In this issue I'm going to show you some places in Moscow related to my work, places which I visit five days per week.
The office of my company is located in this building, that looks rather ugly than beautiful. Anyway Moscow suffers from lack of good architecture, that's why there are not much choices to choose from.

This is comfortable place and there are offices of different companies. The Moscow office of NEC corporation is located next door for instance.
This is the centre of Moscow, that's why there are a lot of offices and the shortage of parking places. Ordinary Russian clerk prefers to go to work by car. It is widely believed that the reasons of this preferring are the bad condition of public transport and some delight, that could amend the bitter situation in Soviet Russia, when personal car was the unachievable dream.
So it's not surprising that every space is filled with cars.

The building covered with net is the Russian central office of painting restoration. Some years ago there was a fire in that building, so now the restoration centre is restoring)

If you have a car just drop it on the footpath :-). Don't think of the pedestrians! If you don't have a car, you are loser, so don't mind about the cars on the footpath.

Notice the Russian innovative downpipes :-) When it is raining water falls directly on you.

Another parking on the footpath. There is no space to walk. I believe you can fly, wretched pedestrian :-) I believe you can touch the sky... Anyway, let's walk further.

Hallelujah! The street has two sides and two footpaths. Thank you merciful drivers for leaving me one side of the street :-)

The top secret of Russia is not the quantity of nuclear missiles, not the location of nuclear submarines. No. The most top secret of Russia is the secret of road building. I dunno how they did it, but if you see the pedestrian crossing, there should be a wide pool on it.
I think they teach students in building academies to create pools as compulsory addition to the crossing :-)
Although there are lot of verdure in Moscow, that makes me happy during this short period of warm weather.

Look at this another innovative downpipe. I looks more smart except for one detail - trench intersects with border stone, that prevents water to fall down.

This is the centre of Moscow and there located the governmental offices. This is the office of Russian central investigation committee. As some criminal cases based not on criminal, but on political basis there sometimes happen protests.

This is the public transport stop. This yellow zigzag means that nobody can stop or park their car in this area. But people don't care about it.

And again all area of bus stop is filled with parked cars. So having arrived you should walk on the road or slip between dirty cars.

On this side of the street the administration of building grabbed the footpath and made the parking for some selected people. Although they left some space for pedestrians, that's good.

This building of grim architecture is the scientific laboratory that researches black metal. No, no. There is no researches of Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir - only steel and cast iron.

This is the Yauza river that flows into Moscow river. The verdure on the left is the Lefortovskiy Park. This is a merry place that gives a peace and shadow in hot midday.

The building on the right side is the technical Bauman University.

Old building of military academy.

Gates of the park.

Nice place. Old trees, shadow, thrusts and pigeons, mammies with their babies. Calm rest during the day. I love this place.

There are some ponds in the park.

Ducks, trees.

 

 

Peace.


Let's go back to work. This is the office building. Earlier there was a constructing office of Tupolev company, that made Russian aircrafts.

Famous vodka factory "Kristal" is located next to this church. Also there is a Vodka Museum.

That's the end of our short survey. Hope you enjoyed. Stay tuned!

Russians never smile

This time I am going to speak about one of the stereotypes related to Russians I mentioned in previous post: Russians never smile. As you hardly ever see our smiles, you could think that every Russian is grim and tedious. I don't believe it's true. Though you most likely could see the smiling Schwarzenegger in the train of Moscow underground, than smiling Russian, it is not mean that Russians have no sense of humor. We love jokes and humor, we enjoy comedy shows (though the mainstream kind of humor on TV has the urinal smell - I think it's typical for contemporary television), we love parties and merriment.

Actually the root of the problem is more complicated. It begins in childhood: parents teach their children to be serious. It is widely believed that jolly person is frivolous, light and rather foolish. This treatment confirmed with the wide range of proverbs consolidating "ancestor's wisdom", like "smiling like a fool", "laugh without reason is the trace of stupidity" etc. In everyday life we don't try to please the others, we don't try to impress by our smiling and positive mood. We try to be more serious, to look more reliable, more confident.

