Tyumenskaya Oblast’

Three hundred and fifty miles, approx. half a day on a train, north east of Ekaterinburg on top of a hill overlooking the confluence of the rivers Tobol and Irtush lies Tobolsk, the former capital of Siberia. No longer on the major Trans-Siberian Route it still draws a number of tourists each year, according to the guys I met shovelling snow in the kremlin. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, there’s several museums; statutes; churches and a whole lot of old wooden architecture alongside the city’s Kremlin. It was stupidly sunny whilst I was in town though so I basically just walked around for two days, but first I had to get into town.

Russians don’t seem to interact with strangers but, whilst sitting on the bus after getting off the night train the man of indeterminate age sat next to me wearing some sort of fur hat disturbed the sanctity of the public bus. Sometimes I meet people who speak some strange form of Russian that I largely don’t understand, I assume it’s because they speak too fast and use a lot of words I’ve never heard before, this was one of those moments. It was International Women’s Day; this is what I thought he was saying.

“С празником” (happy celebration, generically greeting used on celebration days) [directed at the at two women sat nearby]. “You [directed at me] should wish them a good day. Where are you from? Do you not celebrate International Women’s Day?” “...something something something…” “Do you drink? He [pointing at the male bus conductor with headphones in] drinks” “…something something something…there’s no sex in Russia*” I’m not entirely sure what he could have said to get this across but I’m pretty sure he ended it with “(something about Russians, or maybe Siberians, or maybe just him, liking ‘larger’ women)”. He then wished the girl at the back of the bus С празником before getting off. The whole bus seemed to be entertained. I wondered if the next month would continue in a similar fashion.
--

“I don’t really like the UK!” Boris told me whilst sat in the car.

Boris (28) and his girlfriend Ivanova were my hosts in town. They lived in his mum’s flat in the centre of town and both worked in the local cinema. Boris had previously lived in St Petersburg whilst working for a car manufacturers before moving back home to Tobolsk. We were driving to his dacha to feed the dog.

“Ha! That is precisely the way the start a conversation. Why?”

“Because of their history with us. They prevented us from taking [place name I can’t remember] in WW1 from Turkey, our historic enemy and they helped fund the revolution which stalled Russian development.”

“Wait. You think don’t think the revolution happened because people were discontent?”

“I think the rebels were simply murders. They killed off the army officers and educated people setting Russia back 50 years until WWII started. Only now are we able to find out that the improvements the Soviet system claimed for itself were actually started under the last Tsar and his Prime Minister Stolypin. By 1917 most of the land had already been redistributed so there was no need for the revolution. This wasn’t in Soviet history textbooks but if you read books written by foreign ambassadors in Russia at the time they back this up, the Russian empire was in a much better position than we’re told it was.”

We’d driven out of the city and pulled out on a darkened street, a row of dachas built on either side. Boris’ was built by his mum (not personally) and seemed pretty new and liveable. It had a living room with a tv, fridge and cooking equipment; bedrooms upstairs; a garden and a banya**. He started heating up something from the freezer to feed to the dog whilst I tried and failed to take a picture with the cat.

“What if there hadn’t been a revolution? The tsar still had all the power and that system could still exist today. Would that really be a better situation?” I asked.

“I think having a tsar is the best situation for Russia right now. It brings stability and it’s in our history. We’re used to there being one person on top to whom you go to if you are in trouble. We have regional governments but if people have a problem they try and go straight to Putin. A couple of weeks ago some unfair decision was made in a local court. They started appealing the case but in the meantime a journalist asked Putin about it during a press conference. Before the appeal had even been heard the decision was over turned. We know he isn’t perfect but he also bought stability and the situation under his presidency has improved. Everyone’s corrupt; local officials and federal officials. He already owns everything and has made so much money now that all he can do is try and help Russia and try and make an impact on its history. Though I know not everyone I know would agree with me on that.”

“I had a pretty similar conversation to this with a friend in Ekaterinburg the other day. Can you explain something to me? Why does World War 2, The Great Patriotic War, only seem to have lasted for 4 years inside Russia?”

“It didn’t. We know and learn in school that World War 2 started earlier but The Great Patriotic War relates to the USSR’s fight against the Nazi’s and their allies.”

