Moscow is a mystery for every foreigner. We traveled Moscow for a few days and explored the great unknown among the world cities.
Proud and stubborn to this day, indomitable even if all the other large western states continue to criticize. Russia is different, as is its capital Moscow. You must have seen that. Read part 1 of the story here, part 2 is here, the 3 part here, part 4 here, part 5 here, six here, the seven here, eight here, nine & ten & 11
Look at this young girl. She could be a model from everywhere how she stood in the street. Her mobile is glowing, her eyes behind sunglasses and she wears a huge scarf against the cold of Moscow. A Russian girl she is, a girl from everywhere. She stands in the streets of the russian capital so proud and beautiful as only woman can stand.
It's a picture of the cool energy as only Moscow has it. A city full of noise, full of strangers, full of nice and - yes - unfriendly people. Moscow is fast, loud and interesting in all its facets. Those who live here have learned to assert themselves against life. He asserts himself in a city that does not take prisoners. And it doesn't matter whether he is a waiter, saleswoman or construction worker, whether she sweeps the dirt off the street or goes shopping in the most expensive department store.
Different from anything
Everything in Moscow is different from anywhere else. And at the same time completely the same. Moscow puzzles its visitors. How can it be that Russians are so incredibly friendly? And then fight each other for minutes on the street in the evening? How can there be people in a city like this who make their living from wandering the streets with a large bird of prey?
And who is the old man who looks like the legendary Rasputin? The "lover of the russian queen" like an other strange song says? Rasputin was the man who advised the tsar and betrayed them. He was powerful and later murdered by his enemies. But now he lives again whit a white beard and a face like the real one.
Young soldiers march in a parade at the Kremlin, their faces unmoved. But behind the scenes they cackle and grin like schoolboys, it's like a school trip. “Dobroe utro!” - “Good morning” they call. And then they willingly let themselves be photographed in their colorful uniforms.
Many years ago the English musician Sting wrote a great song about these "Russians" (Videolink) that tells exactly this story. This fourth single from the album “The Dream of the Blue Turtles” reached the top 30 in nine countries and brought the fear of the Cold War to a point.
The same biology
"There's no such thing as a winnable war, it's a lie we don't believe anymore, Mister Reagan says," We will protect you ", I don't subscribe to this point of view," sang Sting, who used to be a singer the band The Polivce had been. “Believe me when I say to you I hope the Russians love their children too”. Yes you learn that when you are out and about in Moscow: "We share the same biology, regardless of ideology but what might save us, me and you is if the Russians love their children too." They do!
Drink with them, laugh with them, look at them and try to understand their wonderful and so strange language. Sting was inspired to write “Russians” during the Cold War after watching a pirated satellite Russian broadcast of Russian children’s television programming and realizing “Russians love their children just as we do”. He then took the melody from the piece “Lieutenant Kije Suite”, which the Russian composer Prokofiev had written.
And Sting even tried to fly to Moscow to record his song there. But times were not like that, the leaders of the Communist Soviet Union would not let him into the country. Sting later made it clear that “Russians” was not a “pro-Soviet song”, but a pro-children song.
No dirt in the hallway
They are the same in Russia as they are everywhere. But so do the adults. Here in Moscow, Muscovites also complain about dirt in the hallway and on the streets, even if they have much less reason to do so than the residents of Berlin, Hamburg or Cologne, three German cities, who imagine they are very, very clean. Moscow is cleaner, it also has a lot less pictures smeared on the walls - no, that's not true, Moscow doesn't have any. Everywhere there is constant sweeping, cleaning, cleaning and polishing.
Who asks how it works together, often gets the information that the old Soviet times are to blame. She simply expelled people from any individual sense of responsibility for their surroundings, but instilled obedience and obedience into them. But the young people you talk to laugh at that. They are neither obedient nor Soviet, but citizens of the world, orientated towards the West and anxious to earn money simply because of the high cost of living. Everyone talks about the stark difference between rich and poor - but everyone suffers from it.
Russian logic
They all meet in the center of the city: the homeless, the Lada drivers and those who are chauffeured in a Mercedes. They live next to each other, in the same city, but not necessarily in the same world. The break can also be seen from the outside of the old buildings from the Stalin era: Here are the ones with new windows with double glass, next to them with the old, draughty wooden frames.
Russian logic: After the end of the Soviet Union, it was not the houses that were sold, but individual apartments. Those who had enough money gave their four walls an "evro remont", a European renovation. Because “European” is good, a sign of quality. But you know: Every Russian has his own idea of what it means. The beggar has different one as the young girl with the gucci bag. The woman who is showing her grandma how a mobile works has another as the patriotic fighting ma with the russian flag.
No one can be kinder to visitors than a Russian. There is no rejection from them, only interest. Which also gets bigger with every glass of vodka. Even if they don't understand their counterpart, they listen with interest as if the guest had come from another cosmos.
What we are told in the news, how terrible it all is with Russia, with the Russian President, with the Russian Army, the people on the other side of the table only shake their heads. And in the end it is clear to everyone: Yes, Sting is right, Russians really love their children just as much as everyone else.
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A few more pictures for you:
