USPS International Mail Manual — Country Conditions for Mailing to the USSR
Five photocopied pages from the U.S. Postal Service International Mail Manual (Issue 9, dated 2-3-91) covering mailing conditions to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: prohibitions, restrictions and admissible quantities, postage rate tables, special services, an English-French glossary of typical items for customs declarations, and Express Mail International Service details.
international mailUSSR postal regulations
September 1991 · Form
AIFS Leningrad Resident Director Welcome & Practical Information Memo
A typed welcome memo to all incoming Leningrad students from Claire Greenhalgh, Resident Director, covering practical information: the dormitory address at Leningrad State Technical University, public transportation (metro, talonchiki tickets, the 'yidiny bilyet' monthly pass), and communication (phone calls, mail and telegram costs/locations). The page is cut off mid-sentence about the unreliability of Soviet postal service.
study abroad orientationSoviet public transportation
September 1991 · Brochure
RUSSIA: Land of the Czars — East-West Tours 11-Day Moscow & St. Petersburg Brochure
A printed tri-fold tour brochure from East-West Tours and Travel Consulting, Inc. (New York) advertising an 11-day/10-night package to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It lists tour-price inclusions, booking/visa/deposit terms, a responsibility note, and a full day-by-day itinerary (Day one through Day eleven). No handwriting; this is ephemera Seth collected or received during his time in the USSR/Russia.
tourismtravel brochure
Postcard of Leningrad: the special grey of St. Petersburg
Seth sends his parents a picture postcard showing St. Isaac's Cathedral over the Neva, chosen because it captures the misty grey skies he has come to love. He notes the card was mailed two blocks from the cathedral, defends the city's overcast charm, and remarks that the clouds keep the city warm in winter as the cold sets in.
weather and climateLeningrad/St. Petersburg cityscape
October 8, 1991 · Postcard
St. Petersburg, the 'Venice of the North' — collecting currency
A handwritten postcard from Seth Baker in Leningrad/St. Petersburg to his parents Don and Jan Baker in Bloomfield, CT, telling his mother about his hobby of collecting currency from every country he visits — noting it is all Rubles since the former Soviet states still use the central money supply — plus an Estonian interwar-period coin, and describing St. Petersburg as the 'Venice of the North,' built on 44 islands linked by bridges.
currency collectingpost-Soviet economy
Seth writes from Moscow (Oct 25) describing arriving sick with the flu after a stuffy night train, hotel troubles, a luggage-laden bus tour in the snow, and his miserable first impression of the city — which then improves as he eats at McDonald's and Pizza Hut, walks Red Square, and sees St. Basil's, the Kremlin, and Lenin's body.
arrival in Moscowbeing sick while traveling
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 1991 · Letter
Letter from deep in Siberia: Irkutsk & Lake Baikal
Seth writes to his parents from a hotel overlooking the Angara River in Siberia, describing his flight on Aeroflot with friend Brian and a man named Vitaly, the Intourist hotel in Irkutsk, the famous Hotel Baikal by Lake Baikal, a long cold walk to the village of Listvyanka, a generous Russian family next door, and his reflections on the 'two extremes' of Russian life. He closes with travel plans (Latvia, Lithuania, Yalta) and a packing wish-list.
Siberia travelLake Baikal
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
Irkutsk — view from the Intourist hotel on the Angara
A picture postcard of Irkutsk showing Yu. A. Gagarin Boulevard from the Angara River. Seth writes to Mom & Dad that this card depicts the Intourist hotel where he spent his first night in Irkutsk; he was on the 4th floor with a beautiful view of the Angara and the snow-covered park. He notes the hydrofoil in the photo is out of service due to the icy climate, and signs off 'Siberia is great this time of year!'
Siberia travelIntourist hotels
A brief handwritten note from Seth to his parents, accompanying enclosed photographs of Lake Baikal. He explains the timing of the images (the ship-and-ice photo is late November, the frozen wasteland is late December) and marvels that the country is breathtaking.
Lake BaikalSiberia
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
A November 1991 picture postcard from Seth Baker to his sister Rachel, sent from Irkutsk in Siberia. Seth describes the cold, fur hats, and his plans to spend a few more days enjoying the scenery of Lake Baikal before returning to school, and asks how Rachel's classes at Loomis are going.
travel in Siberiacold weather
Seth writes to his sister Jessica from Irkutsk, Siberia, describing the extreme cold (-10 below 0 and snowing, with 2 feet of snow in November), being near one of the world's largest lakes (Lake Baikal), and joking that the New Kids on the Block and Michael Jackson are still popular in Russia.
