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June 15, 2005
Moscow -SO- is Russia
Having been told again and again that "Moscow is not Russia", ABC correspondent Emma Griffiths and her partner Simon Johnson set off on the trans-Siberian in the hope of gaining at least a small insight into the "real Russia".
As much as I remain unconvinced of such silly notions as Moscow's un-Russianness (what?), this, sponsored by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is still a fun (and ongoing) Trans-Siberian travelogue. Probably only interesting to the impressionable foreigners among us, though. Like me.
Why is it only the most decrepit aspects of a country that are permitted to be representative of "reality"? The conspicuous consumption which goes down in Moscow, to which, I assume, is what those who label it "inauthentically Russian" object, seems to me to be the distilled essence of how many Russians would act if they could. In any case - plenty of urban poor in Moscow to satisfy the pedants.
Posted by michele at June 15, 2005 9:09 AM
Comments
I can understand that. There are parts of Brooklyn I consider authentic, others less so.
Posted by: Karol at June 15, 2005 4:42 PM
Have you been outside of Moscow? Somewhere to the east of the Ural mountains? Moscow is NOT Russia, believe me :)
I was born in Siberia, spent 25 years there, then relocated to Moscow some 4-5 years ago. I shall write about this in my blog then, cuz i find this notion almost insulting :)
BTW, great blog :)
Posted by: Anton Antich at June 16, 2005 4:58 AM
Absolutely OT: Karol, have you seen "http://altasshagged.blogs.com, aka The republican party reptiles"? Eases my feeling of being alone in a sieged castle, a libertarian in NY among liberals of all shades of red (and green).
BTW, your blog is a delight.
Posted by: Tatyana at June 16, 2005 9:33 AM
Thanks, Tatyana. I have a lot of libertarian Russian-born friends in NYC. I'll have to check out that site.
BTW, I also frequently consider NY 'not America'. It's just so different from the rest of the country. It doesn't fit in (except with LA which is like a sibling that you hate).
Posted by: Karol at June 16, 2005 10:54 AM
This whole "X is not Y" business has a long beard (uh...M, what's adequate American idiom ?)
Read Il'f and Petrov, "One story America"; the premise of the book is that everybody in NY told the authors they have to see "the rest of the country" to understand America, and so they departed on their journey.
Posted by: Tatyana at June 16, 2005 12:37 PM
Ha. I like "has a long beard" and have decided to adopt it as my own. It seems more effective than "as old as the day is long", what with a day not really being that long.
I'm sorry I even raised this question, it's a really boring one to answer, and because I am largely ignorant and generally avoid political blogs I'm going to do so in vague and sweeping terms. Why is one part of Russia more real than the other? Anyway, if we're going to resort to Russian stereotyping, it seems to me that the general perception of Russia abroad has been of a country characterised by really sharp contrasts, such as that between Moscow and Siberian living. Why does the existence of such a contrast make either one the more or less real? If you want to talk in numerical or statistical terms, fine. But don't get poetic about the rest of Russia, please.
Posted by: Michele at June 16, 2005 12:51 PM
Karol, I'm guessing that where I live in Brooklyn (Park Slope) would be one of the less authentic areas? I think attachment to notions of "authenticity" is often just a defensive resistance to change, to loss of cachet. I'm also against government programmes to "preserve diversity" - patronising!
Posted by: Michele at June 16, 2005 12:57 PM