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| Students from the cadet academy march in this photo from Sergey Kozmin's piece entitled "Girl Soldiers" |
The summer going into my sophomore year of college I spent the month of June in Washington, D.C. with a small group of Villanova students and professors. One of the professors taught Russian history and politics, and gave several lectures on topics varying from Kievan Rus' to the Battle of Stalingrad.
Ever since this summer, I have been absolutely fascinated by Russia (okay, 'absolutely' might be a stretch because I haven't done much to study this interest or further my knowledge, but the lectures definitely piqued an interest that I'll get around to eventually).
Yesterday I came across this New York Times article, where photographer Sergey Kozmin chronicles the daily lives of students at the Moscow Female Cadet Boarding School No. 9. I was once again fascinated by this small insight into Russian culture, particularly the juxtaposition of the huge white bows with the military uniforms -- what does this mean!? Why do the bows have to be SO HUGE!?
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| Sergey Kozmin |
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| Max Fisher/Washington Post |
I came across this Washington Post article the other day which reinforces a common reaction I get whenever I tell people that I would love to go to Russia...basically some version of "they probbbbably don't want you there." According to this data collected by the World Economic Forum, Russia ranks among the three countries least welcoming to foreign visitors, along with Venezuela and Bolivia.
Maybe I won't book tickets to Moscow tomorrow, but I can continue (i.e. start) my research while I wait for Russia to rise in the WEF rankings.
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