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Local pastor shares story of trip to Russia

Submitted Photo Pictured is St. Basil’s on the Red Square in Moscow.

In May, 2016, the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Wickwire Lundquist of Fredonia had the privilege of visiting the nation of Russia. She travelled with a group organized by the Peacemaking Program of the Presbyterian Church USA. The purpose of the trip was to build stronger relationships between Christians in the United States and Russia so that each group could then, through their witness in their own country, share what they learned about the other with their fellow countrymen and women.

She noted the organizing principle for this kind of trip is that personal encounters between people of different cultures and nations is vital to healthy and constructive relationships between them and their countries.

Below is part I of her story:

And it begins: Russian Bureaucracy

The first step was to acquire a visa in order to enter Russia. The visa process was challenging and the application had many detailed questions. As I completed the application, I admit to some frustration at the formality and rigidity of the process. But it was a valuable experience for me for two reasons. One, it was an introduction to Russian bureaucracy, a reality that must be faced by any visitor or resident of Russia. For example everyone in Russia must carry identification papers which are reviewed even when boarding a train. But the second learning was more important. At first, I thought I was resistant to this process because I didn’t want to have to go through all the paper work. But then I realized that something else was going on. I was a child during the Cold War between the United States and Russia, and I realized that a little of the Cold War was still with me. I wasn’t resistant to the process just because I was irritated that they had so many questions for me. I was resistant because this was Russia asking so many questions of me, a U.S. American. Couldn’t they just trust me?

As I recognized these feelings, I recognized how illogical they were. But I was thankful for the experience because by recognizing these feelings, I was able to set them aside and embark on this trip with an open mind as I encountered the Russian people first hand.

Monumental Strength

To prepare for the trip, I did some research about the cities we would be visiting. I quickly realized that tourism is still somewhat limited there for the independent traveler and was thankful that our group had a leader that had lived in Russia for a number of years. The delegation itself was made up of 12 people from Presbyterian Churches from all over the country. Two of us, however, were from Western New York so we had the pleasure of traveling together. My friend and I flew into St. Petersburg from Buffalo and we were met there by the group leader. She arranged a taxi for us to take us to our hotel and we were thankful that the driver spoke a little English, which we were soon to realize was somewhat rare. On our way into this large and very impressive city (4,600,000 people), the driver pointed out a huge monument to the people of St. Petersburg who resisted the siege of the city by the Germans during World War II. The Germans had surrounded Leningrad and expected it to fall quickly. But the people of the city, about 3,000,000, would not submit. They held out for almost 900 days with over 1,000,000 dying of starvation and disease. But they never surrendered. It was a sobering start to our visit and an interesting introduction to the character and strength of the Russian people.

Venice of the North

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city, rightfully called the Venice of the North. Peter the Great created the city in part so that there would be water access from this new capital to the Baltic Sea. Every other major city in Russia at the time was landlocked. But building the city was not an easy task since the area was made up of wetlands. So to create dry land for the city, they had to create canals throughout the city, just as the people of Venice had. The designation “of the North” is important to note as a reminder that St. Petersburg is very far north, on parallel with Oslo, Norway. We became aware of this that first night when it remained light until after 10 and the sun rose between 2:30 and 3 a.m. We soon learned to wear sleep masks to bed when our rooms didn’t have blackout curtains! But we were glad we were not there in winter when the river through St. Petersburg would be frozen and there was daylight only from 10 a.m. until a little after 4 p.m.

Designers and Dollar Stores

Our first afternoon we visited an attractive three-story mall with a street market outside. The mall was as nice as any in U.S. America with a wide variety of stores, including some U.S. American designers. What was interesting, and typical of the contrasts to be found throughout Russia, was that right outside was a street market with what can only be described as cheaper merchandise offered in a variety of stands. One could say it was their version of our dollar stores. Everything from dishtowels (rather thin and scratchy) to purses. We noticed that the young people were inside in the mall and the people shopping in the street market were the older citizens who were more accustomed to the traditional street markets from the days of the Soviet deprivation.

Coming next Sunday: Russian art and traveling by train.

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