Russia's good for more than just caviar and vodka, and this week the former USSR is showing off its cultural prowess.
The week kicked off last night with a concert by Russian poet and songwriter Psoy Korolenko. Korolenko is well known in Moscow for his unique synthesis of music, poetry and performance, according to Lev Loseff, Chair of the Russian Department. Festivities will continue through Sunday.
Though Dartmouth has hosted Russian cultural weeks in the past, according to Loseff, the event has not occurred in quite a few years, and it took a contribution from a Russian department graduate to bring Russian week back to Dartmouth.
Last year Erik Christensen '02, a Russian major, decided to "give something back" to the Russian department after he graduated.
"I wanted to express my gratitude for the great education I received from the Russian department," Christensen said. "So I wrote up a proposal for Russian week and the department was excited about the idea."
The events continue today with a 5 p.m. poetry reading in the Russian department lounge, with readings by Evgeny Rein, Misha Gronas and Lev Loseff. On Wednesday in Loew Auditorium there will be a showing of the 16-minute short film "Petropolis" by Michael Yaroshevsky which won Best Experimental Documentary at the Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival 2002, followed by the film "Black Russians" by Kara Lynch, a film about Afro-Russians. The showings start at 6:30 p.m.
The culmination of the week will be at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night with showing of the much-lauded film "Russian Ark" by Aleksandr Sokurov. As Loseff described it, the film is the "first full-length one shot film." It is filmed without any cutting in a St. Petersburg museum.
"It is a fantastic journey through the memorable episodes of Russian history," Loseff said.
Finally, the week will wrap up at 1:30 pm. Sunday afternoon at Faulkner Recital Hall with a Concert of Russian classical music performed by the Ekaterinburg Classical Trio.
The entire week was made possibly through funding by Christensen and other external sources. Consequently, there was no impact on the department's budget which, like all other departmental budgets, has faced cuts this year.
