I think I had hoped to write at least every two weeks, but I long ago lost that rhythm. Often I have found it hard to switch my mind to retelling what I am doing instead of just experiencing it, and have often tried to spend extra time with friends… and sometimes watching TV! There is a pretty good channel here that more or less approximates our PBS in its lack of commercials and emphasis on cultural programming, called “Kultura.” When I’m trying to wake up I turn on this channel, which shows European news (dubbed into Russian) until 10am and then shows lots of old Soviet films. In fact, lots of channels show old films from the era of the great government-supported studios Mosfilm and Lenfilm… and although they often have ideological content, they are much more complex than you might suspect from a distance. I saw one that I liked in late summer: a glorification of the building boom in the 1960s that liberated people from communal apartments and seemed wonderful at the time. The film showed several intriguing subplots of professional rivalry and uneducated talents proving their worth.
On the other hand, I do NOT stop to watch all the copies of American programming, such as ‘Stars on Ice’ or ‘Three up Above’ or ‘Supernanny’ or the nanny sit-com. At least they aren’t American versions dubbed into Russian! ‘Friends’ is presented that way. Every once in a while, when I want to hear an American voice, I come across that and try to hear the words before the dubbing kicks in.
The dark time has come here. It is still pretty dark in the morning at 9am, and by 4:30pm it’s evening. Today for the first time in a couple of weeks I can see some blue sky at the top of the closed courtyard that my windows look out into. I am grateful that my central heating has been going full force since I got back from Moscow, but on the other hand the temperature has been in the 40s or a bit higher for almost that long. I come home and put on a t-shirt and yoga pants, and open all the windows. There isn’t any way for me to adjust the temperature at this point!
Since getting back from Moscow about 10 days ago, I have spent part of my time following events surrounding a proposed skyscraper by the company Gazprom. Some of you may have read about this in The New York Times or somewhere else… Gazprom, currently the fourth-largest company in the world (or just oil and gas company? I’d have to check), recently transferred its headquarters to Petersburg (at Putin’s request?) so that its tax money would come into the Northern Capital, as they call it. (Recall that Putin is from Petersburg, and the word is that he wants some of the country’s money to flow here, to raise its prestige.) This inrush of funds has created a situation of unusual excitement around building projects, and Gazprom itself (or rather its CEO Alexei Miller) decided that he wanted an office headquarters to match his significance. He organized an architectural competition for the building and set 300 meters as the minimum height. For the past month, the six semifinal projects were on display in the local Academy of Arts, and city residents were told they could vote. Meanwhile, many residents have been absolutely in a fury over the idea, and NOT because they don’t want new architecture in the city. It’s the height of the building above all that irks everyone.
In case you get the impression that those backward Petersburgers don’t appreciate modernity… What has amazed me over the past two weeks is the level of sophistication with which the average person (who is interested in this situation) can discuss the architectural significance of adding such a tall element to the city’s skyline. Everyone can explain quite clearly that Petersburg is a horizontal city, based on a system of low main structures plus open squares plus a few high points, mostly the spires of cathedrals. The fact that the proposed skyscraper would ruin this horizontal impression from almost any direction stands out, and it’s even worse that the proposed site is right across the river from one of the high points, an 18-th century cathedral in baroque style. The architects did their best to make it seem as though they were taking account of the city’s history; to a great extent they succeeded, in my eyes. But most peple I have talked to say that they need new architecture, they really want it to be built here… just farther away from the historical center of the city, please! If you try to tell them about the Eiffel Tower in Paris, they will remind you about La Defense, the ultra-modern business section of Paris that was deliberately built further away from the city center.
Just yesterday I was talking with a local architect, and it occurred tome that the Eiffel Tower is a terrible analogy for what Gazprom wants to do here. The Eiffel Tower ends up being basically transparent, as is the local TV Tower (another frequently advanced example of why a skyscraper wouldn’t be bad). Beyond this transparency, the Eiffel Tower ends up being basically a public space in its entirety; you have to be able to afford to go into the restaurant, or even up to the top – but anyone can. You can get fond of it, as my acquaintance said; you can say, My Paris, my Eiffel Tower. The Gazprom tower would be off-limits to everyone but Gazprom employees. Most of the architects designed lovely public spaces at the bottom of the tower, but those public spaces assume a lot… that Russian security services would handle them the way that the architects envision, that they could be open on a regular basis in spite of terrorism alerts… In fact, the building’s likelihood to become a target for terrorist attacks is another reason many residents don’t want it.
In general, just so you have this perspective – people are articulate, passionate about their city, and knowledgable. They don’t trust their government system or the way that these things usually turn out… And they also know that the city doesn’t have the firefighting capability to service even a 15-story building, so what would happen if there were trouble one with 50?
I am enjoying and paying attention to certain things that I like about being here, about my familiar routes. Recently I had a good transportation day: in the morning I caught (on the run) a streetcar and rode three stops… It was morning, quiet in the car, the driver announced all the stops ahead of time, and streetcars are my favorite form of transportation anyway… At the end of the day I came back to my neighborhood by metro, and I had my favorite magazine with me and read my favorite (humorous) column on my three or four trips up and down escalators as I descended, transferred lines, and ascended again. Simple pleasures.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Pictures for Daily Life in October, Part 2
First, faces sculpted into the facade of a building where Sbarro pizza is located... A view along the Fontanka canal... And sunset west of Vasilievsky Island. If you look closely, you can see the evening traffic along the embankment.
Pictures for Daily Life in October, Part 1
First, me enjoying the autumn colors from a bench in my favorite park. Second: imperial details on a rare sunny day. Third, the dark facade of Apraskin Yard.
Daily life in October
After a slow period about two weeks ago, the pace of my interviewing is picking up, and I’m also beginning to really enjoy my city life. It’s especially fun when I am able to walk to the place where I need to meet someone. I did this twice last week – I live about 10 minutes on foot from the office of the Committee on City Planning and Architecture, and about 17 minutes from the 19th century palace where the City Legislative Assembly has its sessions. Once again I feel grateful to live in the center, because I get to know new areas of the city. I try to walk on routes that avoid streets with heavy traffic, and I try to cross footbridges and walk along canals as often as possible (I’ll include a picture I took last week). I live near the heart of 19th century architecture, so there’s lots to look at. One of my favorite views is of the somewhat dilapidated lower-class market Apraksin Yard. Its false façade rises high above the street and always makes me think of Dostoevsky, whose Crime and Punishment took place right in this neighborhood. In fact, an acquaintance took me to several “Dostoevsky” locations after an interview I did late last week. We went to the courtyard where Sonia, the novel’s heroine lived; her window looked out into a yellow wall, since the courtyard narrows right there and ends in a point. You can no longer get into the courtyard of the building where Raskolnikov “lived” – there’s a gate across it with a code. Good thing my friend Olga took me there about 10 years ago, although I can’t say there was much to see. I remember it was pretty striking, though, to realize how small his room actually was.
When I am not in too much of a hurry to get somewhere, I like to walk. I feel like I’m at least getting somewhere… Last Wednesday evening I had to travel the entire length of the main part of Nevsky in order to meet up with a friend, and it took me an hour because I tried to take a bus. I should have just walked the whole way! There are no traffic jams on the metro, and a pedestrian can always get through. Among people I interview who drive, the main lament is always the constant traffic jams around the city. Sometimes people are surprised to learn that we have the same problem in most of our cities! Here, the problem results mostly from poor infrastructure: narrow or bad roads, ineffective traffic light rhythms, and inexperienced (or desperate) drivers. There are about 250 cars per 1000 population, parking is almost nonexistent, and there are already serious problems. In the next five years the specialist that I talked to anticipates a doubling of the number of cars per 1000 people. Meanwhile, there isn’t really any need to persuade residents to take public transportation. The main metro lines are frequently packed, with various swarming patterns near the escalators, at the doors to the trains, and at the entrance to certain stations. People would use buses more if they ran more frequently, and if they didn’t get into traffic jams along with all the other vehicles. I still like above-ground public transportation such as buses and streetcars, but they are definitely at the bottom of the transportation totem pole.
