How to Identify a Russian Spy

Soon we will give equal time to uncovering secret American tourists in St Petersburg, but now we give a good humored look at 25 obvious characteristics of my Russian brothers and sisters.

Spot your very own Russian spy!

There's a story that an Englishwoman spy in Nazi Germany was betrayed by her absentmindedness and added milk before her tea was poured.  Well, there are some telltale indicators that our American patriot readers can use to discover Russian spies. Use this List of 25 carefully and you will be a hero on American television.

Here are some tips from my nine years of life in St Petersburg...

A Russian...

1.  refuses to wear shoes inside his home...must put slippers on in the hallway.  In St Petersburg we have sandy soil, dirt and grime, and no Russian would every track this mess inside his home!

2.  sunbathes standing up and facing the sun... Also sometimes lying down if possible.

3.  will not stand or sit near a draft, and is likely to wear a scarf when out... much like a Parisian or Dutchman... Our climate can be severe, and it seems very easy to get sick in Petersburg unless you are cautious.

4.  turns on the hot water and burns his hands...  After my nine years here I still get mixed up about hot water on the right, cold on the left.

5.  pinches his earlobe after touching something hot to reduce the pain.  This custom, that seems to work, is only found in parts of Russia.

6.  combs his hair with a little pocket comb, even if his hair is just 2 cm long.

7. gives a list of good wishes at the end of a long phone conversation, especially when calling on your  birthday... A pleasant gentility or floweriness that you will never hear in America.

8.  is eager to join a toast for anybody or any holiday!  Clinks glasses, except when toasting the dead.

9.  can't fill out a bank check. Russians have never used checks, but pay now with small machines in the markets or by credit card.

10. will not look over his restaurant check, certainly not question it... for he doesn't want to look cheap.  Kopecks are left when he takes change at the supermarket.

11.  keeps a serious face in public... never smiles for nothing.  A Russian would rather frown than smile. To put a good face on bad emotion is dishonest. 


12. will not hold the door for anyone, especially strangers.  Hold a door for him in the supermarket and he will let the door slam in the next person's face.

13. enjoys big meals at crowded small tables that go on for hours.  There was a lot of family resistence when I wanted to add a leaf to our table at the dacha.


14. expects music concerts to last for three hours on television, even longer on New Year's.

15. refuses to dress sloppily, as this is a bad reflection on who he feels he is to the world.  He is  careful of his accurate dress, shaves daily... some men shaving the top of their heads.

16. if pressed will admit to no appetite at noon.  The Russian big meal is between 1 and 3 PM.


17. washes his hands right before eating.

18.  holds his bread in his left hand, or leans it against the left side of his plate on the table cloth.

19.  invariably says Spaceeba... thank you... at the end of a meal.


20.  thinks nothing of bumping into people in public, apologizes rarely.  The older women,  babuskas, use shopping carts as lethal weapons.

21. doesn't know how to joke with strangers, thinks it's offensive.

22.  cannot give a living person an even number of flowers.

23.  on the street in 2000 had a bottle of beer in his right hand, and a cigarette in his left.  In 2009 that man has a bottle of beer in his right hand, a cell phone in his left, and a cigarette hanging from his mouth.  This is progress!?  Now public drinking is discouraged.

24. is quick to shake hands, but not over a fence or doorway.

25. first says no... then after two or three invites... says yes, and accept your hospitality.

Well, do you agree with my list?  Let me know, and maybe you could help with some clues that suggest someone is American... which we can include next time!

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Medical Care Attitudes in the USA and Russia

My unique health care experience in the USA and Russia...

I was an active participant in the US medical 'system' for many years, putting in large claims for my child, and then myself after I was diagnosed in 1993 with cardiomyopathy.  Seeing how chaotic and unfair health care delivery was in America, I gravitated towards selling an increasing amount of individual and group health insurance since 1983.  Unlike some of my insurance peers, I worried about precondition clauses and lifetime limits which could burn my clients.  Life insurance made the money, but my interest was with health coverage.

In Russia since 2000 I have been a patient in the Russian health care system in St Petersburg, with numerous hospitalizations, two surgeries, and the need to purchase cardiac drugs.  So I have seen the full capitalistic answer for health coverage in America, and as an expatriate experienced what's left from the socialist system as it slowly slides towards a pay system in Russia.  As Joni Mitchell says I've seen it from Both Sides Now.

Expatriate Fallback System

Many expats have a fallback healthcare system. They live as the locals, but if they have a medical problem they go to one of the private clinics that cater to foreigners, with the attention and Western courtesy that they expect, along with the ability to describe their symptoms in English.  If an expatriate has a serious condition, he or she gets on a plane and returns to his home country for treatment.

