My final research paper in my freshman writing seminar (Fall 2020), Constructing the Past with Emma Ljung, this essay
explores Lenin's Mausoleum. This paper was thouroughly researched and draws on theories of symbolism and cultural
trauma to argue that the mausoleum's persistence indicates a fractured national identity and incomplate memory of
Soviet crimes. I presented this paper at the Northeastern REEES Conference at Yale in 2022.
Here is the first paragraph:
What is Russia, in one image? Most likely, Red Square comes to mind. Bordered by the Kremlin and containing the St. Basil's Cathedral,
this site at the center of Moscow is the international symbol of Russianness. Away from the thronging crowds of tourists sits a squat
pyramid with an imposing title: ЛЕНИН. This is the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin, the founding father of the Soviet Union. Lenin has been
dead nearly a century, and the Soviet Union nearly three decades, yet here they are in the very heart of modern Russia. In my 2018 visit,
I recall descending from a hot summer day into the dark, cool temple, past a tight security check. In front of me went an old Russian woman.
Watching her as she passed the open coffin containing an embalmed Lenin, she made the sign of the cross. Guards soon after hurried her, and then
me, along back out into the heat and din of Red Square. For years since I have pondered her meaning. Was she making a sign of Christian veneration
to the atheist, mass-murderer Lenin? Or was it for divine protection from his evil presence? The experience goes to the heart of Lenin's memory in
Russia, and more broadly, the memory of the Soviet system he forged and was made to represent. What does the continued presence of Lenin's mausoleum
in Red Square reveal about post-Soviet memory in modern Russia?
My final research paper in my imperial Russian history course (Fall 2021) with Ekaterina Pravilova, this paper
examines the conditions in Alaska during the transition between Russian and American rule. As a primary
source, I consult The Alaska Herald, a news publication written by exiled Ukrainian monk and dissident
Agapius Honcharenko. I found that despite the hopes and haughty predictions of the American press,
the condition of Alaska's native population and the territory's development in many cases worsened under
American military jurisdiction. I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Alaska the summer of 2022 with the
Princeton REEES Program, visiting Sitka (the former Russian capital), Juneau, and Anchorage. See my photos form
that trip here. I presented this paper at the Northeastern REEES Conference
at Yale in 2022. Here is the first paragraph:
On October 8th, 1867, cannon fire thundered across Sitka sound. There was no battle, only the solemn lowering
of the Romanov double-headed eagle for the last time in a wild Alaskan wind that presaged an approaching hurricane,
and a new political situation for the territory. Today Alaska is known as America's largest and second-most recent
addition to the Union. But long before, the territory was the site of the Russian Empire's only colonial project. While never
a settler colony, Russian contact with and exploitation of the territory and its native inhabitants had a major influence on its
development and left a mark well after 1867. In that year, much to the surprise of every party involved, authority was ceded to the
United States and the territory went from autocratic to republican rule, from the hands of the Russian-American Company to a United
States military administration. What changed on the ground and in the lives of Alaska's inhabitants as a result of this transfer? Were
they rescued from the despotism of the Russian tsar by freedom-loving Americans? In truth, the story is more complicated. There to witness,
record, and voice his critical opinion on it all was Agapius Honcharenko (a fascinating figure in his own right). A staunch Ukrainian nationalist,
abolitionist, republican, Orthodox monk, and exile from Russia, Honcharenko used his bilingual publication, Alaska Herald (later with the added title
“Свобода”), to introduce Russian and American readers to each othe's histories and values, report on news in the territory, and advocate for the
oppressed peoples of both empires. At the intersection of East and West and having been ruled by two seemingly opposite empires, Alaska is a unique
territory in the world for the comparative study of Russian and American imperialism in the 19th century. Examining the records of Alaska Herald during
the liminal period of 1868 reveals that the purchase of Alaska cannot be considered a liberation by the United States. The American administration continued
to abuse Alaskan land and people, American monopolies replaced the Russian, and the new state of affairs was in many ways far worse than before.
I have written a several shorter Russian compositions before, but I consider this to be my best, and longest work yet (Fall 2022). Having read Leo Tolstoy's short story "Three Deaths and a letter of his explaining his intentions behind the story, I examine to what extent his ideas are conveyed to the reader and whether those ideas are reasonable to begin with (some opining on my part).