On Friday evening I walked home from a seminar I attended on the eastern edge of the city center, and since it was late and I had no plans I decided to spoil myself: I went into Sbarro Italian Eatery near my apartment, and order two slices of pizza and a bottle of Lipton iced tea. As always with such efforts, it didn’t quite work: the pizza had sat too long under a lamp and the half-liter of tea kept me awake for hours. But I also took home a slice of “American cheesecake” and watched TV for a while.
The building in which Sbarro is located has beautiful women’s heads built into the façade. It is often very strange to see Western restaurant chains that I think of as inelegant or second-tier located in these grand old buildings. McDonald’s has that effect on me often; you get the feeling that it’s a chic meeting place here, as is Pizza Hut. Kentucky Fried Chicken has a restaurant right near the Subway on the lower part of Nevsky (Petersburg’s answer to Fifth Avenue) – right across from chic fashion boutiques. My Chinese friend likes going to KFC.
My visiting of Chinese restaurants is going somewhat slowly, more slowly than it should. But I lost heart after a couple of mediocre experiences. A longtime Chinese resident of Petersburg recently told me that Chinese food here is pretty authentic, but I’m sure it still depends where you eat… Fortunately for my research, I had lunch at a really good place last Wednesday. The tofu with green onions was excellent, as was the soup with seaweed and fried eggs. While I was there, a whole group of Chinese visitors came in (tourists? business travelers?) and had a quick lunch – a good indicator! The portions were so huge that I took home 2/3 of the tofu and left behind about a half gallon of soup. I’ll have to get someone to agree to go with me on my next outing. The local yellow pages include 85 Chinese restaurants, but the man I interviewed said that there are at least 150. I’ll try eventually to find out when they were opened.
I think I’m over halfway to my departure. It’s hard to remember the hot days when I first arrived. It’s still not too cold, but cold enough to wish that the central heating would come on in my building too… “Central heating” in most of Russia means a system of pipes that run steam to radiators in each room of apartments all over the city. You can’t control when it comes on, and you can’t regulate the temperature except by wearing a t-shirt or opening a window; you also can’t control when they periodically turn it off (to save some money). The system “gives heat” in a gradual way, and they haven’t gotten around to my building yet… So far I’m OK, but I look forward to the morning when I can put my hand to the big heavy metal radiators and warm myself up. Meanwhile, there’s always tea and jumping jacks.
When I am not in too much of a hurry to get somewhere, I like to walk. I feel like I’m at least getting somewhere… Last Wednesday evening I had to travel the entire length of the main part of Nevsky in order to meet up with a friend, and it took me an hour because I tried to take a bus. I should have just walked the whole way! There are no traffic jams on the metro, and a pedestrian can always get through. Among people I interview who drive, the main lament is always the constant traffic jams around the city. Sometimes people are surprised to learn that we have the same problem in most of our cities! Here, the problem results mostly from poor infrastructure: narrow or bad roads, ineffective traffic light rhythms, and inexperienced (or desperate) drivers. There are about 250 cars per 1000 population, parking is almost nonexistent, and there are already serious problems. In the next five years the specialist that I talked to anticipates a doubling of the number of cars per 1000 people. Meanwhile, there isn’t really any need to persuade residents to take public transportation. The main metro lines are frequently packed, with various swarming patterns near the escalators, at the doors to the trains, and at the entrance to certain stations. People would use buses more if they ran more frequently, and if they didn’t get into traffic jams along with all the other vehicles. I still like above-ground public transportation such as buses and streetcars, but they are definitely at the bottom of the transportation totem pole.
On Friday evening I walked home from a seminar I attended on the eastern edge of the city center, and since it was late and I had no plans I decided to spoil myself: I went into Sbarro Italian Eatery near my apartment, and order two slices of pizza and a bottle of Lipton iced tea. As always with such efforts, it didn’t quite work: the pizza had sat too long under a lamp and the half-liter of tea kept me awake for hours. But I also took home a slice of “American cheesecake” and watched TV for a while.
The building in which Sbarro is located has beautiful women’s heads built into the façade. It is often very strange to see Western restaurant chains that I think of as inelegant or second-tier located in these grand old buildings. McDonald’s has that effect on me often; you get the feeling that it’s a chic meeting place here, as is Pizza Hut. Kentucky Fried Chicken has a restaurant right near the Subway on the lower part of Nevsky (Petersburg’s answer to Fifth Avenue) – right across from chic fashion boutiques. My Chinese friend likes going to KFC.
My visiting of Chinese restaurants is going somewhat slowly, more slowly than it should. But I lost heart after a couple of mediocre experiences. A longtime Chinese resident of Petersburg recently told me that Chinese food here is pretty authentic, but I’m sure it still depends where you eat… Fortunately for my research, I had lunch at a really good place last Wednesday. The tofu with green onions was excellent, as was the soup with seaweed and fried eggs. While I was there, a whole group of Chinese visitors came in (tourists? business travelers?) and had a quick lunch – a good indicator! The portions were so huge that I took home 2/3 of the tofu and left behind about a half gallon of soup. I’ll have to get someone to agree to go with me on my next outing. The local yellow pages include 85 Chinese restaurants, but the man I interviewed said that there are at least 150. I’ll try eventually to find out when they were opened.
I think I’m over halfway to my departure. It’s hard to remember the hot days when I first arrived. It’s still not too cold, but cold enough to wish that the central heating would come on in my building too… “Central heating” in most of Russia means a system of pipes that run steam to radiators in each room of apartments all over the city. You can’t control when it comes on, and you can’t regulate the temperature except by wearing a t-shirt or opening a window; you also can’t control when they periodically turn it off (to save some money). The system “gives heat” in a gradual way, and they haven’t gotten around to my building yet… So far I’m OK, but I look forward to the morning when I can put my hand to the big heavy metal radiators and warm myself up. Meanwhile, there’s always tea and jumping jacks.
A political commentary
A long time has gone by for several reasons. First, the last time I tried to write I was very upset about the situation in Georgia and several conversations with Russian acquaintances about Americans. Second, I panicked about my research and got very involved with that. But so much has happened, and I finally have a quiet day. So here is the “political” entry, including comments about the Russian-Georgian conflict, “ethnic” violence in Kondopoga, and the murder of Anna Politkovskaia.
I’ll repost some of an entry that I wrote in great indignation at the end of September. As commentary to that entry, I would like to point out that another country’s nationalism is very apparent to a visitor, whereas the nationalism of one’s own country seems to disappear into the natural order of things while one lives at home. I like “nationalism” and “patriotism” (as they are typically understood) less and less all the time, and I hope people in every country can relate to those concepts more gently and more creatively. As I wrote in my September 30 Georgia entry, it is annoying to see how much one country’s nationalistic rhetoric resembles another.
Someone sent me a Washington Post editorial about how Russia was oppressing poor democratic Georgia, and those big bad Russians once again are making the world unsafe for democracy. I will write about Politkovskaia in a minute, but first I want to suggest some local reasons why Russians don’t see it that way. To understand the reasons, you have to remember that Abkhazia (a piece of “Georgia” in the northwest right on the border with Russia) wants to be independent of Georgia and also that Russia has military forces on a base there (someone correct me?) that the Abkhazians don’t mind having as a buffer.