How to become uninsured...

I was such an expatriate with a fallback system until I had been our of New Jersey for over a year.  My eligibility to continue individual  NJ Blue Cross coverage ended 12 months after our departure in June 2000.  Having preconditions meant that I only could continue NJ Blue Cross, while eligible, and not shop for other coverage. 

That first year I flew back to the States to have two tricky surgeries to fix my digestive system.  The only way to continue adequate coverage was to again live in the United States before the 12 months were up.  The Catch 22 was that we were unsure whether my wife would be allowed to live in the United States again.

Russian health insurance...

Since 2000 pay as you go health care expenses in Russia  are much less than in the USA.  But, it adds up.  Now  I am fortunate to have a passport with all rights of a Russian except I can not vote. 

Much of my medical care is paid by a health policy which is attached to this passport... but not surgeries, and more and more procedures that were paid 100% are now platna, pay procedures.  Today Larissa helped me make an every six month appointment to check and adjust my pacemaker.  Starting the next visit in December they require an official 1000 ruble payment.

The USA and Russia have  different assumption about healthcare.  In the USA you've got to pay to play, while in Russia they will never turn you away. 

US traumatic treatment...

My last trip to the US was probably my final trip there as, between the fun and beautiful scenery, there were some incidents that underlined unspoken attitudes that I don't want to be a part of anymore.

We had diner with friends in San Francisco after a long drive along the Big Sur. The next day we took the train from San Francisco bound for Glacier Park, Montana.  I had received some negative email and legal information the day before which added to the stress of ordinary travel. 

I woke in our compartment shortly before Glacier Park with a racing heart.  We got off and found the Dancing Bears Motel.  Here I rested except for two trips to the Browning Indian Reservation clinic.  The Hagans, people we had just met, took me to the Browning Clinic and back just to be helpful to a stranger.  I had no insurance and didn't qualify as a native American, so the best they could do was give me some palliative treatment and send me back to the motel. 

The closest cardiologist was in Great Falls, to the south.  We travelled there and twice I received treatment, enough to get me on the road before I incurred too many bills that they feared wouldn't be paid.

Larissa and I discussed whether to fly back to Russia then, or continue to my Duke University reunion in Durham NC.  I figured as a Duke graduate, there for the reunion, they would give me better attention.

I was wrong.  The reunion secretary coldly told me to go the the Duke Hospital and see what they could do for me.  The big stumbling block for me was that I had the outcaste designation... Uninsured.  After waiting for around three hours, the secretary still said there was no one to see me.

Larissa raised her voice and said she couldn't believe no one would look at me when I was so sick, as this would never happen in Russia.  The ruckus she made  got the attention of the head doctor in the back of the cardiology clinic and he came out to usher us into his office.  He arranged for a teaching cardiologist to see me the next day.

The cardiologist saw me, with maybe five students in tow.  He made a few changes to my medications and wished me well. 

Please note... No one in Browning, Great Falls, or Durham ever suggested hospitalization.  As they say in the States, if you want to understand something follow the money trail.  They knew I needed rest, that I was in danger of having a thrombosis or stroke, and needed to be watched.  But... economically they couldn't justify admitting another patient without health insurance!

Not just uninsured, but an expatriate!

In October 2004 on my 62nd birthday I began receiving retirement Social Security from the US.  In October 2007 when I turned 65 I enrolled in Medicare, along with Part B for Medical Care Outside the Hospital.  Part B costs $96.40 a month, deducted from my retirement pension. 

Medicare and Part B are not payable outside the US (with very few exceptions).  Why, then, have I paid in the last two years $ 2,313.60 for benefits I don't receive?  Because, I never want to be caught in the USA again as an Uninsured.

Now, ironically, my health is weaker than before, which means I am less likely to make the difficult trip to my homeland. Being basically optimistic, it's unlikely I will ever accept the idea that I will never return for a visit, or even stay (if I win the Publishers Clearing House!).

Another irony, I voted for Barak Obama to get the US out of foreign adventures and so all Americans could have health coverage.  Now it looks like extended health coverage for American expatriates won't happen, even for those of the 5.26 million non-military living abroad that are old enough to receive Medicare coverage.

In some ways it's better here...

In Russia, except for a very rare exception, medical care is never denied or rationed the way it is in America.  True, you may have to wait a long time for treatment, and to get the top level surgeons you need to pay, or there are gifts expected, but initial treatment and hospitalization isn't routinely refused as it is in the United States.  This isn't just a hold over from Soviet time, but reflects an attitude of the Russian people.

