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| Title: | BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest |
| Notice: | 1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration |
| Moderator: | SMURF::FENSTER |
|
| Created: | Mon Feb 03 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 1524 |
| Total number of notes: | 18709 |
461.0. "Soviet Union" by CURIE::FEINBERG (Don Feinberg) Fri Apr 29 1988 14:15
I found this (rather long) note in the "USSR" notesfile, and I thought
that it would make interesting reading for the respondents in this file.
/don feinberg
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<<< POWDAH::DUA0:[NOTES$LIBRARY]USSR.NOTE;3 >>>
-< Soviet Union, People, Culture and History >-
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Note 12.0 Moscow trip report 2 replies
JACKAL::SIMON 377 lines 15-MAR-1988 11:30
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I posted this article on USENET in talk.politics.misc. and rec.travel some
time ago, but somebody told me that it never got to DEC. But since not
everybody reads USENET groups, and since there is the USSR notesfile, I
hope there will be not many objections to my posting it here.
It is VERY long, seven pages, so I'd suggest to print it out and read as a
hardcopy.
Leo Simon
There were a few claims on the talk.politics.misc that there are
thousands of Americans living in Moscow because of high quality
of life there. In this posting I want to tell you a little about
"high quality" life and "the thousands of Americans", the way I
remember it from the time I lived there and from the experience
of my recent trip to Moscow in October 1987.
First some background. I was born, grew up, got college degree
and work for nine years as an engineer in Moscow. My last
position was an engineering group manager. In 1979 my wife and
I, being Jewish, applied for emigration visas from the USSR. In
1981, after two and a half years of waiting, one refusal and a
lot of humiliation by the government, we were allowed to leave
the country. Since then we have been living in Boston area.
Little by little my interest in the Soviet affairs became very
low because nothing was really changing there. The only tie to
the old country was my brother and friends whom I left behind.
When the new leadership came to power, I did not have many
illusions about all that "glasnost" and "perestroika" and that
they were only for export, that the system remains the same.
Then something really happened this last spring. The Soviet
authorities stopped considering us, former emigrants, as
"traitors of the motherland" and allowed us to visit the USSR!
What a change! Well, I decided to give it a shot and asked for a
guest visa. Even though by the time I knew that many people had
already visited the USSR, I was surprised to get visas within
reasonable time (four weeks). But it was not a guest visa as I
requested, but a tourist visa. That meant, that even though I
was going to stay with my brother, I had to pay for a hotel, $100
per night. It looks like the Soviet government decided that hard
currency is better then ideology, and if they let me in, I'd
better pay.
We landed in Moscow on schedule. The first step -- passport
control. The Soviet visa is not just a stamp in a passport. It
is a separate document in two parts, with two photographs. One
part is torn away by a border guard at the entry to the country,
the other is taken when leaving. A guard looked at my visa and
asked if it ever was wet. -- 'No, why?' -- "The stamp on the
picture got smeared'. I said that I did not have a slightest
idea why, and that I never bothered to look at the visa from the
moment I got it from the Soviet embassy in Washington. The guard
called for help. A KGB colonel came up. He asked me if I spoke
Russian, whether I ever was a Soviet citizen, when I emigrated
from the USSR, whether it was to the USA or Israel, etc., etc.
Then he called for a lieutenant, who suggested me to sit and wait
until they work something out. They were "working something out"
for an hour and half. Fortunately, I still remembered that
people in the USSR are not accustomed to make decisions, that
they wait for somebody else to take the responsibility. Twice I
asked about the progress, and both times got the same answer:
"We are waiting for a reply". I didn't bother to ask "a reply
from who?"
An hour and a half later a guard returned with my passport and
visa and said that I could go. Fine. I got my luggage and went
to the customs. The customs officer said that I could only bring
duty free presents to the country for the amount not exceeding
100 rubles ($150). Whatever is above this, will be taxed at an
outrageous rates, e.g. a portable stereo cassette recorder,
Sharp, cost $99 in the US -- Rbl 210 ($315), pen-clock, cost
$1.99 -- Rbl 25 ($38), etc. I said that I was not going to pay
these charges and would rather throw everything to a trash can
(and I really meant that). The two customs officer went aside,
talked for a few minutes, returned and one of them said literally
the following: "Due to our respect we will allow you to bring
you all that stuff (except the radio) into the country duty free
and cut the rate on the radio by 30%"!!! I couldn't believe it!
