Having spent a decade studying the culture, I felt pretty prepared for my trip to Russia. (You can see my articles about the trip here, here, and here.) I own a lot of fur and I’d been practicing dramatic crying in a sleigh because my lover turned out to be married. So I should’ve been set, right? Turns out I knew everything about 19th century Russia and not so much about contemporary Russia. Here’s what I was surprised by.
*Disclaimer: I only traveled to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Yasnaya Polyana and stayed mostly in downtown areas. This is solely what I took away from my own experience, I’m certainly not qualified to make statements about the whole country.*
It’s Not Scary
James Bond lied to us. I certainly didn’t believe the sheltered American rhetoric that all Russians are evil. Clearly, I love Russia. But I expected it to be more intimidating. I expected more security, more military prowling, more general fear the way Russia is depicted in the media. It was all pretty chill, even getting into the Kremlin wasn’t crazy security. Airport security leaving the country was basically just a passport check, it paled in comparison to TSA here. To be fair I was mostly traveling with a tour group but I never once felt unsafe even when I was exploring less populated neighborhoods by myself.
They Don’t (All) Hate Americans
I mentioned in my previous articles that I expected more anti-American sentiment, especially with our current political climate. But the Russians seem to understand what Americans can’t grasp which is that the political turmoil is separated from the everyday people. Where Americans are eager to brand all Russians as the enemy, the Russians understand that all Americans don’t represent our current administration. They were all very friendly and in fact eager to discuss politics to see how we felt about everything. It was a much more productive “let’s have a dialogue” environment than I find here.
The Cities Are Very European
Peter the Great would be so proud. Despite Russia being torn between European and Asian influences, Western Russia is, well, very Western. I was expecting a real otherworldliness, which comes through sometimes, but mostly it just feels like a European city. It sounds so exotic to say you’re going to Russia (or so I like to think) but in many ways it’s not that much different from traveling to Prague or Istanbul or Amsterdam. This effect is intentional, you can read about their historical passion for Westernization in my Saint Petersburg guide.
Religious Zeal Has Dropped
As in many place globally, including the United States, church attendance and religious observance has decreased significantly in the 20th and 21st centuries. This shouldn’t have surprised me in the modern centers of Russia, but because of my 18th century education it did. In Tolstoy, and in Tzarist history, which (let’s be honest) is the juiciest, the Russian Orthodox Church is the center of everything. The Tzar’s family would go to church daily, sometimes multiple times a day, for many hours. Orthodoxy is a hard core religion. It makes sense that it’s decreased in popularity but I was still a little thrown to hear my guides say maybe only 20% of the population still practices.
White People as Far as the Eye Can See
I don’t think I saw a single Black person the whole two weeks I was in Russia. The reason this surprised me is because we had seen so many other examples of Russia being just another modern city. I had been completely uprooted from my 18th century vision of it. But one thing remains the same and that’s the utter lack of diversity. We did see some Asian people touring and perhaps residing in the cities. But no Black people, no Latinx people, no one with skin darker than CoverGirl’s “Porcelain Dream” shade. Even the on-site guides at historic spots couldn’t tell me anything about migration from Africa (forced or otherwise). There’s still modernization to be done it seems!