Joseph Burke

Impressions of Modern Day Russia Part 2 Dispelling the many misconceptions about life in modern Russia

• September 30, 2003 •

(continued from the previous segment)

Russia has undergone a lot of change in the last decade since Perestroika when the USSR or Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. It went from total suppression under a totalitarian communist regime to a democracy avidly courting western capitalism and expansion. The economy is having a difficult time shifting from communist suppression to western style freedom, but it has made some remarkable progress, nonetheless. There's is a great deal of wealth in Russia, and like many western countries, there is a huge gap from the elite wealthy class to the working class and the very poor. In a small town an average working class person may make a couple hundred dollars a month and live modestly well, I'm told. Below that you are at the poverty level.

In the big cities like Moscow and St Petersburg, I'm told it takes a salary more in the range $1200-1500 a month to live reasonably well. You are part of the wealthy class with plenty of discretionary income when you earn $15,000 a month or more. Unlike in the US, professional people are far from wealthy. A physician for example may only earn $500 a month; an attorney perhaps $1200 a month. The people who become wealthy are mostly successful businessmen.

Most of the people live in high rise complexes which look like our tall city apartment buildings in the USA. Most are plain structures without any decorative touches. Almost bleak in their stark straight lines and often lack of careful maintenance. Formerly all buildings were owned by the state and people simply paid rent. Now they are still state owned buildings but people are able to buy their individual "flats". Prices can vary greatly depending on the city, location and age of the buildings like anywhere else, but a fairly common price in the big cities would be about $500 per square meter or perhaps $50/sq foot, not much by western standards but pretty high for working men's salaries. So people's homes tend too be quite small consisting of a couple small rooms in a tall housing structure. Wealthy people do live in single family homes. But these are very expensive indeed, I am told and the ones I saw looked like European villas.

Hotel accommodations range from 5 star hotels in the cities where you can easily pay $300 a night and up I am told. We stayed in more modest "western style" hotels under $100 a night. Definitely not deluxe, single beds are the norm and not new ones either. Linens and such are more European style with comforters with cotton duvets, square pillows, and scrawny towels that were a long way from the plush oversized bath towels we are used to in the US. Bathrooms often contain bidets as in Europe but not the antiseptically clean and immaculate bathrooms we tend to expect for that kind of money in the US. Rusty pipes, cracked tiles, missing molding, dim lighting and so on. One room I stayed in had a shower but no shower curtain! Not even a rod to indicate the shower curtain was missing. Just a small square foot tub and a hand held showering nozzle, Euro style. I'm not a picky person so I did not complain, but more finicky visitors may wish to gravitate to higher end accommodations.

There is a lot of urban decay visible in Russia. Buildings and roads neglected for decades by an ill-conceived Communist government will take decades to upgrade and a huge investment. It remains to be seen whether the democratic leadership of Russia has the stomach for it. The Russian people all believe their government is very corrupt and that little of the taxes and national revenues are invested back into the country for the benefit of the people. Corruption in government is everywhere, but nowhere is it worse, I guess, than in Russia.

There are many cars today on the roads in the big cities, with the numbers mushrooming exponentially I am told. This does not bode well for traffic congestion. Russian cars are relatively inexpensive, $5-6000 I'm told is fairly typical. Brands include Lada, Volga, Moscovich and other strange names never seen in the USA. A lot of Japanese and European cars are also seen around the cities... especially German cars like Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Opel and VW. One sees the occasional American car on the road but they are few. Most of the cars are very small because of fuel economy and the fact that many roads in the small towns are very narrow. One doesn't see many SUV's though most of the ones you do see are Japanese. The only large American SUV's I saw like Tahoe, Suburban, Escalade and Expedition were all black limos. Those seem to be the high end transportation of choice. I never once saw a stretch limo.

Traffic is a big problem in major cities. I was in Moscow and St Petersburg and traffic jams are an all-day phenomenon. Not in the least limited to "rush hour". Taxis are plentiful with reasonable rates. Very few have any meters so cab fares are charged as a flat rate in most cases. These fares can vary greatly so be careful not to get taken. Once cabbie wanted to charge us $100 US for a 45 minute ride to the airport. A quick call for a cab yielded a fare of $20.

There are also plentiful buses and trollies, but the underground Metro system is the primary means of transportation in these cities. I rode them in Moscow and St Petersburg and found them to be clean, fast, efficient and cheap. You can go almost anywhere on the Metro:

The trains are also very nice. Clean, well maintained with a very smooth ride on the rail systems that we rode between Moscow and St Petersburg. We travelled first or business class which was very pleasant indeed. Indeed I wrote the major portion of this chronicle on my laptop on the train returning from St Petersburg. Walking is indeed a common method of transportation and people walk everywhere. Because traffic in the big cities can be so heavy, it is often faster to walk than take a taxi for short distances. I recommend comfortable walking shoes for anyone visiting the cities.

The currency in Russia is rubles and the exchange rate on my trip was around 30 to the US dollar. So a price of 600 rubles may sound high for dinner, but it's only twenty bucks. If quick mental math is not your strong suit you may wish to carry a calculator. 30:1 is a fairly simple mental calculation but had it been 27:1 or 34:1 I would have need a calculator myself. Generally the people seemed pretty honest to me. One friend of mine was pickpocketed in St Petersburg and warned me to be careful especially in crowds. So I wore a long trenchcoat which effectively covered my pockets and kept me quite safe. Probably better safe than sorry, but generally speaking I have been in a lot more intimidating places when it comes to personal safety and security, including some places right in the good old USA.

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Joseph Burke
Editor-in-Chief
InfiniSource.com

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