Johan and Judy MaurerElektrostal, Russia |
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INTERVIEWED ON ELEKTROSTAL TV
(March 3, 2017) A journalist and camera operator visited our classes yesterday and interviewed Johan (the "Elektrostal American") and a couple of our students. Maria Mozhina asked Johan about the history of his interest in Russia, and how it came to be that he came to choose this particular city. Johan talked a little about how he and Judy used the differences in their English speech patterns to enrich their lessons. The two students talked about the value of the English immersion experience of our classroom and how we use a certain playfulness to enliven the classroom. Toward the end, Johan used the opportunity of the interview to thank the city of Elektrostal, a formerly closed city, for the hospitality we've experienced over the years. 2014-2015 SABBATICAL VISITS TO FRIENDS MEETINGS AND CHURCHES (We'll update as we add visits.)
ELEKTROSTAL CELEBRATES 75th BIRTHDAY (August 31, 2013) Students and faculty of our Institute defied the cool, gloomy weather and occasional drizzle to march with thousands of civic groups, companies, educational institutions, sports teams, and others to observe the 75th anniversary of Elektrostal's establishment as a city. After the parade, there were many musical recitals, exhibitions, talent shows, and children's events throughout much of the city--including the traditional contributions from the Paustovsky Library, the Fellowship of Elektrostal Artists, and the Children's Art School. In addition, the City Hall steps formed a stage to host several national and international choirs as well as dance and sports displays and contests. Take a look:     I (Johan) had a chance to pay my own tribute to Elektrostal's birthday in an interview with the local paper Molva,
whose photographer caught me in an enthusiastic moment (right) as we
passed the reviewing stand. The reporter asked me what my first
impressions of Elektrostal were, 19 years ago. I
replied that I was struck by the contrast between the rather severe
city and its beautiful natural surroundings. In 19 years, much had
changed, I said, but one thing remained the same: the warmth of the
people. (This is true!)Later in the interview, I mentioned my admiration for the lively cultural life in a city that was best known for its heavy industry. I talked about my appreciation for our students at the Institute and its School of Foreign Languages, and for the founders' ability to combine educational talent and good business sense--important qualities for the country's future. When I was (inevitably) asked to compare Russia and the USA, I said that each country has its advantages. Among the things we most appreciate about our life here are--in practical terms, the very well-developed system of public transportation, and, on another level entirely, the high value Russians put on genuine friendship. Being interviewed by newspapers always makes me nervous--but this City Day interview gave me a chance to thank Elektrostal for the hospitality it has shown us for the past five years. SUMMER 2012 - Visits to Friends churches in Oregon, Washington, Idaho Here's our schedule,
as far
as we know it:
CONFERENCE OF RUSSIAN-SPEAKING FRIENDS, Kremenchuk, Ukraine (October 21-23, 2011) Eighteen Friends gathered in Kremenchuk to discuss the theme "The Gathered Meeting," based on an article of the same name by Thomas Kelly, which had been translated for the gathering by Friends House Moscow staffer Natasha Zhuravenkova. Johan led the opening discussion. Read more about the retreat and the theme here. NEW HUMANITIES INSTITUTE EXPANDS FACILITIES (August 14, 2011) Construction began last month on an annex
for the New Humanities Institute in Elektrostal, where Judy and I teach
English. The ambitious plans call for uniting its three faculties
(linguistics and cross cultural communication; design; tourism) in one
building; right now, one full floor of an office building in downtown
Elektrostal houses the design faculty.
We look forward to helping inaugurate the new facilities!
 RETURN TO BUZULUK
(April 2011) In 2008, Judy and I visited Buzuluk for the
first time, having heard for years about the role of British and
American Friends headquartered there, carrying out a massive ministry
of famine relief and economic reconstruction. Last September a
commemorative display of paintings by British relief worker
Richard Kilbey went on display in nearby Samara, and at the same time a
Russian translation of the history of those events 90 years ago, Constructive Spirit, was published.
We weren't able to get away for September's events, so I was eager to
get back to the region to visit our contacts there and deepen my own
understanding of those events of 90 years ago.
