Back, but Not to the U.S.S.R.

On the sweltering afternoon of July 8, more than 100 onlookers crowded Winthrop Street to watch the Lowell House bells descend...

[extra:Extra]

Hear a last ringing of Lowell House's old bells.

[video:https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/media/Bells.mp3 width:220 height:20]

On the sweltering afternoon of July 8, more than 100 onlookers (cell-phone cameras at the ready) crowded Winthrop Street to watch the Lowell House bells descend. After arriving at Harvard 78 years ago as refugees from Stalin’s anti-clerical campaign, the bells were returning to Moscow’s Danilov Monastery. While monks conducted a service, the crowd also got a peek at Lowell’s new Russian bells, resting on a nearby truck bed, waiting their turn to ring out over Cambridge.

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