What makes the FSU so interesting?

[Gator]

Mendy,


I never knew about the House on the Embankment.  Thanks.  One small museum I really enjoyed was the KGB museum.  Some of the artifacts reveal that we (the US) were messing with Russia and the USSR for a long time.  My ex-wife's grandfather was KGB, and he 'vaporized' in Iran a long time ago.

[Gator]

Mendy,


I traveled the Moscow Metro a lot over many years.  I did fine even though I could not really understand the voice announcements for the first few years.  One needs a bi-lingual map.  Changing lines can be tricky, yet it is well marked.  The underground kiosks represent another world. 


One question.  The ticket gate is very odd in that it is open unless you fail to insert a valid ticket and then it slams shut.  The force with which it slams is severe.  Is this done to assure that cheaters do not pass their DNA to the next generation?    Seriously the force could injure a youngster.  Perhaps time and motion studies show this is more efficient.


Some of these lines run at great depth, supposedly 296 feet, requiring a freaky escalator ride (such depth I presume would withstand a direct hit by an ICBM).   I wonder what else was constructed underground by the Soviets?


Quiz.  The Moscow Metro  started operations in 1935.   London's tube was first in 1860s.  What country had the second oldest?  Started in 1896 and a former Communist country.  I rode it and it is barely underground, unlike the freakish depths of the Moscow metro.

[Chicagoguy]

Gator,
I have seen young guys go over those "super" gates
The escalator at Victory Park is the longest in the world. Just a little over 10 years old. And all of them with their speeds !!
.

[mendeleyev]

Quiz.  The Moscow Metro  started operations in 1935.   London's tube was first in 1860s.  What country had the second oldest?  Started in 1896 and a former Communist country.  I rode it and it is barely underground, unlike the freakish depths of the Moscow metro.

You stumped me on this one so I had to "google."   

Answer: Budapest 

One question.  The ticket gate is very odd in that it is open unless you fail to insert a valid ticket and then it slams shut.  The force with which it slams is severe.  Is this done to assure that cheaters do not pass their DNA to the next generation?    Seriously the force could injure a youngster.  Perhaps time and motion studies show this is more efficient.

Older turnstiles had an "arm" up which rotated you through after your ticket was validated. Newer, as you have discovered, are open and will indeed slam with great force if one tries to pass without a ticket.

Russia is not about personal safety, that is the responsibility of the citizen rather than the government so many of the safety and building "codes" that we employ in Western countries enjoy little acceptance in Russia.

As Chicago Guy mentioned, some kids have learned to jump over them. Moscow is now installing electronic alarms which sound when that happens and violators are usually caught quickly.

Some of these lines run at great depth, supposedly 296 feet, requiring a freaky escalator ride (such depth I presume would withstand a direct hit by an ICBM).   I wonder what else was constructed underground by the Soviets?

While it was not the original purpose for being so deep, during the Cold War each Metro station was indeed a bomb shelter and stocked with rations and medical supplies. During the siege of Moscow in the Great Patriotic War stations were used as bomb shelters and many a government/military meeting was conducted underground during times of danger.

I believe that the two deepest are in the FSU. Kyiv's "Arsenalnaya" station plunges to 102 m (330 ft) and Moscow's "Park Pobedy" is 86 m (278 ft) under the surface.


(Below: I was privileged earlier this year to have the platforms of Park Pobedy cleared out briefly to take photos for a book project. These are lighting outtakes that will not be licensed for the book.)

[mendeleyev]

From today's Mendeleyev Journal:


(Moscow) We wanted the headline to read "The passing of the impromptu cab" but in modern day search engine optimization that wouldn't play so well.


A time honoured tradition will close at the end of this year as officials have declared that it will be illegal to stick out your thumb and catch a quick ride starting in January 2012. It's a shame really as perhaps no other city in the world had perfected such an efficient system of citizen helping citizen to travel quickly from point A to point B.

Moscow evening traffic, summer 2011. (Photo: Mendeleyev Journal)

Here is how it worked: You needed to go somewhere but didn't want to hike off to the underground Metro or catch a slow moving bus. It wasn't even necessary to stick out a thumb really as just standing on the street looking as if you needed a ride usually worked. Before long a driver would pull over and ask where you were going. If he or she was going your way a price would be negotiated and off you'd go.


Citizen taxis to the rescue! It worked for you and gave the driver some extra cash for petrol.  Pocket change in most cases, but a service was rendered for both parties. It won't be pocket change if caught after January as a driver caught taking money without a special taxi license will be fined from 1,000 rubles and up to a maximum of 10,000 rubles depending on the number of infractions and the location. Officials say that fines will be used to help improve Moscow roads. We'll see.


