Slavs at the 1939 World's Fair in Queens

The other week, Slavs of New York was lucky enough to join the Municipal Arts Society’s walking tour of Bohemian National and the Sokol Halls, led by Joe Svehlak. Everyone is encouraged to visit Bohemian National Hall, but Sokol Hall is a bit less of a public space so getting inside was a treat.

Just inside the door is a small pub, and among the decorations are five large medallions – one each for Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus (Ruthenia), the five parts of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1939. The guide said they were originally from the Czechoslovak pavilion from the 1939-1940 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

The Munich Agreement was in September 1938, and Hitler invaded on 14 March 1939. Slovakia declared independence on 14 March, and Ruthenia on 15 March (the latter was then occupied by Hungary just about 24 hours later). The rest of Czechoslovakia was reorganized as the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Czechoslovakia would not reemerge until the close of World War II.


So how was there a World’s Fair pavilion for a state that did not exist?

Turns out, the contract with the fair organizers was signed in 1938, and at the time of the Nazi invasion the following March the building was already about half-done. The plans were scaled down, but preparations went forward.

Mayor Fiorello La Guardia emerged as a leading proponent of Czechoslovak independence, quickly meeting with Czechoslovak representatives and assuring that so long as the United States did not recognize the German moves the Czechoslovak envoys would keep their titles and authority. When Nazi Germany (the only major country not participating in the fair) tried to keep the Czechoslovak pavilion from opening, La Guardia set up a “citizens’ committee” to raise funds to help complete the pavilion and its exhibits.

The pavilion became a symbol of Czechoslovak resistance to Nazi domination. Former Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes spoke at the dedication of the pavilion on 31 May, highlighting the struggle of the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpatho-Russians (Rusyns) in Europe and thanking La Guardia, noting that “This pavilion, ladies and gentlemen, is the free and independent Czecho-Slovakia of the near past and the free and independent Czecho-Slovakia of the near future.”

The Czechoslovak pavilion stood between the pavilions of the Soviet Union and Japan. Here’s a description of the finished pavilion from the New York Times on 30 April 1939:

The progress of the country during its twenty-year existence is the central theme, and the products and resources of the land and people are represented and demonstrated – such products as iron, steel, textiles, shoes, beer, hams, Glass blowing and etching are shown. A restaurant and open-air beer garden are included in the project.

Yugoslav pavilion featured a large, illuminated map of the country, as well as a model of the oldest pharmacy in the world, from Dubrovnik. Also highlighted were Yugoslavs who have made contributions to the United States, such as Nikola Tesla and Michael Pupin.

Mayor La Guardia spoke in Croatian, a language he learnt while stationed in the United States Consular Service in Fiume (Rijeka), at the opening of the Yugoslav pavilion in May. Among his comments:

The people of Yugoslavia are generous, kindly and peace-loving. Whenever there is trouble in the Balkans, look for the reason, and it will be found to come from without and not from within. Let the strong and big nations leave the Balkans alone and peace will prevail there.

Among the 60 states participating at the 1939 World’s Fair were three more Slavic states: Yugoslavia, Poland and the Soviet Union.

The

The Polish pavilion was built around the 348th anniversary of the first Polish Constitution, and included – among a wide variety of exhibits – the Jagellonian globe, which is believed to be the first to show the name “America.”

The statue of King Jagiello by Stanisław K. Ostrowski, originally placed in front of the Polish pavilion, is one of the rare artifacts of the 1939-1940 World’s Fair still publicly displayed in New York. The statue now sits in Manhattan’s Central Park, near the Turtle Pond.

The Soviet Pavilion was universally acclaimed as a major highlight of the fair. The building was the tallest on the fairgrounds, other than the iconic Trylon structure. Estimates for its cost ranged from $4 to 6 million, by far the most of any World’s Fair structure. Among the materials used in its construction were nine different sorts of marble brought over specially from the USSR.

The building was topped by a 79-foot-tall worker holding aloft an illuminated red star, nick named Big Joe. After complaints, Fair officials had to put a US flag atop the Parachute Jump (which was later relocated to Coney Island) to ensure it flew higher than the Soviet star.

Exhibits inside included a map of the Soviet Union covered in precious stones, two cinemas, a restaurant, and even a full-scale replica of a portion of Moscow’s Mayakovsky metro station (the station was brand new, having just been completed in 1938).