First, perhaps most trivially at first glance, Russians used to take their vacations in Georgia and Abkhazia in the days of the USSR. Lots of people have personal memories of being there, but now take their warm-climate vacations in Turkey and Tunisia because it is safer, cheaper, and less hassle (both countries make it easy for Russians to get visas, whereas Georgia does not). Lots of people that I talked to regret the fact that they can’t go there anymore, and feel a little possessive about it.
Second, people in Abkhazia are not all that happy with Georgia. They wanted to be independent too, and Georgia demonstratively does not want that; the Georgian government is unhappy with Russia because the latter has supported Abkhazian claims to autonomy. So you could be cynical about Russia’s position (it is certainly to their advantage that Abkhazia is not happy with Georgia), but you also have to accept that lots of Abkhazians are genuinely grateful for the support. The president of Abkhazia has made official request to the Russian parliament for support.
Third, things are not going all that well in Georgia. A significant portion of the population lives in poverty or near poverty, and the government can’t provide electricity all the time. Saakashvili (the president, who was educated in the West and has a European wife) likes to say that everything is wonderful, but apparently it isn’t. A lot of Georgia’s real income comes from family members who travel to Russia to work and send home part of their earnings. Some commentators think that Saakashvili ratcheted up the volume on this conflict in order to distract people’s attention. (That’s an old trick, yes?)
The average person in Russia loves Georgia. They love Georgian food, Georgian singing, Georgian romance and openness. I read lots of columns criticizing thick-headed politicians for making too big a fuss over the whole thing, and backing themselves into a corner where they have to use more and more severe measures or else lose face. I hear comments about this situation all the time along the lines of “it’s just the politicians fighting, the peoples of Russia and Georgia don’t want to quarrel.”
A lot of people here will say that Russians are nationalist, or perhaps racist, and I think in general that could be true. I’m not sure they are any more nationalist than any other people; maybe it’s the contrast between the high level of education and prejudice that makes it seem like Russians take the prize. But in many ways it’s a stereotype with a strength of its own. For instance, Kondopoga. This town in the Karelian (Finnish) part of Russia northwest of here was the scene of a riot and then a big anti-foreigner meeting at the very end of August. I read lots of pieces about this warning about the deep racism in Russian society; lots of Russians even wrote that. But Friday afternoon I heard a lecture given by a young sociologist who went there two weeks later to try to understand what had happened. He said it was hard to learn any more than was already available from the internet and newspapers, and that he already knew all the versions of the situation from those sources. His experience did, however, lead him to believe that the conflict was not about ethnicity as much as it was about drunkenness and local loyalties (someone in the pub at the wrong time – 3am), and certainly did not lead him to believe reports that some kind of Chechen mafia controlled the local market. His main conclusion was that people with various motives have been using this situation ever since for their own purposes (whether to constrain Chechens and Georgians in other markets, or to prove that Russians are racists), and that the residents of the town itself were surprised at how much press the incident garnered in succeeding days. It seemed to him that the mainstream Russian media is on the lookout for proof that the country could explode any day into ethnic conflict, and latch onto any evidence that presents itself. He also suggested that today’s Russian “nationalists” speak about democracy in a way that they didn’t in the 1990s (without irony), and that they are trying to gain access to public discourse about power structures and decision-making. So, I won’t suggest that this means that the picture is rosy, but it does mean that it’s more complicated.
Right about the same time, Andrei Kozlov was shot down in Moscow – a deputy minister for something to do with economic reform. At the time, I remember thinking that that was the more serious incident, and the murder a week ago of Anna Politkovskaia confirms that impression. As several journalists here have written, the fact that so many prominent journalists and officials have been murdered since Putin came to power points to several things. Among them is the sense that Russian society is not governed by respect for law. We sort of knew that – we assume that American society, as British society before it, is based on laws and respect for them. The murders of Kozlov and Politkovskaia, again as several people have written, suggest that a group of people close to power believe that violence is a good way to resolve situations, and that people who irritate the system should just be removed. That’s much more chilling that Kondopoga.
An acquaintance of mine made the comment a while ago that most people in Russian society have little experience with compromise. Partly this is due to the historical belief that final decisions should be unanimous; that everyone should agree; that the person in charge channels the agreement of the whole; thus that if you disagree, you are going against the interests of the whole and become dangerous. If you listen to what Putin said about Politkovskaia while he was in Germany, you see that he didn’t speak about her work: he called her a mother and a wife, and that it was criminal to kill such people. Subtext: her place really was at home as a wife and mother, and if she had been doing her part to further the collective interests of Russian society this wouldn’t have happened. (And by the way, we’ll look into it a little bit.) The emphasis on collectivity of political will and thought goes very deep. Someone else remarked to me recently that if a Russian were to examine the US Constitution and see how many powers are allowed to the states, he would be sure that the US would fall apart tomorrow. Thus, partly, the belief that Russia shouldn’t really be a federation (which is what has happened in practice: it isn’t).
Much as I have always wanted to be more positive than negative about what is going on here, things are definitely seriously troubling. But this is the work of part of the population, and most of the folks that I am meeting are amazing examples of people trying to work within the space that is left to make new possibilities for themselves and other people. So, if you find yourself remarking out loud about the “Russians,” it might be worth substituting “the Russian power elite” or at least “the Russian government.”
I’ll repost some of an entry that I wrote in great indignation at the end of September. As commentary to that entry, I would like to point out that another country’s nationalism is very apparent to a visitor, whereas the nationalism of one’s own country seems to disappear into the natural order of things while one lives at home. I like “nationalism” and “patriotism” (as they are typically understood) less and less all the time, and I hope people in every country can relate to those concepts more gently and more creatively. As I wrote in my September 30 Georgia entry, it is annoying to see how much one country’s nationalistic rhetoric resembles another.
Someone sent me a Washington Post editorial about how Russia was oppressing poor democratic Georgia, and those big bad Russians once again are making the world unsafe for democracy. I will write about Politkovskaia in a minute, but first I want to suggest some local reasons why Russians don’t see it that way. To understand the reasons, you have to remember that Abkhazia (a piece of “Georgia” in the northwest right on the border with Russia) wants to be independent of Georgia and also that Russia has military forces on a base there (someone correct me?) that the Abkhazians don’t mind having as a buffer.
First, perhaps most trivially at first glance, Russians used to take their vacations in Georgia and Abkhazia in the days of the USSR. Lots of people have personal memories of being there, but now take their warm-climate vacations in Turkey and Tunisia because it is safer, cheaper, and less hassle (both countries make it easy for Russians to get visas, whereas Georgia does not). Lots of people that I talked to regret the fact that they can’t go there anymore, and feel a little possessive about it.
Second, people in Abkhazia are not all that happy with Georgia. They wanted to be independent too, and Georgia demonstratively does not want that; the Georgian government is unhappy with Russia because the latter has supported Abkhazian claims to autonomy. So you could be cynical about Russia’s position (it is certainly to their advantage that Abkhazia is not happy with Georgia), but you also have to accept that lots of Abkhazians are genuinely grateful for the support. The president of Abkhazia has made official request to the Russian parliament for support.
Third, things are not going all that well in Georgia. A significant portion of the population lives in poverty or near poverty, and the government can’t provide electricity all the time. Saakashvili (the president, who was educated in the West and has a European wife) likes to say that everything is wonderful, but apparently it isn’t. A lot of Georgia’s real income comes from family members who travel to Russia to work and send home part of their earnings. Some commentators think that Saakashvili ratcheted up the volume on this conflict in order to distract people’s attention. (That’s an old trick, yes?)
The average person in Russia loves Georgia. They love Georgian food, Georgian singing, Georgian romance and openness. I read lots of columns criticizing thick-headed politicians for making too big a fuss over the whole thing, and backing themselves into a corner where they have to use more and more severe measures or else lose face. I hear comments about this situation all the time along the lines of “it’s just the politicians fighting, the peoples of Russia and Georgia don’t want to quarrel.”
