"Summertime in Moscow" a Moscow Travel Page by american_tourister

I have a close friend who lived and worked in Moscow. Another of my good friends and I took a trip to visit him there after we all me up in St. Petersburg. We scheduled it so we could attend the Moscow Air Show.

It was an outstanding time. I saw more than I thought I would and even though we were there for 9 days I still did not see everything I wanted to see. I could easily have spent another week there. I could easily live there.

If you plan on going you better learn to read the Cyrillic alphabet. Neither of my friends was very familiar with it. (Scott had only been there a short time) I had memorized it as I was delpoyed in Bosnia at the time and was in Republika Srpska a lot where Cyrillic is used. It was not so dissimilar from Greek which I learned in Cyprus. I had the constant duty of translation. This is really difficult after a few Baltica beers or shots of Russian Stabdard Vodka, or both.

Moscow is the cultural and spiritual center of Russia. Other cities may have more beauty but Moscow just drips Russian culture. I was just overwhlemed by this city and that for me does not happen very often.

A entire generation of Russians is outcast. Those who were pensioners when the Soviet Union collapsed have been hard hit. They receive about 1600 Roubles per month from the government. That was enough to get by when the USSR was in place but nowdays that is about $30.00 USD.

Those with no close family have resorted to picking up cans, bottles, and begging. I did not take photos of the unfortunate people but one fellow let me take a photo of his dog. I went to a store and bought dog food for him.

These folks are not agressive beggars and they are ashamed to have to do this. I normally am not very sympathetic to Gypsies or the professional beggars in NYC, Chicago, or LA but I gave money to these people.

Outside St. Petersburg a old woman was outside a small church with icons at her feet and she was chanting. I walked past and saw that she looked like my grandmother. I looked in her hand and she had about 20 Roubles in loose change. I asked our guide how long it took her to get that much and she told me that the woman had probably been out there all day. It was late in the afternoon by that time. I took a 100 Rouble bill ($3.00 USD) and put it in her hand and started to walk away.

I heard a wail and looked behind me. The woman was looking in her hand and fell to her knees and made the sign of the cross twice. She then got up and ran to me and began speaking to me in Russian. Our guide told me that she was wanted to know where I was from. I told her to just tell her I was an American. She did so and the old woman took a half a step back and had a shocked look on her face. She told the guide that I was the first American she had ever met face to face. She started going on about how I was a rich man from a rich country. I asked the guide to tell her that I was an ordinary man and nothing special, I just wanted to help. The guide stopped me and told me to let her think that and let her have her fantasy that a rich man gave her this money. She said that it would help her to think that rich people were kind also. I agreed and we went to our van.

I think about this often when I think about Russia. This change to capitalism has been very difficult for most Russians.

Update 2-2004 Thanks to ARKRYGER the sign the dog is holding has finally been translated. It states,"Help dogs at Kori Medical Treatment Thank You". If anyone has any info on this center I would appreciate you passing it on. I tried on Google to no avail.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: 6-2004

The translations says:

Unfortunately, you were given the wrong translation ( "Help dogs at Kori Medical
Treatment Thank You". ) for your photo. I am a native Russian speaker, and the
sign says "Pomogite Sobakam na Korm e Lechenie"
which means "Help dogs with food and treatment. Thank you!".
I don't know why its plural (dogs), did he have more then one dog with him?

Answer: No he did not have more than one dog. Just this one.

(L-R) This is Scott (lived there and worked for the same company I do in Kuwait), Sergei (our guide that day) Mike, and myself at Borodino. Almost every person we had dealings with was just as friendly as can be. This includes guides, shopkeepers, wait staff, subway staff, police, and ordinary people. I was very taken with the Russian people. They were never a threat to the West. The government maybe but not the people.