At the end of the 1939 season, the Soviet Union pulled out of the fair, and its building was taken apart and shipped back to Moscow.

On 3 January 1940, the New York Times ran a story about the dismantling of Big Joe entitled “Soviet Worker at Fair is ‘Purged’” commenting tongue-in-cheek that “Stalin’s extended his purge to the United States yesterday and ‘Big Joe’… was decapitated by a derrick.”

Initially, there were plans to reassemble the pavilion at Gorky Park in Moscow, but this was never done and the final fate of Big Joe and the rest of the exhibits remain a mystery.

Walking Tour: Brighton Beach (with sidetrips to Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend)

Brighton Beach has a long history, but its status as Little Odessa dates from just the 1970s. The relaxation of emigration laws by the Soviet Union saw around 30,000 Russian-speaking Jews settle here and they in turn attracted more Russian-speakers (though perhaps not so many ethnic Russians) after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Today, the neighborhood is one of the most authentically “foreign” in the city.

Take the Q train to Ocean Parkway, and you're at the start of Brighton Beach Avenue. There are not a lot of cultural activities in the neighborhood for the casual visitor – no museums, for example. But the key draw is definitely the vibrant street life, and the exoticness factor from hearing Russian being spoken all around you. Rather than rush from place to place, your best bet really is to just walk along the avenue and take it all in.

Brighton Beach Avenue is home to a huge number of Russian businesses. The first ones truly interesting for the casual visitor are certainly St. Petersburg Books (230 Brighton Beach Avenue) and M&I International Foods (249 Brighton Beach Avenue), and, a bit further down, Russian DVD (269 Brighton Beach Avenue). All are great spots for souvenirs and unique gifts.

Nearby is the famous supper club National (273 Brighton Beach Avenue), but for something a bit more casual try Varenichnaya (3086 Brighton 2nd Street), just around the corner.

You will certainly not want for food in Brighton Beach. Highlights further down Brighton Beach Avenue are Primorski (282 Brighton Beach Avenue), Ocean View Café (290 Brighton Beach Avenue) and Cafe Arbat (306 Brighton Beach Avenue).

At Brighton 4th Street, you can turn right and walk out to the boardwalk where there are a few Russian restaurants with outdoor seating with views of the ocean. Check out Tatiana Grill (Boardwalk at Brighton 4th Street) or Volna Restaurant (3145 Brighton Fourth Street).

Other restaurants celebrate the cuisines of other groups from the former Soviet Union, particularly Georgians, and even Moldovans – Spoon (615 Brighton Beach Avenue) bills itself as the only Moldovan restaurant in the city.

Fed and with shopping bags in hand, you can now head back to the subway station, or go a bit farther afield:

To take a peek at Manhattan Beach, continue along Brighton Beach Avenue, cross Corbin Place and continue along Oriental Boulevard. At the corner of West End Avenue is a branch of Anyway Cafe (111 Oriental Blvd. (at West End Ave), and between Oriental and Hampton on West End is Ukrainian Entertainment (132 West End Ave. Walk up to Hampton and turn left onto Corbin Place, where nearby you'll find Babi Yar Triangle, a small park with memorials to victims of the Holocaust as well as the Jasenovac World War II concentration camp in Croatia.

And if you're up for something a bit more adventurous try the border area between Sheepshead Bay and Gravesend. The Q will get you to Gravesend Neck Road station, and right there is another branch of

Anyway Cafe (1602 Gravesend Neck Road). Not far, at the intersection of Gravesend Neck Road and Sheepshead Bay Road, is a true cultural experience: the Russian Baths of NY (1200 Gravesend Neck Road), with a Soviet hockey theme and a small restaurant inside.

A little further away, at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and Avenue X is the supper club Rasputin (2670 Coney Island Avenue at Avenue X) to cap off your evening with dinner and a show!

Walking Tour: Bedford-Stuyvesant

Bedford-Stuyvesant, in north central Brooklyn, is not an obvious neighborhood to get the Slavs of New York walking tour treatment. While the neighborhood may have been home to some Poles long ago, they did not leave much of a trace. This is the district that elected the first Black woman to Congress – Shirley Chisholm in 1968 – and today it is a major center of African-American life in the city.