Advocates of the new law point to Moscow's excellent public transportation systems and argue that officials have safety in mind and one cannot argue the possible dangers when citizens trust strange drivers they've never met. Proponents say that licensed taxi drivers are better trained and vetted before grant of a license. Having ridden official taxi cars and knowing how most official licenses are obtained in this city, those claims are funny but not true. Besides, I've never met the licensed taxi driver before accepting a ride and most of them drive no better than the average citizen.


Opponents say that this will drive up the prices of the city's licensed taxi services. Have you ever tried to find or call an official taxi in Moscow? Good luck, the wait can be for hours and there is no guarantee that a taxi will arrive at all. At least the impromptu citizen taxi system was fast and goodness knows there is an endless supply of almost empty Ladas on the streets every day.


Perhaps the coming Olympics and profits of official taxi companies are in reality what officials had in mind. Just as small neighborhood markets and street kiosks are being swept away, the winners are big business owners with Kremlin and City Hall connections. The consumer is left stranded while regulation and control of the simple life marches on to the tune of modernization.


Muscovites often ignore new laws (they happily ignore some of the old laws too) so it will take time in making the adjustment to life without private/citizen taxi services.


No matter how you look at it, this marks the end of an era.

[OlgaH]

Driving in Moscow

[mendeleyev]

 From the Mendeleyev Journal:

Wow, how is that for relevance?!
 
Yesterday we featured the landmark House on the Embankment and today it is in the news.
 
The trademark Mercedes silver logo atop the building was dismantled Wednesday afternoon as part of a government campaign to reduce advertising in public places. The large Mercedes Benz emblem had enjoyed its rooftop perch for a decade.




At 6.5-tons and a diameter of 8 meters across, it took one crane 5-1/2 hours to remove the emblem from the House on the Embankment. It seems however that the city and Mercedes Benz can’t come to an agreement on how the decision was reached.

The city says that the logo’s lease had expired several years ago, however Mercedes promptly offered to produce documents showing otherwise and complained that “politics” caused the logo to be removed. The city however took a different line, all the while maintaining that the removal came as part of a Moscow clean-up campaign.

In the end Mercedes Benz paid for the logo's removal.

[acctBill]

From the Mendeleyev Journal:

Wow, how is that for relevance?!
 
Yesterday we featured the landmark House on the Embankment and today it is in the news.
 
The trademark Mercedes silver logo atop the building was dismantled Wednesday afternoon as part of a government campaign to reduce advertising in public places. The large Mercedes Benz emblem had enjoyed its rooftop perch for a decade.




At 6.5-tons and a diameter of 8 meters across, took one crane 5-1/2 hours to remove the emblem from the House on the Embankment. It seems however that the city and Mercedes Benz can’t come to an agreement on how the decision was reached.

The city says that the logo’s lease had expired several years ago, however Mercedes promptly offered to produce documents showing otherwise and complained that “politics” caused the logo to be removed. The city however took a different line, all the while maintaining that the removal came as part of a Moscow clean-up campaign.

In the end Mercedes Benz paid for the logo's removal.

Mendeleyev, a prime example of how poorly the different levels of the Russian government treat businesses.  How can Putin or Medvedev expect the needed foreign investment to be injected into the Russian economy?   If the various levels of the Russian government are going to treat a foreign company like Mecedes Benz so badly, how poorly are they going to treat smaller companies headquartered in less prosperous countries?

[mendeleyev]

Bill, of course you are right. And it has long-term implications as you suggest.

In the near term, I think that part of this is an on-going campaign in preparation for the Olympic games in Sochi and that we'll continue to see micro businesses put out of businesses, small businesses consolidated under larger partners, and large businesses hassled into submission.

The Moscow that will be seen in time for the 2014 Winter Games will not be the same Moscow of today.

[mendeleyev]

I would never say this in public, but between you and I, there is more to Russia than just Moscow. Please don't tell anyone...because I sure won't. 

(From the Mendeleyev Journal's Russia: A tour around the country)

Lake Baikal

The largest country on earth is neighbor to more countries than anywhere else and it touches twenty-two bodies of water as well as holding twelve seas within its borders. Inside Russia's borders are the oldest mountains in the world, the Urals, and the deepest lake in the world, Lake Baikal (Байка́л).
 


