Shot Him a Bear, When He Was Only Three

Sooner or later, I know someone is bound to e-mail me asking, "so what are these Russians really like?" Or, "what is it really like over there?"

Well, to the first question, a brief reply:

Politics doesn't interest them. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton do. They don't know geography (I played a "guess the city" game with a group of adults recently and was horrified by a student who couldn't identify Tokyo--the word for which in Russian is "Tokyo"). And English is a foreign language to them.

In short, they're just like us! Teach them about Cathy who's been most everywhere, from Zanibar to Berkeley Square, and they could pass for real Americans.

As to the second question, I haven't much to say. Moscow seems like any national capital anywhere on the globe these days. Every day brings fresh evidence of how different things are from Soviet times. For instance, at the internet cafe where I have blogged a few times, it's possible to pay for copy service, just like at Kinko's in the States or 7-Eleven in Taiwan. This is a far cry from twenty-five years ago, when photocopiers were actively controlled by the Communist government.

But I will dispel a few commonly held myths:

1) Lara's Theme does not play in the background everywhere you go. Neither does the Sleeping Beauty Waltz. Sorry to disappoint you. These days the background music in Russia is American pop and techno.

2) Bears do not roam the streets. Shooting bears can be safely left to Davy Crockett. The Russian militsiya (police) have better things to do, like extorting bribes from foreigners who have not registered properly.

3) Officials at customs control do not check for "subversive" literature. The days of people getting arrested for trying to smuggle in copies of Cancer Ward are over. Samizdat (mimeographed and hand-typed copies of literature the Party does not want published) is a thing of the past.

4) Contrary to what someone suggested to me before I left, you can read Crime and Punishment openly. In fact, the one thing that was available in the Soviet period, when nearly every other kind of literature was restricted, were cheap editions of the great classics of tsarist-era literature. C&P is required reading in Russian schools.