Our tour starts at the Classon Avenue G station (this can easily be accomplished together with a visit to Greenpoint, also serviced by the G train). Coming out of the station, walk up Classon towards Kalb Avenue, turn right onto Taaffe Place and you’ll find Sputnik (262 Taaffe Place).

The place lies slightly out of the area normally though of as Bed-Stuy, but it’s close and the burgers are highly recommended. The restaurant has a 1950s space-age theme that has as much in common with the Jetsons as it does with the Russian space program, but has a great vibe.

After a quick bite (the burgers are highly recommended!) head back down to Kalb and keep walking straight, to Nostrand. From there, two streets up is Pulaski Street, one street down is Kosciusko Street. Between Marcy and Dekalb Avenue is the Kosciusko Street Pool, a public swimming pool.

Kazimierz Pulaski (1746-1779) was a Polish nobleman who came to the American colonies and rose to the rank of General of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Pulaski does not seem to have been active in New York, but memorials to him abound across the United States. Aside from this street, the Pulaski Bridge between Greenpoint and Long Island City is also named for him. Pulaski Day is celebrated on the Sunday closest to 11 October with a massive parade down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Kosciusko Street is named for Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746-1817), a major figure in the American – and Polish – wars of independence. Though he is not known to have spent much time in New York (he was, however, the chief engineer at West Point, and his one-time home in Philadelphia is a National Memorial), he has also given his name to the Kosciuszko Bridge, over the Newtown Creek between Brooklyn and Queens.

Kosciuszko is also the only Slav honored in the New York City subway system - the Kosciusko Street J train station. When you’ve finished exploring the neighborhood, walk down to Lafayette Street and hop the #38 bus to catch the train!

Update: Recent News

As we're catching up on our blogging, here's a selection of recent news:

Stalin on Cooper Square

The Cooper Union's main building on East Seventh Street is displaying a 1952 Picasso portrait of Stalin, part of an exhibit entitled Stalin by Picasso or Portrait of Woman With Mustache by Lene Berg. The exhibit runs through 6 December. The New York Times notes that Stalin joins the statue of Lenin atop the Red Square building on East Houston Street and links to a 1997 note explaining how that statue got there.

And while you're checking out the Cooper Union exhibit, check out the Slavs of New York East Village walking tour as well!

Hot Kielbasa!

Meanwhile, in Greenpoint… Sikorski Meat Market got busted last month for serving up cocaine when customers ordered “hot kielbasa.” The Brooklyn Eagle reports that 26 defendants now face between 10 years and life in prison. And, it turns out the FBI and NYPD have a Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force operating in the city – who knew?

The Mosque?

Another controversy last month concerned an “ironic” hipster bag produced by Brooklyn Novelty that features Greenpoint, and shows the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration labeled as “The Mosque.” New York Shitty broke the story, and the New York Post followed up with unhappy comments from clerics at the church. The bag remains on sale…

Future of Protection Cathedral

Finally, big changes are afoot at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Curbed reports that the church, currently being considered for landmark designation, is looking to put an eight-storey residential structure above the existing building.

(Cooper Union photo: Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times; Photo of Rev. Wiaczeslaw Krawczuk from the New York Post)

Walking Tour: The East Village

Start at Union Square, and walk east along the northern side of 14th Street. You will soon hit a small shop, Russian Souvenirs (227 14th Street), between Second and Third Avenues. The shop has seemingly been there forever, and is a great place for traditional Russian arts and crafts, and Soviet kitsch.

Once you hit Second Avenue, you can walk north one block to Stuyvesant Square (not really part of the East Village, but close enough), where you will find the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic church of St. Mary (246 East 15th Street), dating from 1964.

Diagonally across the park, at East 17th Street and Nathan D. Perlman Place is a bust of Czech composer (and Slav of New York, at least for a time in 1892) Anton Dvořák by Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Meštrović

Leaving Stuyvesant Square, the Slavic heart of the East Village unfolds southward down Second Avenue. On the west side of the street, you pass the Ukrainian Orthodox Federal Credit Union (215 Second Avenue) and then the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (203 Second Avenue), and across Second Avenue on the east side are the diner Little Poland (200 Second Avenue), and the Jozef Pilsudski Institute of America in the Polish National Home (180 Second Avenue).

