Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412290074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Harry Wilson, associate professor of political science, is the college's first Fulbright Scholar. He takes off in January for Pskov, Russia, his home for the next year.
The Roanoke Valley Poll will be conducted next year by John Keyser, who works with Wilson at the college's Center for Community Research.
Wilson will conduct a similar poll in Pskov.
``There is now a fair amount of surveying being done'' in Russia, he said. ``The question is: How reliable is it? Most of the surveys have been done in Moscow or St. Petersburg. They're no more representative of Russia than if you surveyed people in New York and San Francisco and said they were representative of the U.S.''
By sampling the people of Pskov, Wilson hopes to get a snapshot of a smaller Russian city. Pskov, with 220,000 people, is one of Roanoke's sister cities.
The challenge will be to compare results from Roanoke with Pskov's results after translation not just from another language, but through the filter of another culture.
He'll have help, though.
Anna Bizaeva, who spent her fall semester soaking up the American scene at Roanoke College, will be Wilson's host at her home school, the Pskov State Pedagogical Institute. At Roanoke College, Bizaeva taught a class called ``Russian Life and Culture.''
``I like your students - they're joyful, optimistic, smart,'' she said before heading home in early December. And the student-professor relationships in America are often close and informal, in contrast with more formal relations in Russia.
Bizaeva was Roanoke College's Copenhaver Scholar-in-Residence for the fall semester, a program established by an endowment in 1989 to bring eminent scholars and artists to the college.
``For the kids in her course, that's just, I think, tremendous,'' Wilson said. ``I think few schools this size could ever give students that opportunity.''
Bizaeva and her husband, a government translator, are finding an apartment for Wilson and will serve as his guides when he arrives next month.
``If I didn't have them waiting for me on the other side, I would be significantly more nervous,'' he said. ``If I didn't have friends over there, I'd probably be petrified.''
Wilson was impressed with Bizaeva as soon as he met her, when Bizaeva and her husband were Wilson's hosts in their hometown on a previous visit to Russia.
He offered them a copy of his Roanoke Valley Poll. She read the 200-page document the first night, and the next day began firing ``intelligent, informed questions'' at him. She's excited about doing the same thing in her hometown. They plan to publish the data and use it for student research.
``We're going to explore some of the same phenomena in Russia - the social phenomena of a provincial, medium-sized town in Russia,'' she said. ``We'll have a kind of comparison analysis: What is common, what is different, what unites us.''
Bizaeva, a psychologist and parent of a 15-year-old, is particularly interested in the thoughts of Russian teen-agers on crime and the criminal justice system. The fear of crime has increased there substantially and the population has grown because of immigration.
Her teen-age daughter asks her tough questions about the changes in her country - questions Bizaeva can't answer. There are no longer any teen organizations, either; the Communist Union of Youth and the Pioneers disappeared with the old system.
``I'm very interested in changes in our city, how they perceive the situation,'' she said. ``They ask grown-ups questions, and we have no answers.''
Wilson said he had toyed with the idea of spending time in Russia for years, and a few years ago had applied unsuccessfully for a Fulbright Scholarship, named for former Arkansas Sen. William Fulbright, longtime chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The prestigious Fulbright Scholars program allows professors to travel abroad for study and research. Wilson's scholarship is worth about $25,000, with Roanoke College allowing him to take the year off as a sabbatical and remain on the payroll.
Russia is one of the most competitive spots to get a Fulbright, he said, because it has become a ``hot spot'' since perestroika, the social and economic reforms initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev.
When he applied this time, Wilson had more specific information and said he would find his own job and place to live. The Fulbright folks, he said, were excited to have someone in the former Soviet Union who was going to be living somewhere besides Moscow or St. Petersburg.
He wants to survey, do some criminal justice research and observe courts. And he hopes to get the opportunity to study criminal organizations.
``I'd really like to get some insight into the Russian mafia,'' he said. ``But I'd also like to come home alive.''
Wilson has studied the Russian language at the college for several years but admits he hasn't been the best student. One of the first things he'll do when he gets to Pskov is find a student to tutor him.
He doesn't have any courses scheduled yet, but he expects to be giving lectures on a wide variety of topics about America. Bizaeva predicts that his courses will be popular.
``To have American language from a real American will be wonderful,'' she said.
This will be his fourth, and most extensive, visit to Russia.
``I am very excited about going for a year,'' he said. ``But I don't have a desire to become Russian or to live in Russia. I'm way too American.''
Bizaeva, on the other hand, said she adapted quickly to American culture.
``I feel at home every minute here,'' she said. ``I'm very moved by the interest, understanding and compassion I felt here for Russia.''
``Beautiful'' is the most-often used word in her English vocabulary, Bizaeva jokes. Roanoke College has beautiful grounds, beautiful people and beautiful students, she said.
``I will miss it desperately,'' she said. ``I belong to this place, I belong here. It's not romanticism.''
When will she return?
``Whenever you ask me to come back.''
Memo: NOTE: The last three and a half sentences did not appear in the paper.