A woman and the sea - The Taft School

AROUND THE
To Russia with Love
Perestroika, glasnost, and the end of the
Cold War have been important news
stories in History Department chair
Jon Willson’s adulthood, so when he received
the Davis Fellowship earlier this
year, he knew right away he wanted to
travel to Russia to see the transformation
of that country from the communist
Soviet Union to a capitalist, “sort of
democratic” society, he says.
Using plenty of frequent flier miles to
bring his family along with him, Jon (with
wife Sarah, daughter Cassie, and sons Sam
and Luke) flew to Helsinki in August,
“wanting to squeeze in as many cultural
experiences as we could,” says Jon.
Three days later they spent the
better part of a day on the train to
St. Petersburg, where Sarah’s sister
Maud, who is married to a Russian,
lives. “We wanted to travel without a
group, so having them there really made
that possible. Not too many people on
tour groups have the chance to go to the
local vegetable market, figure out how
to get on the right bus, and eat borscht
Davis Fellow Jon Willson ’82 and his wife Sarah Albee in Russia’s Red Square
at the homes of real Russian people.”
They toured the Hermitage, the
Russian Museum, and the Winter
Palace, and spent a day at Maud’s dacha
in the countryside. Sarah and Jon also
flew to Moscow for a day without the
kids, where they toured the Kremlin
and Red Square.
Hoping to offer a Russian history
elective next year, Jon also managed to
interview a few septuagenarians about
their fascinating, and often-harrowing
memories of the Stalin era, with Maud
acting as translator. “This was an amazing
trip,” Jon adds. “To be able to see a
culture from a native’s perspective—and
to have the opportunity to hear firsthand
accounts from those who lived
through the eras that I teach—was a
powerful experience.”
Peter Frew ’75
Taft Bulletin Fall 2005