"In 1883 the Maria School in St Petersburg was founded and then in 1917 the
Kalinin School in Moscow. It was also at that time that the Vologda Lace Union
was established. In Vologda today there is a Lace Organisation, "Snezinka",
with 6000 members." [...]
The thought that there are 6,000 Russian lacemakers belonging to an organization almost 100 years old and in only one region of a very vast country blows my mind.
Um... I think Snezinka (snowflake) might be a bit different kind of organization than the IOLI or the Lace Guild, or any of the others mentioned... :)
Please note that the original "Snezhinka" (snowflake) started as a Lace *Union*. Also, notice the date; it's "telling"... 1917 is when Russia became the Soviet Union... :)
Vologda had been a lacemaking area even before the revolution but I'd bet my last cent that none of the lacemakers had been "organised" in any way; if they'd wanted to organise, it would have been -- in all probability -- forbidden. "United we stand", but it's, usually, being united *against* something/someone; in the case of the Vologda lacemakers, it would have been against the agents who who controlled their thread supply, and who didn't pay them enough for their work. Can't have it :)
Come Soviet Union and its cry of "workers unite", and the situation changed; radically in some ways, very little in some others (let's say 345 degrees overall? <g>) Joining a professional union was no longer forbidden; it was "positively encouraged". It was -- de facto, anyway -- compulsory. Quite a difference, no?
Well... No :) Now, *the state* was the was the only employer, the "agent" who controlled the prices and the thread supply (which, given the poverty of the country as a whole was not something to be take lightly). You didn't belong to your union, you didn't get the thread, and you didn't get to sell your lace -- all stores were state-controlled also. That's not *so* different from the "before" stage. But now, if you complained, you were accused of treason -- your rebellion was no longer against one person; it was against the state... So, every lacemaker who wanted to make lace -- either for sale or for themselves -- joined the Lacemakers union; you do what you have to. To be fair, the state did reward the "meek lambs"; as "folk artists", (unionized) lacemakers had some priviledges that other women might not have had. Afterall, hand-made lace fom Vologda was being sold for the -- much needed -- foreign currency, in tourist stores within SU and abroad...
Now that the Soviet Union is dismantled, things have changed again. Again, *some*. Again, not always for the better... Supplies, for example, are still hard to get, if for different reasons than 80 or 30 yrs ago. An individual lacemaker still has as much chance as a snezhinka in h... to get all she needs in the way of supplies; I know one lacemaker in the US who used to go (for work, nothing to do with lacemaking) loaded with threads and crochet hooks, which she gave away to much gratitude (she's changed jobs and doesn't go any more). And that was in the *Moscow* area, not in the forsaken-by-God-Vologda... But, if you belong to an organisation (which now acts as your agent), an organisation which provides -- still very much needed -- foreign currency for your country... Your chances are much better.
That it's no longer called "Lace Union" but a "Lace Organisation"? Well, PC isn't limited to the US, and "union" has become a dirty word in the "new! improved!" Russia :) I observe it, also, in Poland, where the communist stranglehold had never been quite as..."stone-carved"? as in SU; in communist Poland, it was -- sometimes -- permissible not to belong to a workers union and still survive, though most people did belong. By now, most of those unions have "morphed" into organisations, and clubs, and lobbies... The only union which still calls itself a union is Solidarnosc (Solidarity); and that's because, by spanning accross professions, it had made itself illegal "back then", so now has nothing to be embarassed about.
If only they could join our internet community! Is anyone in touch with them?
You are kidding, right? Biting your cheek as hard as you did when you wrote about the Ghost of Hampton Court for the lace-chat? Lenin thought that electricity was a necessity for a workers/peasant's new country, so he made sure that most of USSR got electrified (my mother said that, 1939-45, near Siberia -- where she'd spent her war -- a "light bulb" was called "Lenin's lamp", and that people asked her if she'd seen anything like it before <g>). *Telephones* weren't part of the deal... :)
The power and the freedom of computer-communication was never shown more clearly than during the early stages of dismantling of the SU; all the news -- which we received daily -- would have been supressed, had e-mail not been available. *But*. All those news were coming from the *university labs* (usually physics and math depts), from the highly priviledged (and still disaffected. Goodness gracious me, how ungrateful <g>) research professors who had access to such technology (and who, incidentally, spoke languages other than Russian)... At this point, the access to technology may not be quite as restricted, but individual lacemakers in Vologda (professional or amateur) aren't likely to have it, in general run of things.
OTOH... If anyone wants to Google Snezinka (or Snezhinka, which is an equally close approximation of the pronounciation of the word), who knows? :) As a matter of fact, there might be a *Russian* version of Google, more clued in to "things Russian"; I know there's a Polish one (have it bookmarked, for whenever I want to be reminded of the precise words of a nursery rhyme, etc <g>)
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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