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Russia Today

Talk of the Mysterious Russian Soul

Russia Today

“You cannot understand Russia with your mind. You can't measure it with universal dimensions. Russia has something special. In Russia you must simply believe”. This simple stanza, written by the 19th-century Russian poet Fyodor Tyutchev, has calmed many a tortured Western soul seeking to comprehend Russia or Russians by "rational" criteria. Indeed, this vast country with its complex, ancient history seems inordinately difficult for an outsider to understand by any means, rational or otherwise.

New and Improving

New freedoms and opportunities have set off an almost palpable exuberance and energy, particularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russians are rebuilding, restoring, and reinvesting in their own culture and history with a renewed vigor. With the departure of the sickle, the scepter is making a comeback: Ancient Imperial monuments are being dusted off and repaired to reflect their former glory. The Russian Orthodox Church is slowly, discreetly regaining a modicum of its prerevolutionary power and moral influence. New office buildings, restaurants, and service establishments are brightening up previously unused corners of the cities, while old buildings are being given a fresh coat of paint or a restored facade.

 

While visitors marvel at the paradox of huge, superficial changes coupled with ongoing problems, the Russian people must live in such a world. Not so long ago, the government guaranteed security of employment, education, and health and welfare from cradle to grave, at the cost of servility to warped political and economic theories. Now, the government guarantees essentially nothing. When store shelves were nearly bare, the average Russian stood in line up to three hours a day to buy food and consumer goods. Now, anything can be bought in the shops, but prices are frequently beyond the average citizen's means. Wealth seems to correlate with dishonesty and unscrupulous behavior, and there is a growing gap between rich and poor.

 

Russia Has No Easy Answers

There are no easy answers. And that is what fascinates so many people -- often for a lifetime. For once you travel to Russia, taste its rich history and culture, there is no turning back. Russia will be with you forever beckoning you to return.

Russia is undergoing a host of concurrent social, political, and economic upheavals that would crush a less hardy society. In the past 10 years, Russia has cast off an ideology that permeated and dictated all aspects of everyday life; demolished a centrally planned economy built up over six decades; destroyed the world's largest and most oppressive internal, secret police organization, along with a massive system of internal labor camps; carried out the largest-ever sell-off of state assets in the history of the world; dismantled the last empire on earth; created from scratch free-market systems for banking, stock markets, international, and retail trade; developed, again from scratch (and certainly in need of improvement), democratic political structures and the laws necessary to support them. Needless to say, the remarkable extent of these changes is often overlooked by "observers" quick to point out how much further Russia still has to go.

This is evident everywhere. The crew-cut biznesmen in the sharkskin suit wielding a $400 digital cell phone, the audacious street-corner bookseller, the 19-year-old securities trader, the publisher of an independent political newsweekly, the teenager racing around a central square on in-line skates, the politician speaking out for restoration of the monarchy -- all these "new" Russians, whose activities seem so normal to the Western eye, are engaged in things that a decade ago were illegal or impossible.

Of the Russian Spirit

The indomitable Russian spirit marches on. The natives like to recall the old saying," Russia is always defeated, but never beaten." The spirit that impassioned the Russian forces to beat back Napoleon and Hitler, each of whom conquered nearly every other nation he engaged in battle on the European continent -- the spirit that asked the Russian people to endure over 30 years of international and civil war from 1914 to 1945, and seven decades of the gulags - the spirit that kept artistic creativity alive despite centuries of censorship, imprisonment, exile, servitude, and death -- it is this spirit that is Russia's greatest hope and its deepest pride. If you are lucky, and travel through this country with an open mind, you will find a glimmer of this spirit in a conversation shared over vodka and pickles on a train; in a golden summer day spent at a banya (sauna) or dacha (country house); in a winter evening spent at the Bolshoi Opera ; or an afternoon spent at the Tretyakov Gallery.

Surprises In Store

To connoisseurs, Russian food is one of the world's most unheralded, original, even great cuisines. Whereas just a few years ago traveling in Russia meant facing shamefully unappetizing hotel meals masquerading as authentic national fare, today the secrets of great Russian cuisine are being rediscovered. And what better introduction to Russian culture could there be than a steaming dish of beef pelmeni (dumplings) alongside a mound of black caviar? Or a piping-hot bowl of borshch , with onions glimmering in a deep purple broth? Or breaded kotlety po-tsarsky (cutlets à la tsar) lathered with a rich brown sauce? Or the fantastical" bird's milk" torte ? Yes, Russian cuisine is built on starches and creams, but it is also, when prepared properly, replete with fresh vegetables, fresh fish, copious amounts of healthy herbs and garlic, and, possibly, some of the best mushrooms you may ever taste.

Every trip to Russia is full of surprises. Without a doubt, you will meet some interesting people. If you are well prepared, you will visit some fascinating historical sites, attend fine cultural events, and savor one of the world's most overlooked cuisines. And, like many visitors to Russia, while you will leave Russia, Russia will never leave you. Long after your trip is over, your personal experience of Russia will continue to evoke an interest in things Russian, in the myriad riddles of Russia and its people. And while, à la Tyutchev, you may never be able to fully understand Russia, as any traveler knows, there is joy in the attempt.