Sunday Serenity #366

The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat
(Собо́р Покрова́, что на Рву)

 AKA 

The Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed
(Храм Васи́лия Блаже́нного)

Red Square, Moscow

Credit: Christophe Meneboeuf

This is an ongoing series from my Bucket List
of things I desperately want to do before
I loose the rest of my vision

My Bucket List
#8 Visit Russia

Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov
 in Yalta 1901

I became fascinated with all things Russia after taking an advanced literature class my senior year of high school that introduced me to Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev. Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  I favored Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoyevsky at the time.  

Anna Akhmatova. 1922

In the decade following high school I discovered several more to join the trinity in the top tier: 

• Boris Pasternak, 
• Sergei Lukyanenko, 
• Vladimir Nabokov, 
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• Anna Akhmatova. 

Boris Pasternak

By my mid twenties I'd developed a growing desire to see the landscapes and buildings these writer's described, to hear the music mentioned, to learn the history, folklore, religions, entertainments and other cultural influences so I'd have an understanding of what might be common knowledge to the character's which would help me read between the lines.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

So when I went back to school in my late twenties, Russian Lit, Language and History were as high on my list as creative writing classes.  Many times after, unwillingly, dropping out of college as I was about to start my senior year, I went on spurts of checking out anything to do with Russia from the library.  I feel that urge coming on again.  Only this time I have the online resources as well. Not that I hadn't already realized that but since my introduction to the Internet in 1996 I've done little more than collect URLs in browser bookmarks and note taking aps.  Hundreds of them that overwhelm me with every encounter, by the sheer quantity and by the disorganization and the only clue to their content being the info in the url itself.

to be continued...

My Bucket List

#1 Hot Air Balloon Ride
#2 Play on a real drum set
#3 Swim with dolphins
#4 Visit Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop in Paris
#5 Visit the Library of Congress
#6 Attend a Performance of Beethoven's Symphony #9 by a top notch Orchestra

#7 Visit Hawaii