St. Petersburg Hop On, Hop Off

Oct. 8, 2018-St. Petersburg Hop On, Hop Off

Good thing is we have sun. Bad thing is it’s only going up to 40 degrees.

What happened to Oleg our bus driver? What happened to our big bus? We have a tiny bus today. Seats & suspension are awful. Maybe it’s better for traffic conditions.

We had our usual lecturer this morning. She had spent three months studying in Chicago and was more candid with her presentation than expected. Her bottom line is that people need to meet personally and not believe propaganda they see on TV. 

The Soviet legacy lives on through nostalgia. Putin said that whoever doesn’t miss it has no past; whoever wants to go back to the past has no brain. The only equality was in misery. Today some 70,000 communal apartments are still in use. Those are large, formerly private apartments where several families live sharing a kitchen and bathroom.

Inequality is the rule today. With the fall of the USSR, property was up for grabs. Ten percent of the population ended up with 80% of the wealth with the help of the Russian Mafia.  Life expectancy is low (60 for men; 77 for women), birth rate is low, pensions are low, and there is a brain drain. When there was pension reform, retirement age was raised (60 for women; 65 for men). Basically, they pay taxes, retire and die. 

So, what is the Putin phenomenon? The leader before him, Yeltsin, was weak regarding the West and an embarrassment. He frequently appeared drunk at public events. Putin was young (in his 40’s), and didn’t drink. He was perceived as strong, and when he raised oil prices from $8/barrel to $100/barrel, it was a windfall. The middle class began to emerge. The rest of the unexpected bounty disappeared through corruption. Russians like firm leaders. Another plus for Putin. In a recent survey asking who they think was the best leader of the 20th century, they chose Stalin. Now, that’s selective memory. When the US imposed sanctions on Russia, it affected the wealthy. But in retribution Putin imposed anti-sanctions. That impacted the general population in a negative way. There is no more fish from Finland and no apples from Poland. The speaker said they have the same chance to fish in the Gulf of Finland and plenty of land to grow apples, but that oil money was not used to develop Russian entrepreneurship.

The 2018 World Cup was transformational for Russians. Propaganda told them the world hated them and wanted them to fail. Their expectations were low regarding their ability to host the event. But they were pleasantly surprised to meet the world and find it was made up of people who were interested in cultural exchanges.

Russians are very competitive with Americans and felt betrayed by the West. They thought that after the collapse of the USSR they would be “saved” by being invited into the EU and NATO. They did like Trump, and Parliament celebrated his victory with champagne. Russians deny hacking our elections, and are proud they did it. They see it as revenge for all the American interference in their politics in the 90’s. Now Russians feel sorry for Trump. They see him as a victim of democracy. They believe he wanted to remove the sanctions, but the evil Congress opposed him. 

WWII devastated this city. Over a million people died of cold and starvation. Things slowly improved and today manufacturing keeps St. Petersburg employed. There is only a 1% unemployment rate. Really?

One of our group, Mike, asked about Putin’s family. He said he’d tried to find information on wives or children and couldn’t. The speaker said that Putin has two daughters, a wife he divorced, and a new young wife. It seems that anyone who delves deeper into the Putin history disappears. So far, Mike from Minnesota is still with us. 

Our bus tour covered the graceful architecture and history of St. Petersburg. If you held a gun to my head, I couldn’t recount the information. There are repurposed palaces, parks, and waterfront locales to explore. We had a “comfort” break at a gift shop with expensive items. I didn’t buy LeBron James nesting dolls for $35. St. Isaac Cathedral was on our “hop off” itinerary. It is named for the patron saint of Peter the Great, St. Isaac, not the Old Testament Isaac.