Much like propiska which guarantees everyone a place to live, the Russian assumption that naturally no one is turned away for treatment reflects what to them is a normal view of good human behavior.  I have seen the kindness, intelligence, and often enthusiasm of the doctors in the Russian system, and I prefer it to the American one I experienced before.

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An October Summer in Sochi... 10 days away from St Petersburg rain and snow!

All we want is some good weather...

A month or so ago, Larissa got a call from Galla, a friend who had just returned from two weeks in Xocta.  We decided to follow Galla's example and act fast to escape the St Petersburg cold to the Sochi warmth, going from the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea... so as to get two more weeks of summer!

Hard work to leave the city...

Travel by train or plane is easy compared with just trying to leave St Petersburg, year by year increasingly jammed with traffic.  A taxi in late afternoon might take a few hours to get through the number of cars that has been slowing the city recently.  So, loaded down with luggage we pushed and pulled our way through the wind and snow to the bus stop on Parachutna.  We took the Number 172 to  Pionerskaya metro and, after an exhausting struggle to cross crowded streets and get through metro passenger tunnels, we arrived at Moskovskie train station. 

Night Train!

Throughout  two nights and an intervening day we rolled through a part of Russia I had never seen.  Cultivated land, simple painted country houses, the colossal cold architecture of an unknown city seen through the window of our train at 3 AM.  The ride was smooth and lulling, inducing good sleep and adding to the energy I felt as an expectant traveller, seeing something new at every turn.

Just a little something to eat...

We brought a heavy amount of bread, pastries, cheese, mustard, cooked chicken, apples, pears, boiled eggs, mayonnaise, butter... everything but the toaster... typical of travellers in Russia.  The large lady who shared our compartment unpacked a small cutting board and made a careful salad from a collection of greens and vegetables.  Perochki, smoked fish, and apples were for sale at most every stop by baboushklas and at kiosks.

The great Russian railway system...

Russia is famous for poorly constructed highways, but it should also be acknowledged as a leader in passenger train travel.  Physically it is the largest country in the world, 1.8 times the size of the USA, but only has approximately 143 million people (USA 307 m).  Russia has 8.2 average persons for each square kilometer, while the USA has 34. 

How can Russia, nearly twice the size of the USA, with less than half the population of the USA, spread thinly over its tundra and taiga, be unified?  The answer... its phenomenal passenger and freight railway system.

Amtrak and Russian Railways are not comparable...

We used Amtrak when we toured part of the USA in 2002 and 2004.  It's expensive to have your own compartment, even though it is so compact as to make you feel you are on a space shuttle.  I much prefer the roominess of Russian trains.  

Americans would feel uncomfortable sharing a compartment with a stranger in the top berth, so a smaller compartment is the price they pay for being sealed off from unknown people.  This insular attitude is a drawback to getting to know what Americans are like in their own country. 

All aboard!

Our train, The Northern Palmira  (a way of referring to St Petersburg), starts in Murmansk on the Barents Sea, stops at St Petersburg,. skirts Moscow, and stays to the east of the Ukraine.  The train makes its last stops at Sochi, Xocta, and  Adler.  The final stop is just a hop from the  Abkhazian border.

Sochi has a humid subtropical climate similar to the American south, the only one within Russia.  Yalta, part of the Crimea peninsula now controlled by the Ukraine, has drier air.  Many Russians hold the last leaders of the USSR, along with Yeltsin, as responsible for the loss of Crimea.

Xocta, pronounced hos-ta
 
We had sun every day during our stay from 14 - 24 October.   Then we had rain for three days on our return to St Petersburg.

I was happy to be among hills and mountains and next to a beautiful sea.  While swimming you can taste the salty water.  Larissa and I collected a cereal box full of the beautiful pebbles.  To walk comfortably on the stones and pebbles you need flip flops. There are no life guards but beaches are posted and a red flag flown when there are stormy conditions.  I loved the sound of rolling stones at the water's edge.

Penguin Beach

How to spot a Russian anywhere on the beaches of the world?  Just look for someone standing facing the sun, hands on hips.  With pleasantly hot air and water around 20 degrees C, we had ideal beach and swimming conditions. 

The Lejak, a wooden grill for your suntan...

20 rubles rents a lejak... 9 slats from head to toe, and 5 slats crosswise for a wedge pillow of wood.  On top of this contraption people place beach towels and cushions.  Plastic chairs were not as popular.

