I must admit, prior to this course I little know knowledge base in art history let a lone Soviet art. Through the entirety of this course I have learned a copious amount of information regarding art within the Russian culture in the context of art history. The material and the associated assignments given provided a sea of learning experience for me in areas such as Russian history, Russian art, Soviet art, and the movements in that era that provided turning points in Soviet Culture. The artifacts used during the course of this class were invaluable tools to better my understanding of Soviet Art and art history itself. There were three artifacts in particular that I found to be the most beneficial to the learning process. The book Mastering The Art of Soviet Cooking by Anya von Bremzen, the scribe notes artifact, and the discussion leader artifact all allowed me to learn things about Soviet Culture I was not aware of or did not know much about.

In von Bremzen’s book, there was a plethora of eye-witness chronicles that both storied and explained the daily life of a Soviet Civilian. All of my previous knowledge based off the education I received only made me privy to the exploits of an oppressive government and the figures that led the government with a few historical events as well. Von Bremzen beautifully incorporated certain objects that held symbolic meaning to the Soviet peoples to which the reader was able to if not empathize than paint a clear picture of what a normal day-to-day and even special occasion activities, beliefs, and struggles held. It was through the author’s use of symbolism that this artifact allowed me to understand such things that were novel to me. For instance, at one point in the book von Bremzen discusses the significance of the mayo jar. The mayo jar was one of the most pervasive symbols exemplifying the ordinary Soviet man or women’s resourcefulness necessitated by the deprivation or inaccessibility of such a simple and important object such as a container. All across the Soviet Union the large jars of mayo each person would purchase at a local goods dispensary, which was almost identical throughout the country, would eventually become depleted of the mayo. Instead of discarding this empty jar it was re-used for a multitude of purposes including, based off one account of a reading of an advertisement, transporting pregnancy tests to the physicians office! This allowed me to develop not just an understanding but an admiration for the people who inhabited this country and had to compensate and find ways to survive and thrive given the difficult living situation they endured on a daily basis.

The scribe notes artifact allowed me to re-learn with collaborated input from the class what we had gone over in that lecture, including the article or articles we had been assigned to read the night prior. By doing the scribe notes I had to pay attention to class’ discussion and record each and every person’s input on either a topic introduced by the professor or the “discussion leader’s” questions. Then after the class had adjourned, I had to go back and review the notes I had taken and translate them into full-sentenced ideas usually with pictures and/or video concerning the topic being discussed. So the process of jotting notes down from every person who offered their own point of view or understanding of the reading or topic and then taking that information and reviewing and editing it forced me to view the topic from all different angles as well as re-read it so it can permeate in my memory. In one of my scribe notes, scribes notes for the discussion of chapters 8-10 in von Bremzen’s book, this process allowed me to learn and better understand how the Soviet people reacted to Stalin’s death in relation to modern events such as the Michael Brown shooting from this past summer. By taking notes on the class’ discussion of Stalin’s death and the professor’s connection to modern events or events happening in our own country, I developed a thorough comprehension of this part of Soviet culture.

In a similar but singular way, the discussion leader assignment also forced me to construct a well-developed image of Soviet culture. The process by which creating the discussion leader questions aided my learning was via stimulating my own opinion and ideas about the topic of the reading. After completing the reading I had to re-read it to uncover the primary ideas. By doing this I can pose my own questions about the thesis and main ideas and by concocting these questions I can expand my mind’s ability to critique Soviet Art which even furthers my understanding of the subject matter. In a particular example, the discussion leader questions I made for the reading concerning Soviet Poster Art vastly improved my understanding of this topic. After reading the literature covering this topic, I had to go back and re-read it to search for the thesis and main points in which I would create my own questions for. During the class when I presented these questions I received the input from all of the different students who answered each question. This allowed me to view the Soviet Poster Art from all different perspectives giving me an even more comprehensive understanding of Soviet Culture.