  to the estimated 130,000 area identified citizens seized in the Gulag/Photo by Patricia Leslie, July, 2018

After the Kennan screening ended, a line of guests formed to try virtual "augmented reality" and experience more of the camps through special lenses.

Moscow has a Gulag museum which is not big,  Mr. Černoušek said.  When President Vladimir Putin opened it last year, he never mentioned Stalin's name.

Introducing Mr. Černoušek was Hynek Kmoníček, the ambassador of the Czech Republic to the U.S.

Mr. Černoušek is a Czech citizen and a Russia scholar who, like many enthusiasts, began his study of the Gulag as a hobby, to satisfy his curiosity. 

"I never dreamed [his hobby] would end up in Washington, D.C. at the Kennan Center," he said.  His goal is to "share my experience" using new technologies and 3-D with as many persons as he can.


"It's necessary to speak more about it [now] because it's an international topic," Mr. Černoušek said. 

"Some young people in Russia do not know what the Gulag was." 


He intends to document the sites and educate the world about the Gulag (an acronym for Glavnoe Upravlenie Lagerei, or Main Camp Administration).   

Recently he visited California's World War II American internment camps for the Japanese. 

For him, finding and learning about the Gulag has been "a great adventure" which continues, and his team, all of whom enjoy the outdoors, wants to go back.
  Appearing with Mr. Černoušek were Steven Barnes, associate professor of history at George Mason University, and  Izabella Tabarovsky of Kennan, the moderator.

In 2016 Ms. Tabarovsky discovered  that her great-grandfather, Leonty Briskin, was taken in 1941 from his family to the Gulag.  Fifteen years later he was "rehabilitated" in the "Khrushchev Thaw," and his case closed, which was the same year, 1956, his family learned he died in prison in 1944.  Still, she writes, even today some Russians are ashamed that their family members, although unwilling participants, were part of Gulag camps.


I wanted to ask Mr. Černoušek about the source of his funding.

patricialesli@gmail.com 

At the think tanks: Russia's political prisoners, a talk

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 Izabella Tabarovsky, the moderator, and Sergey Davidis at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., April 23, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 At the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars on Tuesday afternoon, the head of Russia's Political Prisoners Support Program said the nation has 263 "political" persons in jail, arrested on vague charges stemming from Russia's Criminal Code. 

It is an “incomplete number,” said Sergey Davidis, also a member of the Council at the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow. Since “we are conservative in our approach,” the actual number is probably two or three times 263, he said.


The prisoners support group determined the number 263 by researching official documents and other materials.

Among those jailed are two journalists and many persons from Ukraine.  One prisoner, Mr. Davidis said, has been sentenced to 20 to 22 years for participating in the "Chechen war." (Wikipedia identifies two Chechen wars: 1994-1996 and 1999-2006.)

Another prisoner, a “random person,” was sentenced to eight to ten years.  Researchers have identified four others on the list who are jailed for “random” reasons. Some have lawyers.

Of the 263, 186 have been identified as religious minorities; 60 are affiliated with Jehovah's Witnesses. So far, the maximum prison sentence has been 24 years.

None of the prisoners condone violence, often mentioned in the Russian Federation Criminal Code as a reason for arrest. The prisoners have expressed “no signs of violence.” They practice opposition peacefully, Mr. Davidis said, when they disagree with authorities.

“The aim of the state is scare the society …and frighten people,” he said. “It’s important for the state to send [the people] a signal.” Persecution in the Russian Federation is “rather uneven.”

Izabella Tabarovsky, the moderator, and Sergey Davidis at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C., April 23, 2019/Photo by Patricia Leslie

He cited several articles from the Criminal Code which are used to arrest political prisoners: Article 212.1 is related to punishment for those engaged in “mass riots,” and Article 318, for violence against an officer.

Article 354 ("Public Appeal to Unleash An Aggressive War”) is "seldom used" to arrest anyone, but still it is “obviously dangerous” and can be used to arrest those who attempt to incite the public.

Articles 280 and 282 (“not widely cited”) concern extremist activity, behavior, and freedom of expression. Article 205 describes acts of terrorism, punishment and recruiting others to commit terrorist activities. 

Questions from the audience were invited near the close of the one hour session. One person asked if Russia has prisoner quotas and Mr. Davidis answered that several factors are involved but sometimes, yes, there are “real quotas” which “vary from region to region.”

Another questioner asked about prisoner exchanges between Russia and Turkey. Mr. Davidis confirmed that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had exchanged two Russian criminals jailed in Istanbul for murdering four Chechens, for two Tatars jailed for religious beliefs, an uneven exchange the questioner noted.

