Many have not seen a paycheck for months. And so they go on strike, organize marches to the capital, complain to local authorities and criticize the government. But the need is pressing everywhere. Architectural monuments need to be maintainted, leaking water pipes and city sewage repaired, streets paved, miners paid, palaces rebuilt, highways built so that cars do not clutter and pollute city centers, the infrastructure of towns and villages maintained when local factories shut down. Health, love but also absence of war were the most frequent responses of Russians interviewed.
War is ever-present and feared.
Two blockade are still alive. Militant mothers keep marching to protest the harsh two-year military service that orders their sons to Azerbaijan and Tajikistan. Intelligentsia keep meeting in kitchens discussing art and literature with the same gusto as ever. But like all others they refuse to discuss the future, living rather from day to day, teaching at several institutes at once and treasuring dollars saved while teaching abroad. My recent visit to Russia has confirmed what I always knew - it is an illusion that one can begin to understand the country without first acquiring a decent historical and literary context.