Benson, Vermont

One of the last things I ever expected to read in the obituary for a deceased dissident Soviet theoretical physicist who was active in human rights issues is that he passed away in Benson, Vermont, a tiny town I'm quite familiar with and have passed through many times.

But there is it, Valery Chalidze, 79, 'Soviet Dissident Exile and Advocate of Justice' passes away at 79 in Benson, Vermont.

Benson sits in the western part of the state not too far from the New York state border and Lake Champlain. There is a tow-wire ferry nearby that carries a few vehicles. It just goes back and forth all day, no schedule. It is also free.

The north/south Route 22A runs through Benson. For years and years we would vacation in the Beebe Pond, Lake Hortonia region, in what is known as Hubbardton, the site of a rear-action retreat by Seth Warner during the Revolutionary War that thwarted the advance of the British. There is a Hubbarton battlefield, visitor center, and by all appearances the landscape looks the same as it has since 1776. Route 30, a major north/south state road in the area is known as the Seth Warner Memorial Highway. That's Vermont.

This whole region of small towns and hamlets helps contribute to the ruralness of Vermont. It is considered the most rural state in the Union because of the small towns that dominate the state, creating tiny clusters of population. Google Earth basically shows Benson to be trees. You've driven out of it before you know you've driven into it.

The Benson, et al. area is particularly scenic, especially in the fall. Benson sits south of Orwell, a "large" small town that boasts a bank that is worth going to just plain see. The bank still has wicket windows that make you think Jesse James, or maybe Willie the Actor Sutton once came by and made everyone lie on the floor as they leaped over the iron cage and scooped up the cash.

Orwell has been the subject of a prior post regarding its ordinance about garlic breath and basketball games. A stop at Buxton's the general store is a must.

And while all this sounds quaint, the whole area is just south of Middlebury College, considered a small school Ivy League member noted for languages and economic disciplines that I'm sure attracted visits from Mr. Chalidze.

Mr. Chalidze apparently moved to the Benson area in 1983. After traveling to the United States to give a lecture, the Soviets prevented his return to his homeland. Thus, he took up residence in New York in exile, and eventually moved to Vermont. He never went back to the Soviet Union, despite an olive branch offering from Gorbachev.

He and his wife acquired 500 acres in the Benson area and built homes and raised horses on the properties. Valery's mother had been an architect. His father had been an engineer.

The only other Russian of notoriety that I knew to once live in Vermont was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel-prize winning writer who lived in Cavendish for many years, before moving back to Russia in 1994, where he passed away in 2008. Solzhenitsyn and Chalidze never crossed paths, there being philosophical enmity between the two.

The last hook in all this is that on reading Mr. Chalidze's obituary in the Rutland Herald it was disclosed that a celebration of his life was held at the Fair Haven Inn on January 7. Fair Haven is another town in the area that hugs the New York border and the Fair Haven Inn is more than familiar to us because we've been stopping by there for decades, and continue to do so on Saratoga's Dark Day of Tuesday.

Seen above, the Inn is owned by a Greek couple who have created a Parthenon-looking structure in the ruralness of Vermont. The menu proclaims they are 'poets of fish.' And they are. You will never get a bad meal there.

And I'm sure those who came to celebrate Mr. Chalidze's life were fed well.

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