The Kennan website states: Mr. Davidis was educated in sociology at Moscow State University and in law at Moscow State Law Academy. For many years, he was a participant and one of the organizers of the democratic opposition movement. His research interests are closely related to activities to support political prisoners in Russia, and he studies the sociological and legal aspects of politically motivated deprivation of liberty, in particular, in the context of world practice and international norms.

patricialesli@gmail.com

At the think tanks: Women and China's Revolutions

 

Gail Hershatter talked about her new book, Women and China's Revolutions at the Washington History Seminar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The past two centuries of women in China were briefly outlined last Monday at a presentation at the American Historical Association and Woodrow Wilson Center’s Washington History Seminar.
 

Gail Hershatter, professor of history at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Chinese history scholar, presented key findings from her latest work, Women and China’s Revolutions.

Dr. Hershatter is the former president of the Association for Asian Studies and has written several other books.

  

When she entered the Chinese history field in the 1970s, Dr. Hershatter had few associates devoted to the topic like she was. Times have changed, but still, information about women in China is not readily available.

While she described the past plights of rural Chinese women, Dr. Hershatter showed pictures of them at work, busy sewing, farming, and making shoes for their families.

Some women had to work double-shifts cleaning and cooking, embroidering, working in the fields (with children on their backs), and weaving at home, often without electricity which did not arrive in some Chinese villages until the 1970s.

That any woman would walk out on her husband was unconscionable. Mothers-in-law depended upon their sons' wives for help with housework and other family responsibilities like caring for elderly relatives, raising children, and helping earn money.

In the past, women could be sold by landlords and were forced into marriage managed by third-parties.

China's two marriage laws have ostensibly ended these practices.

The 1950 marriage law stemmed from the May 4, 1919 movement which gave women equal rights and ended feudal traditions.

China's 1980 “marriage law" has gradually morphed into the “divorce law" since it guaranteed the right to divorce and outlawed unequal gender treatment.

The 1980 law changed the age of marriage to 20 for women and 22 for men which the 1950 law stipulated as 18 for women and 20 for men.

The use of money or gifts as a condition of marriage was outlawed.

Women were and are important for China's economy.

Dr. Hershatter briefly touched on the 1000-year-old practice of footbinding which continued well into the 20th century.  The reasons for the torture tradition are still debated.

She interviewed elderly women whose feet were bound, pictures which may be found in Dr. Hershatter's book. 

Next up for the Washington History Seminar is on April 1 when Sarah Igo presents The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America.

patricialesli@gmail.com

The Russians came to town

While the officer sleeps during the opera, a back seat irritant a la Buster Keaton keeps tabs in  Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

I loved, loved, loved it!  

"It" would be the Russians who came to D.C. and threw a hilarious party of ten Anton Chekhov short stories at the  Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

At the door, proof of Chekhov scholarship was not required.

Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Non-stop laughter filled the SRO auditorium for 90 minutes with a promised "happy ending" as in the title, Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending.  

It was.

Washington, D.C. needed it.

The reflections in the picture are "ocean waves" in Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending presented by the Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From scene to non-sequitur scene the transitions flowed as smoothly as clouds changing colors on a March day while Chekhov played on. 

Excellent music, sound effects, lighting, and costumes all contributed to the dynamism of the production beginning with a beach scene where an actor in swim gear sang on the shore, soon occupied by other beachgoers, some to doff their clothes and "dive in."

Splashy lighting magnified the reflections of ocean ripples amidst the always welcome sound of waves that echoed throughout the chamber.

And there was music.

The wife and the mistress fight over the goods in Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Although the actors promised a "happy ending," alas, there was none until they made it so:

"You have a splinter in your finger? Be happy it's not in two fingers!"

“You don't live in downtown DC?  Be happy you live nearby!”

All this and more (Buster Keaton slapstick, action, opera, lots of sex) by a cast which wove in and out of changing sets and roles in gaily colored costumes wearing huge smiles.

It's not what you think (and certainly not at the Kennan Institute!) but merely a dentist extracting a tooth in Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

It was all a very happy ending at Lady With a Lapdog With Jokes and a Happy Ending by Russian Arts Theater & Studio at the Kennan Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars/Photo by Patricia Leslie

They do have a good time which rubs off on the audience and doesn't that make for a fine performance? Enjoy!

 

The Russian Arts Theater & A Studio are based in New York City where members direct acting classes and present old and new works at the new soon-to-be home at the former McAlpin Hall, West 86th and Amsterdam.

Their mission: “To preserve, promote and advance Russian arts and heritage in New York City” and “train a new generation of imaginative, innovative, and sincere artists capable of servicing the mission for generations to come.” TRATS was founded in 2004 and its studio is modeled after the Moscow Academy of Theater Arts. 

Aleksey Burago adapted Chekhov's stories and directed Michael Dona, Roman Freud, Conor Andrew Hall, Ariel Polanco, Flavio Romeo, Luisa Menzen, Tom Schubert, Lana Stimmler and Di Zhu, managing director. 

These are Russians? Sad, colorless Russians? Nyet!

My next stop in NYC:  86th West and Amsterdam! 

patricialesli@gmail.com