Avoiding Police and reading a lot.

Spring has arrived in Europe's fifth-largest city. The snow is pretty much gone and the ice is barely keeping ahold of select pockets of the Neva. I'm told that St. Petersburg is at it's prettiest in the spring and I am eagerly looking forward to walking down leafy avenues wearing, at most, a sweater. It's pretty bizarre to think that I've been here for nearly two months, i.e. my trip is half-way done. Bizarre.

Some friends and I went to the Zenit match on Sunday. Zenit is St. Petersburg's main football club and it was great atmosphere to be apart of. There was tons of singing and chanting, but the atmosphere remained civil. No drunkenness, which was good. The match itself was entertaining enough, though the Russian Premier League is not one of the elite football leagues in the world. There was lots of "teatr" (i.e. diving). The match ended in a 1-1 draw, but Zenit didn't score their goal until the last minute of the match, so it was pretty dramatic. A good time was had by all, I think. I also learned one or two new "colloquial" phrases.

I've started hearing back from grad schools, and so far all have said no. It's a little disappointing, but there are still three who have yet to get back to me, so we'll see what happens.

I've started meeting with a young Russian woman every week or so to speak Russian. It's interesting because she is the friend of one of my teacher's daughter. It's actually quite nice because it's a comfortable situation for me to practice my Russian and she is very helpful with correcting my grammar and is a fountain of useful vocabulary.

A week or so ago I went to the Museum of Russian Political History. As some of you know, I have a thing for museums and am interested in how they use space and combine different narratives. This particular museum was a real treat because a.) it used to the the Museum of the History of the Revolution before 1991 b.) it was once home to the Secretariat of the RSDLP(b) before the Revolution c.) there is a temporary exhibit dealing with culture and politics. Part of this exhibit addresses Proletarian Culture and they have an actual Proletkult journal on display (oh, how I wish I could read it). They also have a photograph of Lenin playing chess with A.A. Bogdanov (the philosphical founder of Proletkult, whom Lenin eventually grew to hate). Bogdanov has a smug look on his face and Lenin appears to either be yawning or is totally aghast that Bogdanov just clobbered him in one move. Interesting. There is also a large hall that was previously devoted to the storming of the Winter Palace, but now ALSO houses an exhibition addressing Soviet use of violence to control the masses. At the centre of the hall is a symbolic bell that reads, "God is not in Strength, but in Truth." It's quite a good phrase, I think. It's also neat because in this hall they have the original plans for the storming of the Winter Palace on display. All in toll, I think it's a great museum and not unlike a museum I saw in Berlin. Trying to equally address the great narratives of Fascism, Imperialism, Communism, or any other "ism" with the realities of today and the pain that those "isms" inflicted.

The City Elections took place. The current edition of the St. Petersburg Times should be able to adequately cover that.

I've started re-reading "Time, Forward!" (in Russian, "Время, Вперёд!") by Valentine Kataev. I had to read it for a Stalinism class several years ago and this is the first time I've touched it since. It is considered to be one of the best and most readable examples of Socialist Realist literature and covers a 24 hour period in which a work brigade sets the world record for pouring concrete. Not exactly a riveting plot line, but it's interesting to read having gained that much more knowledge of early Soviet Culture. And it definitely puts "Master & Margarita" up there along with the Bible as one of the most important pieces of literature in history (and in it's own right, it's a very good novel).

Well, enough of my drivel. Take care. Good talk, people. Happy St. Paddy's Day!