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Acknowledgments
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217 Acknowledgments BY PATRICIA D. SILVER I would like to thank my mother, Dorothy Pray Dunn Barringer, for giving me my grandmother’s letters. To my colleague, Birgitta Ingemanson, I give many, many thanks for all her encouragement, research help, writing, proofreading of the book, and excellent knowledge of Vladivostok. To my niece, Sophie Wadsworth, I give thanks for the wonderful poetry she has written based on her great-grandmother’s letters. I will always be grateful to my Russian friends: Alexander Zemtsov, who organized my first trip to Vladivostok, and Boris I. Vasiliev and his lovely wife Eneida, who made me feel so welcome when I stayed with them in Vladivostok. I also thank Boris for making me an honorary member of the Professors’ Club of Vladivostok. Further, I thank Mikhail Maguta, who arranged for me to use the library at the Geographical Society in Vladivostok and made me a member of that society, and Runar Gareyev, who drove me around to see all of the sights of Vladivostok. To my teachers at Columbia University’s Graduate School, New York, professor Marc Raeff and professor Carol Gluck, for all they taught me about Russia and Japan. I give many thanks to those two dear women, my Russian governesses, Ekaterina Afrakova and Anastasia Artemieva. They began my interest in Russia by teaching me the language and about Russia’s history, culture, food, and needlework. Without these early influences, I would not have had my lifelong interest in Russia. Most of all, I want to thank my dearest husband, Stuart Robinson Silver, MD, for his support, emotionally, financially, and in every other possible way, while I worked on the book. 218 ✴ Acknowledgments BY BIRGITTA INGEMANSON During a walk along Vladivostok’s Pushkin Street in 1992, I came across what seemed like a forgotten home. The big house stood there with its curtains closed, the garden in ruins, and no one coming or going. I saw fences fallen down, paths grown over, and a wild profusion of flowers. When stopping and listening, I could imagine the whispers of the past: sounds coming through the open windows of plates being set for summer meals, the cadences of friends chatting on the garden benches, the little voices of children playing under the trees. And I longed to open the gates and look in, to uncover the soul of this city. It is a great gift that not only Eleanor Pray, with her thousands of letters, but also numerous colleagues, friends, and acquaintances, with their warm, unselfish spirit, have helped open up the windows and gates of Vladivostok. During sixteen visits since the spring of 1990, I have been shown the famous Far Eastern hospitality, the kind interest, and the helpfulness that Mrs. Pray describes so vividly, and that make me feel at home in the city, as if truly I am one of the family. For this bond, which has given my life an inspired new direction, I am deeply honored and grateful. Firstly, I celebrate the great, thoughtful generosity of Stuart and Patricia Silver in sharing Patricia’s grandmother’s letters and photo albums, and in discussing their fascinating information about Vladivostok. Coming into contact with Mrs. Silver by the virtually winged messenger of Petr Brovko was a true case of Russian-style sudba (fate)—it seems to have simply been “meant.” Mrs. Silver made this book possible with her advice, encouragement , and support. Several reliable and patient assistants helped in transcribing Mrs. Pray’s letters to computer files. With all my heart, I thank Tatiana Avdeyeva, Sally Beaton, Gitta Bridges, Marina Tchernokojeva (now Tarasheva), and Shereen Thompson (now Benjamin). They were joyously responsible, and gratifying to work with. My research on the letters has been augmented with the offerings of numerous Vladivostokians who have given interviews, suggested documents, organized field trips, and participated in research discussions. I am indebted to everyone I have met in Vladivostok, and I thank the following for their direct contributions to this book: For logistical arrangements, thanks to V.I. Kurilov, L.P. Bondarenko, E.V. Filimonova, M. Grintsevich, and A.G. Zhidkov at Far Eastern Federal (for- Acknowledgments ✴ 219 merly State) University (DVFU/DVGU); and to V.L. Larin, A. P. Derevianko, and B.M. Afonin at the Institute of the History, Ethnography, and Archeology of the Peoples of the Far East, Russian Academy of Sciences; and to G.P. Turmov and P.P. Unru at Far Eastern State Technical University (DVGTU). For interviews, books, photos...