On Saturday, October 10, 2026, the Carmel Institute organized a trip to George Washington’s Mount Vernon where Professor Fedyashin gave the students an hour-long tour of the museum. And then the group proceeded to explore the mansion and estate.

Before the trip, students read selections from Peter Kolchin’s Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Belknap Press, 1987). American slavery and Russian serfdom both reached the apex of their development in the eighteenth century. As the group toured the grounds with their workspaces and living quarters for the enslaved, Dr. Fedyashin pointed out the similarities and differences between American slavery and Russian serfdom.

The students also read Richard Wortman’s chapter about Catherine the Great in Scenarios of Power (Princeton University Press, 1995), so Dr. Fedyashin placed the material culture with which the Washingtons surrounded themselves into the broader cosmopolitan culture of the Enlightenment which remained remarkably consistent despite the differences in political systems and cultures. The unique collection of eighteenth-century objects in the museum provides multiple insights into the cosmopolitanism of the era of Enlightenment which combined humanistic aspirations and scientific breakthroughs with oppressive socio-economic systems.

Dr. Fedyashin pointed out that Jean-Antoine Houdon’s original bust study of General Washington could not have come about had he agreed to Catherine the Great’s invitation and traveled to Russia in 1785 instead of coming to the US. But the French sculptor found the American experiment more provocative and engaging and spent two weeks in 1785 at Mount Vernon.

Museum visits, concert attendance, and class-trips have been part of the Carmel Institute’s programming since its inception. As Professor Fedyashin has always reminded his students, although our knowledge about the past depends primarily on reading, history must also be walked, seen, touched, smelled, and tasted.

Engaging with the history of political systems and material culture on the page and in museums is the best way to explore the multiple connections between Russian and American history.