YASNAYA POLYANA FREE PRESS

Why Russia? And where or what is Yasnaya Polyana?  These two questions are an excellent jump off point for my introduction.  

 

Why Russia?  I have always had a passion for the international, partly stemming from natural curiosity and partly from having traveled a fair amount growing up.  For some reason, Russia always had a particular interest:  it was the former enemy, it was exotic, and it’s history rich and unique.  While attending university at the University of the South I decided to fill my language requirement with something different (high school had turned me off Spanish) and there it was, a chance to study something that had always been an interest on my perifiery.  After starting language courses, it was not long before I was signing up for Russian culture, literature and history courses and even studying abroad in St. Petersburg for a summer.  I ended up graduating with a degree in European history and a minor in Russian Studies.  

While job searching as a near-graduate with a degree that does not lend itself to obvious job opportunities I applied to be an ESL teacher with Language Link Russia.  I was offered the job, and soon after was on a plane bound for Moscow.  The subsequent three years of my life were fascinating and enlightening (something I will expand on more in other parts of this site), the end result being my return to the United States and enrollment in the University of Missouri's Russian and Slavonic Studies program, where I graduated from in May of 2015.

 

Why Yasnaya Polyana?  For those familiar with Russian literary history, Yasnaya Polyana is a name revered in Russia.  Just a few hours south of Moscow, Yasnaya Polyana is the name of the estate owned by renowned writer, philosopher and moral and spiritual sage of Russia, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy.  Even if the name is not familiar undoubtedly the titles Anna Karenina and War and Peace should be.  In my studies Tolstoy has stuck out as someone who transcends the conscious of Russia to that of a universal voice of the human experience.  Not only is he one of the greatest novelists of our time sculpting unparalleled images in words and constructing plots more intricate than the awe-inspiring St. Basil's cathedral on Red square, but further his philosophical and spiritual writings have influenced the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.  Though many find his philosophy too simple, for me it is refreshing to find such simplicity in an ever-increasingly complex world.  This site could only contain one name, and that name could only come from the inspirational estate of one of the World's most eloquent and influential individuals.

 

I recently started this endeavor for a few reasons, the first being that like many college graduates I had many papers that I had put a lot of work into and felt that at the very least I could put them online for people to find, read and perhaps take something away from (if nothing else, the bibliographies have some good sources).  The second being my passionate interest in World affairs and desire to write about them, especially how Russia and Eastern Europe fit into the contemporary issues of the day.  A third is to share my experiences from living in Russia, a place that still holds much mystery and mystique in the United States, at once dispelling and confirming long held notions people may have about Russia. 

 

I am excited to provide a lens by which those with little knowledge of Russia, or even those who do, can learn more about this fascinating land.