Russians in the DHSS

N 52 16.727 E 104 17.030 Thursday 25 September 2008 - Irkutsk

The end of the second full day on the train. It has passed pleasantly. The scenery has been lovely, it is relaxing just sitting and reading, and it is nice that there is no real need to do anything much at all. But it was time for bed. Ora was already asleep in her bunk. She had been coughing a lot the last few days and had slept a lot during the days too, she turned in a hour or so earlier. We got undressed and closed the curtains and were just turning off the reading lamps after reading a bit before bed and starting to go to sleep when we seemed to pull into a station.

At night, it is sort of a shame that it is getting light so early. Reading the guidebook, we seemed to pass through a lot of really interesting areas after dark, like a huge percentage of the Urals. We still make stops at all hours, some are short 2 minute stops, some are the full 15-30 minute ones. During the day, you look at the schedule and figure out which ones will happen when you are still awake, when you can get off the train and wander around for a bit, maybe buy a few things, some food, drinks, or whatever. We were getting to Novosibirsk after bedtime and figured we would just miss it, even though it sounded like the train station was quite interesting and nice to see. But now, since we were awake, let's go out and take a look and see.

The whole journey there so far, there have been a few people getting on and off but really not a lot of change in our carriage. Here, lots of people were waiting to get on, and at our carriage, there was a whole mass of soldiers waiting. Oh no, we have been invaded by the Russian army. Sure enough, getting back on the train, our fourth bunk had one of those huge high topped hats and some bags on it. It was still dark in the room and Ora was still asleep, but the rest of the carriage was busy with movement, lots of soldiers running around.

Up until now, the carriage was probably about 2/3rds full and the majority seemed to be tourists. We had a Russian woman in our room and there were a few other Russians scattered around but not many at all. Now there were 10 new people on, two of them their commanders (Vladim was the one in our room), and 8 other rather young and somewhat wild soldiers. They were just back from 10 days of training and were heading home, or back to their base, and they were ready to party.

We kind of reluctantly got up and gave up some of our space. I was on the bottom bunk at this point (a seat during the daytime). Ora got up too as Vladim got unpacked and settled and his other commander friend (can't remember his name) settled into our compartment with a few bags of chips and a few liters of pivo (beer). I suppose we were actually luckier than the rest. One of the other rooms ended up getting designated as party central and they had soldiers in there all night drinking and talking and I doubt they got much more sleep the rest of the trip.

I was rather tired and really did want to just go to sleep, but I did enjoy the next few hours. Vladim spoke English fairly well, still with some large gaps but considering our almost complete lack of Russian, he spoke pretty well. The other one apparently understood pretty well but wouldn't speak. Yes, as I write this, I'm pretty aware of my own lack of knowledge about Russian and feeling a bit strange about traveling somewhere where I am that ignorant of the language. I've mastered maybe spaseeba (thank you) and nyet russkie (the phrase for I don't speak Russian is still eluding me) and maybe am slightly starting to get Cyrillic down now, but do feel weird about it all.

They started in on the pivo and we had a nice conversation for a few hours, although a bit frustrating given the communication gap. We had a small phrase book with us (a very very very small one, with just barely enough words in it to understand some basic menus and signs) and we would have to keep referring back to it. Or Vladim would grab it and try looking for something, get frustrated and try to find another word that might actually be in there. Stupid phrase book. Sadly enough, we seemed to be the only one in the carriage who even had one. The next day, some of the soldiers would come in and look up things in it to help them with their conversations in the other rooms.

I'm still somewhat confused about what it was that Vladim actually does. Between the two of them, they seemed to be the commanders or teachers of the 8 others, although they didn't really bother much with enforcing a whole lot of discipline on them on the train. The second night, Vladim bolted our door shut when we went to sleep to keep them out, which turned out to be a good move because they were up all night and you could hear at least one of them going up and down the hallway trying all the doors to see if he could get in to chat, drink, or whatever. The provodnitsa was furious the next morning at them, yelling at them for all the cigarette butts and bottles through out the carriage. The two commanders though, one of them was the one who trains them on all the army stuff, rifles and artillery and whatever else. He seemed pretty burly and looked the part pretty well.

