My wife Kay and I had the rare opportunity to visit Moscow for a week in October as part of the InfoComm International contingent attending the
Integrated Systems Russia show. For my part I represented the Officers of InfoComm and attended the conference, toured the exhibits, and enjoyed several lavish dinners with key exhibitors and show partners. Kay and I also had some time to be tourists. The trip certainly left an impression on both of us - mostly positive but often thoughtful. Let me share:
We arrived at Domededovo airport, which is a forty-five minute drive to central Moscow on a good day - but one-and-a-half to three hours in traffic. We arrived at the Hotel Aerostar about an hour on a Monday afternoon. This is a recently renovated business hotel that really wants to be a four star property. The rooms were very small but comfortable and the staff was helpful, but very inexperienced. It's hard to give great service when you've never experienced it yourself. Which brings me to my first major impression - there are two distinct Russias: the one that embraces Western service economy and the one that is still watching to see what it all means. While we experienced many fine examples of exceptional service in Moscow, it was more of an exception. More importantly, we did not experience any intentionally bad service, which is more than I can say for many of my business trips.
The younger Russians seem very much like twenty-somethings everywhere. They were fashionable - even chic - and armed with iPods and cell phones. Most of all they seemed unfazed by foreigners. We had expected more college aged folks to speak English, but the few who did were not as practiced as you find in other countries.
We were very lucky to have a guide for our first day and a half. Ron is an American missionary who has lived in Russia for fifteen years. He has seen some enormous changes, but was quick to point out how little was really different. Ron was visiting Moscow from his home 300 miles away simply because he needed to see a doctor to get antibiotics for his tonsillitis. He explained that even in his home city of three million people, the health care is unsafe. "I would never let a family member be admitted to a hospital outside of Moscow," he explained.
Ron got us through the subway system during rush hour - and this was no small feat. The Moscow Metro is something to behold. It's massive, efficient, and packed. Trains come every couple of minutes and getting on or off can be tricky as thousands of commuters pack the platform. Plus, there is no English or even western lettering on public signage. "Count the stops" was the preferred method for getting off the subway at the right time. The Metro is an engineering marvel and the architecture in the stations often quite impressive. Unfortunately you cannot use a camera in the subway - seriously - it will be confiscated. There are probably some safety reasons - tourists would probably be trampled while looking through the lens - but the roots are in security. Soviet-era Russia was extremely paranoid and in contrast Moscow today is very progressive in how it lets foreigners just wander the streets. There was no clear pattern. Sometimes tight security showed up in uninteresting places and other times there was no security as we wandered past priceless antiquities. Older civilians were the most stern keepers of the watch, while young soldiers looked as if they had no idea why they were screening visitors entering the Kremlin. I guess that is not all that different from home.
The food was great, but other than borscht I do not know what "Russian" food is. We ate a lot of Uzbeki, German, and French foods. One of the most popular restaurants is a chain of American-style diners with hamburgers, fries, and shakes. We visited shopping malls that look just like the ones at home - right down to the unsupervised teenagers and The Gap store. But no matter where we went, it was hard to forget that we were in Russia.
Russian business people - the few we spent time with - seemed passionate and focused. We enjoyed several lively debates revolving around America's lack of understanding of the world. I still do not understand what they wanted us to know, but maybe that's the point. To sum up, Moscow was an interesting place to visit but not a destination for everyone. I like museums and architecture, but with the exception of a few antiquities from Czarist Russia I found the attractions to be unsatisfying. The buildings - especially the churches - can be stunning. But close inspection reveals they are modern reproductions or unfaithful restorations. So much of what made Russia a fascinating place was destroyed by the Stalinists. What exists now is what survived, not what was. And that in a nutshell is what we experienced, the hint of something marvelous hidden under years of intentional indifference. None of this is a reflection on the people of Russia. They like most citizens everywhere are poorly represented by the actions of their governments and political histories. If travel were an exchange program where you show me your country and I show you mine, I think business and politics would take on a truly global personality.
