I had some business to do in a place called Novomoskovsk. Novomoskovsk, is a city with population of roughly 150K located in Tula region. This is one of those places called “mono-town” as it was built in 1930 specifically to provide housing for workers of a large chemical factory. Nowadays Novomoskovsk industry is more diverse, but chemical plant remains one of the largest businesses around and a place of employment for good share of Novomoskovsk inhabitants. Distance between Moscow and Novomoskovsk is 230 kilometers. Aside from driving a car (which I do not have), the only way of getting to Novomoskovsk directly is bus. The bus is actually a mini-van, its passengers spend three-something hour journey to Novomoskovsk crammed in seats smaller than airline seats. Nasty experience I’ve been through and don’t wanna repeat it again. I decided to make a slight detour and combine two modes of transportation: train and car (taxi). It will be half hour longer, but way more comfortable.
First leg of my journey to Novomoskovsk is a train ride to the city of Tula. The train departs from Kursky railway station, one of nine major railroad terminals in downtown Moscow. I take subway to the station. From where I live it’s about 40 minutes of subway travel with one transfer. Subway ride in Moscow costs about 32 Rubles (if you buy a 60-trip card) and that is about US$0.50 Moscow car traffic is horrendous despite all the efforts local government makes for improving road situation. Taking taxi means taking chances, especially in winter, because of cold and snow, driving gets even worse. Talking about weather, it’s winter, 15th of January, outside temperature is negative five celsius. It snows sporadically, but there are also glimpses of sun throughout the day.
I get to the railway station, find platform my train will depart from. After few minutes of wait, locomotive pulls the train to the station for boarding. Train car attendants line at doors. I have my electronic ticket printed, but what they need is only passport. They check my name on handheld electronic device, remind me seat number and let me onto the train.
I wrote a series of articles about train travel in Russia. There are three articles here (Part 1), here (Part 2) and here (Part 3) covering major aspects of choosing railroad trains and services, buying tickets and riding the train in Russia.
The carriage I am in, is a regular inter-regional seater. This one however is called “enhanced (улучшенный)” and costs a bit more (1270 Russian Rubles or about US$19 for a 2-hour ride to Tula, purchased two weeks in advance).
Unlike second class seaters with 2+2 seating layout, this one has 1+2 seating layout. It’s more spacious, has less passengers, includes travel kit for each passenger and some food. Travel kit means pair of disposable slippers (for moving around the train), shoe cleaning cloth, shoehorn, eye mask. Food included in a ticket price is a bottle of water, a bun, chocolate bar and some hot dish that car attendant brings separately when train starts moving. I refused the hot dish primarily because I was not hungry, but also from previous travels I know that food included in a ticket price is hardly eatable. You can order tea or coffee at an extra price and car attendant will bring it to your seat. You can only get instant coffee on Russian trains.
In addition to a bunch of seaters, this train has two sleeper cars in its consist — second and third class, restaurant car and buffet car. An interesting fact, in Russian Railroads restaurant cars all the food is fixed to the order from scratch. No defrosting or heating up, whatever you order will be cooked in the restaurant car kitchen from raw products.
I sneakily take some picture of the carriage inside. In Russia people are afraid of cameras, especially those pointed at them. My camera works quietly, but subtle sound of the camera shutter still gets some attention.
When people in Russia see something or someone that’s not usual, out of the ordinary, not fitting their picture of the world, they STARE. By Russian standards I have very unconventional appearance. Coupled with camera in my hands, I attract some suspicious looks of those very few passengers around.
If you have darker skin or wear some fancy outfit or speak the language they don’t understand or behave in a way that is strange to Russians, they will STARE at you. From Russian prospective this is not a harassment, not offense, of any kind this is the way of direct expressing emotions. The emotions can vary from curiosity to condemnation or perhaps “wow”. You never know what that is. What you know for sure is they believe there is something not quite right or strange about you, so they stare at you, very openly and directly.