(photo: Xchgall at wikipedia.ru)


If you put all the North American Great Lakes together, Russia's Lake Baikal would dwarf them. Scientists say that Baikal holds over 20% of all the freshwater on the planet. Lake Baikal is among the clearest waters in the world.

Baikal is not only the deepest lake on earth at 1,642 metres (5,387 ft), but is also the oldest of all lakes on the planet. At current growth rates Baikal will become a "sea" instead of a lake.




Lake Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of those are found only in Baikal' Siberian region.

Lake Baikal is worthy of a book, but for now we'll mention some of the highlights.






The "Nerpa" is the world's only freshwater Seal. These Seals number over 60,000.




The Baikal Omul fish (байкальский омуль), is a whitefish species of the Salmon family. You can find smoked & salted Omul all around the lake and it is a favourite of travelers on the Trans-Siberian. A popular Siberian salad called stroganina consists of uncooked frozen omul cut finely and served with pepper, salt and onion. Held apart by wood skewers during smoking, often the fish are stuffed with vegetable stuffing before eating.




Baikal holds some of Russia's most important national parks, nature and game reserves along the lake's shores. In 1996 the Lake Baikal Coastal Protection Zone was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



(Photo: A. Widawska)


When the Trans-Siberian Railway was built around the southwestern end, it took 200 bridges and 33 mountain tunnels to navigate around that end of the lake. Completely surrounded by mountains, 330 rivers flow into Lake Baikal.




Baikal is home to Buryat tribes who reside on the eastern side of the lake.

Read more here: http://www.answers.com/topic/lake-baikal#ixzz1ci9vigIG


Great info and photos here: http://www.magicbaikal.com

[chivo]

In my view, the Moscow Metro is a worthy candidate for the 8th wonder of the world.

Ride it every day at 8am and 6pm and tell me if you still think this.

They use a male voice when traveling towards the centre of the city, and a female voice when going away from it. On the circle line the clockwise direction features a male announcer for the stations, while the counter-clockwise direction uses a female announcer.

Not that it matters much but they switch trains at various times and it is very possible to hear a female voice or male voice headed in the same direction. I wouldn't use this as my navigation tool. Male voices seem to dominate now.

[chivo]

My Gal is  just the opposite.  She refused most drugs, etc. in FSU but now, for first time she has gotten flu injection and pneumoccoccal vaccine, and has started taking miltivitamins and calcium supplements.  She would never trust those items back home.

Your Gal is like most Russians. The problem when you buy drugs in Russia is that you never really know if it's really the drug. The percentage of possibility it being fake is about 60-70% from what most I know here tell me.
 
I bring most of the pharmaceuticals I need from America so I don't worry about it, though I have taken some decent products here.
 
You can get some (without naming names  ) strong narcotics over the counter here that are quite good for pain relief from what I understand  and other drugs that would normally require a prescription in America.

[BillyB]

The problem when you buy drugs in Russia is that you never really know if it's really the drug. The percentage of possibility it being fake is about 60-70% from what most I know here tell me.

 

My fiancee's mom is a doctor and she doesn't trust the drugs in Ukraine for the same reason.

[chivo]

Older turnstiles had an "arm" up which rotated you through after your ticket was validated. Newer, as you have discovered, are open and will indeed slam with great force if one tries to pass without a ticket.

Russia is not about personal safety, that is the responsibility of the citizen rather than the government so many of the safety and building "codes" that we employ in Western countries enjoy little acceptance in Russia.

As Chicago Guy mentioned, some kids have learned to jump over them. Moscow is now installing electronic alarms which sound when that happens and violators are usually caught quickly.

Actually they're putting policemen in the front turnstyles to deter people from entering without paying.
 
Noise or electronic alarms do nothing to prevent anyone from jumping or "piggybacking" their way through and no one is caught by this method. I've seen hundreds of guys as females rarely do this, jump, race, or practice their favorite gymnastic move over, in and above the turnstyles and just continue on their merry way worrying little that some babushka will do anything to them.
 
The Uzbeks, Tajiks and such have mastered these moves  .

[chivo]

Have you ever tried to find or call an official taxi in Moscow?

Many times.
 

Good luck, the wait can be for hours and there is no guarantee that a taxi will arrive at all.

With all due respect I have never waited hours for a taxi to arrive. The worst case scenario is that the operator will tell you that a taxi is not available at a certain time going to a certain place (just not enough hired drives). With the many taxi services in Moscow you can usually find one at any time going any place reasonable, like 30-40km or less. Usually they arrive within minutes.
 
