Slavic Coffeehouse returns to celebrate spring

By George Kosinski kosinski@grinnell.edu

Grinnell College students, faculty and community members gathered Saturday evening, April 8, in the Humanities and Social Sciences Center (HSSC) atrium for this year’s Slavic Coffeehouse, an annual event organized and hosted by the Russian Department, Russian, Central, and Eastern European Studies concentrators and students affiliated with the region.

The tradition dates back to at least the early 1990s, according to Todd Armstrong, professor and department chair of Russian at the College. Named after a space called the coffeehouse in the Forum where it was first celebrated, Slavic Coffeehouse originally took place over the course of three days during which students and faculty members prepared and served various dishes from Slavic and Russian cuisines.

At some point, Armstrong said, it merged with the celebration of Maslenitsa: a folk holiday celebrated before Lent primarily in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia which traces its roots to pre-Christian religion. One such custom of Maslenitsa in particular features prominently in Grinnell every spring: the burning of a wooden effigy that represents the end of winter.

“Food is an area that I really think provides an important window into a culture,” Armstrong said, who takes an active role organizing the event each year. “Slavic Coffeehouse becomes a sort of forum for students to show something about their culture through food. Different dishes have emerged as favorites over the years and students seem to really have a lot of fun participating.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Slavic Coffeehouse was not celebrated in 2021 and not open to the public in 2022, so this year marks its first full celebration since the spring of 2020, immediately before Grinnell students were first sent home.

“I’ve worked the event since my first year,” said Khondamir Imomnazarov `23, who is from Uzbekistan and a member of Grinnell’s Rus-