Discussing racial attacks with students and help finding information on the 'piataia grafa'

[Amanda Ewington]

Dear Seelangers,

I recently returned from 6 weeks as resident director of our summer program
in Moscow and wanted to report that one of my students, who is Asian, was
violently attacked by a skinhead on the metro.  It was 9:30 at night, right
downtown, by Okhotnyi Riad.  It happened inside the train.  I say this only
to confirm that such things are indeed happening and to urge those of you
bringing students of color to Russia to be very open with them about
potential risks.  When I called the Embassy to report the attack, they told
me that they do not keep statistics but that they receive daily reports from
Americans of color in Moscow reporting everything from verbal harassment to
physical attacks.  He mentioned that even ³third-generation
Italian-Americans with slightly darker skin than would be considered Œwhite¹
have had problems.²  I don¹t mean to sound hysterical, but I felt very
guilty after the attack that I hadn¹t adequately warned this student.  I had
told him he would likely be stopped by the police for document checks (which
happened to him constantly; once in St. Petersburg the police actually
pulled over in their car to get out and check his passport), but I truly
didn¹t imagine anything violent would occur.   Thank God, he was okay
(physically anyway), but understandably shaken up.  One of our students who
witnessed the attack was so traumatized by it (especially by the utter lack
of reaction from other passengers) that she changed her mind about going on
the ACTR program to St. Petersburg this fall.  Obviously, not a nice
introduction to Russian culture.  Discussing racial violence in Russia with
students is hard to do:  We are, after all, urging them to study abroad.  I
wanted to ask if any of you would be willing to share ways of discussing
such risks with students, while not scaring them away from Russian.

On a loosely related note: I would be grateful for information about the
present state of the ³piataia grafa² or ³piatyi punkt² on Russian passports.
I¹ve been able to come up with some articles related to the debate in the
Duma in 2003 about returning it to passports on an optional  basis.  As part
of a ³culture journal² assignment for elementary Russian (to complement the
³Golosa² unit on nationalities and languages) I was hoping to find an essay
discussing the history of the piataia grafa and its present state.

Thanks to all!

Amanda
--------------------------------------------
Amanda Ewington, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Russian
Davidson College 
Department of German and Russian
Box 6936 
Davidson, NC 28035-6936
tel:  (704)894-2397
fax: (704)894-2782 
amewington at davidson.edu
http://www.davidson.edu/russian/index.htm

Packages: 
209 Ridge Road 
Davidson, NC 28036



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