I had to go through humiliation by the Soviet authorities when
waiting for the emigration visa, through stripping of the Soviet
citizenship, through hardship of first years in the US, so that
now my American blue passport and green dollars make the Soviet
officials respect me!
I left the airport, which from both inside and out looked like
any American airport except the lighting was very poor (half the
light fixtures were out), got in a cab and went to the hotel.
The first shock was seeing Russian cars. The best of them (and
the newest) looked like '76 Plymouth Volare. But mostly the cars
are versions of Lada's (Soviet made FIAT's 124, vintage sometime
between 1965 and 1975). Later I asked why there were no brand
new cars on the city streets and was told that there were, but
the paintwork was so poor that cars do not look new even when
they are. At that I should note that a car cost around Rbl 9-12K
($13.5-18K), which is 4-5 year's average salary, and gas about
$1.60 per gallon.
Another shock was the air quality. My eyes were burning almost
all the time that I was outside. The pollution was very high.
Cars do not cathalytic converters and there is not much pollution
control from the industry. The degree of pollution is so high
that Los Angeles or Denver compared to Moscow are clean rooms,
even in August! I remember the Soviet mass media was
brainwashing the people that Moscow has the cleanest air in the
world. Now the newspapers say that all Moscovites must struggle
for clean air! 'Glasnost', I suppose...
I thought that I remembered all good and bad sides of life in
Moscow. But only after coming there I realized how much I had
forgotten. Once in my brother's apartment, I asked him if he
had one bathroom or two. He decided that I was just kidding. No
apartment in Russia has two bathrooms! Or a dishwasher, or a
disposal for that matter. They don't even know that such things
exist. I asked them on what day they do their grocery shopping,
completely forgetting that they have to do it every day. I used
to like to walk in old Moscow districts, I liked their unique
charm. Now I did not find them charming any more -- just small
old run down apartment buildings or former villas occupied by
offices. Dust on the streets. Gray crowds. People don't smile.
If I saw a smile, it was either a child or a foreigner. People's
faces are very concerned. Probably for that reason I did not
notice a single pretty woman's face during my whole stay. And
this is in a city in which, I thought, live almost all nice women
of the USSR! (My wife is from Moscow, too).
I was in new developments. Huge 10 - 12 - 16 story apartment
buildings, all look alike. All designed the same, concrete panel
walls with seams of sealant between the panels. In my view,
plain ugly. I remember that in 1980 a friend of mine was issued
a new apartment. He was happy. At last he got a place of his
own, where he could live with his family, his wife and kids,
instead of sharing the apartment with the parents. I remember
that I was happy for them, because the new apartment was very
nice, big, well laid out and very comfortable. It was a new
standard apartment. My friends bought new furniture, and
everything was well. Now, seven years later, I came to visit
him. The apartment was terrible. Small rooms. Very small
kitchen, no counter space, tiny refrigerator. Total area of the
place was about 450 sq. ft. After renting an apartment in Boston
for a couple of years and after my middle class suburban house,
this Moscow apartment looked pitiful.
During my stay in Moscow I could use the hotel restaurant for
meals. The hotel where I stayed was for foreigners only. My
brother was not allowed to enter there without a special
registration, so we didn't even bother. To get to any other good
restaurant one has to stay in line in front of the door for a
couple of hours, and the restaurants don`t take reservations from
general public. Of course the official Soviet travel agency
Intourist makes such reservations for foreign tourist. A few
times I accompanied my brother for grocery shopping. At seven
o'clock in the evening we had to walk about two miles to stop at
three stores on the way. Only in the third one we found milk.