One of the most important blocks for our purposes is Second Avenue between St. Mark’s Place and 9th Street. On the northeast corner you’ll find the popular Ukrainian diner Veselka Restaurant (144 Second Avenue), and right next door is the Ukrainian National Home (142 Second Avenue). Though there are no windows, the food inside is top notch. Also in the building are the Karpaty Pub, and Lys Mykyta bar.

A couple doors down is a building with an impressive medallion of Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko but no other signage (136 Second Avenue). Inside are the Dibrova Social Club (CYM) and the Ukrainian Free University Foundation Inc. Across the street you’ll find the last of the great Slavic meat markets, Baczynsky’s (139 Second Avenue, note that it is closed until September 2008).

One more block down, you’ll see the small Polish diner Stage Restaurant (128 Second Avenue), and a few doors down the Ukrainian Sports Club (122 Second Avenue).

From here, cross Second Avenue and continue west along East 7th Street to find the cultural center of the local Ukrainian Community. The landmark St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church (30 East 7th Street) dates from 1977, but a much older structure, St. George Ruthenian Catholic Church, once stood on the same spot. On the north side of the street is the excellent Surma Book & Music Store (11 East 7th Street), well worth a visit.

Take the short side street Taras Shevchenko Place next to the church down to 6th Street. You’ll find St. George Academy (215 East 6th Street) on the corner, and walking east toward Second Avenue you’ll find the new Ukrainian Museum (222 East 6th Street). Check out the latest exhibits, and make sure to visit the gift shop (though the selection at Surma is much wider).

Now walk back out to Second Avenue, cross to the east side of the street and walk north a few doors. You’ll see a building with a Cyrillic inscription that is the Self Reliance Federal Credit Union (108 Second Avenue). Turn onto 7th Street and walk east towards First Avenue.

A newcomer to the Slavic world of the East Village is the Polish-themed bar Klimat (77 East 7th Street), with a wide selection of beer and wine from Slavic countries, as well as traditional Polish food. Next door is the stalwart Ukrainian bar Blue and Gold (79 East 7th Street). If you’re interested, you can continue along 7th Street and pick up the Slavs of New York Walking Tour of Alphabet City to venture further.

Otherwise, on First Avenue between 6th and 7th Street you’ll see the restaurant Polonia (110 First Avenue), and between St. Mark’s Place and 9th Street is First Avenue Pierogie & Deli (130 First Avenue).

Around the corner is the Slovenian parish of St. Cyril (62 St. Mark's Place), a reminder that the East Village historically was much more than Ukrainians, Rusyns and Poles. Earlier times also saw vibrant Bulgarian, Czech, Slovak, and, yes, Slovene communities (among others).

Walk back to Second Avenue and continue south. An interesting sight is KGB Bar (85 East 4th Street), just around the corner. The building in a previous life was the home to the Ukrainian Communist Party in the United States, but today is home not only to the bar but also the Kraine Theatre.

Further down Second Avenue is the Russian Anyway Cafe (34 East 2nd Street), and between First and Second Avenues is the Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection (59 East 2nd Street). Formerly a Russian-oriented parish, the church today takes in a wider audience. The building was originally the Mt. Olivet Memorial Church, and became an Orthodox church in 1943.

Continuing along East 2nd Street and crossing First Avenue you’ll find the small shop Arka - Ukrainian Arts (26 First Avenue). The store keeps somewhat irregular hours – right now, they’re open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

At the end of First Avenue is Little Veselka, which operates out of a kiosk in First Park, between 1st Street and Houston Street. Seating is available in the park.

And finally, if you’re feeling adventurous, walk down Houston and you’ll find the apartment complex Red Square (250 East Houston Street) between Avenues A and B. On the roof is a statue of Lenin rescued from the last days of the Soviet Union.

For some good background on the Ukrainians of the East Village, check out "Ukrainian East Village: A Shortened Oral History of an Immigrant Neighborhood” from the New York Press back in 2001. And for something a bit more substantial, taking in Ukrainians, Poles, Russians and Carpatho-Rusyns (Carpatho-Russians), try Yuri Kapralov’s Once There Was a Village, documenting the author’s time in the neighborhood in the late 1970s.

Forum of Slavic Cultures finally online!

