Russia today

[Henryk Baran]

Emily, I think that Johnson's List, for all its undoubted usefulness, is
very one-sided; reading it one gets the impression that all in Russia is
doom and gloom.  That totally overlooks just how much, in spite of the
terrible financial situation, is going on in culture, in various areas of
scholarship, and even in some areas of science.  In so many ways Russia
remains an intellectually intense place, and that is something students, and
all of us, would do well to remember in these difficult times.
Henryk Baran
University at Albany, SUNY
hebaran at ibm.net; hbaran at cnsvax.albany.edu
hbaran at mail.fipc.ru

----- Original Message -----
From: Emily Tall <mllemily at acsu.buffalo.edu>
To: <SEELANGS at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 1999 10:36 PM
Subject: Russia today


> Can anyone teaching a Russian culture course, or planning to, tell me
> anything upbeat about Russia today? All I hear, day after day (and I
> subscribe to Johnson's Russia list, which makes it even worse) is
> corruption and fraud, crime, no respect for the law, health crises,
> ecological crises, and so on and on. I have not been to Russia since 1994
> and so am dependent on published reports, travellers, emigres, and
> visitors. Does one have to go back to the past to find anything worthy of
> admiration? I have a feeling a lot of good things must be happening but we
> don't hear about them because no one finds them newsworthy. Thanks! Emily
> Tall
>