When the Soviet Union collapsed, Tatiana Lichtenwalter was at loose ends.
A friend invited her to come to the United States, so she applied for a visa for a half a year and arrived in America in 1992. Seventeen years later, she’s still here.
I decided to stay for good, Lichtenwalter, who lives in Albany, said. `I was fascinated by America.`
As much as Lichtenwalter has embraced her new home, though, she still feels connected to her old one.
`Russia is my motherland,` she said. `I love my culture.`
So, Lichtenwalter gathered up some fellow Russians and started the New Russia Cultural Center. The organization’s aim is to foster an appreciation of Russian folk arts and Russian-American history and culture in the United States.
To that end, the center is sponsoring a Russian winter festival Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Crossings of Colonie. There will be traditional music and dance performances, Russian food, Russian crafts, Russian costumes and games for children.
`It’s a family-oriented event,` Lichtenwalter said. `It’s going to be a really fun time.`
The festival commemorates Masleitsa, or Pancake Week, the Russian celebration of the end of winter and the approaching of Lent, the Christian period of fasting.
`It’s like a Russian Mardi Gras,` Lichtenwalter explained.
She hopes the festival will help introduce the Capital District’s Russian population to the community. There are up to 10,000 Russian-Americans in the area, she said, noting that that figure encompasses people from a number of countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.
Peter Dzyuba, for example, is originally from the Ukraine. In the early 1990s, he was visiting relatives in Australia when he was introduced to Christian icons, sacred images representing Jesus, saints and other religious figures. Having never seen such icons because of the religious oppression in his homeland, Dzyuba was awestruck and decided he wanted to create his own icons.
In 1993, he came to America and enrolled at the Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, about an hour west of Albany, where he became a formal apprentice in the iconography studio. The seminary is a traditional theological college under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
`My diploma work was painting an entire chapel,` Dzyuba said.
After graduating from the seminary, Dzyuba settled in Troy. He set up a studio in his house, allowing him to work from home. He has created icons for Christians in the United States and abroad, and he’s worked with churches and community groups.
Dzyuba also occasionally paints and decorates eggs, as is Russian tradition. He will demonstrate the craft of egg painting at the winter festival.
It’s part of the festival’s emphasis on Russian folk art, which Lichtenwalter believes is `the core` of Russian culture.
`Everything comes from the folk art,` she said. `When I was growing up in Russia, I was surrounded by it. When I moved to the U.S., I missed it.`
Lichtenwalter, who is president of the New Russian Cultural Center, dreams of one day having a building to house the center where folk art and other items can be displayed. For now, the group is essentially a traveling one, hosting programs at local libraries and schools. Lichtenwalter said one of its most popular offerings is Russian language classes.
`Parents want their children to know the language,` she said.
It’s not just Russian-born parents who want their children to speak Russian. Several couples who have adopted children from Russia have enrolled them in classes so they don’t lose their native language.
The New Russian Cultural Center applied for a federal grant not long after its founding three years ago, but `They said, ‘You are just brand new,’` Lichtenwalter said. `We have to show we can do something.`
The winter festival is one of those things. Lichtenwalter noted that organizers are hoping admission, which is $5 for adults and $2 for children, will simply cover the cost of the event. In the future, there will be fundraisers to help pay for a building for the New Russia Cultural Center.
The festival is Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Crossings of Colonie from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For information, visit www.newrussiacenter.org.“