Notes From Russia: A Young Woman’s Video Journal

Dear Teacher/Viewer:

Russia is more complex than any documentary could ever present. However, documentary about this vast country gives a much clearer idea as to what it’s about than textbooks are able to give. Documentary helps one understand the culture by using sight and hearing. These help transport the viewer temporarily to this land of many wonders. Everything becomes more vivid, and therefore more understood. In these few pages, I would like to bring you behind the scenes of the making of this video. Also, please share this section with students or other viewers. I’m sure it will answer many of their questions as well as spark a lively discussion.

Sincerely,

 Sarah

 Rule #1 Bears may be cute, but they sure can bite!

Russia’s national symbol is the bear. Man and bear have been working together in the circus for many years. When I saw bears out in public for the first time, it was truly a surprise. However, it’s not unusual for people to keep bears and train them for careers in the circus. Even so, bears are still wild animals. Trainers keep them muzzled because they can bite at the most unexpected times.

There’s a shot of me sitting, waving, with a bear cub on my lap outside of Gorky Park. A man was standing by with a sign that said I could get my picture taken with it for the equivalent of $3.00 U.S. dollars. I decided to do it. When I approached, the bear cub was sound asleep on a chair. Before I knew it, the trainer was yanking this bear awake by the skin of his neck! The trainer then plopped him down on my lap. The cub, being very grumpy, lashed out and bit the first thing he could find, which was my arm. It took a while for him to calm down. After a while, someone was able to get a shot of the bear sitting calmly on my lap. However, that bear was not cuddly! His fur was very coarse and he squirmed a lot. He certainly didn’t take kindly to being touched by a human.

Bears are acquired by humans when poachers shoot the mothers and sell the cubs to the circus. The circus trains the bears to do different kinds of tricks and dances. Trainers dress them in ballet tutus and even cowboy clothing. Sometimes the bears are mistreated in order to get them to be obedient. This is the darker side of human interaction with these beautiful creatures.

 Rule #2 Watch out for monkeys on the metro and leopards on the street!

On the way to Gorky Park, some students and I were riding the metro. One of the boys piped up, "Look, Sarah, that guy is petting his monkey!" Thinking this was a joke, I didn’t look. The boy said again, "That man has dressed his monkey in baby clothes!" I ignored the boy again. Then the boy yelled excitedly, "Really, check it out! That monkey is wearing tennis shoes". Finally, I looked in order to get the boy to be quiet. But, there he was, a middle aged-man holding a monkey, just like one would hold a small child. Both were happily riding the metro. The monkey was dressed head to toe, in human baby clothes, and yes, he was even wearing sneakers. The man and the monkey exited the train at the next stop. The Russians however didn’t seem to think anything out of the ordinary had happened. They didn’t even blink an eye.

Outside of Gorky Park, there was a leopard basking in the sun. A few feet away was a main road with many cars and many people walking by. The leopard was not on a leash and lounged sleepily in the midst of the noisy city. His trainer stood about 20 feet away talking to a few other men. Muscovites didn’t seem to think this was strange either.

I’m just surprised that the leopard didn’t take off after the man who stood outside of Gorky Park dressed as a six-foot parrot. For a hungry cat, I’m sure he looked like a dinner-sized meal.

Rule #3 Expect to hear weird music in English on the radio.

All of the music in the video was recorded off of Radio Maximum, a station which was created after the fall of the iron curtain. They played many songs in Russian that sounded like a Russian equivalent of The Backstreet Boys or The Spice Girls. They also played bizarre songs in English about such colorful historical figures like Rasputin. The song about Rasputin especially caught my attention. It was set to a disco type music and told the true history of Rasputin’s life, but in a late-20th century slang-English. The refrain of the song went like this: "Rah Rah Raspu-teen, lover of the Russian Queen, he was a cat that really was gone. Rah Rah Raspu-teen, Russia’s greatest love-machine, it was a shame how he carried on". By the end of the song, it had told the whole story of his poisoning and subsequent death by shooting. It was an interesting concept- and hey, perhaps it even made history more palpable for some by setting it to dance music.

Rule #4 Guard your belongings!

When I joked about someone stealing my socks on the overnight train to St. Petersburg, I was only half kidding. With such economic uncertainty in Russia, crime is rampant, even on the train. The lower bunks in the train had storage boxes below them, so one would literally have to lift the sleeper up if he wanted to steal his or her belongings. The upper bunks had no storage places or cover, not even curtains for privacy. I was able to keep my camera equipment in a lower bunk, and it was guarded by Ben, one of the students. Fortunately, my socks were not stolen during the night. In the morning, all of my belongings were intact, and luckily, so was I.