 From the first moments of our arrival, our host and
guide for the visit, historian Sergei Kolychev, was concerned to make
history as concrete as possible. It began with our first steps off the
train at Buzuluk's station--he greeted us and immediately pointed out
the rails on which relief goods arrived in Buzuluk, and the location of
the warehouses where they would have been stored.As our bus left the station area for downtown Buzuluk, Sergei pointed to the road on which the earliest relief workers reporting seeing bodies lying, dead from starvation or disease. Later, on our last full day, he took us to the old city cemetery and pointed to the area where a mass grave held famine victims. In that same cemetery, bordering on the Tikhvinsky Convent, is the presumed burial place of the schemamonk Maksim, a blind, saintly elder of the church who died in 1937 in the custody of the authorities, refusing to the end to confess to false accusations of counter-revolutionary activities. There was one bittersweet elem  ent of mercy at the end of his earthly story, and it
involved the spiritual gift of healing for which he had long been
known. His prayerful intervention resulted in the healing of the prison
director's wife, as a result of which he was allowed a Christian burial
instead of the common grave into which most dead prisoners were dumped.The monastery where he had served, Holy Transfiguration Monastery and its associated underground cloister (where we visited in 2008), had been confiscated bit by bit, and finally shut down completely in 1929--its facilities converted into a reformatory and its underground passages blown up. Although the prison remains, the underground cloister, capped by a new church building, is being restored--we revisited it on our third day in Buzuluk, and I was amazed by the progress made in less than three years. We walked through the restored passages and spent a moment in a freshly rebuilt chapel. Every single person who had been associated with that monastery, who had not renounced their faith, and who had not died earlier, was executed in 1937.  Thanks to Sergei Kolychev's diligence in putting us in
these places, supplying us with their historical context, my
appreciation for Buzuluk's Calvary Walk through the twentieth century
deepened. He and another historian, Nikolai Makarov (who was a crucial
guide during our 2008 visit) also accompanied us to the local office of
the State Archives, where we saw a Russian translation of a 1923 film
made by British Friends to raise funds for the Buzuluk work.That film helped me realize something that hadn't really been clear to me before. Somehow the sheer scale of the tragedy had given me the impression that Buzuluk was an impoverished town. Yes, there was rural poverty in that part of Russia before the 1917 revolutions, but as the film revealed, Buzuluk was a modern, highly developed little city. Agriculture in that region had always been precarious, but pre-revolutionary regional governments had instituted grain banks as buffers for harvest failures. In one of our walks, Sergei pointed out the home of the man who informed Moscow that the Buzuluk region seemed to be well-supplied in grain despite 1920's bad harvest. The consequences were swift in coming: wholesale confiscations. The archive office already has hundreds of pages of archival material from American and British Friends to help them in reconstructing those sad days of local material. They asked us for help with some of the less legible handwritten photo captions; we promised to try. Sergei and Nikolai have a couple of longer-term goals--a memorial plaque, perhaps at the railroad station, for the Quaker relief mission; and a memorial book giving a full and well-illustrated account of that history in its full regional, historical, and spiritual context. During our days in and around Buzuluk, we also revisited Sorochinsk, where we met again with the editor of the town newspaper, Liubov Mazylo, whose office is in the house used by American Friends during the famine relief mission. She and her staff interviewed and photographed us. Later, she reunited us with the priest of the Sorochinsk church, and took us to the machine shop of a local farm. We visited the village of Sukhorechka, which appears in some of Richard Kilbey's work. Sukhorechka's energetic and visionary priest, Father Anatoly, described his parish's plans to develop church grounds into a fruit grove for the whole community to enjoy. JUDY VISITS DZHERZHINSK AND KAZAN' (March 21-25, 2011) Judy and three Friends from the Friends House Moscow board visited programs supported in part by Friends, including a school for foster parents in Dzerzhinsk and an outreach to conscientious objectors based in Kazan'. FRIENDS AND ORGANIZATIONAL DISCERNMENT (February 3, 2011) Johan and a group of Friends from Moscow Meeting spent a wonderful evening in the company of a group of Russian Orthodox volunteers sponsored by the Danilov Monastery. The theme of the evening was Friends understanding of organizational discipline, management, and decisionmaking. SMOKE AND HEAT (August 25, 2010.) Summer 2010 was one for the record books.
For several weeks in July and August, the temperature
reached heights not seen in the 130 years of record-keeping for
European Russia.
100-plus (F) temperatures are not unusual in some parts of
the USA, but they're extremely rare for the Moscow region, where
average summer temperatures are in the low- to mid-70s, and people
simply are not prepared. Air conditioning is rare. Newspapers recorded
the tragic consequences of diving drunk into lakes and rivers.
