Seth writes to his grandparents Joyce & Charles Garrod in Zephyrhills, Florida from Moscow, describing a couple of days exploring the city, seeing Lenin's tomb and Red Square at night, and contrasting the snow in Russia with the warmer Florida weather.
Moscow sightseeingLenin's Mausoleum
Seth's Letter on the Food Situation in St. Petersburg
A continuation (pages 2-4) of a handwritten letter from Seth Baker describing in detail the food and shopping situation in St. Petersburg in late 1991: the laborious multi-line Soviet shopping process, street vendors, markets, scarcity of cheese and vanilla, dorm-life food trading, learning not to waste food, and his upcoming trip to Lake Baikal.
Soviet food scarcityshopping and queues
November 4, 1991 · Letter
The Lithuanian Adventure
A four-page handwritten letter from Seth Baker to his parents, dated Nov 4, 1991, recounting a weekend trip to Vilnius, Lithuania with his roommate Brett. He describes flying Aeroflot, lax airport security, hunting for a hotel, opening a Lithuanian bank account, drinking all night with two Russians from near Riga, a chaotic delayed-flight day with an Austrian businessman, a Sri Lankan Trotskyite, and a Lithuanian named Eugene, and visiting the artist Ilya Repin's house outside St. Petersburg. He closes with news about his visa extension, plans to teach English, and an upcoming trip to Siberia (Irkutsk).
travelSoviet collapse
Postcard from Irkutsk / Lake Baikal, Siberia to Grandma & Grandpa Garrod
Seth writes to his grandparents Joyce and Charles Garrod in Zephyrhills, FL, from Irkutsk during a holiday break from school. He took an 8-hour flight to Lake Baikal, Siberia, describing the snow, the icy blue water, hazy mountains, and frigid temperatures, and says he is having a great time and finds the country fascinating.
travelSiberia
November 20, 1991 · Letter
Letter from Seth to Mom & Dad: plans to stay in St. Petersburg, visa & flight battles with AIFS
A four-page handwritten letter from Seth Baker to his parents, written 20 Nov 1991 (annotated Dec 18), describing his efforts to extend his stay in St. Petersburg after his AIFS program ends: arranging a visa through Leningrad State Tech University, a teaching job, an apartment, and his fight with AIFS over changing his Finnair flight date. He reflects on worsening food shortages, the darkness of the northern winter, homesickness, and his desire not to miss this time of historic change.
staying on after the programvisa extension
December 1991 · Newspaper clipping
Newspaper clippings on the Soviet collapse (Moscow police corruption, Kremlin restructuring, Western response)
A page of newspaper clippings Seth enclosed in a letter home, documenting the final days of the USSR (late December 1991): a New York Times feature on bribe-taking Moscow traffic police, a wire report on Yeltsin liquidating the Soviet Foreign Ministry and absorbing all but two ministries, a Thomas Friedman piece on Washington delaying recognition of the ex-Soviet republics, and an International Herald Tribune story on the German Bundesbank raising interest rates.
soviet-collapsejournalism
December 1991 · Letter
Shopping in the Soviet Union & Rising Tensions
Seth writes to his parents describing how shopping in the collapsing USSR is a constant way of life: he hauls a black gym-bag everywhere, opportunistically buying carrots, champagne (whose price swings wildly from 35R to 350R), and pickles before they vanish. He reflects on escalating shortages, rising theft, a small protest, a naval-cadet friend's chilling remark about a possible military takeover, and his hope that prices will stabilize by March.
Soviet shopping and scarcityhyperinflation and price swings
December 1991 · Letter
Arrangements for Next Semester / Merry Christmas
A two-page handwritten letter from Seth Baker in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) to his parents giving logistical instructions: addresses for a photographer holding his film, AIFS program peers staying in St. Pete next semester, and a request to send a $300 check to Elise Ardoyno who will carry the cash to him for rent and bribes. He warns not to give anything to Stephan's parents, notes American Express cannot supply cash in Leningrad, mentions teaching English and collecting tongue-twisters for a Russian teacher, thanks Heather for a card, and wishes the family a Merry Christmas.
money and finances abroadcash economy of the collapsing USSR
December 1991 · Newspaper clipping
The Baltic Independent, Pages 5-6: 'People on the street' (Tallinn, New Year 1991/92)
Two pages clipped from The Baltic Independent, an English-language weekly. Page 5 carries the tail of a Moscow/Baltics political article (Yevgeny Kogan's Interfront picket; Shaposhnikov on the Soviet troop pull-out), Bank of Latvia and Bank of Lithuania rouble exchange tables, and advertisements for the Viktoria hard-currency shop and the Astoria restaurant in Tallinn. Page 6 is a vox-pop feature, 'People on the street,' in which Tallinn residents and visitors say what they hope for in the new year amid Estonian independence, inflation, and currency reform.
