Thank you Tamara for the insiders view of collectivization. Very interesting. I had sort of thought that the Vologda Lace Organization was not just an excuse to drink tea and eat cookies like some lace organizations, but was more production oriented. I suppose unlike our organizations where the membership probably understates the number of lacemakers, in this case the membership may overstate the number. Perhaps some are old and inactive or make lace only rarely.Still, that is an awful lot of people! Where is all this lace that they may be making? I recall Lia Baumeister was traveling around with a suitcase of it for a while which she was selling on their behalf. I guess that is proof that she was in contact with them. I also recall an interesting story I once heard from a woman who had hosted some Russian lacemakers attending a lace conference in Western Europe. The women were so stunned by the way of life which was entirely different than they had been told it was by authority figures in Russia that they were totally unable to participate in the convention. They were going through massive psychological trauma as they realized that they had lived lives of deprivation, all the time being told that living in Western Europe was much worse than lving in Russia. Years ago, I visited western China where we saw people, the Kazaks, living in yurts raising horses and herding animals. Through an interpreter we asked whether they were part of some collecitive. The man, who was living much as his tribal ancestors had, told us that there was some collective, the name of which he couldn't recall, that they were theoretically a part of. But that the collective didn't bother with them and they didn't bother with the collective. I still am not sure what to make of this communication except to conclude that there are some things huge monolithic governments consider lost causes. I wonder if the lacemakers fall into this category. Devon wondering if the Vologda Lace Organization is a lean mean lace producing machine, or a hollow shell
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