Worse yet, forest fires and peat bog fires directly killed 53
people and destroyed thousands of homes. The number of fires, and the
acreage consumed, were by themselves not unusual (more fires were
recorded last year, for example), but this year they struck in
populated areas of western Russia. Underground fires in dried-out peat
bogs sent huge clouds of foul-smelling smoke into the Moscow region.
Now, a couple of weeks after the worst of these fires, I can still
smell the smoke in my clothing.
 Above: our courtyard, viewed from our entrance. Children
are following advice to stay inside.
 Above: Our street--notice portrait of Yalagin on our huge
street sign--and headlights in mid-morning.
 Above: Yalagin Street, across from our housing complex.
The public-health effects of this unusual summer are still
difficult to summarize. The numbers of deaths recorded at public
morgues doubled for several days in Moscow. Economic consequences are
also significant; I saw an estimate of a 20% reduction
in Russia's 2010 grain harvest and a reduction in anticipated
winter wheat sowing. The water table has dropped in the dacha district
near our home--meaning that our friend who grows vegetables at her
small dacha found last week that her bucket was hitting dirt at the
bottom of her well.
Living in the midst of difficult conditions that were widely
covered in Western media, I was glad to get expressions of care for me
and my neighbors during these days. Although I missed Judy a lot, I was
also glad that she was in the USA and getting a respite from all this!
Just before my current visa renewal trip (I'm writing this in
Riga, Latvia), cooler air and several thunderstorms swept through
Elektrostal. Not a moment too soon!
WINTER IN MOSCOW REGION
 (January 22, 2010.)We have made a few brief trips--to
Odessa for a board meeting and to Oslo for new visas--but mostly we've
been staying in Elektrostal, with weekly trips to Moscow to attend
meeting for worship and lead a seminar on Thomas Kelly's A Testament of Devotion. (Russian edition, left, translated by the late
Olga Dolgina.)For a second year, I've used Lolly Winston's novel Good Grief in my classes. Judy
helps me dramatize the dialogue and interpret the female characters of
the novel, whose themes include friendship, trust, and mentorships,
delivered with vivid, contemporary conversational English.
 Just before the New Year break, I showed O Brother Where Art
Thou in my third-year classes. Aside from the many cultural
and relational themes, it shows that the USA can make better films than
the usual fare imported into the Russian market.On New Year's Eve, Judy and I celebrated with the New
Humanities Institute's staff in the cafe attached to the Institute's
building. Our friend Nadya, daughter of two of the language
department's best teachers, led us in skits and mixers, until close to
the midnight hour, when all eyes went to the large-screen television.
First, the traditional speech by the president, timed to end just at
the stroke of midnight. Then, something unexpected: a cartoon of
President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin.
INTERVIEW
(February 1, 2009) The local newspaper Novosti Nedeli (News of the Week)
published an interview with me, entitled "To Russia With Love," in
its most recent issue. It was such a warm and positive article
I barely recognized myself!
 Journalist Yuri Lunin interviewed me. Here are a couple
of excerpts:
I've been interviewed by newspapers before--not always
accurately! For this reason, I was very grateful that Yuri gave such a
positive (accurately so!) interpretation of our hopes and motives for
living among his readers.
In school I taught my usual college-level classes through
December. In January, the college-level students were occupied with
exams, so I spent time with high-school-level students. We also visited
a public school and served as jurors in an all-city English competition.
Our social life revolved around two principal themes: First,
the New Year and Christmas holidays--we hosted and visited several of
our friends and their families (Judy did most of the cooking, I admit,
trying lots of new recipes, especially for salads and soups). Second:
we continued to attend concerts and art show. Below, Ivan Sokolov
presented an amazing bayan concert on December 29 (two photos); Tatiana
Vilde's gallery opening on January 22 (slide show).
  Ivan Sokolov and poet Leonid Biryukov; the bayan is a
Russian development of the accordion.
BACK IN ELEKTROSTAL
(November 24, 2008) We're back in Elektrostal after six weeks
in Oregon (and a
visit to Washington). We loved seeing many friends and support partners
all over the Northwest, and of course we were grateful to have time
with our sons in Eugene, but it was VERY good to get back to our home
on Yalagin Street.
I expected that, when we returned, winter weather might have
already set in. But everyone commented on the prolonged mild fall
weather. That all came to an abrupt end last Thursday:
 And on Sunday, the wind was blowing so hard that we were just
about blown off our feet, slanting the hard rain almost horizontally.
