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Political icons and ideologies may have tumbled but outsiders still have only a hazy grasp of life in Russia. The currently unfolding effects of a deregulated market economy are surrounded by rumours of crime, prostitution, drugs and intractable unemployment and food shortages. This air of murky uncertainty is heightened by the bizarre combination of gloom and high spirits, rudeness and hospitality, secrecy and openness, which the archetypal Russian exudes.
Despite the disintegration of its empire, Russia is still huge - stretching from the borders with Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Turkey in the west, passing Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China, to reach the Pacific Ocean some 6000km later. The landscape is predominantly flat, punctuated only by the Urals, which rise no higher than 1900m, and the more substantial ranges of the far east. The three major rivers west of the Urals - the Dnepr, Don and Volga - all rise within 400km of Moscow and flow south into the Black and Caspian seas. Russia's Far East is Siberia, with all its connotations of tundra, steppes, ranges, exile and mindblowing nothingness.
Due to its size, the land passes through several environmental bands. The northern forests of pine and spruce hide reindeer, wolves and brown bears. The mixed deciduous and coniferous forests are home to deer, lynx and the Siberian tiger (which has been known to wander into the suburbs of Vladivostok). The black earth steppes are the grain basket of Asia. Snow leopards, cheetahs, porcupines, gazelles, wild goats and the chamois grace the deserts of Central Asia, though pollution and fur-hunters threaten the existence of many species. There are over 140 state nature reserves, several of whose breeding programs have ensured the continued livelihood of animal species, including the European bison.
Moscow and St Petersburg share similar summer temperatures, both averaging around 24 degrees Celsius. Moscow is frozen by the end of November, with snow remaining until early April, and has an average January temperature of around -12 degrees Celsius. St Petersburg swings between lacking real darkness in summer to having only about five hours of murky light a day in winter. Its average January temperature is a sweltering -8 degrees Celsius. Spring in both cities brings the great thaw, the reappearance of vehicles on the road and a general sense of mayhem. Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast, experiences slightly milder weather than elewhere in the Russian Far East. Its -13 degrees Celsius winter temperatures seem positively balmy compared to Oymyakon in the north-east, which just happens to be the coldest inhabited place on earth. Its winter temperatures drop to -65 degrees Celsius.
Russia's 19th-century cultural legacy is overwhelming, with outstanding achievements in the fields of literature, architecture, ballet, musical composition and performance. The St Petersburg Imperial Ballet school produced dancers Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Mikhail Fokine. The Ballets Ruse took Paris by storm in 1909, and later glories belonged to the Kirov and Moscow's Bolshoy companies, though a string of defections thinned their ranks. Concertos, symphonies and orchestral works have issued from household names such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and Shostakovich.
Russia's most characteristic architectural feature is its onion-domed churches, which evolved when the wooden churches of the north were translated into brick and colourful tilework. In the world of art, religious icons, Futurism and revolutionary graphic art are instantly recognisable Russian forms. Cinema has always been an important art form and leisure pursuit, the revolutionary period best represented by Sergey Eisenstein's iconic Battleship Potyomkin and Ivan the Terrible; the recent past in the overtly symbolic work of Andrei Tarkovsky. Folk culture is remembered in the heroic stamping dances of the Georgian State Dance Company, regional embroidery and woodcarving, Russian dolls and the carved wooden houses of the east.
Russian is the language of state business and the native tongue of over half the population. Central Asian populations speak Turkic and are Muslim. Although communism and religion were not the best of bedfellows, the Russian Orthodox Church survived and is a growing entity in today's Russia; unfortunately, the Jewish population has favoured emigration because of intransigent anti-Semitism.