Vladim, after 15 years in the military, I guess was a software engineer by training, but doesn't do much of that. I think he was a major and he tried explaining what he did, but I still don't think I get it. I think in the Soviet army, he would have been the one who kept the military under the government/party line, the political branch of the military. He wasn't the commander of the base, or I think even the second in command, but seemed to be just under that but maybe telling them what the President wants to happen. In the New Russia, I'm a little less clear what people's roles are, how they have changed, or if they have changed much at all.

The military does seem to play a huge role. In St Petersburg, I flirted briefly with trying to buy some sort of jacket. We are heading into Mongolia soon and China after that and I suspect that it is going to be really cold. I have a lot of layers, goretex stuff and fleece and thermal layers, but I don't have a big thick jacket. Our guide on the walk in St Petersburg though that a nice thick wool navy jacket might be just the thing. We even went to the military store later to take a look, but when I saw the whole store was filled with young men admiring the display cases of medals, stocking up for their first military posting, and just really looking the part, I got a little shy and intimidated by the whole thing. To me, it would have just been a really warm jacket (and a fairly inexpensive one at that).

I might have even gone through with it if they had more historical (i.e. more army surplus sorts of things) jackets, but I think I would feel quite weird wearing something current and being seen as trying to play the part. The military seems to be present everywhere in Russia. There is universal conscription here, I'm assuming all males (Russia seems to be generally pretty conservative about attitudes towards women's roles, gays, etc), and they have to serve at least one year. Whether everybody that serves likes and supports the military, I don't know, but it does seem to be constant presence everywhere.

But I digressed quite a bit there, we were still up late talking about stuff. The other thing I have become quite conscious of while we have been traveling, especially in Russia is the attitude towards travel and especially long journeys like we are on. When we say we have been here and there and we are planning on going there then and we have been gone this long and will not finish traveling for a few more months, there seems to be a mix of wonder and excitement but also a bit of questioning why you would want to travel and maybe even some horror over it seeming a bit obscene and extravagant.

It has lead me a bit to wonder why I am traveling like this and what I hope to get from it. I'm already painfully aware of being very foreign, knowing almost none of the language and not many of the customs. Have I just come to look at the pretty sights and gawk at the natives? Am I just ticking off an impressive list of places I've been, not understanding any of them any better? Was it exotic and exciting to be in a carriage with two Russians trying to communicate and figure out what the world is actually like for all sorts of different people? Or was it just sort of a brief encounter, communication on a rather shallow level. Ora was lovely and it was sad saying goodbye to her, but what is it beyond that?

We have on one hand encountered different Russians, sort of amazed at our journey who also seem sort of horrified by it, why would you go somewhere that you don't speak the language? There seems to be something in that, that troubles me as well. There is also some attitude of quite strong nationalism. Why would you want to go to Mongolia? That's a horrible place and Mongolians are awful. As we have gotten further east, there seems to be a lot of underlying prejudices. I can understand the attitude of some we have talked to, a deep love of Russia, maybe a slight desire to see other places but always wanting to come back to Russia as the main priority and desire. I also find it troubling too, a desire to create a really homogeneous society, the reports of lots of racial attacks against Asian looking people, the attitudes we have seen towards them, wondering why we would even want to go see somewhere like Mongolia. Although all of this does seem like quite a lot for me to conclude from a very limited amount of time in Russia and relatively little contact.

On the other hand, it is strange then to fall in with other small groups of travelers, mostly couples and a few small groups of friends, many making almost the same journey as we are, or just spending a year or more traveling and living different places. After feeling so foreign for so long, there is a great comfort in finding a little oasis, even if English is a 2nd or 3rd language for them, is there a greater commonality, a greater chance for some sort of actual interaction, relationship, or whatever. We had dinner the other night with a couple from Melbourne (our eventual end destination), we had also encountered them a while back in St Petersburg. Maybe it is just a short comfortable conversation, a bit of decompressing from so much travel and feeling foreign, but then part of me wonders too if they (or some of the others we encounter) could be actual friends then when we make it to Melbourne. Ora, the grandmother on the train, was really nice and a lovely person, but could that have been any more than just a nice few days and a bit of sign language and stilted conversations?

Anyways, this entry has gone on far too long, and I haven't even made it off the train yet.