A Journey Through Russia

A RUSSIAN JOURNEY
Interview with Anne Garrels

Next Tuesday, National Public Radio is taking its listeners to the 18th century Russia to retrace an extraordinary journey. Reporter Anne Garrels followed the footsteps of Russian writer, Alexander Radishchev’s, famous journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Radishchev was an activist who wrote about liberty and freedom and bravely questioned what he considered corrupt politics. Today, his book, which describes ideas that landed him in Siberia, is required reading there. What Garrels found is that his ideas, put to paper two hundred years ago, resonate today. The broadcast of American Radio Works is the documentary project of Minnesota Public Radio and NPR news.
Anne Garrels joins us to talk about her journey.

Jamie Cloy: Anne how are you? Thanks so much for being with us.

Anne Garrels: Well, thank you it’s a pleasure.

Colby: Tell me a little bit. You had been there a number of times to
Russia, but you did this trip a little differently. You retraced this
route. Why?

Garrels: Well, I took almost a month to do it and I had the opportunity to use this time. And I did for the same reason Radishchev did. Because he said Moscow and St. Petersburg don’t represent the real Russia. And they don’t. And so I went into the countryside to the villages, cities, and towns that are the heartland of Russia.

Colby: How was he thought of there?

Garrels: Well, actually his book is quite difficult to read because it’s written in Old Russian. and as you noted it is required reading. But the themes nonetheless echo. He is talking about capricious government, corrupt officials, unfair laws, all the things two hundred years ago existed exist today.

Colby: Where you surprised about the spirit of optimism you found among the people you talked to?

Garrels: Yes, I wouldn’t exactly call it optimism, but I barely found a soul who wants to go back to the way thing were fifteen years ago. People are getting down and making the best of their lives and basically they’ve had a certain stability since 1998, when there was a financial crash and yet again Russians lost whatever financial balance they had. And now they have had three years and they’re not that interested in politics, but they are interested in building a life.

Colby: And there is a sense of hope isn’t there?

Garrels: Yes, I would say its hope with a very small ‘h.’ But they want to go forward and they want to hope. Let’s put it that way.

Colby: What about the women you discuss in the show? About the women’s
parliament? What are the women doing?

Garrels: Well, again and again across Russia and certainly in this trip the women were the outstanding figures. The men sadly were drunk. Many of them die. The average age to die in Russia, for a man, is fifty-nine, for a woman, it’s seventy-two. I mean that’s a dramatic differenceOne key thing, fifteen years ago Russian women didn’t drive. They drive now. And this women’s parliament that you mentioned in Novogorod, this was just a ballsy woman, who at fifty-seven said, “ You know my life isn’t over”. Because Russian women retired at fifty-five, were consigned to the kitchen to take care of their randchildren. And she said I’m not gonna do that. She got her driver’s license, she started dealing with women’s groups around the world. She came to Iowa and was inspired by the American women she saw there. Some of who were in their seventies and were still out there. And she was just turned on she went back to Novogorod and basically has organized a group where women can study health issues, psychology, gender issues, God forbid a topic in Russia that was never dealt with. They can learn computers. They can learn how to run a small business. They can learn how to set up a foundation. And the women there were palpably excited.

Colby: But life has been particularly hard for the men, hasn’t it?

Garrels: Yes, the men. It’s been much harder for men to adapt. For everybody it’s been a huge economic social earthquake. Women were willing to take the blows and start again. I think for men it was much harder. And again and again, I just came across alcoholism. And we were in orphanages were the men in the family had clearly fallen apart. The children were taken by the state and were in these orphanages. Not adoptable because they are thirteen, fourteen years old and realistically no one is going to take them.

Colby: I know you plan to go back and revisit some of the people you talked
to. What do you think you’ll find twenty years from now?

Garrels: Well, I asked them that too and who knows? But, I know, I’m sure that most of the people I met will prosper. There are not the searing issues about law and corrupt court and corruption. I mean that is on everyone’s mind. As we were driving along, you are shaken down every step of the way because public officials make no money, so the way a cop gets a salary is basically to stop you and ask you for money. What people want is some semblance of justice and order so they can plan.

Colby: Anne Garrels from National Public Radio, thank you for joining us. The program again is called “A Russian Journey,” airing on Tuesday, August 21st. Check your local listings for times.