A lot of people here will say that Russians are nationalist, or perhaps racist, and I think in general that could be true. I’m not sure they are any more nationalist than any other people; maybe it’s the contrast between the high level of education and prejudice that makes it seem like Russians take the prize. But in many ways it’s a stereotype with a strength of its own. For instance, Kondopoga. This town in the Karelian (Finnish) part of Russia northwest of here was the scene of a riot and then a big anti-foreigner meeting at the very end of August. I read lots of pieces about this warning about the deep racism in Russian society; lots of Russians even wrote that. But Friday afternoon I heard a lecture given by a young sociologist who went there two weeks later to try to understand what had happened. He said it was hard to learn any more than was already available from the internet and newspapers, and that he already knew all the versions of the situation from those sources. His experience did, however, lead him to believe that the conflict was not about ethnicity as much as it was about drunkenness and local loyalties (someone in the pub at the wrong time – 3am), and certainly did not lead him to believe reports that some kind of Chechen mafia controlled the local market. His main conclusion was that people with various motives have been using this situation ever since for their own purposes (whether to constrain Chechens and Georgians in other markets, or to prove that Russians are racists), and that the residents of the town itself were surprised at how much press the incident garnered in succeeding days. It seemed to him that the mainstream Russian media is on the lookout for proof that the country could explode any day into ethnic conflict, and latch onto any evidence that presents itself. He also suggested that today’s Russian “nationalists” speak about democracy in a way that they didn’t in the 1990s (without irony), and that they are trying to gain access to public discourse about power structures and decision-making. So, I won’t suggest that this means that the picture is rosy, but it does mean that it’s more complicated.
Right about the same time, Andrei Kozlov was shot down in Moscow – a deputy minister for something to do with economic reform. At the time, I remember thinking that that was the more serious incident, and the murder a week ago of Anna Politkovskaia confirms that impression. As several journalists here have written, the fact that so many prominent journalists and officials have been murdered since Putin came to power points to several things. Among them is the sense that Russian society is not governed by respect for law. We sort of knew that – we assume that American society, as British society before it, is based on laws and respect for them. The murders of Kozlov and Politkovskaia, again as several people have written, suggest that a group of people close to power believe that violence is a good way to resolve situations, and that people who irritate the system should just be removed. That’s much more chilling that Kondopoga.
An acquaintance of mine made the comment a while ago that most people in Russian society have little experience with compromise. Partly this is due to the historical belief that final decisions should be unanimous; that everyone should agree; that the person in charge channels the agreement of the whole; thus that if you disagree, you are going against the interests of the whole and become dangerous. If you listen to what Putin said about Politkovskaia while he was in Germany, you see that he didn’t speak about her work: he called her a mother and a wife, and that it was criminal to kill such people. Subtext: her place really was at home as a wife and mother, and if she had been doing her part to further the collective interests of Russian society this wouldn’t have happened. (And by the way, we’ll look into it a little bit.) The emphasis on collectivity of political will and thought goes very deep. Someone else remarked to me recently that if a Russian were to examine the US Constitution and see how many powers are allowed to the states, he would be sure that the US would fall apart tomorrow. Thus, partly, the belief that Russia shouldn’t really be a federation (which is what has happened in practice: it isn’t).
Much as I have always wanted to be more positive than negative about what is going on here, things are definitely seriously troubling. But this is the work of part of the population, and most of the folks that I am meeting are amazing examples of people trying to work within the space that is left to make new possibilities for themselves and other people. So, if you find yourself remarking out loud about the “Russians,” it might be worth substituting “the Russian power elite” or at least “the Russian government.”
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Gazprom on Nevsky: move over, Pepsi
The photo above shows a new shiny Gazprom symbol (natural gas flame) on top of a prominent building on Nevsky Avenue -- instead of the variation on ads for Pepsi that had been there since 1990 at least (I'll add old pictures of that soon). Gazprom, virtually synonymous with Moscow--Russia--Russian power, also wants to construct a business center just east of the historic downtown here, complete with a 300-meter tall skyscraper -- a plan that has locals in a frenzy, because that height would spoil the local skyline and the historical architectural tradition. (It's also unclear that the local geology would support the weight.)
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Daily trajectories
The week since Scott left has been busy. I hope in general to update my comments every week on the weekend, but this past weekend I had local tasks that all took longer than I expected! So it goes. Almost right away I got the chance to help a local environmental organization with some GIS (electronic mapping) work: they are preparing information for the public about green spaces that have been lost to unregulated construction, and the lost spaces needed to be added to the digital map. I had a list of them along with old pictures of how they looked from above, where there were trees etc. It was a great way to get to know the city better, since I wasn’t familiar with all the parks and street names. So far there were 30 locations, and my contact in the organization says there are likely to be more.
About a block from where I live there has been a running street spectacle since a few days before Scott left. At the intersection of Sadovaya and Gorokhovaya streets (both of which Scott learned to pronounce perfectly) the street lights went out. Both streets are significant arteries around the center of the city, so you would think that they would fix it immediately, but there was no sign of that for a week. Two days ago it seemed they had it on again, but today I noticed that all the little screens were black. This means (the street spectacle part) that the cars and pedestrians have to negotiate spontaneously how everyone is going to get across the intersection, and in what rhythm. The traffic along Sadovaya seemed to dominate most of the time, so cars would back up along Gorokhovaya in both directions along with pedestrians on the corresponding corners. It interested me that the pedestrians were usually the ones to give the signal. After a certain accumulation of frustration, the collection of people would surge slowly into the street. One more car might squeeze through, but then it was all over for them (because who is going to run over 100 people?) and they had to wait until the flow of pedestrians thinned. The cars going along Gorokhovaya had then to catch their opportunity and drive through before the aggressive flow down Sadovaya took over once again. I wish I could film it from above.
Today I bought a loaf of bread for my friends, since I was there for breakfast and ate my share of slices. Before you couldn’t buy pre-sliced bread in plastic bags; you bought it fresh at a bakery and sliced it yourself all the time. Now you can do either. In line with me at the little 24-hour store (tucked into a basement space of an old building along Moskovskii Avenue) were a large number of teenagers or twenty-somethings… maybe on break from their classes in a nearby institute. A lot of them were buying Cheetos and Lay’s potato chips and soft drinks – other things that of course didn’t used to be here.
I have a few choices of places to buy food. My favorite is called Dieta, and it’s a block and a half away along Sadovaya. The system there is the old Soviet one: at the main counters, you have someone weigh up what you want to buy, find out how much it costs, pay the cashier, and return with your receipt to collect your cheese, butter, sour cream, meat, etc. The quality of things is very good there, and they also have numerous small counters (where you pay the person who serves you) which sell pre-prepared foods, like a deli. I’ve gotten good salads there and small servings of meat. But a few evenings ago I really wanted my favorite kind of cookies, called praniki, which they don’t sell at Dieta. So I went further, a couple of blocks north on Gorokhovaya. I got my chocolate praniki and also some prepackaged Finnish butter and local sweet cottage cheese with raisins.
The cashiers at many places (the ones with less custom) at quite aggressive about what kind of change they want to give you. My best guess is that, for some reason, they sort of husband out certain sizes of bills, and don’t like to give certain sizes away all the time. It makes for funny shopping. Today, for instance, I bought a loaf of bread for 15.50 rubles, and gave the cashier 20.50. “Don’t you have 5 rubles?” she asked, looking at my little coin purse. I did, and so I gave her that instead of the second 10-ruble bill. People are constantly asking this: “Don’t you have a ten? Don’t you have 50? Do you have two more rubles?” It might be a real logistical necessity, but in my own mind I am starting to interpret it as a creative way for the cashiers to feel less like machines and take more initiative. After all, it takes some presence of mind to figure out that if your customer gives you two more rubles in change, you can give back a round 5-ruble coin instead of 3 separate ruble-coins. Or something like that. The whole situation often makes it extremely difficult to break 1000-ruble notes (which is the way the bank ATMs prefer to dispense money) – a few times in restaurants I have seen the waitress running around to obviously well-endowed people in order to make change.