If it's free, it's for me!

October is the end of the tourist season, and it was easy to select any pensionat or sanatory beach to use for free.  Also there were water fountains, free cold showers on the beach, free changing rooms, and free stand up men's room facilities (women pay 10 rubles).


Even warmer swimming!

One day an old fishing boat tied up at the pier next to our beach.  The cheerful captain was there to take people out to the yet warmer water of the open sea.  We paid 300 rubles each and went along.  We swam as much as we liked in the 23 meter deep water as he fished.

Good food store prices and a pleasing stolovaya...

Contrary to negative reports about restaurants, we were tipped off by Galla as to the best place to eat, the stolova Lotus... a cafeteria restaurant with Russian cooking along with some regional dishes.  We found an Uzbeki stolova on the main street that serves large delicious portions of montee (large raviolis), shash-leek (shiskabob), and plovf (chicken pieces mixed with rice).  These restaurants had clean bathrooms.

Soviet Street Name Math   30 Dec 22 + 50  = 1972 = ulitsa 50 let CCCP

We rented a room with enclosed balcony from a lady who owns and lives in the apartment.  We were on the fifth floor of #10, ulitsa 50 let (years) CCCP.  The hillside view reminded me of Paris.  In Russia, buildings that in America would be considered recently built are looked on as old... this one was constucted in the 1980's and was faded and run down.  Still, I liked the setting with the palms, cedars, and vegetation.  Our room was comfortable. We cooked a porridge breakfast every morning.

Tricky rental tactics found throughout the world...

Lydia, our landlady, insisted on upfront payment of 4500 rubles for 10 days.  We were tired, and complied.  After a few days something happened that was like insider trading... the town turned off residential hot water for annual maintenance.  So we paid for a hot water rental and got hit with cold water.  Really, the apparent trickiness bothered us more than the loss of hot water.  When needed we washed with water from the tea pot and a cloth.

Seeing is believing...

When I first saw our country village in Tverskya Oblisk, I realized how beautiful Russia can be.  Now in Sochi I understood there is a part of Russia as warm and as appealing as  Southern California, Mobile Alabama or Savannah Georgia.  Flowers are everywhere, the pace of life is slow, people are pleasant.

Xocta is part of Sochi, and Sochi is part of Krasnodar Krai.  Krasnodar is famous for Cossacks, Romany, and a source for many vegetables.  http://www.timothypost.com is the address of a blog written by a native Bostonian now enjoying life and doing business in Krasnodar. 

Xocta has back streets lined with blooming bushes, flowers, and sycamores.  We never got to the city part of Sochi but were content to see some views from a sanatorium in the hills.  By the end of our 10 days I had worn myself down to a tired old man and it was time to get me out of there and back to normal life.

Larissa changed our return rail ticket to a more restful two person compartment , with three meals spread out in strange fashion so that we had a fish dinner for breakfast.  The food was delivered to us, which they considered top service... but I would have enjoyed these meals more if we had them in the dining car.

How the Russian Railway deals with Daylight Savings Time changes...

We left Xocta on 24 October around 355 PM Moscow Daylight Time.  Moscow Daylight Time ended 25 October at 2 AM.  The train in the early hours of the 26th was instructed to wait an hour on a siding outside of St Petersburg.  Why?  The Russian Railway balanced the earlier Moscow Standard Time arrival by having us physically wait out the hour difference.

What with computers and world famous Russian mathematicians, the railway found this the most expedient way to deal with time changes!? 

Maybe you could submit your comments about time change manipulation on the Russian Railway, along with a better solution to us, and I'll forward your idea to the railroad! 

So, if you want to appreciate what a country has to offer, get out of the cities at least once a year... to the forests and villages... to the seaside... and you may start feeling an affection for the new land in which you are living!

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Bargain Expatriate Life In St Petersburg

What a difference a decade makes!

It is obvious there is much less buying power for the American dollar in St Petersburg than when we arrived in June 2000.  But until recently I was unsure how accurate my observations have been over the past nine years and didn't have a clear understanding of how things are different.  You have to be careful extrapolating statistics, as economics is a slippery subject.  My father's favorite book was How to Lie with Statistics.

Living the expatriate life in St Petersburg is different than the life of everyday citizens because our income arrives from the United States.  This affects my economic empathy.  Much of this income is adjusted up every year by the US government for inflation.  Variables in the US and Russia... inflation, prices, currencies, full or part-time  employment, and salaries, makes it hard to compare buying power.

Mac's Famous Rule of 5...