Albeit the life in Russia is improving step by step the reminiscences of the stormy days aren't blurred and made a real impact in people's behavior. There was a high level of violence on the streets of Russian cities not so long ago. Shooting, rubbery, murdering and rapes were been common in 90's. That's the reason why we still have unconscious apprehension on strangers. We treat with suspicion to every person who speak to us on the street cause he could be the rascal. So, if somebody smiles to us, the first thought is that he is mocking us.

Another reason is the severe environment. It is well known fact that Russian climate is not very gentle - we have only three seasons instead of four: infernal heat, piercing chill and slush in the gaps of them. The fluctuation of temperatures during the year could be around 70°C in Moscow: from -35 in January and +35 in July. But these periods of extreme temperatures are very short. It could span just for two-three months.

But the main part of the year has a slightly moderate temperature not lower than -10°C, but high level of precipitations brings the slush. The snow thaws on the streets, on the footpaths and pedestrian crossings that you can't keep your shoes clean and dry. Although the city services are high-paid, the quality of the services leaves much to be improved.
So, imagine how you could feel after spending more than half an hour in the crowded train, then paddling through the pools and or wasting time in huge traffic jams?!

I hope I managed to clarify this subject a little. The next time I am going to speak about the city details in Moscow that makes this city so different from another capitals. Stay tuned)

Last time I spoke with mates in local pub in Cambridge I said I am Russian. Anyway they heard my accent and they thought I'm Polish. I think it is easy to understand why I was confused with Polish - there are lot of Polish immigrants in England nowadays. And Polish people who live in England are part of contemporary British society. Unfortunately for Russians (but fortunately for members of English Defense League) Russia is not a member of European Union. That is the reason why Britain still haven't overwhelmed by huge wave of Russian immigrants.

That's why the Polish in Britain are more familiar than Russians. The two only people you could know about Russians are Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin. Maybe somebody could remember the name of Andrei Arse shavin'. Everybody could say that Russians don't smile. That's all. Although for ordinary Russian person it is the pitiful and rather scandalous fact, but as Metallica said that's "sad, but true". Ordinary Russian person who lives the life same as the life of inhabitant of Chatsworth Estate thinks that Russia is a centre of galaxy. Common Russian person has a noteworthy self-conceit. He believes in historical mission of Russians, he presumes in exclusiveness of Russian civilization, he reckons that Russia is the best place on Earth and everybody all around the world suck the Russian's Bear's Dick.

Obviously the main part of these beliefs is the result of propaganda. 70 years of Soviet reign made the indubitable foundation of state propaganda. Though Vladimir Putin is a President of Russia, but he is also a KGB-officer. You know: you can't be "former" KGB-officer. He always made confessions that he regrets about the crush of USSR. He has a nostalgia about Soviet past like the many Russians today. Thus it is not unexpected that he uses the tools of Soviet-like propaganda which embraces media and school education. Both the school-lessons and news-shows are propaganda. The ordinary Russians still hold believe that "media don't lie" and miss about blessed Soviet time.

We don't try to impress other people with our gentle and friendly behavior. We behave ourselves in rude and disgusting way and we wait that you will love us in this way. So we live in the mud and dust, but we feel that our dust and mud is the world's best. But you won't be surprised if you knew that the main part of Russian population haven't been to anywhere than Russia. And they believe in propaganda, they believe in Putin. Because Putin gave them everything. They actually think so)

It is widely believed in Russia that 90's and Eltsin's period were the time when millions of people were robbed and downtrodden. It is true. It was the time of economic transformation, when people who all were state dependents lost their sponsor. Somebody managed to familiarize with new life conditions with freedom in business and creativity. But many people didn't want to live on their own. They waited for somebody and they found him in the person of Vladimir Putin, who came to the authority on the wave of nostalgia.

Putin is a lucky man because in 00's the oil prices significantly grew. That's why the Russian budget suddenly found money after ten years of poverty and collapse. That's why Putin had source to give a bone for these freeloaders. That's why they support Putin and don't want to change anything. Though the traces of degradation significantly remarkable they still believe that everything is fine and Russia still has a power to browbeat all the world. We want that everybody have a fear of Russian power and also have a respect. And it is "shocking" that ordinary Englishman doesn't know about Russia and Russian life.

So I'll try to explain a bit of Russian life today in this blog that you could make an opinion about these crazy weird Russians. I'll speak about some aspects of everyday life and I'll show you the way that Russia lives.

Stay tuned and enjoy!