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BY APOLLINE BERTY

In print | November 1, 2007

Throughout the years, Russian Club has not had a consistent presence on campus, but students are working to stabilize and reform the club to celebrate Russian culture and language. Last week, the Russian Club organized a study break to once again launch the club and spread awareness about it across campus.

Lesley McNiesh ‘08, co-tsar of the Russian club with Annie Burke ’08, explained that at the beginning of this semester Burke approached her with the idea of starting up the club again. "[Burke] actually came up to me one day and she was like ’I was reading Bowling Alone and thinking about how our society’s disintegrating and I’m not helping anything and we’re all going to die in lonely little pits of despair, and I was thinking that maybe we should re-start Russian Club.’ And I was like, ’That’s a great idea, let’s do that,’" McNiesh said.

The launch took place last Thursday and, as McNiesh explained, was a way to present the club to the campus. “It’s a way to hang out with people who are also interested in Russia, Russian culture and Russian literature,” said Alexander Frye ’11, a recent member who attended the study break. He explained that there was a lot of food, music and Scrabble-playing at the event, all things Russian, of course. “It was really exciting actually,” McNiesh said. “We thought we had more food than anybody could possibly eat and it was practically gone in the first half hour.”

Burke reported that there was also a genuine interest in the club’s goal at the study break and that the study break was not just a scramble for food. “They didn’t just come and eat the snacks. They asked things about it, and they wanted to know what everything was and how you eat everything and what Russian Club does. People were actually expressing interest in what was going on, and that was really cool and kind of a beacon of hope for success in the future,” Burke said.

Part of the reason for the club’s existence was to show aspects of Russian culture of which people are not aware. “My personal reason for wanting to do it is that I think that Russian culture is really cool and really varied and has a lot more depth and history than people realize; it’s a lot more than vodka and dancing bears,” Burke said.

McNiesh also explained that the close proximity between the students and their Russian professors contributed to creating a small community. “The department is so small, and we love the professors so much that it became a really important part of our lives here. We wanted to sort of help other Russian students to have the same experience,” McNiesh said.

Another one of the club’s goals, though the group is open to all students and does not require any Russian-speaking abilities, is to provide beginning students with help from more advanced students with their homework. “We’re going to try to help people with homework, and set up opportunities to practice Russian,” McNiesh said. However, none of the meetings is conducted in Russian, and all students are invited to partake in the club’s meetings on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. in Kohlberg 228.

Furthermore, due to a lack of interested students, there was no second year Russian class this year. By forming this group and hosting campus wide events, the Russian club hopes to attract more students and also to provide those who cannot continue studying Russian with another way of keeping in touch with the language. “It’s mostly just supposed to be a fun thing, not too serious,” McNiesh said.

Burke explained that her goal was to make this Russian club more permanent and stable and not let it disappear like the previous clubs. “We’re trying to make it a more lasting thing this time, by making it more official,” Burke said. The club already has SAC funding but is waiting to be chartered. “If we’re not chartered now, we will be in the next few days,” Burke said. Burke also explained that another way the club is working on its future stability is through closer interactions with the Russian department.

The Russian club will try to host more campus-wide events in the future, beginning with a Paces café takeover and a Paces party, which, according to Burke, should take place this semester.

To check future events hosted by the Russian club, it is possible to access their public calendar on the Google calendar application, by typing “Swarthmore College Russian Club.”

“We would love for anybody who’s at all interested in Russian culture or Russian history of anything to come to our meetings,” McNiesh said.

Burke said that currently the nine people who regularly attend the meetings are mostly people who are involved in the Russian language part of the department. She remains optimistic that more people will start attending in response to the rise in advertisement for the group.

The group is also working on t-shirts that can be preordered by e-mailing aburke1@swarthmore.edu. The t-shirts will be red with white lettering and will have Parrish on the back, with onions instead of domes and with “Kremlin on the Crum” written on it. The shirts will cost between $10 and $15.

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