When we arrived in 2000 I started figuring the relative cost of things.  I called it the Rule of 5.  A shirt might cost 60 rubles.  One dollar was worth 28 rubles, so my purchase was the equivalent of $2.00. I knew that the same shirt would cost around $10 in the States.  My ratio proved roughly true for most items except electronics.  Video cameras were double the cost of the final sale price you could get on New York's 14th or 34th streets.

A consumer economy is much like the weather... we all have to adjust to it... in America, grin and bear it... in Russia, frown and shrug.  Things have changed phenomenally!  Here's a quick sketch of the hard-to-believe statistical changes in Russia since our arrival in June 2000... (I'm not taking the credit for these changes... there were other people involved!)

real incomes doubled... and then some!
average salary increased eightfold... from $80 to $640. 
consumer credit volume in the six years between 2000 and 2006 increased forty-five times!
the middle class grew between 2000-2006 from 8 to 55 million, an increase of seven times.
people below poverty line dropped from 30% in 2000 to 14% in 2008.
Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Economy of Russia

What destroyed the purchasing advantage of expatriates...

Inflation in Russia and resulting Compound Inflation, 2000-2009

Post-Soviet Russia's inflation record is grim.  Inflation since 1991 has been much higher than in the West and within most other developing countries... a 13.6 % average 2000-2008!  A high compound inflation lessens the value of money and is a negative for many factors.  

With an 8.6% average inflation rate for the last 10 years, to buy the same amount of goods that you bought in 2000 for $1000 you now in 2009 need to pay $2,363!

The Rule of 70 is about rabbits in a cage...

Yearly average 7% inflation when compounded for 10 years cuts buying power of money in half.  

Inflation compounds year after year... not as one amount added to another, brick by brick... but geometrically like an expanding population of rabbits...

 
  2000   20.0 %
  2001   17.0 %
  2002   15.1 %
  2003   13.7 %
  2004   12.0 %
  2005   11.0 %
  2006   14.0 %
  2007   12.0 %
  2008   13.3 %
  2009   12.0 %         (8.1 by October 1, 10-12 % predicted for year)
   
All of us in St Petersburg have had to adjust to large changes...  

The oligarchs and other very rich people in Russia make it difficult to draw conclusions about the real effect of economic numbers.   These relatively few wealthy have amassed a huge amount of money which makes statistical averages not very useful when trying to see how the majority of Russians live their economic lives. 

Even among my own family and friends, pensioners have a more difficult time getting by now than they did in 2000.  More health care is platna (treatment for payment) and prescriptions are more expensive.

The good old times when the best bread in the world was 21 cents!


St Petersburg food prices have shot up... doubled or tripled in 10 years.  I remember walking to a sidewalk store (there no more) which sold bread delivered frequently by the bakery.  For just 6 rubles I could buy a scrumptious half circle of warm fragrant black bread !  At the 2000 exchange rate of 28 rubles to a dollar, this price was the equivalent of 21 cents.  The price for a half loaf (of squishy chemical tasting white bread) that same year in America was around $1.37...  6.5 times more expensive than in Russia!

The 2009 exchange rate is back close to the year 2000 number. Today it's 29.62. I haven't returned to America since 2004 so now I have trouble intuitively gauging a price ratio.

Now, food is no bargain in Russia...

If we returned to the States we would have large bills that most Russians don't worry about... heating, water, electric, insurance, school taxes.  But food in America is very inexpensive compared to most of the rest of the world. 

American consumers are different than Russian buyers...

Most Yankees never think to make a soup from scratch but rather open a Campbell's can.  In Russia you rarely see prepared tomato sauce for sale, but in New Jersey the supermarkets give one side of an aisle to this convenience item... with such brands as  Ragu, Progresso,  and Aunt Millie's.  Prepackaged sauce saves time but drives up the meal cost.

Family size, jumbo size, large economy size... are part of the American mentality.  In Russia most food and laundry products are sold in small packages...tea, jars of instant coffee and detergent. Quantity discounts are rare, not expected or asked for. 

There are no coupons clipped in St Petersburg. The many opportunities to finagle ways to save the food dollar that thrifty Americans use are not available here.  In the US there are food shopping forums where fellow shoppers alert others to good coupons deals, second-one-free offers, and the like. 

Chiseling prices and buying a few cigarettes... 

 
Petersburgers think differently about bargains than Americans.  Many would be  embarrassed to be seen trying to chissle prices, as the average citizen does not want to let on he is watching his kopeks. (maybe misguided pride?)

One market behavior that I like in St Petersburg is that people here can buy just one battery from a package of three, or a few cigarettes from a pack, while in America you must buy everything in the wrapping.