Baltic independenceEstonian currency reform
December 2, 1991 · Letter
Seth to Mom & Dad — University enrollment, apartment hunt, and the dark St. Petersburg winter (Dec 2, 1991)
A quick logistical update Seth hand-delivers via a returning friend rather than the Soviet post. He covers enrolling at Leningrad University, paying tuition, the difficult apartment search, co-teaching his first English class, errands his parents can run for him (a $8 postmaster payment in Ashford CT and a Cyrillic fonts disk for the friend carrying the letter), possible travel to Asia or Europe, and the grim, sunless St. Petersburg winter.
university enrollmenttuition and money
December 10, 1991 · Letter
Apartment Hunting in the USSR
A December 1991 letter from Seth Baker to his parents describing the surreal difficulty of finding an apartment in St. Petersburg as a foreigner: closed-city residence permits, the MENU/SNEEMU classified-ad confusion, an open-air flea market where people sell single lightbulbs, a paranoid landlady who believes the KGB is watching her, a monarchist intelligentsia family, the dominance of the black market, and his cheap state-shop cross-country skis. He confesses he regrets staying but intends to stick out the long 7 months.
apartment huntingSoviet housing
My new apartment in St. Petersburg, finances, and the KGB
Seth writes a four-page letter to his parents describing his newly rented St. Petersburg apartment in loving detail, laying out his 7-month budget, repeating logistical reminders about money/visas/mail, recounting how the KGB intercepted roubles he mailed home, and profiling his wealthy jazz-musician landlord.
On his birthday, Seth writes to his parents from Leningrad/Saint Petersburg describing his exhausting commute to teach an English class at an institute, the misery of overcrowded trolleybuses and the metro, a compliment on his Russian, a detailed list of food prices versus the average salary, fears of riots and the breakup of the USSR into the SNG (CIS), and observations on Hare Krishnas and Russians' devotion to their children.
teaching English abroadSoviet daily life
Postcard to Grandma & Grandpa Garrod: white Christmas in St. Petersburg
Seth writes to his grandparents (Mr. & Mrs. Charles Garrod of Zephyrhills, FL) on Dec 22, 1991, reporting nonstop snow guaranteeing a white Christmas, his move to his own apartment, and his transfer to the more prestigious St. Petersburg State University for next semester. He notes Russian Christmas is Jan 7th, that travel has gotten harder under new regulations, and signs off with love.
white Christmassnow
A December 27, 1991 postcard from Seth Baker in Saint Petersburg to his parents describing the wave of price increases scheduled for January 1st and the mass panic buying he witnessed at the large department stores.
price liberalizationhyperinflation
December 29, 1991 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad about a trip to Tallinn, Estonia (Dec 29, 1991)
Seth writes from St. Petersburg recounting his 5th or 6th trip to Tallinn, Estonia. He is repeatedly mistaken for Estonian or Finnish because of his Russian, scores a cheap room at the Viru hotel, watches Finnish TV (Beverly Hills 90210), endures a comically silent dinner with a cold Estonian, and on the train back meets a young Georgian/Russian woman from Sochi whom he helps and is smitten by.
travel to TallinnEstonian-Russian language politics
1992 · Letter
"Don't ask me why I'm sending these along" - note on the Thunderscan/Imagewriter printing technique, with Saint Petersburg PREMIER clippings
Seth encloses sample pages he produced and explains, in a short handwritten note, the makeshift production system behind them - a Thunderscan scanner, an Imagewriter printer, and ink pens. The enclosures are clippings from the Saint Petersburg PREMIER magazine: the article 'From Weapons to Wheelchairs' (about the Signal factory converting from weapons to medical equipment), a ComputerLand advertisement, a Pietari restaurant ad, and a Saint Petersburg Metro map that he hand-colored and also hand-printed/offset onto the note's sheet.
post-Soviet economic transitiondefense industry conversion
Collection of Soviet Ruble Banknotes (1961 & 1991)
A set of five Soviet ruble banknotes scanned front and back across ten pages: a 10-ruble note (1961, State Bank, with Lenin portrait), a 5-ruble note (1961, State Treasury, depicting the Moscow Kremlin Spasskaya Tower), and three 1-ruble notes (two State Treasury notes dated 1961 and one State Bank note dated 1991). Kept by Seth Baker as currency souvenirs from his 1991-92 stay in the collapsing USSR.
