Demonstration in St. Petersburg

I heard that there was going to be a protest in St. Petersburg against electoral fraud in the ongoing parliamentary elections. The Finnish Consulate has adivced people to avoid these places. That's where I'm headed.

  Nevsky Prospekt in the morning

10 a.m. Coffeeshop Nevski:
Rumour has it that people would start gathering at 11 a.m. in front of Gostiniy Dvor. Nothing to be seen yet.


10.30 a.m.
Received new information: time and place have been changed to 2 p.m. at Vostania (near the Stockmann department store).

11.30 a.m.
Ministry of internal affairs police troops (OMON) have started to gather at Vostania.

2 p.m.
The permission to set up a demonstration at Vostania has been denied, but another location at Pushkinskaya has been approved. The square appears to be practically empty. Three men are building a platform and close to twenty policemen are patrolling the area. I guess this is the right place?

2.40 p.m.
People are starting to show up. Approximately ten policemen in full riot gear have taken up positions.

3.30 p.m.
The square is full of people. Political rants can be heard. A recurring theme emerges from the slogans and catch phrases:
- Our country is free!
- We are free!



Riot control is well organized.

 Nothing is left at chance. Uniformed servicemen are brought in by the carload.

The black visor gives the policemen an ominous look.
I guess that's the point.

Young policemen anxiously fondling their weapons. With excited eyes they scan the crowd for instigators. What a pity if a good chance to put to use their riot training was wasted!



The event was over at about 5 o'clock. I was a bit surprised when it ended. I was warming up at a nearby theater, and when I came back, the speeches were over and people were rolling up banners. I asked a nearby group of youngsters if that was it. One of them told me that event was indeed over, but if I wanted to see a brawl I should stick around. I was starting to get a bit tired at that point, but since the action was going to pick up, I might as well stay for a while. I waited for an hour, but nothing happened. All the policemen in riot gear had exited their vehicles, and there was a lot of them.


The event was much more peaceful than I had expected. Images of policemen battering and dragging protesters did not become reality that day. I have to keep an eye on Finnish news broadcasts to see if anything interesting happens later tonight.

Screenshot from Finnish TV1 News

  8.20 p.m.
Dammit!
I just watched the Finnish news and apparently there had been a real hassle at Vostania. Should have stayed there instead of going to Pushkinskaya.



More pictures from the protest at Vostania courtesy of www.newsru.com.
Pic1
Pic2
Pic3
Pic4

Kommunalka

A kommunalka is an interesting phenomenon from our point of view. This type of living is still very “popular” in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In a kommunalka there live many families in one flat. The kitchen, bathroom, WC, corridors are shared.


First a 5 minutes video about kommunalka.




Taking care of common facilities
On the wall there is list of duties.
E.g. On the 1 st. week family Ivanov cleans the common facilities, on the 2nd week family Petyhov , on the 3rd week family Popov….

A corridor of a kommunalka
Sometimes the common space is used for storing things. At the end of a corridor there is a common phone.

A phone
A kommunalka has a common phone. Phone costs are divated according to number of residents. Long distance calls are exeption. They are charged according to use. The situation is changing because of mobilephones.

A kitchen
In a kommunalka there is usually one kitchen and because there are living many families one have to remember this when it is time to cook. In a kitchen there is one cooker (sometimes more). The space of the room is shared between the families. The whole cupboard on the left belongs to family Ivanov, the table on the right and the cupboard above it belong to family Popov, the cupboard above the sink and the nail beside it belong to family Petyhov as well as the space in front of the window….
Fridges and freezers are also kept in living rooms and corridors. The place depends on who is the neighbour.
Meals are cooked in the kitchen and eaten in the living room.

WC

Hopefully there are not many people who have stomach problems at the same time.
Every family has their own toilet paper, so before you are going use the toilet it is a good idea to ask which toilet paper is your host’s.

The bath room
The space in the bathroom is also shared between the residents. It is easy to imagine how easy it is to find time for a bath if there are living many people in a kommunalka. Usually the pipes are very bad and the pressure of the water is too low on mornings and on evenings.
It is very common that relationships between residents are bad. Think about the situation that one of the residents is an alcoholic or a drug dealer.
If somebody is not happy living in Finland it would be a good idea to try living for a while in a kommunalka:)

Here is a very good video clip.






Below some photos of a typical house and its neighbourhood in the center of St.P.