Shirts in 2000, tomato paste in 2009...

The Season Supermarket in our neighborhood has added more tomato paste brands than were available even a few years ago. I usually buy a salt-free brand offered by a Krasnodar company, but which often is a reshipment of tomato paste imported in bulk from China.

Today I bought a standard 400 gram can (14.1 ounces), brand name Bonduelle, repacked in Minsk, Belorussia.  It cost 76 rubles 90 kopeks which is equal to $2.60 US money.  In the US it's possible to get 12 (probably 6 ounce) cans for around $6.00... that's 72 ounces for $6.00... or 400 grams (14.1 ounces) for $1.38, a 50% savings in America today.  (How's my math?)

Americans reduce the cost of their food bounty yet further...

American laws and shopping habits drive down the cost of grocery items.  Some states have unit pricing.  In New Jersey the pricing law requires that stores place a label next to each product with the quantity, the sale price, and... most important...the cost for a standard unit... such as a pound, quart, or gallon.  You can see which tomato paste is truly cheaper.

Russia is different from America, and Russia 2009 is very different from Russia 2000...

So, living  in Year 2000 St Petersburg was a 5 for 1  buying opportunity... until the Law of 70 took over.  Rocketing inflation, and resulting high compound inflation, leveled the playing field by 2008, and now prices are only a good deal if you are selective.  Petersburg is still an intriguing place to live... but not a bargain anymore.

Siberia speaks...

As Konstantin Gluschenko, economist, states...

Thus in 2008, consumer prices in Russia, being nominated in US dollars, were 3.0-3.5% higher than in 1999-2000, and about twice as high as in 2003.  And so the cheapness of consumer goods in Russia came to an end.
Konstantin Gluschenko, Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
December 2008 article... "Is the cost of living in Russia really that low?"

You can't time the market or predict the economic future, but I have a hunch that the buying power of the American dollar, which was close to amazing in the early 90's and still very strong in 2000, is now just a happy expatriate memory! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What are your thoughts about comparative inflation in the West and Russia?  Is my reasoning right on?  How's my arithmetic?

Please click the Contact Me button at the top of this entry.  Happy to hear from you!

st petersburg russia, buying power, compound inflation, inflation, consumer prices

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Propiska... A Way to Understand Russian Life

A foundation of Russian society...

Many people think they have a grasp of modern Russian history but few acknowledge the importance of propiska, permanent apartment registration.  It is the basis for the stability that most Russians still want, and is one reason why the people here are less mobile than those in other nations. 

American mythology about risk takers...

I love the stories of the classic risk taker in America, who left a plow in the field, loaded up the wagon, and along with the wife and children headed West.  Yes, the pioneer was subjecting his wife and children to the possibilities of scalping, hunger, and failure, but he had a vision, a dream, and worked to accomplish his goals.  Even now 13% of all Americans move each year (of course, not the same people every year!).  We see moving as usually a positive event, a time to clarify objectives and to clear the air.

The story goes that Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, was driving west to California when he decided  Washington state would be a better place for his company, and changed direction to the northwest.  Going somewhere far away without a job or place to live are still considered stupid things to do in Russia... but are the beginnings of many success stories in America.

Propiska affects how the Russian people live...

Propiska provides stability for housing and employment.  Today propiska is largely in force.  Every legitimate resident of Russia, including me, has a stamp in his internal passport  saying that he lives at the address entered in this document.  You may not move to another region without securing a job first, and you must have housing arranged.  Russians rarely move from their birth city. This approach has continued in different forms since Tsarist times, was abolished by Lenin, and reintroduced by Stalin.
  In recent years if you are one of the rich New Russians you can be an exception and buy a place to live far from St Petersburg on the Black Sea or in another country.

Propiska makes it a challenge to buy some apartments (in the Soviet Union, you couldn't) as  you not only need the OK of the residents, but also have proof that any stray husbands or children have a legal residence elsewhere. 

For example... Suppose your daughter marries and she and her newly resident husband have a child.  Now there are two more people with propiska added to the (not your) apartment.  With the years, it is a usual family adjustment for the older people to take a smaller room and give the large room to the younger people with children.
  Keep in mind that Russians can have three generations living in a two room apartment... parents, grown children and spouses, and grandchildren.  They accomplish this feat with pullout bed-sofas and considerate living. 
  
Propiska affects expectations...