Soviet currencyrubles
January 1, 1992 · Letter
New Year's 1992 on Nevsky Prospect - letter to Grandma & Grandpa
Seth writes to his grandparents on January 1st, 1992 describing how he rang in the New Year on Nevsky Prospect (Main Street) in St. Petersburg at a friend's apartment, with a traditional Russian celebration including the dish 'Herring under Rainclouds.' Despite predictions of violence amid soaring prices, the streets were full of joyful, hugging, champagne-fueled revelers. He recounts spending the week before Christmas in Tallinn, Estonia, and encloses a clipping from The Baltic Independent. He reflects on the gap between Russians' hopes for good government and the lack of individual action, and admits to a little holiday homesickness.
New Year's celebrationpost-Soviet daily life
January 1, 1992 · Letter
Grocery Shopping in the CCCP - State Stores, Private Shops, and a McDonald's Brochure
Seth writes to his parents explaining how grocery shopping works in St. Petersburg (and Moscow): rigidly price-controlled state stores named 'BREAD', 'FISH', 'VEGETABLES' with scant, rotten produce and ration cards ('TALON'); and privately owned co-op stores/'supermarkets' that are slightly better stocked and self-service. The letter notes 'cont.' and is paired with an enclosed Russian-language McDonald's promotional brochure.
Soviet grocery shoppingfood shortages
January 5, 1992 · Letter
A brief note on the Russian sense of humor
A six-page handwritten letter (Jan 5, 1992) Seth wrote home, beginning as an essay on the Russian sense of humor (black humor, wordplay, anecdotes, and two jokes that 'work' in English) and then recounting in vivid detail a vodka-soaked day in Pushkin with his Russian artist friends Volodya, Sergei, and Piotr — including lighting a candle in an underground church for Sergei's late mother, fending off teenagers, drunken antics, and an evening feast at a 'new rich' businessman's apartment.
Russian humorblack humor
January 9, 1992 · Letter
One Day in St. Petersburg
Seth, awake at 3-4 AM and inspired by Dostoevsky and Chekhov, writes a detailed account of a single ordinary winter day in St. Petersburg: rising at dawn, riding the trolley to Finland Station, browsing booksellers and kiosks, a failed daily attempt to cash traveler's checks at American Express (shut down by Moscow), buying bread and feeding ducks on the canals, hunting groceries at the markets, and the emotional pendulum of loving and hating the city.
daily life in post-Soviet St. Petersburgwinter survival
January 10, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad: money, safety, the KGB, and staying in Russia
A four-page handwritten letter from Seth Baker in Saint Petersburg to his parents, written after a phone call. He reassures them about money (an American Express transfer, tuition, visa deadlines, low cost of living), about personal safety and street risks, about his fears of KGB surveillance in his apartment, and reflects on whether Russia's problems are Communist or simply Russian. He muses about possibly staying for a job and lining up a Procter & Gamble interview.
personal finances abroadcost of living in collapsing USSR
The Market Place
A five-page handwritten narrative essay by Seth Baker describing a Sunday afternoon at the Ploshad Mira (Peace/World Square) flea market in St. Petersburg, Russia, in January 1992. Seth walks through the crowd documenting desperate sellers offering their household possessions and ration cards, the poverty of the harsh winter, and a police crackdown on 'speculators' (black-market resellers).
Russian flea marketpost-Soviet economic collapse
January 17, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad, Jan. 17, 1992 — St. Petersburg
Seth writes a four-page letter from St. Petersburg describing daily life in the dissolving USSR three weeks after price liberalization: he paid tuition and rent, earned the 'average' Soviet salary of 300 roubles teaching, and itemizes how that salary is consumed by a few groceries amid hyperinflation. He recounts hours spent in bread lines, his landlord Sasha's generous repairs to the apartment, seeing Jesus Christ Superstar in Russian, and devouring nearly 30 English-translation books in two weeks. He closes reflecting on his unstable, disjointed state of mind and his sense of being in a 'state of change' mirroring the country's.