After a lunch of hot Russian borscht and beef stroganoff, we went to the town of Pushkin where, in 1905, Czar Nicholas moved his family to try to keep their son and heir Alexis’s hemophilia secret. There they became involved with Rasputin who could relieve the pain of the bruising. With the rise of Communism, Rasputin predicted the end of the monarchy. He was killed December, 1916. Poisoning didn’t work. They shot him twice and dumped him in the canal. On autopsy they found his lungs full of water so, in the end, he drowned. July, 1918, the Romanov family was executed.

Catherine’s Palace is 18 miles from downtown. It took us 45 minutes to get there by bus. It used to take Catherine a week. Of course, she stopped along the way to visit friends. Entering the grounds, we passed a Holocaust memorial. No Jews in Pushkin survived. Zero. None. Germans were in St. Petersburg 28 months. They were efficient. 

The only change we noticed since we were at the Palace about 13 years ago, was there was more scaffolding, more restoration workers, and more Chinese. Hoards of Chinese tourists vied for space. The toilet became a chess game. Groups tried to out-maneuver each other. We won. Our local guide blocked off the men’s room and the women on our tour took it over. Footies were required for all touring in the Palace. Unfortunately, they didn’t plan for Western men with size 15 shoes. We convinced David it was ok to just cover his toes. 

I won’t try to go through the history of Russian royalty, but it’s a lot easier than learning the Kings of France. Briefly, Peter’s daughter was Elizabeth, and his wife was Catherine. After that Alexanders and Nickolases alternated. The grand palace rooms were splendid with styles varying from predominately baroque to a sprinkling of rococo and Italianate. The most famous and infamous is the Amber Room. It is literally floor to ceiling amber panels. Russians tried to protect it in WWII, before Germans arrived. When they began dismantling the panels, they fell apart. In a stroke of genius, Russians decided to hide the amber behind false walls. But Germans weren’t uninformed. They had blueprints of the Palace and noticed the dimensions of one room was smaller than indicated. They removed the false walls and moved the amber to Kaliningrad. To this day, that amber hasn’t been found. All but the ceiling has been replaced with new amber echoing the old room. An astounding fact is that the palace was trashed by the Germans, and an attempt was made to blow it up. The explosion wasn’t successful, but a fire raged. It took from the end of WWII to present for the current restoration to be done. It will be years more before it is complete. 

Traveling is a common hobby for Russians. Going to the US is expensive and getting a visa isn’t guaranteed. It costs $300, non-refundable, and they have to go to Moscow to apply. So, they travel to countries that don’t require visas: Israel, Egypt, India, etc. Those are also warm countries. Even Bob was shocked by a sign that said if you’re going on vacation have a good trip. Be sure your taxes are paid beforehand or you’re not going anywhere.

We walked to dinner following Bob who has always chosen well. Graf In was charmingly illuminated by lamps of hanging crystal wine goblets. The menu was in Russian and English and illustrated as if it was an upscale Denny’s. It didn’t take long before there were gales of laughter over the translations. Here are a few:

          Tupa service     Tuna cervice 

          Deer ravioli with cowberry sauce     There is such a thing as a cowberry here

          Dim Sam        Dim Sum

          Soup from soup   Soup made from mushrooms found under an aspen tree

          Tartar in Russian letters is TAP TAP

          Deer in moose sauce was my misunderstanding. It was in mousse sauce

          I thought I’d ordered salad with beef, but it was salad with beets

Bob ordered a Bear Mule not to be confused with a Moscow Mule. It is a drink served in a bear mug. It’s a mixture of vodka, honey, pine cone syrup, Pepsi, lemon, & smoke syrup (no idea). 

On the walk back, David and one of the group were intently talking. She came out to him. My gaydar was once again correct. The poor woman had waited until she was 60 to accept who she was. I don’t know how old she is now, but she’s not much more than that.

Last night, having mastered the TV, we got into bed and turned off the lights. The escape warning sign glowed in the dark. I may hang a towel over it tonight.

Tomorrow we have a later start and free time before we head to The Hermitage.

Toby

Dome of Catherine's Chapel

Bob and Bear Mule