Panorama of Neva River from the spit of Vasilevsky Ostrov
Returning to Russia is not returning home but as Russia has played an important role in the last 14 years of my life, returning after a five year absence felt like a homecoming.
I left Russia at the beginning of 2008 shortly before the financial crisis in mid winter. Snow clung to buildings and streets alike. Cold permeates everywhere and settles deep within. With the promise of high inflation, especially of rents and food prices a cold winter promised a hungry summer for many.
Despite knowing that for the past two years Russia has been enjoying the benefit of high oil prices I was uncertain of what to expect. As often happens Russia makes the news headlines for the wrong reasons and it was hard to imagine that it was fairing better than her European neighbours.
Cathedral of the Saviour on the Blood on the Moika Canal built on the site of the assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
Flying into St Petersburg from the south on a gorgeous summer afternoon, impressions could hardly have been better. The sun glittered on golden cupolas, whole new infrastructural projects which were only being discussed or begun when I left already stood completed. Cruise liner after cruise liner were berthed in the city’s ports and whole new suburbs of high rise
apartments gleamed in the sunlight. The 30 degrees centigrade temperature reinforced the contrast of this new Russia with the Russia I left five years ago.
As far as first impressions go, Russia feels more economically secure now than it did five years ago. There are more shops and they are maintained in a better condition than they were. There seem to be fewer beggars and pirated DVDs are no longer on sale in the main subway thoroughfares. St Petersburg is still a dusty city in summer but the sun and the beauty of the architecture makes it pleasant to be out and about.
New apartment buildings have appeared while buildings that were only a few years old when I left now look old. The cost of public transport has approximately doubled from about US 50 cents to about a dollar. Food, water, soft drinks have all increased as has home amenity services. Water is now charged as well. This has added to the cost of living.
New apartments on Vasilevsky Ostrov filling in what had largely been dead space.
Public space is slowly succumbing to the desire to squeeze as much profit as possible from limited land. This has led to a large section of beach being closed off for warehouses and boutiques appearing in locations that used to be empty. In some cases dead zones have been developed and this has had the effect of stimulating and beautifying an otherwise empty area, in other cases it takes away the expansiveness which made St Petersburg such an attractive location despite the millions of people (officially just under five million) that live in the city.
The main impression I have though is how similar everything is. St Petersburg is almost the same as I left it. The same transport routes are used (the prices have doubled), everything is familiar but things have developed in my absence so that I find myself uncertain as to what to do in some circumstances. While sometimes I find myself using Russian words that I haven’t thought about in the last five years, other times I find myself in the middle of a sentence and realise that a word that I once knew is no longer there and I find myself grasping for another word which will cover the situation, or rephrasing the sentence.
Despite this peculiar feeling of unfamiliar familiarity my return has been particularly pleasant. The weather has been warm, not dropping below about 20 degrees Celsius. The suburbs are surrounded by tall apartments and greenery, while the city centre is alive and bustling with thousands and thousands of people walking about town on business – late model cars sit in traffic jams and guzzle petrol while their occupants run air conditioners. The city is opulent, busy, noisy and dusty.
Russia might not be home, but on a sunny afternoon strolling down a boulevard into a park, it is the next best thing.
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Copyright © Peter Campbell 2014, www.intrepid-adventure.com
