History

1998 - 2001

In the beginning there was no Russian Club at Northwestern University, and only a chaotic bunch of Russian students roamed around campus, occasionally stumbling into each other. But in year 1998 CE a group of like-minded and marginally bored individuals made the first attempt to create an organization of Russian speaking students at Northwestern University. After rapidly reaching a climax, this newly formed club slowly began to wither away, and by Spring of 1999 it had degraded into nothingness whence it came. Few remain to tell the story of this club, its unremarkable existence, and its eventual demise.

In year 2000 CE an attempt was made to revive the Russian Club. Hillel was chosen as home base, and soon the club got rolling. Several notable events took place during this era, and pictures from several of them are in the photo archives at this very site! One of the first events was a gathering of Russians at Hillel, primarily to schmooze and play Durak (the great Russian card game). The next major event was a Thanksgiving party at Roger House, which featured a potluck dinner, dancing, and other Russian activities. Then, as the club was about to reach its peak, just like that, poof, it disappeared.

Finally, in year 2001 CE, Marina Kharitonova bravely set out to bring back the former glory to the Russian Club. For the first time ever, the Exec board was selected, and soon we had our own listserv, and then, compliments of yours truly, this website. The future of Russian Club is looking very bright indeed!

-Yevgeniy Vorobeychik

2001 - 2004

Since its reformation in 2001, the club has gone through its ups and downs. The 2001 - 2002 school year was very strong as the club had huge membership, held frequent firesides with professors like Weil, Morson, and Derluguian, organized two campus dinners, went to a hockey game (where a Russian/American fight broke out, though without our involvement), the ballet, and to see DDT and Akvarium, played Chto, Gde, Kogda and of course partied. We elected our first exec board and everyone was very involved in keeping the club going.

Then, in 2002 - 2003, we hit a slump; many of the previous members were seniors, so very few people were in the club at the beginning. Efforts were made to bring in freshmen, but as members of the exec board were significantly busier this year, they were not very successful. Fall quarter was still pretty strong, as we had a bonfire, organized a campus-wide talk by Professor Derluguian on the theater bombing in Moscow, and went to a Russian restaurant. After that however, the club went inactive for a while. At the end of the year, around May 9 specifically, an argument broke out as to whether it was ok to paint "The Rock" with a hammer and sickle in honor of the holiday. Some people took the argument to heart and a heated discussion over the list-serv ensued, but in the end nothing was decided.

So far, the 2003 - 2004 year has been going great, as we again have a large group of members and have been holding events regularly. Let's hope this trend continues…

-Ilya Blokh

2006 - present

In 2006-2007, RSA was very successful with strong membership and a myriad of fun events.  Highlights of the year include a Kirov Ballet outing, several movie nights, a potluck dinner, and, of course, parties.

2007-2008 was a transition year for RSA.  Membership was down as many of our old members graduated in '07, and more than half of our exec board were studying abroad at some point throughout the year.  Aside from having less members, business went on as usual and we had a lot of cool events, such as a trip to see a Russian Symphony, a Maslenica celebration with authentic food, and a May 1st/May 9th party.  We also participated in Global Village for the first time.  Finally, we got re-recognized by ASG (big thanks to Natasha Matusova for that one).

2008-2009 was our 10 year anniversary.  It was definitely a great year for RSA, as we has many members and held many memorable events such as our first all-campus speaker (Professor Derlugiuan spoke about the Russia-Georgia conflict), a spring bonfire, and a end-of-year camping trip.

-Vasiliy Kuznetsov