Saint Petersburg Russia: One Large Classroom

It is an honor to be the eyes and ears of Salem-news.com readers during my two week stretch as a fellow at the Summer Literary Seminars Conference. According to organizers, the talent pool this year is exceptional. The event itself is the brainchild of Russian expatriate Mikhail Iossel who fled his native Saint Petersburg during the height of the Cold War.

My workshop is being led by Keizer, Oregon resident Gina Ochsner who has two masterful short story collections to her credit ("The Necessary Grace to Fall and "People I Wanted to Be") and is working on publishing her first novel under contract with Houghton Mifflin.

Get a load of this folks! "Jarhead" author Anthony "Tony" Swafford just walked into the foyer outside my room--this is what makes this conference so great. You're accessible to the authors on staff and he's agreed to an interview when he returns to Portland next month for a writer's workshop sponsored by Tin House at Reed College.

Petersburg residents and visitors are treated to White Nights this time of year. The sun sets for just a couple of hours but the city does not see complete nightfall. My accommodations at a B&B are all about location, location, location as I am very near Nevsky Prospekt.

A short walk places me in full view of the Kazan Cathedral. Its marble columns have been darkened by exhaust fumes from the cars that ramble down Nevsky Prospekt. This main, bustling boulevard is lined with high-end shops, eateries and hotels.

On Russian Independence Day (June 12th), I observed a man jog up to the cathedral in Rocky Balboa fashion, drop to the ground like Saint John of The Camel Knees and pray. It was six in the morning and this is how this gentleman chose to begin his day. The Orthodox believer appeared oblivious to the world around him, singularly focused on communicating with God.

Gastronomes of the world, unite! It used to be you couldn't get a great meal in Russia. Now you have a tough time picking what restaurant to go to because the standards are so high. My taste buds are salivating here.

First off, I have had an opportunity that many of the other conferees have been unable to enjoy--a home-cooked meal at an upscale residence that included salmon skewers with fresh vegetables from the garden, delicious lamb sausages and beefs steaks. I was unable to wash it all down with a Georgian wine as Russia is refusing to import it these days--a sign that political squabbles between its government and former republics reaches the kitchen table. Russian wine overs are now drinking a great deal more Australian Shiraz and Malbec and Merlot from both Chile and Argentina.

My best meals out have taken place at Restaurant Lev or The Lion. Its owner, Sasha, is a former Russian naval officer whose entrepreneurial spirit in the new Russia has also led to his owning a beauty salon.

The "Yxa" soup is the best I've ever had. In addition to the traditional white fish that is a staple of the dish, "the kitchen" at Lev also throws in a great deal of salmon and some imitation crab meat as well. I would also recommend the blini appetizer.

The pancake or crepe-like dish comes with plenty of red caviar for 160 rubles or approximately six dollars at the current exchange rate that hovers around 27 to the dollar.

I have also enjoyed shopping in Russian supermarkets. During the Soviet era, shops were often begging for product, shelves empty. Now food stores are filled with a cornucopia of items. Still plenty of tourists don't avail themselves of traditional Russian restaurants or markets and choose to contribute to Western junk food jingoism by flocking to local versions of Pizza Hut, Subway, KFC and the forerunner of them all, McDonald's.

In another window-dressing move to appeal to he rest of the world, Russia has announced its intentions to forgive some $700 million in debt owed by poor countries. The timing of the announcement by Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin comes just weeks before the country hosts heads of state from the other leading industrialized nations in Saint Petersburg.

When in Russia a decade-and-a-half ago, gypsies were pervasive and aggressive. The nomadic bands are led on the streets by several women with children in tow to beg and steal. Gypsies are a rare find in advance of the G8 Summit--it took me a full five days to run across several--as are soused citizens sleeping it off on sidewalks or under bridges.

Drunks and other "undesirables" are being rounded up by the MVD or police. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to ensure that United States President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and others do not run across so-called undesirable elements of society.

Russian business acumen is on the rise and even the quirky idea can make a buck. The Saint Petersburg Business Club of Young Entrepreneurs has announced plans to sell velvet bags filled with local soil to foreign tourists and even Russians seeking to have a piece of the country with them wherever they go. The practice dates back to Russian folklore when this country's international soldiers would keep a handful of Russian soil on their person in an effort to ward off demons as well as enemy combatants.

The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg is a former palace. It's pastel yellow paint provides an inviting facade along with the park in front of it. The foreground also includes a fountain and a large statue of Pushkin who, of course, is considered one of this nation's and the world's most beloved writers. This museum is not to be missed as what it contains gives the venue substance over sequins. This includes everything from a dynamite collection of folk art (wood carvings and lacquer boxes) to the masterful works of Repin. Both are permanent collections.

A temporary installation is political in nature and juxtaposes examples of propaganda artworks once sanctioned and even commissioned by the state and those that were once considered subversive by the former Soviet Union. The curators statement references George Orwell's classics 1984 and Animal Farm. The final piece in this exploratory political discourse through artworks is a full-size painting of Joseph Stalin. A quite effective final statement about Stalin's odious and oppressive reign is the strategic placement of a mirror at the opposite end of the corridor. As you turn to leave the room, you are suddenly face-to-face with comrade Stalin once again, unable to escape his figurative ubiquitous, prying gaze.