Everything is Material

I was drawn into the “Russia Game” 37 years ago, impelled by the ominous cloud of Mutually Assured Destruction that then hung over the world.

My first trip to Russia (then the USSR) was in 1982, during a study abroad year in Wales. Under the life-changing tutelage of Professor Malcolm Gilbert, I became fascinated by the place, the people, and the history, and decided that I wanted to put my shoulder into fixing “the nuclear problem.”

I, like many, was convinced that if we just understood Russia better, and they us, we could together chart a path to dialing down the nuclear threat and clearing up that dark cloud.

Well, our generation has succeeded in reducing the nuclear threat, largely thanks to the fall of the USSR. We have made considerable progress in reducing arsenals and opening channels of communications that were once clogged by ideological differences.

But those changes came about largely because of economic and political realities, not necessarily because the US or Russia understood one another better.

And so other frictions – trade, terrorism, human rights, spheres of influence, espionage and election tampering – have intensified to fill the void once filled by the nuclear standoff.

I find that as I age, I tend to be more interested in longer arcs and echoes in history. I have begun to realize that some difficult human problems (nationalism, racism, aggression) may always be with us, no matter how illogical and counterproductive that may be. And that often the sanest solutions are like quicksilver, eluding our willing grasp.

This is not to say we throw up our hands. In point of fact, these realizations make me increasingly feel that what is most important for journalists like us is to keep telling the individual stories, making human connections, sharing the important ideas that we meet.

In this issue, we see reflections of all of this. We read of the mass emigration of Russians into Europe exactly a century ago and consider it in light of its modern Middle Eastern echo. We read of schisms in the church, of divisions of Poland, and of persecutions of Jews, and recall that the times when we all “just get along” are more exceptions than the rule. And we read of the simple yet profound human connections that can be made between our countries, and how that is what makes all the difference.

The significance of such connections was at the root of our Spine of Russia Project, which began exactly three years ago to the day I am writing this. Our goal was to look behind the dark headlines of 2015 (never imagining things could get still worse) and find human stories of Russians working to create community, commerce, knowledge and value in the places they live. For me, that adventure was as life-altering as my first visit to Russia back in 1981.

I hope for many more visits in the years to come, and many more worthwhile projects, so that we will have plenty of stories to share with you.

We may not solve any of the “big” problems, but then you never really know how you will touch another life, so it pays to just keep reaching out. The alternative, after all, would be pretty grim.

Enjoy the issue.