Russia and Berkova

This is the first post of what's going to be a busy year. I am in Russia. I am not Russian. I suppose I originally was Australian, I have been away from home for the best part of thirty years so now...hmmm. It's a tough call. The thing is I am westerner through and through and I see Russia through Western eyes but I am close enough to the sensibilities of its people to be able to fathom the unfathomable.

I mean, think about it: for the best part of 50 years - that's a big 5-0, an entire nation believes in collectivism, self-sacrifice and -worst of all - that their point of view is winning and they are better off than the rest of the world!

Then it all goes away. Wham! Just like that.

If it doesn't blow your mind I don't know what does.

On the surface of it it all seems fine but it isn't, it really isn't. 21st century Russia is a place where things are not what they seem because they are exactly as they were - just remade, or should I say remodelled?

I know, I know you are mystified and so was I. I came to St Petersburg to spend six months, at the beginning of January 2007 and it now looks like I will be here until January 2008.

I have began to burrow into a looking glass world where Alice's rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

I will take things from the beginning, or as much as I can and add to this blog on a daily basis but I must explain this one, at least.

Russia is well known (hah, laugh now) Berkova isn't, or at least wasn't. In Russia there's a Big Brother show that's been going for three and a half years running based on a core group of people who do not know each other and have to live in there trying to build it (it's an on-going project). It's called House 2 or Dom 2 and it has fanatical following and Berkova was one of the House Guests.

They all have to partner up otherwise they get voted out and she paired up with this guy and they had sex (it was filmed) and then it came out that she was a pornstar. There was the initial denial as she tried to explain the first videotape that came to light as a party one night with her ex-husband and a friend but after the number of videotapes surfacing multiplied it became apparent that either she has had a great many husbands and they have been incredibly active on the social networking scene or she really was a pornstar and she had to go.

She went.

What's this got to do with Russia?

Everything and -seemingly- nothing. The fact that it would only be acceptable in this country and that she is famous and has made a huge career out of something that should have blighted it is just one paradox.

The Russia of the 21st century is a highly moral, Russian Orthodox place where even in a city like Moscow, or St Petersburg, everybody makes it their business to find out everybody else's. A massive country with a serf, village mentality.

On the surface one thing, underneath totally another.

Berkova is totally accepted and acceptable, sex seem to be as easy to get as Vodka (which you can get in kiosks, the underground and even newstands for as little as 50p a bottle) and Russian porn is both ubiquitous, matter of fact and incredibly a difficult to analyse mix of pragmatism and familiarity.

If you are confused by all this you ain't seen nothing yet. I have yet to cover relationships, dating, domestic abuse (which is something of a national sport here), social mores, software piracy, snow, public drunkeness and prostitution. Oh, and before I forget I will also be tackling democracy, bureaucracy and the way the Russian government treats its own citizens.

Stay tuned? I dare you to try and turn away. This is a fascinating country, it has a lot of pathos, a lot of suffering and the capacity to do great things. At the same time it has a huge inferiority complex and a sense of trying to make up for most of the last century it lost.

I will cover all this - leave me notes, suggestions and remarks.