I was surprised when Larissa told me years ago in New Jersey (albeit jokingly) "starost ne radoct", being older limits your happiness.  I answered that in American  we say, "Freedom is when the dog dies and the children go off to college".   We talk about the Golden Years, when if you have your health and enough money (two big if's) you are free to do anything you want.  You can tell your pain-in-the-neck son to move out and find a life once he is 18. 

Hit the Road!

My mother told me that Scots are known for pushing their children out of the nest early, around 15 or 16 years old.  I returned from the Navy in the summer of 1970 and planned to live home while I got a master's degree.  That autumn she suddenly decided to sell her house and move to a retirement village.  Within a few months she told me it was time for me to find a place of my own.  There was no propiska, she owned the house 100%, and her decision was normal for an American. 

Even now this event couldn't happen in Russia because the grown child has guaranteed rights to continue living where he is.  However, parents and children, if they agree, can sell their large apartment and buy two smaller ones. 

Emotionally Russians can not understand how Americans can kick out their children, even if they are in their 20's.  Many people here live all their lives with their parents.

Propiska can be blamed for a lack of get-up-and-go, and sometimes youthful arrogance, as you have to live with your grown children no matter how they act or what they think of you. When women get older they are not free as birds, but more likely busy as mother hens.  In Russia you are stuck living with your offspring... and their spouses, and children.

The good side of Propiska...

Russians as a people are not mobile, but the results of propiska and other laws can be viewed as an advantage as people live near their families and friends all their lives.  Grandmas take on much of the responsibility of raising their grandchildren, while the daughters usually work.

The purpose of the law was to guarantee that everyone had a place to live... to end homelessness.  To a degree this objective was successful... certainly people have more life-long security, but at an emotional price.  Adventurous or spontaneous life decisions are not in the Russian character.  With fewer options visualized on the horizon, the people see fewer paths open to them than do their opposites in America.

It also means that many Russians don't have to worry about monthly mortgage or rent payments (and for that matter health insurance) so they have a high disposable income, apparently a lot more than most Americans.  You can buy that dream car now, go on a vacation abroad, and party, with no fear you will be out on the street if you lose your job.  Maybe that's why most Russians are less worried about the financial crisis.

Old Blue Eyes...

Russians value stability more than the chance to take risks such as  frequent moves.  I think Americans would quickly go crazy if they knew they no longer could live anywhere they want, with or without a job.  

Frank Sinatra sang the  lyrics of "That's Life" which to me is a good illustration of  the verve and excitement Americans feel about a lifetime of risk taking.  The song contrasts well with prevalent Russian attitudes.


That's Life
3rd verse
I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate,
A poet, a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself, flat on my face,
I pick myself up and get back in the race.


Lyrics by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, music by Kelly Gordon



So, what is more important as a life-long value... stability or freedom of mobility?  Are these values mutually exclusive? Click Contact Me to send an email.

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St Petersburg Secretive About Good Works

Listen closely to what I'm whispering...

They don't like to talk about it, but I believe Russians are the most secretive people on the planet.  Europeans are more reserved than Americans, but the reticence I know in St Petersburg goes beyond to a need to keep information about oneself private. 

We Americans like to say, "A stranger is a friend that I haven't met " while in Russia... a stranger is a stranger.  A woman and her adult son shared our train compartment to St Petersburg for seven hours.  They never introduced themselves and we didn't ask.

People here learn at their mother's knee to give personal information only to life-long friends.  To yammer about family problems to a stranger sitting next to you is considered rude and unwise.  Amazingly, to this American, Russians are very slow to offer even positive information about themselves.

The World War II US Navy expression, "Loose lips sink ships", echoes more strongly to a Russian than any suggestion to be more social.

These nine years I have become accustomed to ignoring or complaining about our neighborhood in northwest St Petersburg, with its broken windows, vandalized and uninspected elevators, graffiti , abandoned cars, and litter.  Now, I am startled by the many improvements since May. My first impulse is a wish to thank all the people responsible.

We Americans believe that if someone does good work, even if paid for it, they deserve a sincere Thank you!  In this way the individual is encouraged to continue to do exemplary things.

Thanks a bunch, but no thanks!

I encountered three hurdles to expressing my gratitude... lack of information, the custom here to not express gratitude for paid work,  and the surprising fact that many individuals do not wish to be thanked.   Every time I tell Larissa I want to thank the people who improved the neighborhood, we get in an argument.  Seems sometimes I hit a nerve that raises her hackles. 

She says with some exasperation...