If it's impossible and the lady lives too far, well the lady just has to spend the night  . Best thing is to plan in advance if you're home. Out and about at clubs, restaurants, etc. taxi's are easy to find any time day or night.
 
What I do is find a good reliable service that knows me over time or a good driver who I've met on the street and get his mobile number for future reference. I think this will be one way for locals to deal with the new law.
 

Muscovites often ignore new laws (they happily ignore some of the old laws too) so it will take time in making the adjustment to life without private/citizen taxi services.


No matter how you look at it, this marks the end of an era.

Mendy I'm curious myself just how they plan on enforcing this law. I think it will be very difficult and that drivers will find a way around the situation. Firstly, most drivers are from the Caucasus and licencing will be a problem for undocumented drivers. Secondly, like you said this is Russia, who obeys the law. Thirdly, see above.

[mendeleyev]

Actually they're putting policemen in the front turnstyles to deter people from entering without paying.

 Yes, and I've heard the alarms sound when they're present. Recently I saw the policeman at Студенческая spending more time talking to girls than watching the turnstyles. My main Metro Кожуховская is not a very deep station and the policemen seems to wander around, even outside a lot, so one could jump I suppose but the angle of the cashiers is so close there that it would be noticed immediately. Just 4 stations up at Чкаловская, a much busier transfer station, the police presence is far more attentive.
 
 
 

What I do is find a good reliable service that knows me over time or a good driver who I've met on the street and get his mobile number for future reference. I think this will be one way for locals to deal with the new law.

 Exactly. Our youngest daughter "carpools" to MGU with someone she found via a friend who uses the same driver going that way almost every weekday.

Without prearranging, I've not had such quick response from Moscow taxis. Recently however a friend gave me the number of a professional licensed driver and if I need a taxi (rarely as we have a car in Moscow) I call him and service the couple times we've used it has been very good.

Mendy I'm curious myself just how they plan on enforcing this law. I think it will be very difficult and that drivers will find a way around the situation. Firstly, most drivers are from the Caucasus and licencing will be a problem for undocumented drivers. Secondly, like you said this is Russia, who obeys the law. Thirdly, see above.

I'm wondering the same. I think that if a policemen is standing at an intersection with that twirling baton then nobody will stop to give a ride. But if no police are around...

My MIL thinks this is all about preparation for the Olympics. With all the "clean up" of the city and crackdown on things like public toilets and street kiosks, perhaps she is correct. But it also plays into the hands of larger business interests and a sweeping away of smaller independent entrepreneurs.

most drivers are from the Caucasus and licencing will be a problem for undocumented drivers.

Good point. That will be a problem.

It makes one wonder if Sobyanin has really thought this idea through or if it was a knee jerk reaction to orders from above.

[mendeleyev]

You can get some (without naming names  ) strong narcotics over the counter here that are quite good for pain relief from what I understand  and other drugs that would normally require a prescription in America.

Penicillin being just one for example. A couple months back I turned wrong while stepping off a Metro wagon and twisted a knee. I went to a larger Apteka that is well staffed. The pharmacist didn't want to give me penicillin or such for the swelling but she was knowledgeable and recommended a Нурофен gel (ibuprofen type) and диклак tablets (диклофенак) a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug often used in surgery.

The Diclofenac tablets are a prescription only item in the USA but lower dosages can be purchased in gel form (Voltaren) over the counter which is actually better for topical application to such an injury as the drug taken internally wreaks havoc on the stomach lining.

диклак is primarily made in the UK.

[mendeleyev]

From the Mendeleyev Journal, Moscow: Red Square and the Kremlin

At the entry of Saint Basil's Cathedral is the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, the two men who formed a volunteer army and marched to Moscow to free the Kremlin from the Polish interventionist forces. At one time the statue stood in the centre of Red Square but during the Stalin years was moved in order to convert Red Square into a giant military staging ground.

Moscow: Minin and Pozharsky monument by Alma Pater.

The prince Dmitry Pozharsky and merchant Kuzma Minin were the heroes of the 17th century war. They gathered the all-Russian volunteer army and expelled the Poles from the Moscow Kremlin.



Moscow monument inscription. (Photo: Mendeleyev Journal)


There is an identical monument in the Russian City of Nizhny Novgorod, the home region of Minin and Pozharsky and many of the volunteer army.



04 November is National Unity Day. Medvedev and Putin visited the monument in Nizhny Novgorod.


We show both monuments because it reveals an interesting change in the Russian language. In the spelling of Russia you see the letter i. This letter no longer exists in the Russian language as the Cyrillic letter i was phased out. Today the name Russia is spelled in the Cyrillic as Россия.

