being here. This will be my first true "international correspondent" post.Moscow is a city of paradox and irony. The proximity of opposites will never cease to amaze me. The most obvious paradox is how closely the fantastically rich and the devastatingly destitute interact. Outside of shops selling expensive French perfumes and outrageous European clothing can be found babushkas selling fruit and homemade mittens, or staggering drunks. On the Metro, one can see women wearing ridiculous fashionable clothing, next to blind men walking up and down the train begging for money. Outside the Kremlin walls roam people dressed up as Stalin, Lenin, and Napoleon, looking for people to pay to take their pictures with them. Right outside Red Square is a circular emblem on the ground that is said to be the center of Moscow. People toss coins there for good luck, and beggars fight each other to get the coins (most coins are worth less than a dime). Perhaps most striking was the Rolls-Royce Dealership in Moscow. I walked past it the other day, and had to take a picture. While in the picture it appears to be in a nice part of town, one block away I saw people living in Port-a-Potties. I'd take their picture but that seems grossly inappropriate. The contrast of unimaginable splendor and heartbreaking poverty is very difficult for me to accept.
Another major contrast in the city is that between the historic and the new. The neighborhood in which I live is an excellent example of that. I live on the street that General Kutuzovskii marched down after returning from victory against Napoleon. Across the Moscow River from this street, aptly named Kutuzovskii Prospekt, are growing the skyscrapers that will form Moscow City and become the largest skyscrapers in Europe. There is a McDonalds outside the Kremlin walls on the Alexander Gardens. There are 2 Starbucks on the Arbat, one across from the house where Pushkin lived. The GUM used to be the main Soviet department store, now it's the fanciest mall that I've ever seen. I think the picture to the right displays what I mean perfectly. The statue in the foreground is Dostoevskii, representing the 19th century Russian literary elite. The building in the background is the Lenin Library. And in the back, don't miss the Samsung advertisement... 3 eras, all adjacent to each other.Another thing that is impossible to miss in this city is the corruption. The mayor of Moscow, Luzhkov, has made a habit of tearing down old buildings and selling the property to private corporations. Also, he has rebuilt several of the buildings that were torn down during the Soviet era. The richest woman in Moscow is the mayor's wife. She owns a plastics company and a construction company. While renovating the Olympic Stadium, it was decided that every seat in every athletics facility had to be replaced with a brand new individual plastic seat. Purchased, of course, from the mayor's wife. While starting construction on Moscow City and rebuilding old buildings, the mayor's wife's construction companies were contracted. I find this utterly revolting and don't understand how such a man can continue to be so popular.
On a personal note, I have a lot of difficulty with Moscow because of my utter hatred of authority. Anyone that places themself in a position of authority over me (aka. police) I hate. In Moscow, there are police and private security guards everywhere. Malls are crawling with private guards and storefronts often have a man standing watch outside. The historical museum had an old woman in every room to make sure that nothing went awry. It's odd to be in a society that embraces authority and utterly distrusts everyone, yet has had a Marxist revolution. I think it's good that these guards have jobs, but there are such better things to hire someone for than to stroll around a mall food court with one earbud in and look important.
Moscow is a very cold city. I don't mean that the weather is cold, it hasn't been too bad actually, I mean that the people here are very cold. While aquaintances show the highest levels of hospitality, Muscovites on the street are uncaring and severe. I had a discussion with one of Christian's Russian friends about this: she said that in the Soviet era there was no class distinction, and now that there is, the lower classes are jealous. And this is true, I definitely get the feeling that waitresses don't like me or anyone else they are serving, and the women at the univeristy coat racks glare at everyone that has them store their jackets. However, the same goes for the upper-class. The rich Muscovites flaunt their riches for everyone to see, and this is most easily seen at clubs. I got turned away at two Moscow clubs due to face control, and I was wearing my nicest clothing (not a jacket, but still). Russia has been based upon class differences since the initiation of serfdom in medieval times, and the Soviet era did little to change that.
I love Moscow. However, it has many problems, most of which are ancient Russian problems that were addressed by Tolstoy, Dostoevskii, Chekhov, Gogol, and many other major Russian authors. Being an eyewitness to the paradoxes of Moscow is difficult to translate into words. Russia and the US are not so different on a very superficial level, its the multitude of small differences that make Russia so entirely foreign to Americans. Russia and the rest of the Western Europe have been at odds since the reign of Ivan the Terrible. However, Russia is a European country with many similar traditions. One way I like to think about Russia is to imagine China or Iran having a Christian tradition, yet still remaining isolated from the West. Russia is difficult to define, it has had such a rollercoaster history and expands across such a vast empire. However, even after only a week in Moscow I'm beginning to have a clearer few of what Russia actually means.
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