Boris Pasternak
For many years, Dickinson-in-Moscow students have had the opportunity to visit the home of renowned poet Boris Pasternak. On this trip, students not only learn about Pasternak’s life, but also get a glimpse of the atmosphere in which Pasternak wrote his greatest masterpieces.
Below are photographs inspired and taken by Pat Kearns’11 while on the excursion:
"Today we went to Peredelkino, a little place about a 20 minute commuter train ride away from Moscow. Boris Pasternak lived in Peredelkino from 1939 until his death in 1960 and his house is now a museum. The museum wasn't really like a museum at all; it's just his house. The museum people kept everything like it was when Pasternak lived there. It was like Pasternak had just stepped out and would return any moment to find a group of Americans looking at the pictures on his walls. The woman who works there and gave us a tour of the house was so obviously in love with her work and Pasternak; when she talked about him, you could tell how important he was to her. It made me want to know everything she knew and feel how she felt about Pasternak. My Russian has also improved a lot and I understood most of what our guide told us, making it that much better.
After our guide explained a little about Pasternak's growing up years and education, she showed us the room where his piano is. I was longingly looking at the piano as the guide started talking about the room, and Kelly mentioned to her that I play the piano. To my extreme surprise and shock and disbelief and so on and so forth, our guide said: 'Well, you can play something if you want!'
That's right.
I played Pasternak's piano.
After warning everyone that it probably wouldn't sound good because I haven't played in months, I started to play Chopin's Waltz #7 in C Sharp Minor. I could only get a few measures out before I forgot how the waltz went, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever done." — Kara Elder '11