I’ve done a few interviews and started to make contacts for a few more… I hope I can do more and more of that as the days go on. One highlight is that I exchanged phone numbers with a friendly waitress in a nearby Chinese restaurant. The food is good there, the green tea is excellent, and the waitstaff is actually Chinese – as opposed to a long-standing Chinese restaurant not too far away which has mediocre food and young Russian girls as waitresses. My new acquaintance is studying Russian at the (also nearby) Herzen University of Pedagogy. I hope I can see her soon on her time off, and maybe through her meet other Chinese students. She and I smiled at each other a lot… I consider myself fairly used to Russian public unsmilingness, and understand its structure (because people smile and laugh a lot within their own close-knit groups), but I occasionally get worn out from it too. Smiling at Han was a tremendous relief!
About a block from where I live there has been a running street spectacle since a few days before Scott left. At the intersection of Sadovaya and Gorokhovaya streets (both of which Scott learned to pronounce perfectly) the street lights went out. Both streets are significant arteries around the center of the city, so you would think that they would fix it immediately, but there was no sign of that for a week. Two days ago it seemed they had it on again, but today I noticed that all the little screens were black. This means (the street spectacle part) that the cars and pedestrians have to negotiate spontaneously how everyone is going to get across the intersection, and in what rhythm. The traffic along Sadovaya seemed to dominate most of the time, so cars would back up along Gorokhovaya in both directions along with pedestrians on the corresponding corners. It interested me that the pedestrians were usually the ones to give the signal. After a certain accumulation of frustration, the collection of people would surge slowly into the street. One more car might squeeze through, but then it was all over for them (because who is going to run over 100 people?) and they had to wait until the flow of pedestrians thinned. The cars going along Gorokhovaya had then to catch their opportunity and drive through before the aggressive flow down Sadovaya took over once again. I wish I could film it from above.
Today I bought a loaf of bread for my friends, since I was there for breakfast and ate my share of slices. Before you couldn’t buy pre-sliced bread in plastic bags; you bought it fresh at a bakery and sliced it yourself all the time. Now you can do either. In line with me at the little 24-hour store (tucked into a basement space of an old building along Moskovskii Avenue) were a large number of teenagers or twenty-somethings… maybe on break from their classes in a nearby institute. A lot of them were buying Cheetos and Lay’s potato chips and soft drinks – other things that of course didn’t used to be here.
I have a few choices of places to buy food. My favorite is called Dieta, and it’s a block and a half away along Sadovaya. The system there is the old Soviet one: at the main counters, you have someone weigh up what you want to buy, find out how much it costs, pay the cashier, and return with your receipt to collect your cheese, butter, sour cream, meat, etc. The quality of things is very good there, and they also have numerous small counters (where you pay the person who serves you) which sell pre-prepared foods, like a deli. I’ve gotten good salads there and small servings of meat. But a few evenings ago I really wanted my favorite kind of cookies, called praniki, which they don’t sell at Dieta. So I went further, a couple of blocks north on Gorokhovaya. I got my chocolate praniki and also some prepackaged Finnish butter and local sweet cottage cheese with raisins.
The cashiers at many places (the ones with less custom) at quite aggressive about what kind of change they want to give you. My best guess is that, for some reason, they sort of husband out certain sizes of bills, and don’t like to give certain sizes away all the time. It makes for funny shopping. Today, for instance, I bought a loaf of bread for 15.50 rubles, and gave the cashier 20.50. “Don’t you have 5 rubles?” she asked, looking at my little coin purse. I did, and so I gave her that instead of the second 10-ruble bill. People are constantly asking this: “Don’t you have a ten? Don’t you have 50? Do you have two more rubles?” It might be a real logistical necessity, but in my own mind I am starting to interpret it as a creative way for the cashiers to feel less like machines and take more initiative. After all, it takes some presence of mind to figure out that if your customer gives you two more rubles in change, you can give back a round 5-ruble coin instead of 3 separate ruble-coins. Or something like that. The whole situation often makes it extremely difficult to break 1000-ruble notes (which is the way the bank ATMs prefer to dispense money) – a few times in restaurants I have seen the waitress running around to obviously well-endowed people in order to make change.
I’ve done a few interviews and started to make contacts for a few more… I hope I can do more and more of that as the days go on. One highlight is that I exchanged phone numbers with a friendly waitress in a nearby Chinese restaurant. The food is good there, the green tea is excellent, and the waitstaff is actually Chinese – as opposed to a long-standing Chinese restaurant not too far away which has mediocre food and young Russian girls as waitresses. My new acquaintance is studying Russian at the (also nearby) Herzen University of Pedagogy. I hope I can see her soon on her time off, and maybe through her meet other Chinese students. She and I smiled at each other a lot… I consider myself fairly used to Russian public unsmilingness, and understand its structure (because people smile and laugh a lot within their own close-knit groups), but I occasionally get worn out from it too. Smiling at Han was a tremendous relief!
Friday, September 15, 2006
Tea at the Dacha
Here we are at the dacha (country house) in Komarovo, north of St. Petersburg. We took an old, spare, Soviet-era train out there, about 1 hour. The day was cool and rainy at times. The dacha belongs to friends of Megan, retired professors of botany and their Scottish terrier. They have a beautiful garden with many vegetables, including cucumbers in a green house for pickling, and current bushes and apple trees. The dachas are fairly close together, but it's still very quiet as there is no town center to speak of (just a train stop and small store), and most people live in the city and stay in their dachas for 2-3 months at the most, in the summer. The dachas in Komarovo have belonged mainly to academics (and writers like Akhmatova, who is buried here), though that is changing now that the state no longer organizes dacha villages by profession. Not long after we arrived, we sat down for tea, replete with the samovar (traditional Russian way of heating tea water) seen here, and a wonderful pirog (pastry) made with their own apples. Pine and birch boughs dripped just outside the window, and all was cozy inside. Megan's friends are wonderfully warm, friendly people; I think at least 4 toasts were given during supper. I bonded with Galina, Megan's older friend, over our mutual love of Faulkner, with whom many Russians identify; they call him a "Russian who lived in America," I think because of his blend of dark humor and incisive understanding of human psychology. Of course, Megan had to translate two ways, as I don't know Russian and they don't know English, but so much is communicated through the eyes anyway. --Scott
The Gulf of Finland
After tea at the dacha in Komarovo (north of St. Petersburg), Megan and I took a path through the forest of yellow pine, birch, and rowan trees for about a half mile to the Gulf of Finland. It was cool and blustery, and the tide was high. We passed a fox den near the dacha on our way. Galina had a picture of the fox, who is quite used to the humans. --Scott
Dinner at the Dacha
Here we are at the Komarovo dacha having a delicious supper of meat pastry things, soup broth, and fresh vegetables from their garden. I'm holding aloft the best pickle I have ever encountered. Galina gave me her recipe for pickles (pickling is my next hobby) only after I agreed to send my recipe for American apple pie (actually, my mother-in-law's recipe). --Scott
Anna Akhmatova's Grave
Here we are the grave site of modernist poet Anna Akhmatova, famous for her brilliant poetry as well as her resistance to oppression. Her reputation flourished abroad and underground even as the Soviet authorities denounced her for her "eroticism, mysticism, and political indifference." A vocal critic of Stalinism, she saw her work banned for many years and was expelled from the Writer's Union, condemned as "half nun, half harlot." Nevertheless, she is still one of Russia's most beloved poets and is famous world wide. She is buried near Komarovo, a small village of dachas north of St. Petersburg. The dachas at Komarovo belonged mostly to academics and writers like Akhmatova, since the State organized dacha villages by profession. The statue is a rendition of Akhmatova in the Fountain House, where she lived in central St. Petersburg, secretly writing poems in a bugged apartment. --Scott
A Rainy Walk in the City
We ducked into doorways and courtyards as mini-showers blew over. Storm clouds competed with the sun. -- Scott.