“Do you know what happened in the other two years and why the USSR wasn’t in the war?”

“We learn about it in school. There was a pact or something. I can’t remember now but we did learn about it.”

Boris drove us back into town, enroute the traffic cops had set up in the middle of the road and waved us over. After a brief chat with the cops we drove on. “He said we’d already met today.” Explained Boris. “Have you?” “No.” On the rest of the ride Boris explained to me why he thought the Ukrainian language, and thus Ukraine’s existence as a separate entity from Russia, was a product of the Catholic Poles wanting to create a buffer between them and the Orthodox Russians. Arriving back at the flat Boris and I started to prepare a salad for dinner.

“Our grandparents generation have a saying. ‘Anything’s better than the Nazi’s.” Stated Boris.

“What does that mean?”

“It means this country’s been through a lot of suffering over the past hundred or so years and we’ve learnt to put up with it. We can put up with economic pain, we’ll make do, just don’t start a war. That’s what the government’s there for. We can deal with whatever situation we find ourselves in, they just have to prevent a war externally and prevent a revolution internally.”

“But what about freedoms? I met quite a few people that don’t feel they can express themselves openly, which they think is a problem.”

“Hmm. Whoever’s said that must be talking about local government and they probably meant it’s not worth complaining as nothing will change. You can say what you want about Putin, go out and shout it on the street, no one will do anything. Either way, in a few generations, after we’ve had peace for a while, then we can think about freedoms. Can you tell me what people in Europe think about Russia?”

“I’ve been in Russia so long I don’t know how people in the UK think. I’d say we don’t know that much about Russia, generally all we hear about is Russian politics.” I explained about Crimea [see Freedoms Part 3.]

“But why are other Eastern European countries scared? If I was to go to Estonia and hug someone in the street why wouldn’t they hug me back?”

“Because of the history and because in all the countries bordering Russia there are Russian speaking minorities. If Putin decides Russia has to defend the rights of Russian speakers then people in those countries have reason to be worried.”

“Yeah but that’s history now. I think the governments of those countries have a role to play. If they didn’t take money from NATO and instead said that Russia was a friend not an enemy it would be fine. It’s propaganda.”

I have no idea how we got onto this but I explained why London’s multiculturalism is what makes the city so great.

“Maybe it works there but I’ve seen what [Central Asian] migrants are like in Russia. They aren’t educated, they like or respect Russia and they don’t want to integrate. They shouldn’t move here and expect to live like they do at home. It’s funny, you think like a European and you’re being an idealist.”

“There’s nothing wrong with having ideals. Anyway, if is true that they don’t respect Russia, it might be because they get harassed all the time for being Central Asian. [I explained about my time in Veliky Novgorod.] If you were getting stopped in the street, having your ID checked for no reason, wouldn’t you be pissed off? Maybe people in Russia should start treating them better.”

“Or they could just go home.”

We sat down to watch the football.

“Isn’t it strange that European migrants can live in Russia without any problems but not Central Asian migrants who ‘used to be your brothers [in the USSR]’”

“Yeah, ha, that is strange.”

Barcelona came back from a previous 4-0 defeat against PSG to win 6-1.

The next day I walked into the kitchen to see Boris cooking something in a pan.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a mammoth’s tooth.”

“…really?”

“Yeah.”

“…really?”

“Yeah. My mum found it a few years ago whilst taking the dog for a walk. Bit of bone and teeth occasionally turn up in the river. Kids that find them can make quite a bit of money selling them on.”

After some more wandering around in the sun I headed back to the flat before going to catch my next train. Ivanova was cooking dinner. As well as working in the cinema she was a yoga instructor and over new year’s she’d been on a yoga course near Kerala. She was currently making chickpea soup with paneer and had already made hummus, Russian cooking doesn’t use spices so this was one of the best things I’d eaten to date. Another football match was starting, Manchester United were playing Rostov-on-Don.

“The commentators just said that UK TV showed a programme about Russian football hooligans as a warning for those thinking of visiting the world cup over here.” Boris told me.

“You know that’s cause of what happened in France during the Euros? Right?”

“Oh yeah…but it wasn’t just Russians that were fighting.”

* http://russiapedia.rt.com/on-this-day/july-17

** Russian sauna; an integral part of Russian culture.Read more