hyperinflationSoviet economy
January 29, 1992 · Letter
Seth's letter home after being mugged in St. Petersburg
On January 29, 1992, Seth writes to his parents from St. Petersburg recounting how he was attacked, knocked unconscious and kicked in the head by three men after seeing Jesus Christ Superstar with AIFS director Claire. He describes recovering at the home of his landlords Sasha and Larisa, watching American films on TV, and reassures his parents that the city is not dangerous.
mugging and assaultconcussion and recovery
February 2, 1992 · Letter
Seth to Mom & Dad, Feb 2, 1992 - boots, supplies, and summer plans
Seth writes from St. Petersburg thanking his parents for a care package (boots, Clearasil, vitamins, cheese, Mace) brought over by his friend Eric, comments on a possible Northeast Magazine article, thanks people for school supplies and Rachel's stories, and weighs his options for summer jobs and whether to return home to finish school.
care package from homeboots and winter footwear
Feb 2, 1992 - Seth's plans for the coming months from St. Petersburg
Seth writes to his parents from St. Petersburg outlining his plans for the next several months: studying as an independent student at Saint Petersburg State University, possible spring travel either to visit Huan in Vietnam (or Egypt) or backpacking west across Russia to Irkutsk/Vladivostok, and staying in St. Petersburg in June for the White Nights.
study abroadtravel plans
February 4, 1992 · Letter
Letter from Seth to Mom & Dad, Feb 4, 1992 — School begins, the brutal commute, and food aid
Seth writes from St. Petersburg as intensive Russian classes resume after a month off. He describes an exhausting multi-hour commute by trolleybus across three islands, his international classmates (a Finn, an English 'chap,' and a beautiful French ballerina), and the surprise that he is getting 22-24 hours of instruction weekly instead of the 12 he paid for. He thanks his parents for food aid, reflects on shortages (sugar, ration cards) and the general improvement of his diet, and notes he may travel to Tallinn or Kiev to find sugar.
intensive Russian-language studydaily commute
February 8, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad, Feb 8, 1992: Recovered head injury, AIFS trading market, cars & jaywalking
Seth writes from St. Petersburg reassuring his parents he has recovered from a head injury (headaches and dizziness now passed), jokingly declining to write about Soviet brain surgery. The AIFS students are back and have restarted a barter/trading market (pasta for German chocolate; Cheerios for corn flakes), though there is no milk in the city. He encloses an International Herald Tribune article about the GAI traffic police, comments on jaywalking fines and the high price of cars (~$5,000) signaling wealth, and mentions seeing 'The Naked Gun' and planning to see 'Terminator 2' in Russian. He thanks them for the camera, vitamins, and boots.
health and recoverybarter economy
Seth writes from St. Petersburg about his first week of intensive Russian classes, his difficult daily commute, and a comic episode in which he, Stefon, and friends are mistaken for Latvians by an old woman and end up posing as Latvian black marketeers buying furs at the Polyustrovskii fur market.
Russian language studydaily commute
February 13, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad: Suddenly Teaching a Banking Course in St. Petersburg
Seth writes from St. Petersburg on Feb 13, 1992, recounting how his Russian boss abruptly assigned him to teach a Banking course (because his father is a banker and Seth is American) instead of the planned 'How to Survive in America' course. He describes the comedy of translating Western banking concepts into Russian, asks his parents to mail bank brochures, mentions plans to visit Thomas in Singapore and job-hunt abroad, and notes alarming local conditions: a tripled postage rate, a falling dollar, and banks closed because they are 'out of money.'
teaching banking in Russiatranslating Western economic concepts
February 21, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad: teaching bankers, ruble shortage, and the economics of scarcity
Seth writes home from St. Petersburg on Feb 21, 1992, reporting that his Russian-language schooling is going well (26 hours/week, classes taught entirely in Russian), that he has uncovered how the program director was pocketing money via Swiss dollar transfers, and that he is now teaching a 'Banking' course to five 40-50 year old directors of the state bank. He gives a detailed, analytical account of the ruble shortage, the collapsing exchange rate, hyperinflation, food prices, and the distinction between hardship and true 'starvation', closing with reflection on his uncertain future and how he will readjust to life in the United States.