Founded in 1994, the Forum of Slavic Cultures has only recently debuted on the internet. The international cultural organization unites representatives from all 13 Slavic countries to join forces to promote Slavic cultures at home and abroad. The organization is based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The Forum's members are: Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, with The Czech Republic as an observer status. Attention is also paid to Slavic minorities in non-Slavic countries, including the Lusatian Sorbs in Germany.

While the Forum has a variety of projects, among the most pressing right now are those designed to highlight Slavic cultures in Brussels in honor of Slovenia's current stint as the first Slavic president of the European Union.

So far, no activities have been planned for New York, but Slavs of New York is nevertheless very proud to be among the Forum's links!

Little Odessa on Gridskipper

The kids over at Gridskipper put up a useful map and guide to Brighton Beach - New York's Little Odessa - this week. Most of the sea-side neighborhood's 350,000 residents are from the former Soviet Union, and virtually all of the local shops and restaurants cater to the community.

Among the sites featured are the grocery store M&I International Foods (249 Brighton Beach Avenue), supper clubs National (273 Brighton Beach Avenue) and Rasputin (2670 Coney Island Avenue), the massive St. Petersburg Book Store (230 Brighton Beach Avenue) and a few restaurants.

The major find, however, is Gambrinus Bar (3100 Ocean Parkway). Though all of Brighton Beach carries the tag "Little Odessa," this is the real deal: it is modelled after an actual bar in Odessa with the same name. Among its other draws, it features a German-style beer hall just off the boardwalk, with the requisite array of beers.

Russia Today on Time Warner Cable

As of the end of August, Russia Today is now available to viewers in New York and New Jersey as Channel 135 on Time Warner Cable.

Russia Today is an English-language 24-hour news channel providing a Russian view on world events. It started broadcasting in December 2005 and has bureaus in Moscow, Kiev, Vladikavkaz, Tbilisi, London, Paris, Washington, New York, Jerusalem and Cairo.

The station was founded by the Russian national television service RIA Novosti and is somewhat controversial for its close ties to the Kremlin.

If you don’t have Time Warner Cable, you can also check out the station’s programs on YouTube.

Reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church

Yesterday, the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church and the New York-based Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) reunified after 90 years. The ceremony was held on 17 May at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral.

There, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksey II and ROCOR Metropolitan Lavr formally signed a document restoring relations and then celebrated a joint service.

ROCOR broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia when the Revolution began in 1917. White Russian bishops set up a separate Church body first in Stavropol, then in Karlovac in Yugoslavia. The body moved to its current headquarters on East 93rd Street in Manhattan in the late 1930s.

ROCOR today claims 500,000 members in over 30 countries. The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest Orthodox Church in the world.

Ties with Moscow were severed completely in 1927, when the then-Patriarch of Moscow formally declared his loyalty to the Soviet regime. Supporters said he acted to preserve the Church in Russia; opponents saw it as treachery.

Even though the two Churches will now be reunified, the ROCOR will maintain its separateness. In fact, it seems that little will actually change other than ROCOR acknowledging the leadership of the Patriarch of Moscow.

Of course, now there is the risk of ROCOR believers resisting the reunification and splitting of themselves, but talk of that is being downplayed. Another controversy concerns the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

End of Siberia

Last week marked the end of Siberia, the vaguely Sovietesque bar just beyond Port Authority. The Village Voice covered it in its "The Fall of a Perfect Dive."

The bar closed once before, but this time seems to be for real. Previously, it was located in the subway station at 50th street and Broadway, and had served in the past as a KGB drop point – if the rumors are to be believed.

Check out the Village Voice’s slideshow of the bar’s last night.

Photo: Tricia Romano for the Village Voice

Reservations for the Russian Tea Room

New York Magazine's food blog Grub Street (First Look Inside the Russian Tea Room) has come up with the first photos of the Russian Tea Room (150 West 57th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues), just ahead of its reopening Wednesday morning.
The restaurant will be open from 7:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, 10:30 to midnight on Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, with a menu ranging from breakfast to tea to elaborate dinners.

Reservations are being accepted from Friday on – Restaurant Girl already snagged hers, but gave no clue as to what the number is but the New York Magazine review says it’s 212-974-2111.

Previously on Slavs of New York: Russian Tea Room Reopening

(Photos: Jed Egan for New York Magazine)