Siberia travelextreme cold
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
Postcard from Seth to Jessica: Russian fairy tale, hamster Houdini, and 3 o'clock darkness
Seth writes from St. Petersburg to his sister Jessica on a Bilibin fairy-tale postcard, asking about high school, telling her about his escape-artist Russian dwarf hamster named Vassenka, and noting it gets dark at about 3 o'clock.
family correspondencepet hamster
November 25, 1991 · Letter
Letter home: a weekend trip to Kaunas, Lithuania (Nov. 1991)
Seth writes to his parents recounting a weekend trip from Leningrad/St. Petersburg to Kaunas, Lithuania, to visit his friend Eugene, a Soviet-trained radio engineer now working as a musician. He describes Eugene's nightclub floorshow and apartment, the warmth of known Russians versus the coldness toward strangers, severe gas and electricity shortages, the Devil Museum, the Lithuanian police (including women officers), KGB-headquarters graffiti, a 12-hour airport delay, and a harrowing night of mafia-controlled cabs and tire-slashing taxi drivers at the airport.
travel in newly independent LithuaniaSoviet hospitality vs hostility toward strangers
Postcard to Rachel: "It's real dark here now" (Bilibin / Marya Morevna)
Seth writes from St. Petersburg to his sister Rachel about how dark it gets in late November (the sun sets by 3:30) and gives her language-study advice, urging her to take German rather than Spanish in college because hardly anyone in Europe speaks Spanish. He closes that he'll see her soon, in January or June.
northern winter darknessforeign-language study
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
Postcard to Jessica: "greetings from St. Petersburg!" (Lenin monument, Leningrad)
Seth sends his sister Jessica a Leningrad postcard depicting a Lenin monument, describing the deepening polar darkness (only 3 hours of sunlight by Dec 22) and the nightly lightning explosions from high-voltage physics-experiment towers behind his building.
Postcard from St. Petersburg with Pasternak/Dr. Zhivago quote on revolution
A picture postcard of the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, sent by Seth Baker to his parents Don & Jan Baker on Dec 1, 1991. The message is a verbatim quotation from Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago about the genius and unscheduled suddenness of revolution, which Seth notes was written about 1917 but feels particularly meaningful amid the collapse of the USSR.
Russian literatureSoviet collapse
December 1, 1991 · Postcard
Postcard to Mom & Dad: please copy the Cyrillic fonts disk for Jeanne
An illustrated Soviet art postcard (Bilibin's illustration to Pushkin's 'Tale of the Golden Cockerel') from Seth in Russia to his parents Don & Jan Baker in Bloomfield, CT, dated Dec 1, 1991. Seth asks them to copy his FONTS disk (with the Cyrillic character set) and mail it to his friend Jeanne M. Camiña in North Bethesda, MD, because he promised to get her the Russian font for her Mac as thanks for keeping him well fed.
favor requestCyrillic fonts
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 8, 1991 · Postcard
"Recent events may cause me to rethink that" — the police phone call
On a Soviet illustrated postcard (Leningrad scenes), Seth writes to his parents about an unsettling incident: while visiting Russian girls he'd met who had spent the summer in Bristol CT, the police phoned the apartment asking to confirm the address, then hung up. He half-jokingly revisits his old quip that the KGB was reading his mail, guesses a neighbor reported them for speaking English, reflects on how strange and different the country feels, notes the un-Christmassy quiet, and gives computer instructions about his disks and SAM software for Heather.
surveillance and the KGBpolice incident
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
daily life abroadSoviet appliances
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
December 23, 1991 · Postcard
"Remember when I said the KGB was reading my mail?" — a police call during dinner (Leningrad postcard)
Seth writes to his parents on a Leningrad picture postcard, recounting an unsettling evening: while having dinner with Russian girls he'd met (who had spent the summer in Bristol, CT), the police phoned the apartment confirming the address and then hung up, leaving everyone shaken. He half-jokingly ties it back to his earlier suspicion that the KGB was reading his mail, reflects on how strange and different the country feels, notes the un-Christmassy quiet, and gives his parents instructions about giving Heather the computer (new disks, install SAM).