Russian-language educationteaching English / banking
March 1992 · Letter
"Saint Petersburg PREMIER has finally arrived" - Seth's letter to Mom & Dad
Seth writes to his parents from Saint Petersburg reporting that the first issue of Saint Petersburg PREMIER magazine has finally been published. He details the business challenges of producing the magazine, planned content for the second issue, partnership offers from Russian and German companies, and describes his exhausting, magazine-consumed daily life.
publishing a magazine in post-Soviet Russiaadvertising-funded media
March 17, 1992 · Letter
Letter from Seth to Mom & Dad, St. Petersburg, March 17, 1992
Seth writes a quick reply to a letter his parents sent via the Loomis-Chaffee group. He covers the Phil Donahue show airing dubbed in Russian, the dominance of European over US relief supplies, his sister Rachel's hand injury, the warm winter, his teaching of banking, job offers from his private-businessman students, the practicalities and costs of his parents possibly visiting Russia, the resurgence of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his gratitude for shoes and toothpaste from home.
American TV in Russiaforeign aid supplies
March 19, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad, March 18, 1992 - job-hunting, confusion, and a request for a $2 bill
A late-night letter Seth writes to his parents from St. Petersburg, Russia, admitting he has been depressed and confused for the past month - not from homesickness but from uncertainty about his future and an inner conflict about whether to return to the US in June. He updates them on his fruitless job hunt (he'd take anything paying $10,000/year), his finances (tuition paid from his Amex funds), a planned May cross-country trip he'll log, and asks a favour: to mail him a photo with a $2 bill for his landlord, who collects unusual American currency.
depression and confusionjob hunting
April 1992 · Letter
The Trip to Siberia Finally Begins: Flying to Irkutsk and the Great Hotel Hunt
Seth narrates the start of a two-week Siberia trip in April. With the Trans-Siberian Railroad on strike and a 96-hour nonstop rail trip ruled out, he flies from Pulkovo Airport (Saint Petersburg). He describes Russian luggage-wrapping, cocker spaniel puppies in the airport, drunk Arab journalism students on the Aeroflot flight, a refueling stop in Tiumen, and arrival in a sunny Irkutsk. The bulk of the letter is a comic ordeal of trying to find an affordable hotel (Intourist, Angera, Baikal, Siberia), being quoted 1,500 roubles a night for foreign students, being thrown out of the Angera, and having three local kids steal his jug of (undrinkable Leningrad city) water thinking it was juice. He ends with a riff on the 'appeal to pity' as the best strategy for Soviet 'service.'
Siberia travelAeroflot flight
April 5, 1992 · Letter
Another disjointed, poorly spelled letter from St. Pete
A four-page handwritten letter dated April 5, 1992, from Seth Baker in St. Petersburg, Russia to his parents Don and Jan Baker. Seth recounts playing Monopoly with Russian bankers, attending Catholic mass for the English, frustration with the U.S. consulate, his rent doubling amid rising prices and a satellite-dish promise of American TV, a leftover-Communist anti-Yeltsin demonstration in Palace Square, getting a library card, sporadic spring weather, and a long introspective passage on solitude, the 'Russian Soul,' and self-discovery.
post-Soviet daily lifehyperinflation and shortages
April 14, 1992 · Letter
Cable TV from America, the drunk cableman, and a trip to Yalta
Seth writes home from Saint Petersburg about getting American cable TV installed via a co-op satellite dish, a comic saga of waiting for a perpetually-drunk cableman, the chaos and inflated prices of booking domestic and international flights for a weekend trip to Yalta, and a Palm Sunday Mass where pussywillows replaced palms.
American cable TV in Russiapost-Soviet inflation
April 18, 1992 · Letter
A Russian-Style Birthday Party in Pushkin (and Some Russian Jokes)
Seth writes to his parents on April 18, 1992 describing a Russian-style birthday celebration he attended for Christine, a fellow AIFS student, at the town of Pushkin outside St. Petersburg. He recounts the day-long feast and toasting with his boss Volodya and the artists Piotr and Sergei, marvels at Sergei's portrait paintings, the vodka and Champagne, and then closes the letter by writing out two Russian jokes about bread lines, Gorbachev, and kolbasa.
Russian birthday celebrationpost-Soviet daily life
April 24, 1992 · Letter
Off to Siberia without a visa - the trip plan, April 1992
Seth writes to his parents just before departing on a major solo trip across Siberia and the Russian Far East. He explains his visa is being canceled, his Yalta plan fell through, and he has switched from a train to a plane trip to Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Vladivostok and Kamchatka. He details how he packed (food, money hidden in surgical gauze on his arm), describes a bribe to get a cheap plane ticket, and comments on Russian politics, predicting Gaidar will be the next leader.