Long the butt of jokes about cabbage and more cabbage, Russian cuisine features a huge array of appetisers, including the famous beetroot and cabbage soups, followed by a huge slab of overcooked meat swimming in a rich sauce and draped with ruined vegetables. In the big cities, ethnic cuisine seems to be disappearing under the influx of international cuisine: everything from Sushi to hamburgers and pizza. Vegetarians will find the usual all-you-can-eat salad bars and sandwiches which is their usual culinary lot. Moscow and St Petersburg have heaps of western-style supermarkets where you can stock up on al-fresco foods. Kvas is a fermented rye-bread water which is only mildly alcoholic and refreshing in summer. The real stuff, vodka, can be served straight or flavoured with pepper, berries, bison grass, apple leaves, lemon or ginger and cloves.
Easter and Christmas are celebrated with midnight services, candlelight processions and flourishings of folk art. In April St Petersburg celebrates Music Spring, an international classical music festival, and the last 10 days of June feature the White Nights, a time for general merrymaking and staying up late. A film festival is held in Moscow in autumn in odd-numbered years. The Russian Winter Festival is celebrated in St Petersburg, Moscow and Novgorod from late December to early January, and includes folklore shows and vodka. The other main winter celebration is New Year, celebrated with presents, champagne and yet more vodka.
Events
Places to visit
Moscow
It may be the capital of the earth's biggest country, but it's not its biggest city. At times it looks like an administrative megalopolis from Alphaville, with monumental slabs of buildings and wide, grey roads. However, it's off these grey thoroughfares that the pre-Stalinised Moscow survives, with golden onion domes peeping through the narrow, winding inner-city streets and the glowing windows that hint at the secret interiors of a million apartment blocks. The most famous attractions include the Kremlin and Red Square.
St Petersburg
Russia's most European city has been dubbed the Venice of the North for its palace-lined waterways. Peter the Great's beautiful creation managed to escape the architectural incursions of Stalinism and its grandiose relics of tsarist days are virtually intact. Lying on the Gulf of Finland, and sculpted by islands and the sinuous Neva River, the city is a geometric vista of orderly elegance, with nary an onion dome in sight. Attractions include the State Hermitage Museum, Peter & Paul Fortress and the Nevsky Prospekt
Its Kremlin includes the Byzantine Cathedral of St Sophia, the Millennium of Russia Monument, the icon-filled Chamber of Facets and the research-based Museum of History & Art. Across from the Kremlin, Yaroslav's Court includes medieval markets, churches, arcades and palace remains. The Church of Our Saviour-at-Ilino is arguably one of Russia's most charming, with playful ornamentation and gables, and an interior boasting Byzantine frescoes.
The main western rail gateways to European Russia are Helsinki, Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. There is a daily service from Paris and Amsterdam to Moscow via Berlin and Warsaw. There's also a service from Berlin to Omsk. The Trans-Siberian Railway terminates in Beijing. There are limited cruise and ferry services between Russia and Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Turkey and Georgia.
Aeroflot has been broken up into many small airlines, leading to virtually unregulated skies and the worst regional safety record in the world. Flying within Russia is an unreliable, unpredictable and difficult business. Try to get a seat on a domestic flight that ultimately has an international destination, because these carriers are certified to meet higher standards than domestic-only services.
European Russia is crisscrossed by an extensive rail network that makes trains a viable means of getting to practically anywhere. They're cheap and comfortable and usually take a long, long time. The rail network runs on Moscow time; the only general exception is suburban train services, which stick to local time.
Russian buses are now completely open to foreigners and when going between small towns are a great way to travel. Driving in Russia isn't everybody's cup of tea but if you've got a sense of humour, don't mind some fairly rugged road conditions, a few hassles finding petrol, and getting lost now and then, it's a great way to see the country.
River transport remains important and in summer it's possible to travel long distances across Russia on passenger boats. The main passenger services ply between Moscow and St Petersburg, and between Moscow and various points on the Volga and Don, including Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Astrakhan and Rostov-on-Don.
Warning: Street crime against foreigners is a problem in Russia's major cities. Muggers favour underground metro areas, overnight trains, stations, airports, markets and tourist attractions, and have been known to break into locked and occupied hotel rooms. As in all big cities, visitors should be neither too paranoid nor careless.
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