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The Millennium in History:
From Russia with Love

"It all started one thousand years ago," said Kate Transchel, Department of History, as if she were reciting a fairy tale at bedtime. With eyes wide and voice clear, she continued the story. "The first Russian state was founded, and the country was shopping for a national religion. It chose Christianity. A few centuries after that, the church split. Instead of going with Roman Catholicism, Russia chose Eastern orthodoxy. This choice," said Transchel sighing heavily, "placed Russia forever on a different path from Western Europe."

Transchel will talk about Russia's historical path and the tremendous roadblocks this bulky, talented, and troubled country has faced during her Friends of History Lecture Series presentation, "Hard Currency: Russia Faces the Millennium," on November 4, 1999, in the Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall (PAC 134) at 7 p.m.

It is hard to imagine a Westerner more protective than Transchel of "Mother" Russia. "Russia diverged from the West," she explained, "but Russia has consistently been forced into a Western European model. The West has demanded Russia be like us."

Today Transchel said, the country's problems are overwhelming, and then she listed the biggest: a kleptocratic government; a mafia stranglehold on the economy; chronic, endemic poverty; no grass roots political structure; and a lack of indigenous institutions that can correct these problems. Russia's future, in respect to these immense difficulties, will be covered in her lecture.

Transchel came to CSU, Chico in 1996 with a recently earned Ph.D. in Soviet History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She now teaches courses in Russian, Balkan, European women's, and world history. She has paid many visits to the vast Eastern contintent, responsible for as much greatness as devastation throughout its history.

One of the first Westerners allowed access to Russian archives opened at the demise of the Soviet Union, Transchel lived in Moscow during 1992-94. Like most Russians, she stood in line for two hours in minus-forty degree weather to buy rotten chickens and was "happy to have them." She served as chair of the Russian National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Addiction during her stay. Her dissertation, Under the Influence: Drinking, Temperance, and the Cultural Revolution in Russia 1900-1930, is a history of working class drinking for which she has received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to turn into a book.

Transchel mitigated criticism of Russians' penchant for hard drinking. "Russia has grown up in a strained way," she explained. "Historical accounts of drinking have been found since as early as the ninth century. It's been so poor, so frequently invaded. Drinking has been its only source of leisure activity."

Transchel returned to Russia in 1997 and witnessed the country's brief period of economic recovery. She saw an emerging commercial class with better food, clothing, and health care, "the bare beginnings," she said, of "normal" life. But in late 1997, on some bad advice from Western economists, Russia took a downturn and is in worse shape now than it was in 1992.

On a postdoctoral grant from the National Council on Eurasian and East European Research, Transchel spent five months this year in Siberia and the Ukraine and experienced "a horrible level of hunger and poverty." In Siberia, where temperatures went below minus-fifty, no hot water and very little heat were available. None of these conditions daunted this passionate story-teller, however.

"Russia's history is so tragic and courageous," said Transchel. "We can't ignore it. The destabilization of this great country is of international significance. Look at it! When Yeltsin's health takes a turn for the worse, the Dow Jones goes down. Russia is a huge piece of the global puzzle."

Both the campus and off-campus communities are invited to the Friends of History Lecture Series. There will be a period of questions and answers following Transchel's lecture and an informal reception after that. On November 8, at noon, Transchel will lead a discussion group for any interested persons in the new Humanities Center, Trinity 126. For more information, call the Department of History, 898-5366. -- Thomasin Saxe, College of Humanities and Fine Arts