A long serialized travel-journal letter (numbered pages 5 through 32; the opening pages are not present) in which Seth recounts a solo trans-Siberian / Russian Far East journey in spring 1992. He sails the river out of Irkutsk and is inducted into a ship's crew, sleeps in airports under giant Lenin paintings, battles hotel clerks and the lingering internal-visa system in Vladivostok, observes the Japanese economic grip on the Far East, befriends an invalid-rights advocate on a flight, meets American missionaries in Novosibirsk, flies to Kazan in newly independent Tatarstan, changes money via a tuxedoed black-market waiter at the Hotel Rossia in Moscow, eats at McDonald's and Pizza Hut, and finally trains home to St. Petersburg.
trans-Siberian travelRussian Far East
Seth writes to his grandparents (the Garrods in Zephyrhills, FL) from Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan during a trans-Siberian trip, noting the city's Korean/Chinese/Japanese influences and his route via Irkutsk toward Novosibirsk, needing to be back in St. Petersburg by the 16th.
trans-Siberian travelVladivostok
September 27, 1992 · Letter
Typed letter from Seth to Mom & Dad: a typed letter from Russia, sealing windows, a new tool set, and winter food stockpiling
A two-page typed letter dated Sep. 27, 1992 from Seth in Russia (Saint Petersburg) to his parents Don and Jan Baker. He marvels at sending a typed letter from Russia, describes wrestling with Mac System 6/7 and MultiFinder, then recounts domestic life: sealing his cold apartment's windows with cotton and tape, buying his first tool set to fix a kitchen sink leak (and banging on pipes to satisfy a hostile neighbor), his cat Charyonka, stockpiling winter food (tomato paste, pasta, cheese), an odd item at his grocery store, slow progress on the business and English courses, and another nearly windless cruise on the yacht with Sanya.
daily life in post-Soviet RussiaMacintosh computing
November 6, 1992 · Form
Saint Petersburg PREMIER advertising sales letter from Seth C. Baker
A formal business solicitation letter on 'Saint Petersburg PREMIER' magazine letterhead, signed by Seth C. Baker as Manager of Advertising Sales, inviting Saint Petersburg businesses to advertise in the city's first free English-language monthly journal. Page 2 is a full Russian translation of the same letter.
advertising salesEnglish-language magazine publishing in post-Soviet Russia
Letter
Sorry, this is not a letter — a bit of Tolstoy on military idleness
Seth writes his parents not with news but to share a favorite passage from Tolstoy's War & Peace about how 'obligatory and irreproachable idleness' is the chief attraction of military service. He recommends his father read War & Peace or Anna Karenina, recounts quoting the passage to a naval officer who deflected, and ends with a note that 'peace' and 'world' are the same word in Russian (mir).
Russian literatureTolstoy
Western humanitarian aidblack market economy
Postcard
Greetings from St. Petersburg - Cold, Dark Winter & Teaching English
Seth writes to his grandparents from wintry St. Petersburg, describing the brutal cold, a 2:30 sunset, his triple-glazed apartment, teaching English to small classes (and the puzzle of explaining idioms and Monopoly business terms), Russians 'hiding indoors' and searching for food, plans for a Russian Orthodox Mass, and a failed search for a Methodist church in Tallinn.
winter in St. Petersburgteaching English abroad
Postcard: "This is my dorm in Leningrad" (Winter Palace / Hermitage)
A picture postcard from Seth Baker to his parents Don and Jan Baker, showing an aerial view of Palace Square and the Winter Palace / State Hermitage in Leningrad. Seth jokingly claims the palace is his dorm, saying they occupy the east wing and retire to the library for tea, before admitting earnestly that it is a fabulous city and he is enjoying himself fully.
study abroadLeningrad sightseeing
Postcard from Kiev to Rachel — "Just wanted to say Hi!"
A picture postcard depicting the ruins of the Dormition Cathedral at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, sent by Seth Baker from Saint Petersburg to his sister Rachel Baker in Bloomfield, CT. He reports all is well, that it is cold and snowy but his new apartment is warm, and asks how she likes Loomis Chaffee and whether it is hard to keep in touch with her Bloomfield friends.
sibling check-inwinter in Russia
Postcard
Greetings from St. Petersburg — St. Isaac's Cathedral postcard to Grandma & Grandpas
Seth writes to his grandparents from St. Petersburg describing the bitter winter cold, the early 2:30 sunset, his triple-glazed but drafty apartment, his English-teaching classes (he plans to bring Monopoly to class), life mostly spent indoors searching for food, hopes to attend a Russian Orthodox Mass, and a failed search for a United Methodist Church in Tallinn. The card depicts St. Isaac's Cathedral.