In order to buy meat or poultry one has to stay in line for
hours. In order to work the family with kids have to send them
to day care, which may be in another district of the city and
those poor women have to take the kids in subway. Again,
comparing New York subway with Moscow is like a country backroads
to South Bronx Expressway. I also forgot that, and after
entering the subway once at rush hour, I turned back to the
surface and took a cab. I just couldn't stand THAT crowd!
With me I brought some presents for my relatives and friends.
From my experience with the customs you already got an idea of
the official prices of the items that I had with me. But the
point is, that these things are just unavailable in stores for
general public. The comparison of prices that I paid here in
Boston area stores and the black market prices in Moscow will be
eloquent. I didn't deal on black market, of course, all the
prices were quoted for me by my friends. For convenience I put
them in the table.
Item US Price Moscow Price
$ $ Rbl
Portable stereo cassette 100 1500-2250 1000-1500
Down parka 75 600 400
Calculator 18 450-600 300-400
Pen-watch 2 40 25
Pantyhose* 3 10.5 7
VCR tape (blank) 5 120 80
Running shoes 25 150 100
*generally available but of terrible quality).
AT THAT ONE SHOULD TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THAT AN AVERAGE
MONTHLY INCOME IN MOSCOW IS ABOUT 200 RBL ($300) PER MONTH
(BEFORE TAXES)!
To complete the picture, one should note that an average grocery
expenses come to about 250 Rubles per month, which means that two
incomes in a family is a must and even at that almost all income
goes for food.
I think here goes an idea of "high quality of life", as one
poster expressed it. As far as I remember from my years of
living there, the whole life for an average guy was struggle for
basics.
As an American tourist, I had certain privileges (read below),
one of which was a room in their best hotel, National, in
downtown Moscow. I didn't care much about it, since I was
staying with my brother, but I still gave it a look. A small
room, with two narrow beds (smaller then a standard American
twin), a closet, a table and a bathroom with ancient plumbing,
probably has never been fixed since the day it was installed in
1912. Any room in Red Roof Inn or Motel 8 is much nicer. My
expectations were much higher, but I couldn't know then because
general public (and I was one of them six years ago) are not
admitted into this hotel.
Another myth about thousands of Americans in Moscow. Probably
there are Americans, working and living in Moscow. But these
must be special cases, and I am sure that they are in single
numbers. There are a few simple reasons for that.
First -- living space. There is a huge shortage of apartments in
Moscow. In order to get an apartment a family must have NOT MORE
then 50 sq. ft. per person. Then the family is put on a waiting
list, which in Moscow means about four years of waiting. There
is, of course, diplomatic personal, journalists and companies'
representatives. They live in special quarters, assigned to them
by the Foreign Ministry, in one of the best Moscow districts. I
saw one of the living complexes. Really nice. The special hard
currency stores are nearby. They are for foreigners only.
Second -- jobs. I knew of only one American working for a
Soviet company in Moscow. She worked for Moscow Radio World
Service. It was so unusual, that there was an article about her
in a Moscow newspaper. If there were others, it would be a
sensation! Moreover, there were no citizens of non-communist
countries working for a Soviet company. One should not forget
that there is only one employer in the country, the government,
and everybody knows how secretive it is to employ Americans.
Of course there are many tourists there. Without considering
high hotel rates and poor (by American standards) conveniences,
life there for tourists is really cheap and much more comfortable
then for the ordinary Russians. My unique position of being an
American tourist and staying with my brother gave me a very good
opportunity for comparison two lifestyles. There are well
stocked stores that sell nice things, but for hard currency only,
preferably American dollars. We buy souvenirs there, ride cabs
(which are very expensive for the Russians but cheap for us). We
can eat in restaurants closed for general public or can go to
night bars, but only if we pay $$$, not Rubles. For a Soviet
citizen it is illegal to have foreign currency, so we, American
tourists, will not be bothered by the crowd. Really, nice life!
The second part of the article is about things that I couldn't
see much personally. It is about "glasnost" -- the new policy of
openness, of which the Soviets are so bragging about. What I am
writing here is what I saw myself, heard from my friends or from
my short conversations with various people in Moscow.