But, the train hadn’t pulled into St. Petersburg when I woke up, so I stillhad some more time to guard my belongings. I hauled them with me to the restroom, which was at the end of each car. I didn’t really need to use it, I just went to stand in that compartment because it was the only place where fresh air could be found. The windows in the train didn’t open, and the bright, morning sunlight came in and heated all of the compartments to the point where the air was barely breathable. Now add in the stench of people who shower far too little and who are eating onions with breakfast. I could hardly stand it. In the restroom compartment, fresh, cool air came in through cracks in the outside doors. Other people had the same idea as I did, and a line had formed outside of the restroom door. I watched as men and women of different ages used that communal restroom. They thought it strange that I was forfeiting my chance to use it. I guess they didn’t realize I was there only for the cool air. Besides, who would want to use a restroom with liquid all over the floor, a toilet with a steel seat, and no toilet paper in sight? My camera and I waited.

Rule #5 There are two prices for everything!

When traveling in Russia, go with a Russian national or a tour group because there are two prices for everything. If you are Russian, you can see a ballet performance at the Bolshoi theatre for about $11.00 U.S. dollars. If the ticket seller finds out that you are not Russian, the price miraculously jumps to about $150.00 U.S. dollars. The same thing applies to getting into the Kremlin, Red Square, and other performances at other theatres.

There is a law against having two different prices for Russians and tourists, unfortunately, many merchants and ticket sellers ignore it.

Rule #6 Have a camera ready at all times

When one is in Russia, some of the most unexpected things can happen. So I had a rule for myself: have a camera ready at all times. My camera batteries would charge all night while I slept. Because of the different voltage, sometimes they wouldn’t get charged enough and would end up dying at times when I wanted to videotape something! For instance, when I wanted to videotape the steel toilet seats in the train and the monkey on the metro, my batteries were dead. I had a still camera and I took pictures of some of these things. Unfortunately, when I got home and had the pictures developed, the processor ruined two whole rolls of my film. So that didn’t work either. Next time I’ll have to bring more batteries.

This documentary itself was produced in a style called cinema verite. This style, meaning "true cinema" was developed in France. The goal of the producer employing this style is to shoot things as they happen, "warts and all", with no special lighting, sound, or rehearsal. Everything you will see on Notes From Russia was videotaped as it happened, unrehearsed, unplanned and unscripted. A script was written only after I returned to the U.S. and it was based almost word for word on the written journal I kept while there. So when you watch Notes From Russia, everything you see is "real cinema" and this is as real as Russia gets!

Rule #7 Beware of unidentifiable meats and liquids...

One has such high hopes when traveling overseas. One honestly wants to eat where the locals eat, and drink water from the tap, just as the locals do, but unfortunately, the stomach occasionally pipes up and voices its complaint. This is when one must be obedient to the stomach, unless of course one wants a total rebellion; and as we all know, the stomach always wins such rebellions.

In being obedient to the stomach in Russia, its necessary to be careful about food and water. I mainly drank bottled water and something that tasted like cherry juice. If I were really thirsty, I would drink the tap water which Dr. Goldfeld had boiled the night before; but even that made me uneasy. The food was another story. Meat was very difficult to obtain. One could get minced-meat stuffed in the middle of bread rolls, which were called peroshkis; or one could get this same minced-meat stuffed into the middle of crepe-like pancakes, which were called blinis. One day I found non-minced meat. I ordered a "steak" in a St. Petersburg restaurant. It was smothered in cheese. Underneath the cheese, this so-called steak didn’t look like beef, or any unidentifiable meat. I don’t know what it was, so I gave it to one of the guys eat. He happily obliged. Dr. Goldfeld told me that some of the Russians who sell fur hats to tourists are actually using cats to make those hats instead of rabbit or fox. I guess this gives a new meaning to "the cat in the hat".

Moscow had small grocery stores which were stocked with staples: dairy products, grains, very few fruits and vegetables, and maybe a whole chicken or a cut of steak, if one was fortunate. However, this must have appeared to be quite the selection to Muscovites, who, during life behind the iron curtain, had gotten used to grocery stores ONLY having bread most of the time. Some of the time, especially in winter, grocery stores had nothing at all- for weeks.

Normally, I would not eat at McDonald’s. But by the end of the trip, I realized that I could get a satisfying and identifiable meal there, even if the meal was full of grease.

Rule #8 Tea and vodka are sacred.

