This page was created by Bonnie Bennett. The last update was by Kelly O'Neill.
Description of Kazan
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April 17, 1892
During my time spent in Kazan, I have been struck by the unfair servitude of the Russian peasantry. Their emancipation has done nothing to alleviate their poverty, and they are reduced to toiling for their daily bread while the elite luxuriate in endless extravagance. As I traveled throughout Russia, I encountered entire villages on the brink of starvation, entirely reliant on the whim of the season’s crops. Each year, that delicate balance of rain and sun translates into literal life or death for the Russian peasants. Meanwhile, the ruling class of gentlemen views the peasants as little more than tax-paying sources of income.
Every morning, I reflect on how to best address the needs of the peasants as I walk by the Blagoveshchensky Cathedral at the Kazan Kremlin. Its five-tiered spire kisses the sky, seeking an immediate connection with God. Pointed arches crest the length of the exterior nave, and smaller towers at the other end of the building cluster in a friendly gathering. This gorgeous structure reminds me of the beauty found in Russia, lifting me above the pain of the afflicted. The cathedral also evokes the promise of an encounter with the divine after death, forging a possibility of happiness in the afterlife for those who suffer now in silent faith.
I try to comfort myself with the vision of everlasting heavenly paradise for the longsuffering peasants, but my ambitions are too great—I yearn for their immediate joy in the here and now of this immediate life. When looking at the Kremlin, I cannot shake the knowledge that Ivan the Terrible built this structure on the castle ruins of the Kazan khans, and the pleasantness of the cathedral is marred by its legacy of death, misery, and destruction.
Perhaps I am bewailing a class system that will never change, anchored too firmly in the traditions of the past. They tell me that Kazan was founded in the 11th century, although the lack of written documents from this time mystifies the details of exact date, name or purpose. A city this old is hesitant to mold its ways—change causes its joints to creak like an ancient grandfather, set in his methods.
While I am saddened by the plight of the peasants, I applaud the employees of the United States Treasury Department for donating $484 to the Russian Famine Relief Fund on April 16, 1892. Every dollar counts when addressing hunger, and it is imperative that we try to protect the Russian peasants from the cruelty of their masters. For indeed, although I have received good reports regarding this year’s winter wheat and the sowing of spring crops across Russian, we must remember that the profits from the harvests will benefit the landowners, not the peasants who work the land. This injustice is contrary to the equality-for-all mantra that our nation, my far-off homeland of America, wishes for the world to experience. Accordingly, we must help in any way that we can until the twisted subjugation of the peasant class can be stamped out, once and for all.