Peterhof
This is Peterhof, or as the Russians call it, Petrodvoryets, a Versailles-like palace and grounds west of St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland. Begun by Peter the Great in the 18th century and added on to by Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, it is famous for its huge fountains, like the one you see here of gold Samson tearing apart a lion's jaws (symbolizing Russia conquering Sweden), and more playful ones like squirting flowers and hidden jets that spray passersby (Peter was a playful joker). I particularly enjoyed just strolling through the groomed forests of birch, cottonwood and rowan trees around the fountains -- nice to get away from the noise and traffic of the city. We took a bus there in the morning, and on the way back we zipped across the gulf on a hydrofoil boat, which was exciting. --Posted by Scott
Monday, September 04, 2006
Tea with friends
Tea with good friends Valentina Pavlovna and her son Nikita in their apartment. She makes wonderful sweets! --Scott
Stolle cafe
These are yummy pastry-pie things we had at Stolle, an excellent Russian cafe and coffee house. One can get a savory pastry filled with salmon or cheese or mushrooms, or a sweet pastry such as these berry ones. We fortified ourselves on espresso and pastries before venturing into the Hermitage to wander its vast halls of artwork. --Scott
Megan's Apartment
Here are a couple photos of Megan's apartment, off a busy, noisy street (Sadovoya) near the city center, but facing a surprisingly quiet inner courtyard. She's on the fourth floor, in a spacious two-bedroom apartment. --Scott
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Scott's update
4:00 p.m. Thursday here. Megan and I are in the "Cafe Max" Internet cafe on Nevsky Prospect (the main thoroughfare in the city). It's upstairs, clean, and spacious, with a view out tall windows down on the busy activity below. We just had a wonderful lunch at Kazhan, a restaurant specializing in Georgian food. We had two appetizers: a bean salad and cabbage and eggplant stuffed with nut paste, followed by a "cheese pie," a wonderful warm pastry filled with cheese and potatoes, and finally dolmas and grilled garlic chicken. Ooff! Georgian food is fabulous.
This morning we went to the Russian Museum and saw some of our 19th and 20th century favorite Russian paintings by Serov, Roerich, Petrov-Vodkin. We also saw an exhibit by Filonov, a very striking but overlooked avant-garde artist of the early 20th century. His paintings were never exhibited until the 1980s because the Soviets tended to censor anything that was too modernist -- anything that drew attention to its own artifice or was abstract. They preferred realism for political reasons. Filonov was certainly no realist, with his wild and disturbing depictions of man's dark interiors.
Yesterday we walked up Nevsky from the Youth Hostel, got tickets for a couple shows (ballet and music), had bliny (crepes) at a coffee house, and passed through Gostiny Dvor (an upscale shopping center dating fromt the 18th century and Catherine the Great -- the first indoor mall!) on our way back to Megan's apartment. We made it just in time, as a big rain storm barreled in. We rested and puttered around her place while it poured out. In the evening, after the rain abated, we ventured out to an unusual bar I had read about, just a block away, called "Money Honey." If you can believe this, it specializes in rockabilly music -- every night of the week at least two bands play music until the wee hours of the morning. In his Russian accent, the lead singer belted out Elvis, Johnny Cash, and other classic country and rockabilly stuff. He even held his guitar high and slightly tilted downwards, like Elvis, and was accompanied by a guy with a telecaster in heavy reverb, an upright bassist, and a drummer. They even dressed the part, with hair slicked back with Brillcream. Hilarious, but they actually sounded great. The Russian bar-goers put down their giant glasses of pivo to dance, as did we after mustering our courage. The bar was decked out in paraphanelia of the American south and west: confederate flags, cow skulls, photos of Elvis, images of Harley Davidsons and bald eagles. Fun times! It's funny what other cultures respond to from the U.S., creating whole subcultures such as this one around rockabilly in St. Petersburg. We both loved it and are determined to return at least once more before I leave.
Switching cultural gears, tonight we'll go see a performance mixing Russian classical--ballet and opera numbers--with Russian folk (such as Cossack) music and dancing in the Capella, a beautiful old hall. Tomorrow we may go to a museum about a poet, such as Pushkin or Ahkmatova (in the place where they lived).
It has been pleasantly mild here (in the 70's); I guess I timed it just right again. I am wishing I had my guitar here, though I wouldn't have wanted to check it on the plane and I don't know if I would have been allowed to carry it on with my shoulder bag as well.
Hope all is well out in the real West, where nobody wears brillcream anymore.
This morning we went to the Russian Museum and saw some of our 19th and 20th century favorite Russian paintings by Serov, Roerich, Petrov-Vodkin. We also saw an exhibit by Filonov, a very striking but overlooked avant-garde artist of the early 20th century. His paintings were never exhibited until the 1980s because the Soviets tended to censor anything that was too modernist -- anything that drew attention to its own artifice or was abstract. They preferred realism for political reasons. Filonov was certainly no realist, with his wild and disturbing depictions of man's dark interiors.
Yesterday we walked up Nevsky from the Youth Hostel, got tickets for a couple shows (ballet and music), had bliny (crepes) at a coffee house, and passed through Gostiny Dvor (an upscale shopping center dating fromt the 18th century and Catherine the Great -- the first indoor mall!) on our way back to Megan's apartment. We made it just in time, as a big rain storm barreled in. We rested and puttered around her place while it poured out. In the evening, after the rain abated, we ventured out to an unusual bar I had read about, just a block away, called "Money Honey." If you can believe this, it specializes in rockabilly music -- every night of the week at least two bands play music until the wee hours of the morning. In his Russian accent, the lead singer belted out Elvis, Johnny Cash, and other classic country and rockabilly stuff. He even held his guitar high and slightly tilted downwards, like Elvis, and was accompanied by a guy with a telecaster in heavy reverb, an upright bassist, and a drummer. They even dressed the part, with hair slicked back with Brillcream. Hilarious, but they actually sounded great. The Russian bar-goers put down their giant glasses of pivo to dance, as did we after mustering our courage. The bar was decked out in paraphanelia of the American south and west: confederate flags, cow skulls, photos of Elvis, images of Harley Davidsons and bald eagles. Fun times! It's funny what other cultures respond to from the U.S., creating whole subcultures such as this one around rockabilly in St. Petersburg. We both loved it and are determined to return at least once more before I leave.
Switching cultural gears, tonight we'll go see a performance mixing Russian classical--ballet and opera numbers--with Russian folk (such as Cossack) music and dancing in the Capella, a beautiful old hall. Tomorrow we may go to a museum about a poet, such as Pushkin or Ahkmatova (in the place where they lived).
It has been pleasantly mild here (in the 70's); I guess I timed it just right again. I am wishing I had my guitar here, though I wouldn't have wanted to check it on the plane and I don't know if I would have been allowed to carry it on with my shoulder bag as well.
Hope all is well out in the real West, where nobody wears brillcream anymore.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Finally in an apartment: slow posting
I do mean to update this about once a week at least, but for the past ten days I haven't been able to use a computer for enough time to be thoughtful. My friend Nikita, who has been letting me jump on his computer for email, does some freelance work as a graphic designer and has been working under deadline on design of a website for a stevedoring company! It looks pretty cool.
I finally have a settled place to live on my own, and will get internet access of some sort soon, probably modem dial-up (Nikita has DSL, or whatever that is called, since he's online so much). That was quite an experience! So that will be my topic for a few minutes.
