A week in St. Petersburg and I have started to like Russia again. The spring sun, good gigs, interesting lessons, and the fact that someone blew up Lenin's ass have compensated the anger I gathered during the visa fight. And naturally I need to have the right state of mind to celebrate the 200 year old relationship between Russia and Finland. Year 1809 Russia wan Finland from Sweden and gave the area an autonomy. Some consider this to be the beginning of the state of Finland because before that we were part of Sweden without any (special) rights.
So how could I feel gloomy when Russia and Finland have survived next to each other already that long. There were some good times and some bad times but all in all we have managed to put up with each other already two centuries!
One example of the shared history between these two countries is visible at Finlandskyi vokzal where's a statue of Lenin. This is the first statue of Lenin ever made and it was placed at Finlandskyi vokzal where Lenin arrived from his exile from Finland and where he gave the famous speech which started communist revolution. This was 3rd of April 1917. First of April 2009 somebody decided to make the statue of Lenin even more attractive tourist sight by putting a bomb between poor-Lenin's legs. This "terrorist-act" (like Russian press called it) was quite accurate work because the bomb has destroyed statue only around Lenin's butt. I had to go and see the buttless Lenin myself and I wasn't the only one. People were laughing and photographing Lenin while construction workers tried to hide the statue by building wooden box around it. One could say that this was the best April joke ever if the ones who claimed to be responsible for the bomb wouldn't have been fascists.
Less explosive event happened at Sotsi-club, where Risto and Pintandwefall had arrived to celebrate the 200-year old Finnish-Russian relations. Pintandwefall attracted mainly Russian part of the audience while Risto and his crazy Finnish lyrics charmed the Finnish fans. Even Risto forgot sometimes to speak English between songs because the small club was full of Finnish expats living in St. Petersburg. And it was scary to notice how everybody knew each other. It was like a big family gathering were you rather avoid some people and enjoy only meeting few of the party guests.
I believe that Finnish consulate and exchange programs connect people better than Nokia and the rest of the Finns living here must have met in bars, house parties or at least in a restaurant cart on a Sibelius- or Repin-train on their way to Russia. Finnish president Tarja Halonen said on her visit to St. Petersburg last Sunday, that there are 4000 Finns living in the city. I'm pretty sure they (or we) all know each other some how.
To balance the time in a smoky clubs, I have started to guljat (means more or less walking without destination) more now than during the darkest winter months. Spring sun has dried the streets from snow which has brought cyclists and rollerblader back to the streets. Usually they are young boys and girls who dare to ride a bike in the city center but this spring there's been a new group of cyclist in the city, the gastarbeiters. Men from Central Asia and Caucasus have find the new vehicle, maybe because they have to travel from one construction site to another to look for a job. Unfortunately many of the works of gastarbeiters disappeared after the financial crisis which made their situation even worse. What would Lenin think if he'd saw how the new proletariat of Russia, the gastarbeiters, are being treated?
Living in a big city like St. Petersburg might be exhausting, but luckily Russian Federation knows how to amuse people on the streets. Maybe the lack of advertisers have increased the amount of state adds on the streets. They're quite hilarious for a Finnish eye because they advice people to "live in a right way". Slogans can be something like "Take care of your children", "Choose love over alcohol" or "Don't make noise during the night, neighbours are sleeping". But my favourite adds are not the life-guides but the adds of Gazprom. The most common is add where's simply written "Gazprom, for children" (picture with the head quarter of FSB, the successor of KGB) with picture of a blond-haired and blue-eyed child. It's a bit unclear what they want to say by that add. But they also have an add with a very clear message; it says "Gazprom. We take from nature and give it to people." What could be a more accurate slogan for a gas and oil company?
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