Summer in Russia

Well,
after much delay, I'll finally write up my impressions of my trip this past summer in Russia.
First and foremost, I was living in Chelyabinsk, Russia (MSN Map) where I worked for a company called The English Club for a few days under three months. I lived in a summer camp that the company ran for five weeks, and then spent the remainder of my time in "downtown" Chelyabinsk. The last two weeks of my trip I took a train (two days, two nights) to Moscow, and a two day trip to St. Petersburg. I was able to get the job through my membership in AIESEC, an organization that works to place students in cross-cultural working internships abroad.

Russia was amazing, certainly the most striking thing for me was that although the stereotypes are of cold, unfriendly people, I found that once you were introduced or shook the hand of a stranger, they were the most hospitable and friendly culture I have ever come across. I was often welcomed with open arms into the homes of people that I did not know, and I had many encounters with Russian people where I was invited to join and share what they had. Pictured here is my buddy Anna, who was one of the local AIESEC members.

The second thing that struck me about Russia is that it is still very poor. I had always thought of Russia to be on the same economic level as Germany, or Poland, as they were our great competitors for so many years, but instead I found the level of wealth to be comparable to third world countries, outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The most important characteristic of Russia that I brought away from this trip is that Moscow and St. Petersburg are in a league of their own when contrasted with the other cities in the nation.

It is said that what Russia really lacks is a developed middle class. Once outside of Moscow-St. Petersburg, there really is a different level of economy, thought that's not to suggest that the rest of Russia is destitute. There is wealth to be found, but usually in the hands of relatively few. I thought it was most useful to picture this by looking how people got around. You had a few people with "middle class cars." These were your Toyotas and Fords, midsized or compacts, the kind you might find among most Americans, but relatively few people had them there. The Ladas (Russian made cars) and older cars made up the lower end of the spectrum, but most people did not own a car at all and had to rely upon one of the many forms of public transportation that could be found around the city. In Chelyabinsk these were: trolleys, buses, trolley-buses (a bus with an electric trolley overhead power system), taxis, route taxis (vans that go in the same route, a little more expensive but a lot faster than the bus), and lots of hitch hiking.

Then there were the upper class cars, and probably more of these than the middle class ones. These were made by Jag, Renault, BMW and Mercedes. The people driving these cars are primarily are from the group we here in the United States refer to as the "Russian Mob" but more accurately they're the super-rich of the country, and though they're often corrupt, they often lack the organization that would really classify them as a true "mob."

The third thing that surprised me the most was that the remnants of the USSR were still quite prevalent, not just through lasting economic impact, but statues and signs and monuments around the country. Pictured here is the statue of Lenin that was in a large plaza in Chelyabinsk, and you can get an idea of the scale by looking at the people sitting on the steps by his feet. These symbols were everywhere, all the major squares had some statue or symbol adorning it. I suppose that we in the west think of the fall of communism in Russia as some sort of revolution, along the same lines as the revolution that put the Soviet Union in place. But instead it was a transitional period, more akin to the changing of political parties than a true revolution. I suppose with Glasnost and Perestroika in place there really wasn't too much to change. Dima, a friend of mine from Chelyabinsk said something to the effect that, it was not so much that they didn't like what communism did to their country, but it was more that for better or for worse, communism was a big part of their history, and the monuments and symbols stood for Russia first and foremost. Some of the proudest moments of the Russian people happened under communism, including the defeat of the Germans during World War Two. As any Russian would be glad to tell you, it was they who won World War Two and defeated Germany, and they are quite passionate to defend the idea that they could have done this, with or without the help of the other Allied nations.

Overall i had a great experience in Russia, and I think that it was definitely the best summer that I could have put together last year, I hope that others take up a similar opportunity, with AIESEC or otherwise, and if anyone reading this would like help getting an experience abroad such as mine, feel free to ask.

Below is a picture of me ice skating in August!