Months ago, I reserved a studio apartment near the main downtown street. Somewhere about June, I found out from the university that I had to get special forms from the landlady in order to stay there legally and still have the university register my residence. (All foreigners are required to register their place of residence with the local police station and office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-- this was pretty lax in the 1990s but got strict again this spring and summer right before the summit.) The landlady refused to do these forms and I panicked, although many people assured me that once I got here things would be OK after all. Everything would have worked out, but the landlady got tired of dealing with clients and decided to sell this apartment-- so I couldn't stay there anyway. Recently prices for any nice apartment, or any apartment at all near the city center, have jumped hugely.
An American friend and specialist on city development here said that prices jumped because there have been recent changes to regulations on mortgages which allow them to be more widely available for more buyers. She thinks that mortgages allow prices to go up, because people can pay more over the longer haul... Be that as it may, she and her Russian husband have been trying for two years to buy a place here, and keep getting bought out by someone who comes with cash and buys the apartment they want. She said they missed out on two places this summer, once because a guy from Moscow offered $40,000 above the asking price, and once because a guy from Kazazhstan did something similar.
So, I then had a similar experience... My agent Irina found another place for me downtown, and I was to see it about 10 days ago at 2pm. Half an hour before we arrived to see it, someone rented it for a year! Makes more sense for the renter, of course.
Meanwhile, Irina had hooked me up with someone named Sveta who said she could show me someplace south of the city that would be for $500. I had to go see it at 7am on a Saturday. As it turned out, she was giving me a look at it but promising nothing. A family of four arrived right after I did, evidently right from the train station, and rented the place for six days. I was later really glad that Sveta didn't want to rent it to me. It was really close to my good friends on Moskovsky Avenue, but very dreary and unloved-- not a welcoming place to return to alone!
Irina tried one more thing, which has worked out: a two-room apartment right near Sennaya Square, which is amazing transportation wise, right near the center. It's the first time I have lived so centrally and it makes me very aware of what a CITY I am living in-- lots of people, cars, noise, dust. However, the apartment looks into an interior courtyard of one of the old nineteenth-century buildings, so it's amazingly quiet. It's for 700 dollars per month, more than I thought I would pay but in light of the recent price-jump quite logical. "Two-rooms" here means that there's a kitchen (big, with a couch), plus two other rooms for living-- and this one has a huge hallway. My friends and I were trying to guess when the building was built, how the interior was divided up when... The whole apartment is probably bigger than our place in Eugene, I feel like I'm living in a train station because I have to walk so far (relatively) if I forget something in the bedroom that I want in the kitchen. There are good grocery stores right near me, though, and one of the biggest outdoor food markets is also very close. I know at least we can get spicy "Korean carrot salad" there if we want it-- Nikita bought some a few days ago.
The previous renter before me was a young man who could have been from anywhere else... He was a programmer and was here on temporary contract; I got lucky because his work was just finishing when Irina called him. His renting the place indicates a new kind of market for living space here -- the idea of living somewhere temporarily, along with a robust supply of temporary housing such as we have at home, was NOT typical of the Soviet period. People moved around sometimes but would often live in worker dormitories, or if they moved they got a company apartment and generally stayed (if they were lucky enough to get to big city especially). Alexander was one his way back to the Urals somewhere-- he didn't say exactly.
When I asked him whether the washing machine needed any kind of special detergent powder, he said, "I just buy regular Tide." Lots of Western brand names are in abundance here.
Right now I'm in a comfortable internet cafe on Nevsky. Scott arrived last night so we are heading for a day of strolling and sampling the numerous coffeehouses that have sprung up since 1999, and 2001 especially. The "Ideal Cup" chain, started by someone who visited the US and liked Starbucks, competes with "Koffee Haus" for customers and for having the most cheerful wait staff... something that is still quite a relief and an oasis from more reserved service in many places. I'll leave him some time to check his email too... 70 rubles, or almost 3 dollars, for an hour of internet time. Don't know how that compares...
More soon I hope! Thanks for checking and for writing notes.
I finally have a settled place to live on my own, and will get internet access of some sort soon, probably modem dial-up (Nikita has DSL, or whatever that is called, since he's online so much). That was quite an experience! So that will be my topic for a few minutes.
Months ago, I reserved a studio apartment near the main downtown street. Somewhere about June, I found out from the university that I had to get special forms from the landlady in order to stay there legally and still have the university register my residence. (All foreigners are required to register their place of residence with the local police station and office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs-- this was pretty lax in the 1990s but got strict again this spring and summer right before the summit.) The landlady refused to do these forms and I panicked, although many people assured me that once I got here things would be OK after all. Everything would have worked out, but the landlady got tired of dealing with clients and decided to sell this apartment-- so I couldn't stay there anyway. Recently prices for any nice apartment, or any apartment at all near the city center, have jumped hugely.
An American friend and specialist on city development here said that prices jumped because there have been recent changes to regulations on mortgages which allow them to be more widely available for more buyers. She thinks that mortgages allow prices to go up, because people can pay more over the longer haul... Be that as it may, she and her Russian husband have been trying for two years to buy a place here, and keep getting bought out by someone who comes with cash and buys the apartment they want. She said they missed out on two places this summer, once because a guy from Moscow offered $40,000 above the asking price, and once because a guy from Kazazhstan did something similar.
So, I then had a similar experience... My agent Irina found another place for me downtown, and I was to see it about 10 days ago at 2pm. Half an hour before we arrived to see it, someone rented it for a year! Makes more sense for the renter, of course.
Meanwhile, Irina had hooked me up with someone named Sveta who said she could show me someplace south of the city that would be for $500. I had to go see it at 7am on a Saturday. As it turned out, she was giving me a look at it but promising nothing. A family of four arrived right after I did, evidently right from the train station, and rented the place for six days. I was later really glad that Sveta didn't want to rent it to me. It was really close to my good friends on Moskovsky Avenue, but very dreary and unloved-- not a welcoming place to return to alone!
Irina tried one more thing, which has worked out: a two-room apartment right near Sennaya Square, which is amazing transportation wise, right near the center. It's the first time I have lived so centrally and it makes me very aware of what a CITY I am living in-- lots of people, cars, noise, dust. However, the apartment looks into an interior courtyard of one of the old nineteenth-century buildings, so it's amazingly quiet. It's for 700 dollars per month, more than I thought I would pay but in light of the recent price-jump quite logical. "Two-rooms" here means that there's a kitchen (big, with a couch), plus two other rooms for living-- and this one has a huge hallway. My friends and I were trying to guess when the building was built, how the interior was divided up when... The whole apartment is probably bigger than our place in Eugene, I feel like I'm living in a train station because I have to walk so far (relatively) if I forget something in the bedroom that I want in the kitchen. There are good grocery stores right near me, though, and one of the biggest outdoor food markets is also very close. I know at least we can get spicy "Korean carrot salad" there if we want it-- Nikita bought some a few days ago.
The previous renter before me was a young man who could have been from anywhere else... He was a programmer and was here on temporary contract; I got lucky because his work was just finishing when Irina called him. His renting the place indicates a new kind of market for living space here -- the idea of living somewhere temporarily, along with a robust supply of temporary housing such as we have at home, was NOT typical of the Soviet period. People moved around sometimes but would often live in worker dormitories, or if they moved they got a company apartment and generally stayed (if they were lucky enough to get to big city especially). Alexander was one his way back to the Urals somewhere-- he didn't say exactly.
When I asked him whether the washing machine needed any kind of special detergent powder, he said, "I just buy regular Tide." Lots of Western brand names are in abundance here.
