Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Leo Tolstoy and Russian Soup

Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com


I recently traveled to Russia where I visited three cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tula.

Tula?

It's hardly a tourist hotspot, but this industrial city 120 miles south of Moscow is the location of a world renown site that has become a shrine of sorts for intellectuals, students and lovers of Russian culture. Just outside the city center is a sprawling estate of gardens, fields and forests and a few fine mansions. The estate is known as Yasnaya Polyana.

In the middle of this sylvan glen is the house that was once the home of Leo Tolstoy (photo right), the writer widely regarded as among the greatest of novelists. "His masterpieces 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' represent in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction of 19th-century Russian life and attitudes, the peak of realist fiction." A description of his life an work can be found here.

A mile down a footpath is his grave set among tall pines. He died at a small village train station--Astapovo station--in 1910 after leaving home in an agitated state in the middle of winter at the age of 82.

But the drama of his last year (depicted in a 2009 movie, 'The Last Station', directed by Michael Hoffman starring Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as Sofya Tolstoya) was not in my mind as I toured his house at Yasnaya (photo below left) where his personal effects give the place a feel of still being inhabited, including bed clothes, countless volumes of books, wash pails (he cleaned his own room), walking stick and family photos. And of course his writing desk, an 'altar' for writers, on which he composed his great works as the thoughts came up within his imagination and memory. Late in life his wife purchased a big Remington typewriter. In another room is a phonograph personally sent to him by Thomas Edison.

Next to his bed is a pad and pen in case ideas arose during the night, no doubt frequently. His was a mind alert to nuances, disparities, absurdities, unfairness, dramatic urgencies, futility and the emotional contagion of the human condition.

Walking among his household belongings and feeling the ambience of his life and the breadth of his mind, I felt humbled and rather envious that I have lacked the discipline across my lifetime to create such fine works, writings, that dissected and described human behavior in the poetic narrative form known as the novel--or even in a non-fiction documentary. Great writers and music composers have an immortality among human civilization on this planet that I admire and desire--a feeling dispelled only by looking at the stars in the universe where true immortality lies.

The visit to Yasnaya was inspiring and serene--and grounding. Immediately across the street from the columned entry to the estate was the homey Cafe Preshpekt that served delicious solyanka, a hearty Russian vegetable soup with chicken or beef. It too was life affirming.

Nearby is a language school for modern day students that includes the Yasnaya Polyana Hotel where I stayed for four restful days. There is also a conference center that hosts the International Tolstoy Conference in August 2010.

Gay Pride in Russia

Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz
April 27, 2010

Letter from Russia.

Gay Russia is surprisingly alive or dead according to the view you have from being there.

Dense homophobia pervades the culture. A visitor will not find a public scene. No flags, no parades, no store-front centers or offices, one magazine, a couple of on-line gay sites that list a few venues, one in-the-streets activist organization that tries to mount a gay Pride event each June that's overrun with skinheads and police.

Or, a visitor can point to the vibrant gay night life in Moscow and St Petersburg--a dozen bars, discos, saunas in the two cities. Passport gay travel magazine recently described St Petersburg's biggest gay club, Central Station, as " a veritable maze on four levels connected by several stairways, a half-dozen bars, two stages, a sushi restaurant, comfortable nooks to chat in, and a dance floor. On weekends the club is packed with over 1,000 people. On Thursday nights about 100–150 gals show up for Lesbian Night."

In Moscow, the popular Propaganda bar-disco gets mixed reviews: "Propaganda is really good on Thursdays and really crappy on Fridays and Saturdays. The gay party on Sunday is excellent (not for girls, though). The food at Propaganda is very good and cheap." Or: "people who say that it is a cool place are definitely not from Moscow."

From either perspective, the LGBT scene in Russia is very limited. How could it be otherwise?

This vast country spans eleven time zones stretches more than ten thousand kilometers (6300 miles) from Western Europe to far eastern Vladivostok. There are a mere 142 million people living in 17,075,400 sq km (6,592,800 sq mi) of territory. That makes the population density about 21 people per sq mi! And how do you organize a party in a population where 90% of people do not own a computer!?

The answer is not easy. Nor is the LGBT effort currently under way by a tiny group of LGBT Russians who are trying to carry the modern banner of human rights and equality to the government and people of Moscow and St Petersburg. For the past four years, the gay rights organization GayRussia.ru--led by Nikolai Alekseev--have attempted gay Pride demonstrations at public locations. None of thee had official city approval even though Russian citizens have the right to assemble--with permission. Mayor Luzhkov has refused that permission four times in four years. It would seem the LGBT public efforts were stalled.

But instead of cowering n fear, as they did in communist times, GayRussia.ru has 'fought' back by staging rallies despite the ban. The results are a bit of blood, bruises, arrests and court appearances. And they plan another event this year in June 2010.

This is the new tactic in homophobic countries that are outgrowing their socialist heritages: Baltics, Balkans, Eastern Europe (and Turkey).

Russian activists are taking the middle way. The results will likely succeed since successful membership in the European Union demands respect for human rights for all and non-discrimination toward minorities. Such humane laws will not go backward and GayRussia.ru will succeed over time.

(This is NOT the tactic in extremely homophobic cultures that are deeply entrenched in Muslim heritages. Here the risk is death, not just a street tussle. There, GayRussia.ru members would be assassinated by death squads. So they don't go there. No gay rights activist go there and only work online to help individual sneak out of the toxic countries.)

Support gay Pride Russia in June 2010.