A few weeks ago, one of The Christian Science Monitor's foreign correspondents, eighteen-year Monitor veteran Marshall Ingwerson, was invited to share with Mother Church employees some of his impressions of the Russian people during the two years he has been reporting from Moscow. He spoke informally to several hundred members of staff one lunch hour during a visit he made to Boston.

In introducing Mr. Ingwerson, Monitor Editor David Cook said that many activities of the Church founded by Mary Baker Eddy call for courageous and unselfish service. He cited a passage in Mrs. Eddy's book Miscellaneous Writings in which she says: "I make strong demandson love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results" (p. 250).

"In some cases, foreign correspondents face physical danger," said Mr. Cook. "For example, Marshall and our other Moscow correspondent, Peter Ford, have both been fearless in traveling to Chechnya and reporting on the fighting there. At other times, the sacrifices of our foreign correspondents are less visible. Out of love for the Monitor, they—and their families—show enormous unselfishness in arranging their lives."

After the talk, we asked Mr. Ingwerson to tell us more about his spell of duty in Russia.

BETTER HEALTH FOR SENIORS

"These are fascinating times to watch Russia because so much is at play," he said, "so many choices being made, directions being worked out." This is an ambitious, powerful, well-educated society with some major achievements for world civilization. But when it comes to the most basic questions of how it organizes its government and economy, it is a society that failed. It is starting over.

"That has been cruel for many people," continued Mr. Ingwerson. "It is as if Americans suddenly had Social Security and all corporate pension plans cut to one-tenth their value while personal savings were reduced to dust. Self-sufficient retirees would have to find what work they could or rely on relatives. That has happened in Russia.

"But it has been a healthy awakening for many people as well. I know many young Muscovites who are almost beside themselves with enthusiasm for new jobs and new projects. They feel the world opening up to them, and many of them are moving very, very fast. It is not unusual to find prosperous new businesses headed by twenty-three-year-olds who drive Jeep Cherokees and talk constantly on their cellular phones."

OPEN, GENEROUS PEOPLE

Mr. Ingwerson emphasized that the most important thing that is happening as Russians build new institutions and new social systems is that they form new concepts, new ideals.

"When you have spent some time in Russia, it is obvious that the country is full of people who are decent, open, generous, well educated, and enterprising. I enjoy their company very much. But Russia has been a country full of bad systems. This goes back much further than Lenin and the communist years. It has its roots in how people conceive of the world around them and each other. For example, the Soviets had a thought-model that told them maximum scientific efficiency is achieved through central control. Sadly, it stripped people of control of their lives in many large and small ways."

NEW IDEALS

"But what are the new ideals?" we asked Mr. Ingwerson.

 "The United States and Western Europe are clearly the models," he said. "I have heard even communists in parliament argue their positions using the U.S. as a standard. But few Russians are entirely comfortable with the idea that they should simply adopt the culture of the West. I've spoken to many earnest young people who are anxious that Russia develop its own strengths and not imitate what they see as the crass consumerism of the West, especially the United States. This is the side of America that is more obvious than, for example, the very high levels of church attendance in the U.S.

"The Russians are very conscious of their spirituality," adds Mr. Ingwerson. "It seems strange to Westerners, since the Russians have just spent seventy years under official materialism, but they see theirs as a more spiritual culture than the West's. They define Russian spirituality as a sense of collectivism and through their close identification with the Russian Orthodox Church."

But not many Russians—even especially thoughtful and articulate ones—can carry the idea further than that, he suggests. They are still finding their way. The Soviet years created a deep cynicism in many Russians about the official system and its official truth. The official system didn't work, so people worked around it to make things happen, get things done. Now people see phenomenal levels of corruption and self-dealing in government and business.

YEARNING FOR STABILITY

"At the same time that the Russian people mistrust power," concluded Mr. Ingwerson, "they also yearn for stability. They want to get about their business. They want to invest themselves in a future they can trust.

"A passage in Psalm 40 reads: 'He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings' (verse 2). That's as good a statement as any I can think of, to indicate where Russia is headed. The challenge for Russians, as for all of us, is to know the rock from the clay."

Another perspective—faces are changing

 For another perspective on the Russian people, we telephoned Hildegard Arnesen, a Christian Science practitioner and teacher who spends six months of each year living and working in St. Petersburg.

Speaking from St. Petersburg, Dr. Arnesen suggested that although she may not have the broader view of a foreign correspondent, she did observe people from the grassroots perspective—literally. "About five years ago," she said, "I began to feel change when one day the grass appeared to be greener, flower beds and laws more cared for, and the women who were sweeping the streets had just a little more bounce in their step than was the case in Soviet times.

"The year 1992 was still very difficult. I remember on one occasion, standing near the escalator inside the Sennaya subway station watching the people walk past me in simple, undistinguished garb, unsmiling, self-absorbed, troubled, with faces lost in a world I could not fathom. My heart went out to them, and I began to pray, knowing that they were not a forgotten people, that God deeply loved and cared for each one of them, though they did not seem to know it.

"It was not long before a woman of riper years appeared, expressing her displeasure with life by verbally assaulting the people she passed on her way to the escalator. When she came to me straight in the eye without saying a word and bowed, and then moved on out of sight. Somehow she knew I was praying, and she was touched by it. I was deeply moved by that experience. To me it was evidence of a beautiful, hidden spirituality in contrast to her gruff, acrimonious exterior."

TRUST IN GOD

"Since then," said Mrs. Arnesen, "faces have changed a great deal. An air of self-confidence is emerging. A newly released energy is finding expression in many ways, and it's a strange mix of chaos and creativity. Life is still challenging, but people are helping each other, and the destitute who are driven to beg, receive generously. It is heartening to see such generosity expressed by those who have so little, and to observe this peculiar blend of spirituality, toughness, and resourcefulness."

Mrs. Arnesen remarked that the abundance of missionary activities is having an impact in more than one way. "Whereas in the beginning people were extremely curious and readily joined a wide variety of religious organizations," she said, "the tendency is now to feel duty-bound to return to their own religious roots—Russian orthodoxy. I am happy to say, however, that Russians who are not narrowly indoctrinated by orthodoxy are naturally open to new ideas, especially those of Christian Science. Spiritual healing seems so much more natural to them than to the medically oriented societies of the West. Reading the Bible has become a 'must' for many, and they love the Lord's Prayer. If it were possible, they would wear it out!

"Many of the Russians I meet still swear by their home remedies in the form of herbs," she added, "yet they have a deep faith in God. They love to hear about a God who is able and willing to take away their burdens, including disease, and they have a natural inclination to trust Him."

ISAIAH

As the earth bringeth forth her bud,
and as the garden causeth the things
that are sown in it to spring forth; so
the Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise to spring forth before all
the nations.

Isaiah 61:11