United States

Letters & keepsakes

39 documents mention this place.

• 

  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 1, 1992 · Letter

  Oh, by the way, my address here is...

  A single page (likely the closing portion) of a handwritten letter in which Seth gives his Saint Petersburg street address (Aprilskaya Ulitsa #4, Kvartira #38) but urges his parents to keep using his old address, explaining he doesn't want to attract official or unofficial attention and that mail moves faster through the University.

  mailing addresspostal logistics
• 

  November 1991 · Letter

  Another Letter from Siberia: The Boy Jean at Lake Baikal

  Seth writes to his parents from a hotel high above Lake Baikal, recounting his friendship with a Russian boy (~age 8, whose name he renders 'Jean'/'Shena') who keeps gifting him cherished pins, a key chain from Petrodvorets, Tsarist banknotes, and hand-painted wooden spoons. He reflects on Russian gift-giving culture, the family on holiday, a taxi-driver conversation about the Hartford Whalers, and his frustrations learning Russian, before flying back to Leningrad.

  Russian gift-giving culturebefriending a Russian family
• 

  Letter

  Seth's printing/imagesetter questions for his journal project

  A typed letter from Seth asking his correspondent (likely Dad) to help research prepress printing technology. He poses concrete questions about imagesetters (Agfa Compugraphic), DPI/resolution, transparencies vs. slide output, color separation, and the cost of imagesetter printing in the US. His goal is to print his journal/publication from Russia without buying a $20,000 imagesetter, asking the contact to call Kinko's or a printing center for answers.

  prepress printingimagesetters
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  February 2, 1992 · Letter

  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
• 

  January 29, 1992 · Letter

  Seth's Letter to Mom & Dad, Jan 29, 1992

  Seth writes from St. Petersburg replying to his parents' Dec 26 letter, sharing thoughts on sharing his letters, his plan to return to UConn to finish two degrees (Psychology and Soviet Studies), possible future work in Russia, and reflections on the exciting but difficult post-Soviet moment.

  sharing letters with familycareer and job hunting
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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 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
• 

  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
• 

  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 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
• 

  February 3, 1991 · Brochure

  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
• 

  October 25, 1991 · Postcard

  Greetings from Moscow - St. Basil's Cathedral (1 of 3)

  Picture postcard of St. Basil's Cathedral and the Kremlin clock tower lit at night on Red Square, Moscow. Seth writes to his parents Don & Jan Baker, identifying the landmarks in the photo and announcing this is the first in a series of three postcards describing his Moscow experience.

  Moscow sightseeingRed Square landmarks
• 

  November 1991 · Postcard

  Postcard from Kaunas, Lithuania — Seth to Mom & Dad

  A picture postcard of Kaunas, Lithuania that Seth mails home to his parents, announcing his plan to visit Kaunas the last weekend of November and to stay with a multilingual Lithuanian who is about to emigrate to the United States.

  travel plansLithuania
• 

  December 1, 1991 · Postcard

  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
• 

  1992 · Postcard

  Postcard from Lake Baikal: Angara river cruise and onward to Vladivostok

  Seth writes from the shores of Lake Baikal on a second visit, describing a cruise on the Angara river and his evolving Siberian travel plans (train turned plane), with Vladivostok as his next stop.

  Siberian travelLake Baikal
• 

  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
• 

  Postcard

  Greetings from Leningrad — Seth's safe-arrival postcard to Mom & Dad

  A picture postcard of the Moika 12 (Pushkin Apartment-Museum) in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg, on which Seth tells his parents Don and Jan Baker that he arrived safely, that the semester looks great, and that they should phone or fax him because the Soviet mail system is not running smoothly.

  safe arrivalstudy abroad
• 

  November 10, 1991 · Postcard

  Postcard from Irkutsk: "Greetings from Siberia!"

  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
• 

  Postcard

  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
• 

  February 29, 1992 · Postcard

  Postcard from Saint Petersburg: 'Big Snow' weather forecasts

  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
• 

  Postcard

  British English Lessons on Soviet TV

  A postcard from Seth Baker in Leningrad to his parents Don and Jan Baker, describing a daily 9:00 a.m. British English lesson on Soviet TV. He jokes about the pompous British phrases taught and admits the program is more useful for his own Russian than for teaching English.

  language learningSoviet television
• 

  Postcard

  Postcard from Seth to Mom & Dad: Soviet TVs explode if you don't unplug them

  A picture postcard of the Peter and Paul Fortress at sunset in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg, on which Seth tells his parents an amusing, telling observation about daily Soviet life: Soviet-made televisions and appliances have a tendency to explode or catch fire, so people always unplug everything when finished.

  Soviet daily lifeconsumer electronics quality
• 

  Postcard

  Odessa Musical Comedy Theatre postcard - Seth's "new" mailing address

  A Soviet souvenir postcard depicting the Odessa Musical Comedy Theatre, mailed by Seth Baker to his parents Don and Jan Baker in Bloomfield, CT. The handwritten message gives his updated St. Petersburg / Leningrad State Tech. College mailing address (care of Nina Meleteuna) and notes that Krushkov left for France in October, leaving Nina as the new boss.

  mailing address updatehost institution personnel change
• 

  November 26, 1991 · Postcard

  Leningrad postcard: filtering coffee through a T-shirt

  Seth writes to his parents from Leningrad on Nov 26, 1991, recounting how his coffeemaker broke and he ended up filtering coffee through a T-shirt, startling his neighbor Brian who came over asking for coffee.

  daily life in Leningradimprovisation under shortages
• 

  October 7, 1991 · Postcard

  Postcard to Mom & Dad - Alexandrinsky Theatre & Catherine II Monument, Leningrad (Oct 7, 1991)

  Seth writes to his parents Don and Jan Baker from Leningrad on Oct 7, 1991. He reacts with surprise to news of their trip to New Zealand, urges them to consider visiting the Soviet Union, and rhapsodizes about the beauty of Leningrad and the Baltics, the genuine antiquity of European architecture and art, and the palaces and royal estates.

  travel encouragementEuropean vs American antiquity
• 

  November 20, 1991 · Postcard

  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
• 

  December 22, 1991 · Postcard

  Monopoly with the English class & the Anti-Monopoly Commission

  Seth writes to his parents about playing the board game Monopoly with his English class in Leningrad as a language exercise. The game teaches money vocabulary, leads to a discussion of Soviet monopolies (a student sits on a newly formed 'Anti-monopoly commission'), and Seth observes there are only ~8 basic drinking glasses across the entire USSR because single factories churn out identical products.

  teaching English in RussiaMonopoly board game
• 

  December 22, 1991 · Letter

  Monopoly with my English class

  Seth writes to his parents about playing the board game Monopoly with his English class in Leningrad. The game doubled as English practice; he reflects on the Soviet anti-monopoly commission, chronic product shortages and the uniformity of Soviet consumer goods.

  teaching English abroadMonopoly board game