"It wasn't individual initiative that improved things!  This was done by the city in no special order because they had some money for a change.  You can't go asking who was responsible... They will think you are criticizing them and asking inappropriate questions.  Good and bad happens... leave it alone and stop giving me a headache!  This silent improvement was normal in Soviet times, so now they are just doing what they are supposed to do!  Now the city departments are held to their responsibilities and are getting better results.  They are just doing their jobs as they should, and they are paid for it, so they don't need or deserve anybody's thanks.  If you single out some individuals they will be targets for envy, criticism, and embarrassment.  You and your American gratitude... we don't need it and they will think you are strange, at best."

Looking out our windows, or stepping out the back entrance, the large courtyard that was a sorry sight is now that of a model apartment complex.  New grass (trimmed!), and geometric crushed stone walkways are in place where before there was mud, trash, and tire tracks.  Crumbling concrete panels on back entrance are now replaced with attractive stone and metal, and the icky green patchy paint now is an attractive gray.  I haven't seen an abandoned, burned out, stripped car for months!  I sort of miss them!

A jumble of old unappealing play equipment in an open area is now replaced with some new colorful pieces of equipment in smaller spaces with an adjacent half circle bench for the old people to sit and talk conveniently.  Now it's a joy to walk in the courtyard, and the people seem to be more lively and positive.

I keep thinking...Things are better in our neighborhood.  But should I thank anybody?  Who should I thank, and will they be happy for the gratitude or embarrassed by it?

Today Larissa got up at 830 to get two litres of fresh unpasteurized milk from the small truck that stops twice a week in our courtyard.  She spotted some people setting up low fencing in such a way as to allow only pedestrians on our new paths.  She asked them, because of my constant questions, who was responsible for all the improvements.

An older man said that it came from the city soviet (council), as they had gotten funding for this project, as well as some money from Moscow.  I asked the wife what were their names? 

"Robert, you just don't understand the system here.  There are no names available, and it would be silly to ask!"

So I have to live an ungracious life without expressing thanks for much of the good that happens around me.  As we say in New Jersey, "Live with it!" or "Get used to it"    It's the way of life in St Petersburg, Russia.


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Your comments are very welcome! 

st petersburg, expatriate, secrecy, gratitude, envy, cultural contrasts, better city environment, St Petersburg government, way of life

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Russia is Good for Me

Thanks for returning after the summer break!  In the States I rarely took a real vacation, so I am happy at age 66 to spend three wonderful months away from St Petersburg in the beautiful countryside around Lake Vseluug which is part of the Volga water system.


After many years in St Petersburg, I feel comfortable living here, with no wish to return to America. Now I am used to the drawbacks of Russian life, see many benefits,  and on balance still enjoy it here.

This is Russia...
 
It took me a long time to realize that Russians can have a gruff exterior, but be very friendly when spoken to.  It seems in this stoic culture more important to know the language than in a socially extroverted one.





Russians tend to the extremes of shyness and warmth, tell the truth at inconvenient times, and can see through phoniness.  Russians often hesitate to be social, but when they are, it's with gusto... drinking, singing, and warm hospitality.

It is a mistake to think that Russia is similar to the USA.  It has less than half the population, and it's  decreasing.  (1.)   Its road system is still behind the times and needs much work.  Once you leave the larger cities you won't see motels along the road waiting for you to pull in.

(1.)  Russia had 141 million, the USA 304 million estimated in July, 2008.

The police respond to  crime.  They do not view prevention or detection important parts of their work. 

Russians as a rule do not think about accident prevention.  Handrails are rare, there is no elevator inspection form on the wall, no white lines on steps, stores often do not clean the walkway outside, and excavation sites are often not well fenced in to protect strollers.

I miss American friendliness, initiative, and the willingness to help others, even strangers.  Yankees have a can-do response, while many Russians hold back from taking the initiative.




Here it is difficult to get information about what your neighbor is building. Officials feel it is their responsibility to keep government information private and out of the wrong hands.

I believe that a democratic culture grows slowly and is easily stifled whether here or in the USA.  Realistically the top-down government of Russia will not change to a down-up one for many years, if ever, as the people are used to rule from above.


Unfortunately Americans extend their wish to help strangers to the modern missionary imperative of aggressive war for the natives' own good... Afghanistan this year, Iraq the last several years.
 
I see the Russian people as more pacific than Americans.  The American weakness that tends towards poor reasoning and aggressiveness is an embarrassment to those who want Russia to adopt some of the democratic ideas that America talks about.

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As time goes on we will look at what is mentioned above with a spotlight on one aspect for a post.


You  may have some ideas, questions, or comments after reading this post.  Please Comment or Email...  observing@writeme.com. 

Your responses are very much appreciated!