surveillance and fear in the late USSRKGB / police
A picture postcard sent Dec 24, 1991 from Saint Petersburg by Seth Baker to his parents Don and Jan Baker in Bloomfield, CT. He recounts walking into an open manhole while hailing a taxi, escaping with only bruises, and realizing that Russians walk with bowed heads partly to watch their step.
daily life in St. Petersburgminor accident
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 30, 1991 · Letter
December 30, 1991 - New Year's Eve, a decorated tree, and boots at the flea market
Seth writes from Saint Petersburg on the eve of 1992. His landlord teaches him the washing machine, brings a vacuum cleaner, and assembles and decorates a plastic Christmas tree while wishing him 'S Novym Godom' (Happy New Year). Seth has been invited to a dacha, a New Year's party on Main Street, and a marines' party at the consulate. On a later page he finally finds boots and buys his mother two folk dolls at the Sunday flea market.
New Year in RussiaSoviet/Russian holiday customs
1992 Lake Baikal Pocket Calendar (Irkutsk, Soviet Culture Foundation)
A small 1992 Soviet pocket calendar card from the 'Baikal' series. One side prints the full year's twelve-month grid in Russian with the imprint of the Irkutsk branch of the Soviet Culture Foundation; the reverse is a color photograph of a rocky crag rising from the frozen, cracked-ice surface of Lake Baikal in winter, with the year '1992' embossed in the sky.
A small Soviet pocket calendar card for the year 1992. The front is an abstract color close-up of cracked blue-and-white ice from the 'Baikal' photo series by A. Froydberg; the back carries a full 1992 monthly calendar grid issued by the Irkutsk branch of the Soviet Culture Fund and printed by VRIB 'Soyuzreklamkultura' in 1991.
Soviet print ephemerapocket calendar cards
1992 · Calendar card
1992 Soviet Pocket Calendar — Lake Baikal (Baikal series), Irkutsk Branch of the Soviet Cultural Foundation
A two-sided 1992 Soviet pocket calendar card. The front is a color photograph of a ship surrounded by ice floes on Lake Baikal (from the 'Baikal' series, photo by A. Freidberg). The back is a full-year 1992 calendar printed by VRIB 'Soyuzreklamkultura' for the Irkutsk Branch of the Soviet Cultural Foundation, priced at 20 kopecks.
Soviet ephemerapocket calendar
1992 · Calendar card
1992 "Baikal" Pocket Calendar Card — Irkutsk Branch, Soviet Cultural Foundation
A small 1992 Soviet pocket calendar card issued by the Irkutsk branch of the Soviet Cultural Foundation, part of the 'Baikal' photo series. The reverse bears a color photograph of cracked ice on Lake Baikal by photographer A. Froydberg. Seth annotated the card by hand with the word 'BAIKAL' (in Latin script) above the printed credit line.
Soviet pocket calendarLake Baikal
1992 · Calendar card
1992 Soviet Cultural Fund Pocket Calendar — Lake Baikal Series
A small printed 1992 wallet pocket calendar (kalendarik) issued by the Irkutsk branch of the Soviet Cultural Fund, part of a 'BAIKAL' series. The front carries the full twelve-month grid for 1992 in Cyrillic with Sundays in red; the reverse shows a color photograph by A. Froydberg of a vessel on Lake Baikal among spring ice floes. The only handwriting is the word 'BAIKAL' added in ballpoint beside the printed Russian caption, likely a translation note by Seth.
Soviet ephemeraLake Baikal
Seth writes from Saint Petersburg (still printed 'Leningrad' on the card) to his parents, asking how to grow bean sprouts after his attempt rotted, and begging them to meet him in Boston on June 30th with multiple large vegetarian pizzas loaded with cheese.
food cravings abroadgrowing bean sprouts
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 2, 1992 · Letter
New Year's in St. Petersburg, January 2, 1992
Seth writes to his parents describing how he spent New Year's Eve on Nevsky Prospect with a group of Soviet naval officers, cadets, artists and monarchists, recounting the celebration, the lifting of weeks of tension, a sunny day, his frustrated attempt to get money from American Express, and asking to be met at the Boston airport on June 30th with vegetarian pizzas.
