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Peter Frew ’75
To Russia with Love Perestroika, glasnost, and the end of the Cold War have been important news stories in History Department chair Jon Willson’s adulthood, so when he received the Davis Fellowship earlier this year, he knew right away he wanted to travel to Russia to see the transformation of that country from the communist Soviet Union to a capitalist, “sort of democratic” society, he says. Using plenty of frequent flier miles to bring his family along with him, Jon (with wife Sarah, daughter Cassie, and sons Sam and Luke) flew to Helsinki in August, “wanting to squeeze in as many cultural experiences as we could,” says Jon. Three days later they spent the better part of a day on the train to St. Petersburg, where Sarah’s sister Maud, who is married to a Russian, lives. “We wanted to travel without a group, so having them there really made that possible. Not too many people on tour groups have the chance to go to the local vegetable market, figure out how to get on the right bus, and eat borscht
Taft Bulletin Fall 2005
Davis Fellow Jon Willson ’82 and his wife Sarah Albee in Russia’s Red Square
at the homes of real Russian people.” They toured the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and the Winter Palace, and spent a day at Maud’s dacha in the countryside. Sarah and Jon also flew to Moscow for a day without the kids, where they toured the Kremlin and Red Square. Hoping to offer a Russian history elective next year, Jon also managed to
interview a few septuagenarians about their fascinating, and often-harrowing memories of the Stalin era, with Maud acting as translator. “This was an amazing trip,” Jon adds. “To be able to see a culture from a native’s perspective—and to have the opportunity to hear firsthand accounts from those who lived through the eras that I teach—was a powerful experience.”