For some reason, I typed in the name of one of my college professors, from 40 years ago, Paul R. Vaulin, into a search engine. Sad to say, he died in 2007. It’s no surprise, since he was about 89 years old. Still it’s a shock when a part of my past winks out.
I have fond memories of Prof. Vaulin, under whom I studied Russian language and literature for 8 quarters. He was quite a character–a Red Army deserter during WW II, and an ardent anti-communist. He had some very interesting stories that he told in his heavy Russian accent.
I may have met you. Prof. Vaulin brought his son to class one day to exhibit Russian conversation. He spent some time explaining why that informal language was different from what we were finding in our textbook. This was around 1969.
I went to Russia in 2013, but kept my promise to my teacher by not setting foot in Lenin’s tomb and bringing that dirt back to the US on my shoes.
Mr. Gates,
I’m Paul Vaulin’s son, and I’m glad that you enjoyed his book – I was one of the editors of the English translation, and just happened to find an original manuscript among my father’s papers last week.
I hope you see this – I’ll be happy to share my memories of my father!
Leo P. Vaulin
Tamara,
I just came across your post. I’m Paul Vaulin’s son, Leo (Lev), so I’m very interested in meeting a relative.
My email is leovaulin@outlook.com
I look forward to hearing from you!
– Leo P. Vaulin
Hello Mr. Robert Gates!
Are you still interested in Paul petukhov-vaulin writings?
If so, will you contact me, please.
I’m a relative of paul vaulun.
Best regards,
T
Hi Mr. Davidson,
A friend of mine introduced me to Paul Vaulin’s excellent book, the Regiment of Kitezh. The same friend also drove me down to Jordanville to visit the Russian Orthodox community there. I asked him at that time (1995) about Paul Vaulin and he said that he believed that he lived somewhere around Jordanville. The book was my friends and I had to return it to him once I had read it. Raised in an agnostic/protestant home, through my friendship and visits to the local Russian Church, I finally became Russian Orthodox myself.
This year I purchased a copy of it online, it is a copy signed by the author. I am sad to discover that he is deceased. And so is at least one of the preface authors, Dr. Carl E. Todd. In any case, I was researching this mainly because I so cherish this book, the story it contains that I have it in mind to retypeset it and publish it anew in a more worthy form than it was originally. I know that it will never be popular a book and may well end up with a few hundred copies in my basement, but I don’t care. I want to do this. Perhaps in the future it will find more seekers of this kind of book. I was hoping to secure permission from the author to publish this book. You wouldn’t happen to know who to contact in this case, would you?
Finally, you mention in your blog many “interesting stories” that you could relate regarding Paul Vaulin. I would like to have anything you can tell me, both for my own private interest, but perhaps also so that I can include it in the book with a section about his life and final passing. Anything you can do to help will be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Robert Gates