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USA/USA community is saddened by Anastasiya Baburova’s death

Photo from http://www.z434.ru/

USA/USA alumni, scholars and volunteers are saddened by the death of Anastasiya Baburova, a journalist of Novaya Gazeta and an alumna of the USA/USA Seminar 2000. The brave journalist was murdered along with Stanislav Markelov, a human-rights lawyer, in Moscow. Even nine years ago in her application materials to our program Anastasiya showed an interest in democracy, human rights, and international exchange.  She wanted to combine a career in diplomacy with one in journalism. She did not win a full scholarship through our program but entered the Moscow Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).  The Economist has published her obituary on February 5, 2009.

The USA/USA alumni and friends all over the world support Anastasiya’s struggle against racism and fascism in Russia and in Eastern Europe, especially since Amnesty International has reported a rise in racism in Ukraine last summer.

Here is one of Anastasiya’s essays from nine years ago. She was an honorable woman of character since youth.

Lessons of Life

One of the biggest influences I’ve had in my life was my school teacher of English. She taught me during all eleven years of my secondary education and I think she has managed to make a pivotal difference in shaping up my personality.

Looking back at my school years,  I can visualize her figure, a  nice middle-aged woman with blue eyes, watching her students either encouragingly or with reproach but never skeptically. «Anastasia,- she once said pointing at my home writing,- I am afraid you put in much less effort than you should. That’s unacceptable. You are here to make the most of yourself. I know you just can write better because you are a gifted student». And I believed her, because to my ten-year-old ambitious frustration she was then  more like a mom than a school teacher.

I close my eyes. Some images still run deep in my memory.

Our light study room…early September…the teacher’s pointer glittering in the sun ray…Textbook Page 23, the political system of India…Stonehenge was probably built by extraterrestrials…A bunch of roses in the vase on the teacher’s table…Romeo, Romeo, why are you called Romeo…the Boston Tea Party… films…names…the gun shooting at Fort Sumter…Vivian Leigh, «Gone With the Wind»…the snow flowing behind the window, it’s December now…The Old Man and the Sea…Sir Christopher Wren designed Trafalgar Square…Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address… the Soviet Union ultimately fell apart in 1991…Jingle, Bells…the greenhouse effect…the Constitution of Ukraine…the Christmas tree right next to my desk…

Books. Papers. Photos. Records. Videos.

We spoke about very many things and issues in class. The resources were never confined to the textbook.

When the teacher finally came over to say about Lincoln’s tragic death just a few days before the Northern states emerged victorious I was weeping inside.

I remember her telling the story about. I was entranced. I felt I wanted to achieve as much in my life as he did, and I yearned to be of as much use to others as he was. To me, that was the moment of truth. The happy revelation of knowledge. And there was no person in the world that minute whom I would trust more than my teacher.

According to the official syllabus, topic diversification was aimed at equipping  the students with well-sufficient lexical amounts related to various spheres. But I think our teacher’s primary concern was different. She made us think for ourselves, exposing our youthful minds to the world cognitive thought, and incited us to demonstrate our erudition and public speaking skills through class discussions.

Time passing…high school years…springtime exam steam…
Night-long reading…discovered the world around myself…
What will I do after I finish school
What will I be in ten years?
Should I think now? Or let alone the dark void ahead…
Well, what time is it?  Oh God! Three a.m.! Into bed…
Someday I’ll return home from Paris in a white Mercedes…Oh no, better New York…
Do sleep, you dreamy fool. Close your eyes. You’re sitting for a math test tomorrow…
Oh yeah, tomorrow’s math… But someday…

As we entered our high school years, our teacher started to raise the crucial question of our future careers. Gradually and unobtrusively, began she talking to us about personal qualities which lead over to limelight, relying largely on the biographies of prominent people, amplifying on the pursuits of their youth. Hard work was all she stressed, the only room at the top, and concentration on the positive to inspire yourself to work.

Any talent is one percent aspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Margaret Thatcher was not born to a high class family. Neither was Bill Clinton. They are self-made people and their success is entirely their own desert.

I am sure of my future, because I am working. I have the right to be sure. I deserve it.

Most importantly, the teacher’s confident manner removed our teenage anxiety and pressure about the upcoming. The way was not only that she inspired us to believe in work, but also her very shrewd and practical approach about our endeavors, the enthusiasm she fired us to explore international scholarships, grants, universities and colleges both in Ukraine and abroad.

«Define the goal you want to accomplish an start pursuing it. Do persevere. You’ll overcome».

Her attitude fostered spirit. I still remember the glow of harmony engulf me.

I am here to explore. To know the world. To learn Japanese and perform calisthenics.
To become an ambassador when aged twenty-one. (Why not?)
Meet the eyes of the Statue of Liberty.
Get to know what the Moon tastes when added to salad.
Eat some grapes at sunrise, with the turquoise along the sky.
Make some mirth in the parliament.
Climb a fir-tree.
Shake hands with the president.
Touch the Tower of Pisa before it falls.
Travel the world in eighty days.
Arise waves in a cup of tea and drink them.
Negotiate peace in the Earth.
Work 48 hours a day.
Enjoy the life.

-Anastasia, I’d like to talk to you about the coming study contests. This senior year, the competition will be very keen. But I think you can win. You’ve made rapid progress in your writing and…well, I like your work in general this year. It’s even better than the previous one…

My ultimate year, it became common for me to stay five or ten minutes after the class to speak to the teacher informally. But that day our talk lasted much longer. Somehow,  the focus shifted from the contests to my plans in the more distant future. She told me about her former students who now lived abroad and often wrote to her. We discussed many things a Teacher can share with a Student who has been with her for ten years and now is ready out, in the adult world, so alluring, so rigorous and so very full of opportunities.

The words she said to me before goodbye were hearty.
- I like your outlook and the way you conceive of your future. Adventure and hard labor are the two things that modern businesses are all about. Your passion for knowledge and new experience will be of much help.
I believe in you.

-Thank you.

It was that year that I won prizes from all three competitions I took part in, English, Economics and Russian. I also went on to pursue nationwide and won a prize from the National Economics Olympiad.

We are here to make the most of ourselves.
We are here to work forty-eight hours a day.
We are here to enjoy life.

Seminar 2000 students and volunteers hanging out in the evening

Anastasiya Baburova, 2000