New Year's Eve in RussiaSoviet/Russian celebration customs
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
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 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
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
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
Seth writes from Saint Petersburg (Leningrad) on a postcard of the Birzhevoy Bridge, amused by the local radio weather forecasts that come down to only two options: 'Big Snow' and 'Little Snow'. He says all is fine, he loves the snow, and the days are getting longer.
weatherwinter in Russia
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 15, 1992 · Letter
Letter from Seth to Mom & Dad - Visa scams, business meetings, and St. Petersburg spring
An April 15, 1992 four-page handwritten letter from Seth Baker in St. Petersburg to his parents. He describes a frustrating ongoing battle over his student visa with the University director (who threatens to terminate it unless Seth signs a school contract), a disappointing business meeting at the U.S. Consulate, observations on corruption and the two-tier ruble economy, social awkwardness around a Russian girl Stefan tried to set him up with, reflections on the language barrier in relationships, the maddening on-again-off-again spring snow, the completion of his banking course, a postponed trip to Yalta, and a possible future trip north to Murmansk and closed cities via a contact with military connections.
visa problemsbureaucratic corruption
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
May 14, 1992 · Letter
Letter to Mom & Dad, May 14, 1992 - visa, teaching jobs, newspaper idea, Sochi plans
Seth writes a four-page letter to his parents from Russia, sending it back to the States with the departing AIFS group. He covers his new visa, full-time English teaching, several job leads (an American Business Center in Moscow, hotels, IBM/P&G/AT&T, an English-language newspaper idea), domestic life with dubbed American movies, rappelling plans, a trip to Sochi and Riga, his uncertainty about whether to come home or stay, and farewells to the departing Americans.
visa and residencyteaching English
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
Brochure
Useful Addresses and Telephone Numbers / Planning Another Trip? (page 16)
A single printed page (page 16) from a U.S. Department of State / Government Printing Office 'Tips for Travelers to the USSR' brochure. The left column lists U.S. Embassy (Moscow) and U.S. Consulate General (Leningrad) addresses and phone numbers; the right column, 'Planning Another Trip?', lists other travel pamphlets available for $1 from the Superintendent of Documents.
U.S. diplomatic missions in the USSRtravel reference information
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
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
Interfaith Refugee Ministry Board Agenda (Tuesday, June 16)
A typed one-page board meeting agenda for the Interfaith Refugee Ministry (a division of Episcopal Social Service, Ansonia, CT), for a Tuesday June 16 meeting from 5:30-7:30 PM at Diocesan House. Lists eight standard agenda items including approval of minutes, treasurer's and committee reports, and a consideration of a salary increase.
nonprofit governancerefugee ministry
Seth writes to his sister Rachel from St. Petersburg describing his visit to a Russian bathhouse (banya): alternating super-hot sauna with plunges into ice water, repeated 5-6 times, plus standing under waterfalls. He reassures her that everything is okay and hopes things are going well at home. The card front shows Moscow's Novodevichy Convent.
Russian bathhouse / banyasauna culture
Postcard from Leningrad: Disney on Soviet television
A picture postcard of Nevsky Prospekt (the Singer Building / Dom Knigi) from Leningrad/Saint Petersburg. Seth writes to his parents Don and Jan Baker about how Disney airs every Sunday night on Soviet TV, with the familiar 'Wonderful World of Disney' opening and surprisingly good in-character dubbing of cartoons like Uncle Scrooge and Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, which he watches as good Russian-language practice.
Disney on Soviet televisiondubbing quality
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
A commercially printed, unused souvenir postcard from Saint Petersburg showing the snow-covered colonnade of the Admiralty building with the gilded Peter and Paul Cathedral spire behind it. Captioned in four languages; published by Trading House 'The Bronze Horseman' (P-2). No handwriting — the card is blank.
Saint PetersburgAdmiralty
Postcard
Samarkand Bus Station postcard — sending Soviet coins home to Mom
A photo postcard of the Samarkand Bus Station (Uzbek SSR) that Seth mailed to his mother, Jan Baker. He writes that since it may be a while until he gets home he thought he'd send a few Soviet coins ('Koneeks'/kopecks, 100 to a rouble), noting that all the money carries only two dates, 1961 and 1991, and that he has sent both. He adds that the postcards depict Samarkand, one of the warmer spots in the USSR, and hopes things are going well at home.
Soviet currencykopecks
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.