We reluctantly had to give up our plans to go into Moscow for Friends
meeting.
On our first full day, November 13, I enjoyed working with a
couple of high school classes. Last week I met with third-year and
fourth-year Institute classes, and will be working with them again this
week, and will also have a chance to meet the fifth-year students for
the first time since the first week of September. They spent the rest
of September in local grade-school classrooms, serving as teaching
assistants. I'm eager to hear about their experiences; back in
September, we talked about student-centered education. (I drew on my
wonderful memories as a writer for Catlin Gabel School in Portland a
couple of years ago). I want to see if any of the ideas we discussed
were even remotely useful.
 Last week we talked about the U.S.
elections and their
outcome. In such conversations, I typically get asked what I think of
the Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev. Usually, my responses are
politely non-committal, since there is almost nothing I can say as a
guest that actually serves a useful purpose, but this time I pointed
out that both President Medvedev and President-elect Obama have deep
roots in the law. I give myself permission (I said) to be optimistic
that this will give them something in common on which they can build a
good relationship.Sometimes the youngest students ask the most provocative
questions. In a joint class with another teacher, a high school student
asked what I thought was the meaning of life. After giving my answer, I
was pleased that the other teacher polled the whole class, one by one.
I'm looking forward to my next visit, when we will be able to
build on these supremely important themes.
(Magazine's new year cover: "Anticipating a thaw" with Obama's election.) AUGUST 18-26, 2008
Judy and I made our first trip outside the Moscow region,
visiting the region where Quaker famine and refugee relief efforts were
concentrated in the years bracketing the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and
the 1921-22 famine.
In Buzuluk, the center of the British and American Quaker
work of those years, we met several people who said, "The Quakers saved
us." In fact, half of the population of Buzulu--that is, of those who
did not flee elsewhere--died during the famine. The story is told in
words and images at the regional museum in Buzuluk.
It's also told in the book Constructive
Spirit: Quakers in Revolutionary Russia, by David McFadden and
Claire Gorfinkel, with a chapter by Sergei Nikitin. We met several
of the people who helped the authors with their research in the
area. We were grateful for the opportunity to renew Friendly ties
with Buzuluk and other important sites of the Quaker relief work--the
towns of Sorochinsk and Totskoye to the southeast of Buzuluk. One
question that continues to linger in our mind: what would an ongoing
Quaker presence in this historic (and now rapidly modernizing) location
look like?
 Above: Buzuluk's clinic for children, former headquarters for
the Quaker relief and reconstruction work of the early and mid-1920's.
 In contrast with Elektrostal, Buzuluk has many
pre-revolutionary buildings, including the Pedagogical College (above),
across the street from Lenin Park.
 Above: the museum in Sorochinsk, population 30,000, another
site of Friends work in the 1920's.
 At Totskoe, a simple monument (above) marks the approximate
center of a nuclear explosion on September 14, 1954, part of military
exercises involving thousands of troops and civilians. The Buzuluk
museum has a moving exhibit on the exercises and their tragic
consequences. The next photo is a close-up of the bell tower:
  Above: Just outside Buzuluk we saw a remarkable project
combining spiritual and physical restoration. The Russian Orthodox
monastery here, closed by the Soviet authorities in the 1930's, had
included an elaborate structure of underground passages and cells for
monks who chose to live in darkness, "so they could see the Light
better," as we were told. Those passages and cells are gradually being
restored; we walked through one long passage that has already been
completed.
JULY 17, 2008
As our first week back comes to a close, we just saw a
spectacular thunderstorm sweep through town.
 We have been reconnecting with friends and contacts here. To
my delight, three students have come up to me at various times and said
"Hi, you're back!" (Another former student sent greetings from
Bulgaria.)
I love this city! Each day I'm happily going about
introducing it to Judy. However, without her I might never have even
set foot in the outdoor market, which I've walked past all these years.
 WE ARE BACK IN ELEKTROSTAL!!
(July 10, 2008) After several months of having sole possession of the
apartment, the Neifert family's cats greeted us with remarkable poise.
Part of the apartment's living room has been temporary devoted to
storage, and the cats have established their perches, from which
they now contemplate the new arrivals....
 We are thankful for a safe and uncomplicated arrival in Moscow and transfer to Elektrostal. More news soon. |
