Word: russian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When Keenan, a specialist in modern Russian history, talks of his involvement, which includes making about four three-day weekend trips each year on his own, not Harvard's, time, he speaks in terms of a "calculus of morality." It's that calculus, the weighing of the work he is accomplishing in Iran versus a policy of non-involvement, that enables him to board the plane without hesitation...
...involved in politics," Keenan says at his desk in the Russian Research Center portion of 1737 Cambridge St. "I'm just trying to make the best university I can." Maybe it's because Keenan says he sees universities as inherently "good things" that he says he sees nothing wrong with being an overseer. Keenan admits that his work there is a "complicated thing, an individual matter." But he adds, "I don't think there is much of a question about the role of the university in the moral calculus of western society...
...Despite the difficulties that the Schecters experienced in penetrating Soviet society, and perhaps because of them, this book is valuable as a record of first-person accounts of the Soviet experience. It goes beyond the standard platitudes about the Soviet Union to provide at least a frustrated peek at Russian life...
...descriptions of the differences between Russian and American consumerism are striking. The Schecter children report that adults in Russia repeatedly begged American students to bring them felt-tip pens, a rare commodity in Russia. American liquor is viewed as an important status symbol. Soviet stores are perpetually out of merchandise. It seems at times as if all of Russia is standing in line for one thing or another. On the other hand, children in Russia eat red caviar on black bread for breakfast. Overall, the Americans had to do considerable adjusting to survive in Russia...
...American to such a hushed atmosphere where they were constantly under suspicion was perhaps the most difficult adjustment for the Schecters to make. Leona, Jerrold Schecter's wife, remarks at the end of the book, "We could see it in the children. They had acquired the veneer of little Russians, reticent to speak freely and openly with people we didn't know well...trust became reserved, finally, only for the family." In an interview last month in America, Schecter described this element of secrecy as "something you accept. It's not a real extreme paranoia, but it becomes an accepted...