First, let's look at the attitude towards reforms by educated
middle class, intelligentsia. They are all for the reforms,
especially where it concerns personal freedoms and human rights.
When I lived there, everybody had to subscribe to one of the
newspapers, either 'Pravda' or 'Isvestia'. But in the both
newspapers (each just six pages thick, either daily or Sunday)
there was not much to read. Two pages of propaganda about how
great life is in the USSR, two pages of propaganda about
atrocities committed by the USA domestically and overseas, sports
and TV. There were literary magazines that published new novel
that nobody wanted to read. We preferred to get smuggled works
of Solzhenitsyn or other authors, though it was really dangerous
to keep them. Famous Soviet writers were forbidden, theater was
becoming less and less interesting. The only source of real
information about the world were Western radio stations, like the
Voice of America, BBC or Doitsche Velle (sp?).
This changed. Drastically. My friends complained that they did
not have enough time to read all that was worth reading in the
Soviet press or magazines. Newspapers publish information about
Stalin's crimes, about real problems with economy, about
disasters, they carry attacks on party officials and sometimes
even on KGB. TV programs changed also. As a friend of mine put
it: "Before we tried to find a musical program, now we are
looking for a talk shows". But the practical result of it is
really small. As it turned out, most of what the press now says
openly was long ago known by the educated folks. Only now people
can say it openly too, even in a company of strangers or at work,
without a fear of being accused of slander of the Soviet system.
But the same people are very skeptical regarding new economic
measures. They understand that all economic changes require a
lot of time to take effect, but they still don't believe that a
party centrally controlled economy will become better. They also
think that legalization of small private enterprises, especially
service, is of not much good because the supply and distribution
of raw material, parts, and manufactured goods is still
controlled centrally, and still under the party control. The
only noticeable change in this respect was that because farmers
got a little more freedom, there is a little more fruits and
vegetables in Moscow.
I talked with many taxi drivers in Moscow. As in any other city
in the world, these guys know probably the most of what the
ordinary people think and want. And they are far from being
happy. Labor discipline is tightened, the production quotas are
higher. Wages in many cases also got higher, but not
proportionally. At that grocery stores did not get better
stocked or consumer goods become better quality. Still the same
long lines every day.
Another problem for the people is their free time. Gorbachev`s
anti-alcoholism program took effect. In stark contrast with what
I remembered six years ago when there were drunks everywhere, on
any street, any time of the day, now I saw only one drunk during
my whole stay in Moscow. Vodka is almost unavailable, and when
it does go on sale, it is very expensive (.75L bottle goes for
20Rbl - $30). Still people do not have anything else to buy, and
there is no night life in the western sense of the word, so they
form these huge lines. Once, riding in a cab, the driver showed
me a vodka line. It was about 500 ft. long! I couldn't help but
say something very strong, so the driver was surprised that I had
not seen these lines before (remember, I didn't look like a
foreigner and still speak Russian the way they do in Moscow).
The Russians got used to them.
In general my impression of the trip to Moscow should be referred
to as poor. At times I got depressed by what I saw. Of course
there are many nice things about Moscow, like good museums, good
libraries (though I can't resist mentioning that there are many
paintings by famous artists, like Chagal, stored in reserves and
not seen by public, or books forbidden for general public), good
ballet, etc. But that is beyond my notes. I didn't go there for
sightseeing.
In conclusion a small episode. Early in the morning of my last
day in Moscow I got in an official car of the Intourist travel
agency to go to the airport. A driver asked me if I was going to
the US for a visit.
I said, "No, I am going home from a visit to the USSR".
"Did you ever lived in the USSR?" - asked he.
"Yes, but I moved to the US more then six years ago".
"I didn't know that a person can express a desire (his actual
words - L.S.) to move to another country, particularly to the
US", said he.
"Well, I did", I answered.
We didn't talk about this any more. Only later I realized what
he meant. Of course a person cannot "express a desire" to leave
the USSR for the US. Only a Jew can!
7
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