Russia - The Return

The last time I was in Russia was in 1992. I had just finished college; although, I had previously taken a two-week trip to the then Soviet Union in 1990. It was obviously very Soviet back then. I remember the greyness, the sameness, the unsmiling faces. As for entertainment, restaurants and attractions were few and far between. I remember feeling quite fascinated with the whole experience, yet I also felt vaguely threatened; I never knew if something terrible was going to happen. Yet, despite all this, the place had a certain charm…a Stalin/Brezhnev kind of charm. The buildings had not changed in years, the streets were uneven and pockmarked, and you never knew what the prices would be the next day. I knew that I would not see a place like this again in my life. And if I ever came back, I didn’t expect much of a change. How wrong I was…

The Russia I see now is considerably changed. First, Moscow and Petersburg are much more tourist friendly. When I (briefly) went to Red Square this week, the place was mobbed with tour groups. In fact, the metro was constantly overwhelmed with tourists of all nationalities, shapes, and sizes. I popped off a train at Revolution Sq. (filled with Soviet revolutionary statues) only to be confronted by at least fifty Japanese tourists snapping pics. There was literally nowhere to move, so I bobbed and weaved my way out the door. This would never have been the case in the 1990s. There are also more museums and tours to take. If you want to go along the Neva River in St. Petersburg there are various boat companies hawking their wares. You can do the same along the Moscow River as well. And then there are the restaurants. In the 1990s, I was lucky to find a stolovaya (cafeteria) that sold halfway decent food. If I wanted something fancier, like a Georgian restaurant, I would have to head way out of the center of the city…only to find the place was closed for “repairs”. Today, there are no such problems. Restaurants fill the streets of both Petersburg and Moscow so the only problem is making a choice of where to eat. And best of all, I no longer feel the menace, the dread that I did twenty-five years ago. I feel like I can travel the subways and the streets and be relatively safe.

Pete & Paul Fortress from across the Neva

Another view on a cloudy day

What will I see during my trip across the country is anybody’s guess. I’m thinking that outside of the main metropolises I will find more of the old ways. Will these old ways be Russian or Soviet, I don’t know. But I do hope I find things a little less slick and polished that I did in Moscow and St. Petersburg. While I do not want to go back to the mood of 1992, it would be nice to feel some of the quaintness that I did before. Before I felt like a pioneer while today I feel like I am just one of many exploring the Russian lands. 

One of the Stalinist Seven Sisters

Old Soviet hotel