Right now I'm in a comfortable internet cafe on Nevsky. Scott arrived last night so we are heading for a day of strolling and sampling the numerous coffeehouses that have sprung up since 1999, and 2001 especially. The "Ideal Cup" chain, started by someone who visited the US and liked Starbucks, competes with "Koffee Haus" for customers and for having the most cheerful wait staff... something that is still quite a relief and an oasis from more reserved service in many places. I'll leave him some time to check his email too... 70 rubles, or almost 3 dollars, for an hour of internet time. Don't know how that compares...
More soon I hope! Thanks for checking and for writing notes.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
Incidentally! RE 'rejected' comments
If anyone receives a message saying "your comment has been rejected," please know that I did get it and read it. "Rejection" means that it was a personal note and not something that I thought you wanted to add publicly as a general comment or question.
If you do want to "participate" by commenting or questioning, you are welcome! I don't promise to have the time to answer directly, but would appreciate tips, ideas, and questions that might bring out other interesting details. Thanks for reading!
If you do want to "participate" by commenting or questioning, you are welcome! I don't promise to have the time to answer directly, but would appreciate tips, ideas, and questions that might bring out other interesting details. Thanks for reading!
Resting on the Fourth Day
The weather since my Tuesday evening arrival has been sunny and hot, with
rain constantly promised but never arriving. Unusually for Petersburg, it
hasn't rained all summer; there are even fires in the forests and peat bogs
north of here. The air is fine in the city (apart from the usual city dirt
and car exhaust) but it is humid and warm in between the buildings.
The experience of my first two days makes me want to ask everyone to go
immediately to the nearest international students they know and ask: What
procedures did you have to go through to come to the US? What did you have
to do when you got here? Daytime was the hardest time for me at first anyway
(since 11am here was midnight at home), and so at the end of Wednesday and
Thursday I was exhausted. Fortunately the office accepted my transcripts and
the letter from the university clinic attesting to my good health. However,
I had to go get another AIDS test done because the U of O clinic didn't send
my results on an official certificate; I also had to buy a local insurance
policy because the international package I bought couldn't specify a local
clinic where I could get help in case of need. I wrote a short autobiography
in Russian (about myself and my parents), filled out a questionnaire, signed
a statement of the rules, and got 14 photos made. I signed up for a Russian
language exam, Level 2, that will take place next Wednesday and Thursday.
When I had done all this, I returned on Wednesday; signed more papers, paid
my tuition (at a higher exchange rate than the current one!), and was added
to the official list of international students. This allowed me to return
and talk to the woman in charge of dormitories, who had to give me an
address before I could see the passport registration office. She couldn't
really decide what to do with me, because she didn't yet have a list from
the geography department of room requests, and anyway the woman who manages
all that was out of her office that day... She chose one partly at random
and sent me to the passport office. In the middle of that procedure I went
off somewhere else and paid the visa and invitations fees, then came back
and finally got an official stamp and a form saying that they will keep my
passport until September 22nd. Paying any of the fees meant going to a
different building, getting a payment form in one room, and then going
downstairs to the cash desk where I got receipts. I felt rather
bureaucratized, but surely people who come to our universities have to do
much the same thing? And last night Nikita told me the story of how he ran
all over creation getting all his exams done for entering graduate school
here, and made me laugh: his experience was MUCH worse than mine and
involved a great deal more arbitrariness. Only about two people were really
genuinely rude to me in the old Soviet way, and my host mother said that I
should be proud-- that meant that they probably took me for a Russian.
I am staying with old friends, Valentina who is near 60 but still completely
youthful, and her son Nikita who is in his early twenties. Their apartment
is enclosed inside the inner courtyard of a building off a busy central
street. The windows look out to the yellow wall and windows of the back
section of the building, but that part of the courtyard has some bushes and
flowers growing in the corners and the late sun reflects down on us, so it
doesn't feel as enclosed as it sounds. Right outside the outer gates are
rows of beautiful old buildings with a variety of new snappy bright retail
shops. Lots of foot activity. I have seen several bicycles, although there
are no bike lanes at all and cars must be going at least 45 or 50 mph along
the street. The metro is quite crowded as usual. Lots of the public
transportation has been removed to make life easier for cars.
Yesterday I saw the geography professor who will be my adviser while I'm
here. He was giving a lecture on Petersburg development to a group of 28
Dutch geographers -- in English. Interesting maps and information. We went
on a short walking tour of the neighborhood right around the Geography
Department and saw a new shopping mall inside a 19th century tobacco
factory, a new pedestrian zone that has become mostly elite housing lined by
a wide variety of shops (see the photo below of cafe chairs along a
tree-lined street), and an inner yard where you could tell by the window
treatment where communal apartments remained. He pointed out the church at
the south end of the pedestrian street, which is being vigorously remodeled
and looks great. It was definitely relaxing to be around his optimism --
although he can't be just a professor, he has a couple of businesses on the
side, including consulting and a tourist company. He is right, at least,
that that part of the city is dynamic and drawing lots of people and shops.
It is a place some of my poorer friends can't bring themselves to enter, but
a lot of people seem to be enjoying it.
This coming week will probably be devoted to pursuing the question of my
permanent housing and to my Russian exam. I just hope I haven't forgotten
all my verb forms and grammar details! The Wednesday part will last 3
hours...
Sunday, August 13, 2006
A rather poor map
Here is a barely adequate map of Petersburg! I will try to get a better one. At least it's in English.
I don't yet where I will be living, but I may live in a big dorm (where I lived in 1990) a little to the right of where the number 6 is. A close friend with whom I'll stay the first few nights lives near the intersection of Moskovsky Prospekt and the Obvodny Kanal (a few blocks to the right of the 3).
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Photos from August 2005
Here are several photos from a three-week trip that I took last summer. New buildings and overwhelming outdoor advertising outside the metro stop on Vasilievsky Island; a Chinese restaurant that also sports a Coca-Cola sign; a Starbucks-like German coffeehouse on a new pedestrian street, also on Vasilievsky Island.
Just before departure
Arranging a four-month independent research stay has entailed negotiations, phone calls, and email exchanges with the Russian consulate in San Francisco, the International Admissions office of St. Petersburg State University, and a helpful (if helpless in the face of new regulations) apartment rental agent. At least my visa arrived in time... Stay tuned for updates on the rest of my arrangements and Russian bureaucracy, post-Soviet style.
As many visitors and natives have noted, St. Petersburg is one of the most imagined cities in the world. Writers, scholars, and artists have layered it with character, shape, and myth. I know something about this from my studies of literature and my "training" from many friends and acquaintances. What interests me now is the changing material environment -- how will this affect the image of St. Petersburg cherished by so many?
I have questions about how Chinese investment and immigration will test this self-image; how 'average' Russians are coping with specific changes to the material environment, such as new construction and reduced public transportation; how new architecture leaves traces on the landscape that point out to external influences and new connections to a globalizing world; how people's use of cherished space is changing, and what new attachments they may be forming to modified spaces.
I've enabled commenting on this blog, so please send questions and comments! I will probably not respond directly (I only have four months!) but I will appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I saw last August, places and signs that I'll keep observing this fall.
As many visitors and natives have noted, St. Petersburg is one of the most imagined cities in the world. Writers, scholars, and artists have layered it with character, shape, and myth. I know something about this from my studies of literature and my "training" from many friends and acquaintances. What interests me now is the changing material environment -- how will this affect the image of St. Petersburg cherished by so many?
I have questions about how Chinese investment and immigration will test this self-image; how 'average' Russians are coping with specific changes to the material environment, such as new construction and reduced public transportation; how new architecture leaves traces on the landscape that point out to external influences and new connections to a globalizing world; how people's use of cherished space is changing, and what new attachments they may be forming to modified spaces.
I've enabled commenting on this blog, so please send questions and comments! I will probably not respond directly (I only have four months!) but I will appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I saw last August, places and signs that I'll keep observing this fall.
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