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June 29–July 13, 2007 with Serguei Oushakine, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature. Experience the romance of rail travel and see why it is true that the journey can be as captivating as the destination.

Begun in 1891 by Czar Alexander III and completed by his son Nicholas in 1905, the ambitious project of a rail route from Russia's Pacific port at Vladivostok to European Russia and the eastern provinces has captured the imagination of many western travelers through the past century. Today, the Trans-Siberian Railroad is the heart of the longest continuous rail line on Earth, a destination unto itself for train lovers and cultural travelers alike.

Join Princeton June 29–July 13, 2007, for this legendary journey along the Trans-Siberian Railway aboard the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express and take the Mongolian Route south to UlaanBaatar.

Begin in the metropolis of Moscow, brimming with life after 850 years of history, and board our private cars on the train, designed and adapted—and refurbished in 2006—for the ultimate rail adventure. The journey features stops at charming towns and sites along the way, including Ekaterinburg, Irktusk, and Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest and most voluminous lake, holding 20 percent of the Earth's surface fresh water. Roll through the high Mongolian steppe where Genghis Khan's armies once roamed on horseback. Arrive in the capital city just in time to attend the Naadam Festival. Celebrated for the past 200 years, Naadam is the biggest event of the year in Mongolia, and features horse racing, archery, and wrestling, as well as uniquely Mongolian games, such as "ankle bone shooting."

About the Study Leader

Serguei Oushakine, Assistant Professor in Princeton’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, will serve as Study Leader for this journey.

Born and raised in Siberia, Professor Oushakine received his degree of Kandidat of political science from St. Petersburg State University and went on to teach at Altai State Technical University. He earned his PhD in anthropology from Columbia University and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harriman Institute at Columbia before joining the Princeton faculty in 2006.

In 2000, The Russian Academy of Sciences awarded him its Annual Award for Young Scholars, an annual award, for the best work in the field of social sciences. Having studied history, political theory, gender, and anthropology, Professor Oushakine focuses his current research on transitional periods in Russia’s twentieth-century history and explores cultural manifestations of identity in Soviet and contemporary Russia. Based on fieldwork in Siberia in 2001-2003, his forthcoming book, The Patriotism of Despair: Communities of Loss in Contemporary Russia, documents how the social ties to and identification with the Soviet state became gradually replaced by negatively structured forms of patriotic attachment after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

To make reservations, fill out the form in the brochure or contact Princeton Journeys at (609) 258-8686 or journeys@princeton.edu.