[Gator]

Citizen Taxis:
 
My first visit was 2002 and  I stayed at an expensive Moscow hotel near Red Square.  My future wife and I had just enjoyed our first meeting and she was leaving late at night to go home.  I asked the doorman to hail a taxi.  A few Mercedes were lined up and ready to go.  My future wife asked the price, and they told her $50.  She said something and walked out into street and stuck out her thumb.  I exclaimed "This is not safe!" 
 
Within seconds an old car pulled to the curb.  She spoke to the driver, turned to me and said,  "Only $4; see you tomorrow."  She hopped into the car and I insisted that she call me when she got home (while I recorded the license plate to memory).
 
The citizen taxis are an important part of the Russian culture.  I have seen them in third world countries but not in a country with Russia's per capita income.
 

[Gator]

As a long time traveller to Russia, I find this thread and your insights very fascinating.
 
Is Russian mentality off limits.   If not, perhaps this is a place to explain some Russian behavior which I find peculiar. My list is long, yet here are two examples:
 
1.  When going through security screening at airports, one has to remove shoes to be x-rayed.    Yet, every Russian will place specially provided plastic baggies over their feet to walk 15 feet even though a) they are wearing socks and b) the floor is carpeted and visually clean.
 
2.  A draft of cool air is a big "no no"  to include A/C fans in the tropics.  The reaction is so severe as to suggest this is dangerous if not deadly.  Yet, the Russian Banya features extreme hold and cold temperature immersions (although no draft).

[Olly]

04 November is National Unity Day. Medvedev and Putin visited the monument in Nizhny Novgorod.

yes and police has closed half of city and was so busy traffic in this day because of their visit 

[Maxx2]

The "Nerpa" is the world's only freshwater Seal. These Seals number over 60,000.

You wonder how they got there and what species of seal they are related to.


Russia is a fascinating place!


Edit:

they are related to the Arctic ringed seal. The Baikal Seal is the smallest of the true seals, and with the exception of a sub-population of inland harbour seals living in the Hudson Bay region of Quebec, Canada (lac de loups marins harbour seals), they are the only exclusively freshwater pinniped species.[2]
It remains a scientific mystery how the seals originally came to Lake Baikal, hundreds of kilometers from any ocean. Some scientists speculate the seals arrived at Lake Baikal when a sea-passage linked the lake with the Arctic Ocean (see also West Siberian Glacial Lake and West Siberian Plain).

[mendeleyev]

Maxx2, thank you for posting that info! Like you, I had wondered how they got to Baikal.


I found this YT video:

[mendeleyev]

yes and police has closed half of city and was so busy traffic in this day because of their visit

Olly, so much history in your city!

Before your time the Ford Motor Company had a plant in Gorky and an American village, American schools, American supermarket and American clinic to serve the several thousand Americans. The Gorky Ford baseball team traveled all over Russia giving exhibitions of baseball in Russian cities.

When the war of German aggression broke out, Stalin took over the plant and most of the workers and their wives and children were trapped with most of the Americans dying in Gulag camps. There are a couple of books on the subject, authored by survivors (3 children from that group of about 3,000 survived, each an adult when leaving) of that horrible dilemma.

It took a presidential executive order by USA President Gerald Ford to bring home the last of the 3 survivors.

My family's Uncle Mikhail worked in that plant after the war.

[mendeleyev]

When going through security screening at airports, one has to remove shoes to be x-rayed. Yet, every Russian will place specially provided plastic baggies over their feet to walk 15 feet even though a) they are wearing socks and b) the floor is carpeted and visually clean.

Gator, fascinating subject!

In a Russian home it is bad form not to offer slippers of some sort to a visitor or guest. It is of course okay to bring your own slippers and I do that often as my shoe size is 11.

At the same time it is sometimes considered offensive to walk inside a Russian home without slippers because it could be a sign to others that the host has not properly provided for a guest.

This is also related to sleeping on the floor--most Russian hostesses would be shocked to find a guest sleeping on the floor. They will want to give up their bed first before allowing you or I to sleep on a floor.

My youngest and I toured Moscow's famous Kolomenskoe park this summer. We had the coolest afternoon together eating blini, taking photos and talking. She is in her final year at Moscow State and I treasure the time being around her. When we were inside the recreated wood palace, now a museum, we were required to wear those little cloth/plastic slipper socks. As most Russians don't wear a size 11, mine tore at the back but we laboured on undeterred.


Photo: got to keep those floors shiny!