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WEEK of November 5, 2007
@BFS! archives

White Nights and Cultural Immersion for BFS Upper Schoolers in Russia

by Jeffrey Stanley

This past summer eight upper school students, accompanied by teachers Sergei Mikhelson and Lyubov Obertnaya, spent two weeks in Russia, touring the cities of St. Petersburg, Pskov, and Moscow. The students were sophomore Dominique White, seniors Brittany Fuller, Katelin Jackson, and Patricia O’Meara, and—from the Class of 2007—Alex Doyle, Alexei Cree, Philip McPherson and Naomi Edmondson.

The impetus for the trip originated with Sergei and Roxanne Zazzaro, Head of the Upper School. Both had attended a conference on alternative education last year in St. Petersburg and agreed that a trip to Russia would be a valuable experience for upper school students. For science teacher Lyubov, the trip was the first visit to her motherland in 17 years and included an emotional homecoming at the college she attended in Pskov.

“Our main destination was St. Petersburg,” said Sergei. “The trip was connected to a private school there called Gorchakov Lyceum.” This boys’ boarding school is modeled on the famed Lyceum from which 19th century Russian poet Aleksandr Puskhin graduated. “The school’s administrators go around to rural areas,” explained Sergei, “and find families where the boys are talented but don’t have money for a good education.” The BFS connection came about because a former colleague of Sergei’s teaches there. Our students stayed on the campus and were hosted by the Gorchakov students, who also accompanied them on their excursions and sometimes led walking tours.

The group visited many cultural sites, including the Peter and Paul Fortress in the historic heart of the city, the Hermitage, St. Isaac’s Cathedral from which they could see a panorama of the city from almost a hundred meters high, and Catherine the Great’s Palace in the town of Pushkin. They took an evening boat ride along the rivers and canals of St. Petersburg and marveled at the city’s amazing drawbridges. “We got there during the start of Russian summer, which is the White Nights Festival tourist season in St. Petersburg,” explained Sergei. “June 22nd is the longest day – there is daylight for almost twenty-four hours. It’s a festive occasion because it’s graduation day for St. Petersburg’s schools.” To celebrate, hundreds of boats parade through the city’s waterways.

The students also saw the ballet Swan Lake and visited the State Russian Museum, which contains nearly half a million exhibits covering a thousand-year period of Russian history. They took a bike trip through Pavlovsk Park (one of the finest landscaped gardens in Europe), visited the fountains of Petrodvorets (Peter’s Palace), and toured the public gardens everywhere they went.

Each student also got to spend one night at the home of a Russian student and his family in Pskov, an ancient Russian city of about 200,000 people. Alex Doyle became a source of envy when word got out the next day that his host student took him to a nightclub to hear a local band and they invited Alex up onstage to play guitar with them. The group also visited a traditional banya, or Russian bath, with steam rooms and birch branches that you hit yourself with to improve circulation.

“The banya was one of the hits,” Sergei had to admit. “But the trip was not just touristic.” He was quick to point out that the group did a lot of educational and cultural activities. At the Gorchakov Lyceum the students tried their hand at Russian folk painting, dance, games, music, and Russian cooking. “They played various sports games also played lapta, which is similar to baseball,” said Sergei. The students jointly held an organized discussion in which they discussed problems facing youth around the world, particularly in the US and Russia, including racism, culture and drugs.

Senior Brittany Fuller viewed the trip as the culmination of her previous year’s studies. “I had taken Freedom and the State and European History, both of which concentrate on Russia, so the timing seemed perfect. Russia was somewhere new and exciting, and at the same time a place that I knew a lot about and was fascinated about,” she said. One of her favorite excursions was to the Kremlin Armory, where she said just about every object had a story. “One throne has a hole in the back so advisors could help a child tsar, and one carriage was never used because it was a gift from abroad and useless on Russian roads.” She also stumbled upon a fun literary connection as she explored the city. “I was reading Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment at the time, and knowing that Raskolnikov walked down this very street makes the story stick better, and just gives it relevance.”

On their trip home from St. Petersburg the group stopped in Moscow for two days, taking a walking tour of the Kremlin and making a requisite macabre visit to Lenin’s tomb. But the highlight of Moscow was the world famous Russian Circus, everyone agreed.

For Sergei the trip had three purposes for our students: getting to know Russian culture and history better, getting them acquainted with their Russian peers so they could see in what ways they’re similar, and getting them to accept people from other cultures and beliefs. The students are currently in the midst of preparing a presentation of photos and other media to present to the Upper School this fall during a special assembly.

Depending on student interest, Sergei is ready to take a second contingent of BFS students to Russia next summer. He can be reached by e-mail: smikhelson [at] brooklynfriends [dot] org.