Although Russians are not collectivists as such, there is a mindset of “togetherness” or rather expected compliance to common rules. “They say”, “everyone says” or just unsaid, but sort of known and accepted by everyone are guiding principles that drive modern Russian society. Those principles rule how you dress, what you do for a living, how you go about your life in general and in any aspect of it. Being an individual, having your own way is never understood and never accepted in Russian society. You have to be compliant with other’s expectations or they will consider you an outcast. Soviet regime left many traces or rather scars that will require many decades to heal. If they ever can be healed at all?
Privacy is not a Russian thing either. Your privacy will be invaded all the time in Russia in various ways and forms sending you a subliminal message of “you, your freaking personality and private space do not matter”. Soviet times are to blame for this. For many decades Russians have been told to obey, comply, follow the flow, never stand off the crowd, be nakedly exposed to public eyes. Being on your own, going your own way, having a “place” for yourself is not something people really understand.
Belonging to a crowd, whether it’s a society as a whole or certain group of people, is one of the major virtues of Russian culture on its deeper levels. Minding own business is not a Russian thing. If they believe something is wrong with you, they either say something, or point finger at you or they just STARE.
The train I’m riding goes to the city of Belgorod, making just few short stops on its rout. This is an express train, it covers 670 kilometers between Moscow and Belgorod in about seven hours. It’s four o’clock in the afternoon and it’s getting dark. Views outside window are not fascinating, all the landscape is just snow and grey buildings. Winter in Moscow and central Russia in general is void of any colors, and it’s very depressing. Train quickly goes thru Moscow downtown and views change to outskirts of the city with endless concrete blocks of apartments and industrial areas. After Moscow it is just endless snow covered fields and woods, few smaller cities and villages. It is very warm inside, the train shakes and I drift into a nap.
Two hours later the train arrives to Tula for a brief stop. Tula is an ancient Russian city, a capital of Tula region. Tula is known for its traditional pastry called “Tulskiy pryanik”, samovar, and weapon industry. I leave the train ans step onto the platform. It’s dark and cold, much colder than in Moscow. Another long distance train, Moscow bound, is on the next track. Passengers standing near train doors shiver because of cold, having a quick smoke.
My destination however is not Tula. I go to a station square and call taxi using an app on my cellphone. We have Uber and Gett, but I am using a local service, which function pretty much in the same way. The taxi arrives in just a few minutes.
The driver does not talk much, and it’a a pure bliss not to be pretending like keeping, or rather politely avoiding civilized conversation with the driver. I don’t know why most drivers in Russia just love to talk to passengers during rides. Those are meaningless talks for the most part about subjects that inhabit driver’s minds. I have nothing in common with what drivers are up to, so I’d rather not have any talks with them at all.
My driver has only two questions, one is whether I smoke (a firm “no” reply to his utter disappointment). Next question is whether we can stop to get some gas as his car has no enough gas to drive sixty kilometers (and my answer to this is “yes”). Remaining portion of one hour and a half trip we spend in almost silence, violated by radio murmurs, engine sounds and tire rustle on snowy and icy road.
We go in Tula traffic for good half hour. It’s dark outside, what I see from the car is shops, cafes, people on streets, houses and large piles of dirty snow everywhere. Outside of the city it’s just darkness and snow, everywhere, small villages, road signs, some traffic lights.
As our ride goes, it becomes apparent the driver have never been to a place where he drives me. He looks at the navigation device all the time and tries to ask me if we go in a right direction. I have no idea, the area I am going to is not familiar, although I visited Novomoskovsk for a few times before.
We cross M4 — a major freeway connecting Moscow and Sochi. The M4 freeway was rebuilt for Winter Olympics in Sochi and now it’s a toll road. The M4 crossing indicates we are on a right direction.
Half an hour or so later we arrive to the hotel. I give payment to the driver. In Russia taxi rides are billed by travel time, not travel distance. This is why my almost 60-kilometers ride costs me only around 1300 Rubles, and that is US$20.
I tip the driver, because the ride was good and comfortable. The driver will now have to drive back to Tula, empty for sure. Chances of getting a passenger from here to Tula are almost none.
