Michelle A Carter - From Under the Russian Snow

FromUnder the Russian Snow reflects in its title a symbol of the awakening ofRussia, the time of hope, expectation and enthusiasm of the people who hadnever experienced freedom. Michelle Carter came to Russia at this turbulent andexciting period and generously shared with us her knowledge of how to shed themental fetters of the past. Michelle was not an outsider or just a visitor; shewas one of us. She is a talented educator, sensitive and understanding womanand a keen observer. The book she has written depicts with love and sympathythe attempts to build a new Russia. Its about love, life and tragedyhers andours. Anna Sharogradskaya, Director, Regional Press Institute, St.Petersburg, Russia

MichelleCarters writing is always crisp and evocative, and her work with the childrenof Chernobyl was nothing less than heroic. Congresswoman Jackie Speier(CA-14)

I know thatyou have come to the close of your time as professional-in-residence at theRussian-American Press and Information Center and will shortly return to theUnited States. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the manycontributions you have made during your tenure at RAPIC toward betteringRussian journalists understanding of how a free press works in a democraticsociety. The book you just published on newspaper design and layout is animpressive result of your time in Russia.

I would alsolike to thank you for your dedication to your position, despite the enormousloss you suffered this summer. During a time of personal tragedy, you remainedcommitted to your work here. That is both remarkable and truly commendable ... Thomas R. Pickering, Ambassador to Russia, Embassy of the United States,Moscow, Russia, November 14, 1995

Otherbooks by Michelle A. Carter

Childrenof Chernobyl : Raising Hope from the Ashes

2017 Michelle Carter

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced or transmitted in any means,

electronic or mechanical, without permission in

writing from the publisher.

978-1-945805-44-8 paperback

9781945805752 hardcover

978-1-945805-45-5 epub

978-1-945805-46-2 mobi

Map

by

Ezra Lux

Cover Design

by

Michelle Carter

&

Theflower on the cover is the podsnezhnik, the first flower to appear in the springin Russia. A symbol of hope and renewal, it translates to under the snow.

Bink Books

a division of

Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company

Fairfield, California

http://www.bedazzledink.com

ForLaurie

Acknowledgements

This book was nearly stillborn so many times over the past twentyyears as I struggled to find my voice. It would have remained lifeless thistime if not for the resuscitations of so many who were ready to lend theirskills to the effort.

Because this is a true story populated by generous people whoopened their lives to me, I must begin by thanking them for their warm embracesfor this aging Amerikanka who stumbled about on their turf. Without AnnaSharogradskaya, Oleg and Elena Tumin, Imbi Reet Kaasik and Tanya Patina, Iwould have had no story to tell. Tanya, in particular, vetted every word ofthis manuscript to make sure that all my Russian references and mytransliterated spellings from the Cyrillic were accurate and consistent.

The best editor any memoirist could have was my daughter Robyn, apublished short story writer, who read this book chapter- by-chapter, returning each one with detailednotations to give liter ary form to my story. My son David pushed me(kicking and screaming) into an honest look at the relationships that shapedthis book, and Laurie, of course, gave me the greatest gift of allhis blessingfor this Great Adventure.

Ive saved a long and loving embrace for myhusband, Mike Ven turino, who molded the wreckage after Lauries death into avibrant second life that includes our grandson Ezra Lux, a third-generationwriter and the designer of the map of Russia in this book!

Former San Mateo Times colleagues RoLogrippo and Mike Spi nelli shared their unique gifts as well. Ro is a marketing guruwithout peer, and photographer Mike took the glam photo of me used in all ourpromotion materials.

I would have had a lovely tale to tellandnothing morewith out C.A. Casey and Claudia Wilde of Bedazzled Ink Publishers, whofound, in this story, a book worthy of print. Their confidence in women authorsin general, and this one in particular, is no small blessing.

And, of course, an enormous thank you to the cadre of friendsacross the planet, who are helping to spread the word.

Spasibo za pomosht!

Introduction

My life has unfolded like an M.C. Escher graphic of doors, doorsthat open into other doors. Each door presents a choice: Open it and walkthrough, open it and peek inside, or just walk on by. Mostly I walk throughthem, often with more gusto than grace.

Im basically nosy, a trait Im convinced made me a good reporter.I want to know whats next, whats just beyond, what questions need asking. The first in the series of doors that ledto my Great Adven ture in Russia in 1995 opened into Mr. Tuckersfirst-year Russian class that I took on adare as a junior at Proviso East High School in sub urban Chicago. Idhad two years of Latin (enough, surely), and the Soviet launch of Sputnik hadjust stunned the world. So why not Russian?

That class (and five more years of study inhigh school and col lege) morphed me into a Russophile of the first orderwho didnothing significant with it for nearly thirty years.

Then, at age forty-four, I was invited to participate in acultural exchange with the Soviet Peace Committee. After a lifetime immersionin Russian history and literature, I got the chance to see the country (in allits Cold War finery) first-hand in 1988. I was smitten.

But it wasnt until my second exchange visit in 1990 that thedoors in my Russian sequence stood open and beckoning. On that trip we visited a hospital in Minsk in the Sovietrepublic of Byelorus sia, which cared for the Children of Chernobyl,those youngest victims who marched on May Day 1986 under the radioactivefallout of the worlds worst technological disaster.

From that experience came my first book, Children of Chernobyl: Raising Hope From the Ashes (Augsburg 1993), co-written with Mi chaelChristensen, and the twenty-year Children of Chernobyl Project of Northern California, which provided medicine and sup pliesfor that Byelorussian hospital.

Another door opened when the director of the Russia desk at theUnited States Information Agency heard about a Russian-speaking newspapereditor whod written a new book about Chernobyl and thought she might havefound her next Professional-in-Residence for the Russian-American Press andInformation Center in Moscow.

The bounty behind this door would be a harder sell. Would I bewilling to leave at home my husband of twenty-seven years, two grown children,and a job Id walked across hot coals to win to spend a year crisscrossing theeleven time zones of Russia?

I bet a year of my life that I, at age fifty, could have my Great Adventure, midwifing a free press to full flower inan emerging de mocracy.