Final Memoirs of Moscow

More photos coming soon

Reflections II

I apologize in advance for the disconnected flavor of this post. I have had good practice in silence during my time here and therefore have become ever more reflective. I suppose it's about time for me to come home, and in fact I do fly out of Moscow the 17th of August. Here goes:

I intend to always be learning a language in life, and I do mean phonetically differentiated languages, i.e. English, Russian, etc., as opposed to languages differentiated by subject, i.e. Philosophy, Calculus, Economics, Biology, etc., though continuing my general education through ample reading is also in the plans. Learning a new language makes you feel like a child again, and is one of the best ways I know of instilling humility. I am constantly reminded of my fallacious memory and weak tongue unless I am making a concerted effort to carefully and consciously construct my speech. I again insist that this mild source of humiliation is/can be good because it gives one the opportunity to respond with increased sense of humor and humility, both of which are good. Both of which I naturally lack. Or have been conditioned to be lacking in, I don’t know.

The kind of humility I’m talking about should not be confused with the wheezling kind of resignation, the world view that assumes certain things about ‘the way things are’. ‘I’m no good at Russian’, or ‘our society is corrupt and there’s nothing I can do about it’, or even ‘this or that gives me such an amount of utility’ (subconsciously calculated of course). Things in this world are never exactly the way we think they are, and one of the spiritual truisms is that we are created to act and not only be acted upon. This is a perspective that resonates with many in the West but is received with considerable hesitation in Russia. The life context of so many here has been framed by a regime whose stated goal was to create a system where each part was defined entirely by the whole. An anthill of workers. Still, the key point with all of social science’s indicators of success in Russian is that they are improving. There is variation, and things are moving in a positive direction. Even in regards to freedom of the press, which I am studying, the new President Medvediev called a meeting with the Union of Journalists immediately upon assuming power. Putin never did.

Another lesson learned in international travel: do not work through the middle man. This includes such companies as Vayama, Cheap Tickets.com, etc. These companies are virtually useless now that other, free search engines are available to find the cheapest tickets, i.e. Kayak.com (thank you Channing). I spent this last week trying to work through Vayama in re-scheduling my flight out of Moscow from the 21^st to the 17^th, but time spent on them was wasted. First of all, you give them a request, which they look up on the airline’s sight (which you can do yourself). Then they submit a request for change to their booking department (which takes a day or so to process), then, if the tickets haven’t sold out yet, they wait for a confirmation email from the airline, which they forward to you, and then you must call the middle man back to confirm. Well by the time all of this tedious, expensive and bureaucratic process is complete, another customer has purchased your spot by logging into the airline’s sight for 5 minutes. I finally asked Vayama if I couldn’t just call the airline myself, and they admitted that I could, and that I wouldn’t even have to pay the commission fee to Vayama if I did. But I had to go through a week of hell to find out (they would send their emails about 3 AM my time). The dark side of capitalism.

Reflections

Here are some of my latest, though fragmented thoughts on Russia:

I have been conducting a lot of interviews with the Intelligentsia of Moscow. I am enjoying myself immensely. Besides my academic work, I have noticed that Russia is chalk full of beautiful women, though I also haven't spent much time with them on account of me living in the forest and all. I did meet a beauty who's studying at Oxford last night though, and I'll probably take her to the Bolshoi Ballet. I took another gorgeous girl the other night to Swan Lake...amazing show. In short, Moscow is amazing just by virtue of its women, which are - as I've said - lovely, but more than that, they're real women. There's no sense of needing to hide your masculinity as masculinity is encouraged here. Russian women want a man, and they in turn know how to be women. Charmante.

Also, being in Moscow while reading through War and Peace is inspirational, since Moscow is one of those cities that has changed little. One can easily imagine Pierre, Natasha, Levin and all the rest riding through these streets and parks in their carriages. Pigeons are everywhere. They are reconstructing everything, trying to rid themselves of the Communist Yoke. I have noticed a definite longing for Tsarist Russia with all its attendant glory and culture.

My grandfather last saw his Russian friends in 2002 when he was involved as a financial advisor to the President of Burachia (an area of Siberia, near Lake Baikal). He rode with some of them on the Trans-Siberian railroad. He has known them since the Cold War when he met them as a NATO officer while living in Bruxelles. They do indeed have good stories as they are just the kind of Russians that not only lived through Communism, but experienced and delt with it. They belong to the class known as the Intelligentsia (sort of like our 'intellectuals' but more defined and class/family-history-oriented) and therefore were involved/ are involved in the dangerous business of societal criticism. Unfortunately, I haven't spent enough time drinking Vodka with them (none actually, don't worry) to squeeze the best of stories out of them, but they have generically described to me the stress of living in a quickly changing, unstable society. We in the West tend to criticize Russia heavily, but my arguments against Putin's measures in re-consolidating power to the State have largely been disarmed as I've gained a clearer picture of Russia's recent history. The changes that took place in the early 90's after the fall of Soviet Union were just as, if not more, violent and destabilizing than the the fall itself. Thus the Russian people now thirst for stability, economic growth, and a strong Patriarchal figure in government. Liberal issues are to them very far down on the list of priorities at the present time. I look forward to a good discussion on ethnography.

The bus rides are bad. In order to go to Moscow proper and back to my little village, at least 4-5 hours are required. Most of the time I can read, which has given me time to finish up War and Peace. A truly incredible book that presents a nearly complete life-vision. I am finishing it up in Russian since the 3rd tom I left in Cambridge with my friend on accident. But this has been a blessing in disguise because my reading skills are markedly improving, as well as my speaking skills. I am a visual learner, so as I read Russian, my speech begins to reflect what I read, and thus reading Tolstoy is very good. It has taken all of a month for my Russian skills to come up to par, but I now feel much more free with the language and can discuss most topics with ease. The main trick is to avoid emulating most kids my age, whose language is a horribly mangled form of Russian, filled with cursing and 4 meaningless words: blin (pancake, or damn), prikolna (lit. piercingly, or cool), korotche (lit. shorter, or in short), and eta samaya (that thing). Guarding the integrity of language is tantamount to guarding freedom of speech. Freedom exists, but what do we do with it? What happened in the 90's Russian free-market has actually made many Russians view the word freedom with scepticism. But consider, what Rockefeller, Scott, Hayes, etc., did with free market capitalism in the late 19th century also caused quite a severe reaction, resulting in our well-established labor movements.

More to come my friends