I don’t drink alcohol, so I can’t say too much about vodka and Russian life. But what I can say is, a Russian’s idea of a party is sitting around a table with his friends and going through bottles of vodka as a group. I never had such an opportunity- thankfully.

However, I have did have an opportunity to sample tea, Russian style. Drinking tea has become as much of a part of Russian culture as drinking vodka. When one enters a Russian home, one can expect to be served tea. But this tea is not made in the same way that Americans or even English people make it. This is the way Russian tea is made:

It all starts with a pot of cold, fresh water on the stove. This water is brought to a rolling boil. Upon boiling, it is poured into a very small china tea pot which is packed with tea leaves. It is then allowed to brew into a very dark, and rich tea concentrate. After it has finished brewing, this concentrate is poured into individual cups. Each cup is a little under half full with tea concentrate. Then, the large kettle of hot water in brought back to the table. Each partaker of this special tea then adds water to his or her cup to dilute the concentrate to his or her own taste. Sugar is then added. Milk is usually not taken with Russian tea. Before I figured this whole ritual out, I served a Russian a cup full of tea concentrate and didn’t offer any water for dilution. He didn’t look pleased and I couldn’t figure out why. Regardless, he graciously accepted and sipped his concentrate. It was only a few days after the incident that I was made aware of the proper way to serve tea.

Ooops!

Rule #9 Do not take coffee to go because people will think you’re either weird or a tourist, or both!

Russia has not yet caught on to the idea of Starbucks. They do not sell coffee, or tea to go. In fact, coffee does not seem to be very interesting to the Russians. It was difficult to find any at all. The second day of my stay, I found a Russian fast food restaurant which sold a type of powdered, whipped cappuccino from a machine. Because this drink resembled coffee and was served in a plastic cup, I decided to take it to go. The girls behind the counter laughed at me as I left, and people stared at me as I walked down the street. I’m sure I would have drawn less attention had I been wearing a clown suit.

Rule #10 A capitalist Russia does not necessarily equal a wealthy Russia.

In the video, I tried to bring out the great economic disparities that are emerging in post-Communist Russia. Before the fall of the iron curtain, Russians had very few commercial goods in stores to choose from and also very little money to spend. But as a consolation, everyone was taken care of by the government. The common person could be assured that he’d receive a meager monthly living. He would also work at a job, probably in a factory, and have a set life.

In the new Russia, all of the things that previously applied are no more. Capitalism has taken over Russia and many different products have flooded the stores. There is a lot of money to be made by a certain class of people in this new economy. The youthful, educated, technology-literate people are able to reap the benefits of this new economy. One sees them carrying cellular phones, driving luxury vehicles, and wearing clothing far more extravagant than most Americans would ever think to wear.

However, there still remains the average Russian who is not able to reap the benefits of this new economy- if anything, he is hurting. The elderly, who have not had educational training, are not able to forge a path for themselves. These people are now left without the social net of Communism. One can see them begging on the streets, or selling herbs and other meager foodstuffs which are garden-grown. I was shocked to see people sleeping under newspapers and starving old women on the streets. Poverty in Russia doesn’t seem to be about alcoholism or insanity, but rather about honest people who have been left behind by the new system. To say that seeing such people in need "saddened" me, hardly does justice to what I felt. Words simply can’t articulate what I feel in my heart.

Recently the news has presented dire images of economic collapse in Russia. I was there only a couple of months before the media started reporting these events. But, even then, imminent collapse was apparent. There were so many western style clothing stores with few customers, so much food to be bought in incredibly high-priced grocery stores, yet there were no buyers; and whispers of economic trouble among Russians themselves. I visited a middle school one day. One of the English teachers there expressed her fears about the country’s future. She said that collapse was certain to happen soon. She was right. Unfortunately, the different economic forces at work in the ex-Soviet Union are too complex to discuss in detail in an informational supplement of this length. I won’t try.

 Rule #11 Don’t try to describe such a profoundly different country with rules or anecdotes.

The video told a story of a place that seems to be a lot like the United States inmany respects; and in many respects it is. The Russian people like to have fun as much as we do, enjoy their friends and family, and they have the basic human needs of food, shelter and clothing. All people share the same basic needs and also the same types of situations which make them happy. However, Russia is a country which is profoundly different than the United States. It has a much different history, a different landscape, language, and different customs. But most importantly, the national "psyche" of its people is different from ours. The people of Russia have a psyche which has been shaped by extreme political repression, a major revolution in this century, hunger, and countless other factors. It is a country of overwhelming beauty, both in its landscape and art; complexity, contradiction, and historical distinction. It is a country that each one of us should visit, just to see it through our own eyes.

Robert McConnell Productions