Our Trip to Russia - Summer 1997

Natasha and I spent a little over a month in Russia last summer, my first visit to her homeland.  There we had a traditional Russian wedding, I met her family, and got to see what life is like in the Komi Republic.  I also engaged in some poli-sci research, interviewing about 40 people on their political views.  It was an enriching and enlightening experience.

We arrived at the Moscow airport on June 14th, 1997 and spent two days in Moscow. Natasha has some friends there, and they made us feel at home. We didn't really have time to explore the city, but we did see the Red Square and the "major" sites. It's a big, clean, city, celebrating it's 850th anniversary. It's also, once you get away from Red Square, a rather ugly city, with uncreative architecture and run down sections of town where poverty is evident. Moscow has a lot more money and a lot less poverty than anywhere else in Russia, but that isn't really saying much. People don't go out on the streets at night due to the fact that it is unsafe, especially for Americans. It's easy to see the downside of the transformation. Moscow has gone from a safe, predictable city to one dominated by the mafia, criminals, and a corrupt government.

The new system is divided between the very rich and the very poor, without a large middle class. That, combined with a huge government bureaucracy makes it seem almost as if the worst of capitalism has been combined with some of the worst of communism. Still, the people there say things are better than they used to be, and the city did seem bustling, with kiosks and stores popping up, and people out and about. I didn't have enough time there to get more than basic impressions.

After that we took a 26 hour train ride to Syktyvkar, capital of the Komi Republic, northeast of Moscow. It's quite aways north -- similar to Alaska -- and the train ride was pleasant as we had a compartment to ourselves. We could recover from jet lag, have a little dinner, and enjoy the countryside.

Syktyvkar is a city of about 250,000, and is a relatively pleasant place. It's very green, though nobody mows the grass anywhere, so it is an unkept green. Syktyvkar is also an easy city to learn one's way around, and I found it a pleasant place. Natasha's folks live in a nice apartment on the edge of town. Although the building looks drab, their apartment is nice. Her dad works for an oil company as an economist, so he gets paid regularly. Many people in Russia don't -- some haven't been paid for half a year, and only survive by keeping up gardens and selling things. Natasha and I also had our own apartment for the month there, across the street from her parent's place. It's where Natasha would have lived if she had come back to live permanently. It was nice to have our own place and a little privacy.

Daily life was sometimes a bit arduous, however. The water stunk -- literally. You had to boil tap water to drink it, and I never really felt clean after a shower. For one week we had no hot water -- two days of that, no water at all. Luckily there had been warning, so we could fill the bathtub the day before so we had water for the toilets, etc. But one gets used to that sort of thing quickly. The stores were also interesting. They had literally ten grocery stores within a mail of Natasha's apartment, but all of them were very small, with not much of a selection. To go shopping, one often had to go to three or four stores before finding what one sought. Still, I like grocery stores, and would enjoy those little time consuming trips.

The worst was the bureaucracy. Natasha had to change her passports (both an internal and an external one -- both still saying "Soviet Union" on them), and that meant getting stamps, permission slips, and the like. At one point she was told she had to register at a Syktyvkar address, and to do that she had to pay a bill, but to pay the bill she had to be registered...even my attempt to register with the police (required by my visa) meant going to two places, and then to a bank to pay a small fee. Crazy. To both get married in Russia (the US wedding doesn't have legal standing there) and get her passports we spent about seven working days running errands. That included dealing with her institute there (they expelled her unfairly for not coming back to teach, even though she had no requirement to do so), but overall the bureaucratic hassles were trying. One really sees that the old bureaucracy of the Soviet era lives on, the people at those posts are the same ones that were there before, and they are not consumer friendly. Natasha got a permanent residency visa for the US with less hassle than just changing the name on her passport there. In fact, if Natasha's family didn't have contacts, it would have taken three months to change passports -- she'd still be there waiting!

The Russian wedding ceremony, however, was great. It had two parts. The official ceremony was in old Soviet style. One goes to "Zags" (pronounced more like 'saks') and has a short, but very beautiful ceremony. The money said some words about love and union, we signed books as did our witnesses, and only the family and a few friends were there. It took ten minutes.  Then in another room we had some champagne and some chocolates, and then drove out to the country to have another champagne toast, and Natasha's brother (my witness) climbed a tree to tie a ribbon on it to symbolize a long life together.

Then came the real celebration, steeped in tradition. We arrived at the restaurant after the guests had gathered, greeted by Natasha's parents.  They gave us a loaf of bread and salt, and we had to dip the bread into the salt, and then feed each other. We then drank a champagne toast, and threw the glasses to the floor, stomping on them. After that I carried Natasha across ribbons symbolizing years to be spent together, she choose a ribbon to describe our marriage -- the three ribbons were upside down -- it could have been patriarchy, equal partnership, or matriarchy...Natasha choose the latter...I think it was rigged ;). We went to the table first, and then invited the guests to join us. After they did, we engaged in an evening of Russian folk songs, games, dances, and other traditional Russian celebrations. The rule of thumb at a Russian wedding is one bottle of vodka per guest (500 ml), and some people got pretty toasted. We only drank wine, so we did OK. The party moved to our apartment afterwards, and lasted until 4:00 AM with about seven people remaining.

It was a great experience, a real traditional wedding.

The other fascinating aspect was the trip to a small village -- or really two small villages. Although Natasha's family is doing OK, many of her relatives still live in the countryside, and there I saw some real poverty.  In Pomozdina, about four hours from Syktyvkar, conditions were the worst.  We met one aunt who is raising three children. Neither her nor her husband can find a steady job. She has a cow and sells milk, but they don't get much money. She looked like she was about 50, her face and hands wrinkled and weathered by the sun, but was only 33. It was a hard life there. Still, the village itself was beautiful, out in the country, with a stream running through it. We had the traditional Russian bagna (bathhouse/sauna), since the villages have no plumbing, and of course toilets were outhouses. At 3:00 the cows came home, and that seemed the main event in the village. I met some interesting people there, including some older people who were distressed by how their savings and pensions had withered away. At least two old men, world war II vets, told of how they had saved their whole lives to get 15,000 rubles (enough to travel, buy a car, and live comfortably back in 1990), only to see their value plummet to $3. Many old people claimed the democrats had ruined the country, and the "Americans, Germans and Jews" were destroying Russia. Most in that village had voted communist and will likely continue to do so. When I left and thanked the woman, I noticed she couldn't look in my eyes. She felt embarrassed and nervous about meeting "an American." That made me feel bad, but what could I do? Their kids were friendly and open, especially a ten year old girl that hung around us while her brothers played. I hope to see these people again; in fact, I could see trying to spend sometime living there and even writing a book about the place!

In some ways, they were living in a past era, having had a lifestyle that was simple, yet predictable -- and subsidized. That lifestyle has been destroyed, with nothing but poverty to replace it. People are angry and confused, but most respond simply by trying to get by. The village was peaceful and the people friendly -- they even put a good meal on the table for us, including potatoes, some chicken soap, tomatoes, cucumbers, and excellent bread.   Bread was a constant delicacy in Russia, and in the village they still use clay ovens (in fact, in winter children sleep on top of them where it stays warm), which make unbelievably good bread. The bits of anti-western and anti-semetic talk that came from especially older people (though anger was directed mostly at their own government) seemed to reach into Russia's traditional inability to accept modernism and western pluralism/democracy.  Young people don't seem to have the same problems, but one could see especially in the villages how the old question of whether Russia is part of the west or not still exists. And in one village a younger man argued vehemently that Communism had to return. The people needed discipline and control, that's all that works in Russia, he claimed. He also had anti-western and anti-semetic remarks, and preceded to get me as drunk as I have ever gotten by feeding me vodka. The next morning I was deathly sick.

When sober that same guy was much more subdued. Vodka seems to be a release for many Russians. I didn't encounter it as much as I could have, since Natasha's family doesn't drink much. But it was evident when we visited others or heard stories about other people's lives that the drink was ruining the chances many had to try to make the transition.

Of course, it's also understandable. For many people, there seems to be little hope, they don't get paid, life seems drab and uncertain. Vodka is an escape. But by escaping, they can't improve things, it's a dangerous cycle.

Still, I also talked with a Lt. Col. in the army who was very reasonable and friendly, even as he at the same time gave respect to Zhirinovsky and complained about how the government had pulled out of Chechnya. We drank Siberian schnapps together (made with pine nuts and chocolate) and talked both politics and life. He represented another troubling Russian tendancy: to value power and strength above all else. One sees it in the Russian mafia, in the extreme violence in TV programs, and the way they believe the west is. After all, the Soviet government always said the west was a wild mafia prone unsafe world compared to the socialist "utopia," and now some Russians seem to believe that's the best way to go.

Still, I had to come away optimistic. For all the problems, most of the people I met were friendly and open minded. One business women noted that Russia's strength was the same as America's -- that it is a multinational and mutliethnic country, and that only does good for a nation. Many lamented the loss of community spirit and order which the Communist era had created, but few wanted to go back. They felt unable to affect the system, and alienated from politics, hating their government (not in the way Americans complain, but it a real distrust and dislike for government, very intense). They argued that Russia could do so much if only good people could come to power.

Anyway, Russia has a lot to offer -- the trips to Kirov and Pomozdina were absolutely beautiful, the forested country side is alot like Maine's.  They have resources, space, and well educated, intelligent people. If the government can de-bureaucratize, stop the corruption and the mafia, and implement a social safety net to make a more fair and equitable transition to capitalism, it could be a real superpower in the next century -- not just a fake power relying only on a strong military. The people were fantastic, friendly, open, and welcoming. I met so many people, young and old, it was unbelievably exciting.

I'm leaving a lot out...the trip back was interseting, spending a night in the Moscow airport...details of the city of Kirov, meeting Natasha's friends, and even meeting someone in the mafia there! It wasn't the enjoyable, pleasant sort of trip as the ones to Germany have been. There was stress with bureaucracies and other little difficulties. The language barrier was frustrating, though Natasha did a great job translating as much as she could. But it was one of the most interesting, and had many moments that will be etched in my memory forever. I definitely want to go back...but
I MUST STUDY RUSSIAN!

One other note: This summer Natasha's family visits us in Maine!!!! 

All for now!

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