To Russia with love Copyright Robert Fullarton 2014

 To Russia with love
 Copyright Robert Fullarton 2014




It has been a desire of mine to travel through Russia, to the rural outback of a country the size of a continent  to a bastion of culture, natural diversity and mystery (to an Irishman who still knows little about such a far flung country) from St.Petersburg to Kamchatka through 4 different time Zones from Europe to to Asia, the Steppes to the White sea, this mystery is still closed to tourism, through the dwarfish tourist industry that exists in Russia is so underdeveloped that its still a blueprint of a structure not given financial means nor psychological reasoning. Indeed Russia has been closed to the rest of Europe for nearly 100 years, through various forms of radicalism, extremism and nationalism - the old phrase of live and let live needs to be applied to the mind and heart of those who view all "westerners" with the single scope of suspicion. Many just want to get on with their life in peace and amiability to others.

Who shall open the door to Russia? Is it the total and unanimous will of the Russian people that there be a cold front between eastern and western Europe? Is education a lagging discourse of the individual, for schools teach us nothing, for wisdom is a matter of practice and moral outreach and spiritual and philosophical insight that comes after many hard lessons in life.

I have indulged on the works of Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Bulgakov, Chekhov and to a latter degree Tolstoy and Platonov. I must admit that the Russian "masters" of storytelling are the finest of any nation, there work is the epoch of a suffering nation, through the years from one despot to another, one can imagine the samovars boiling and the vodka being knocked back, while the great stories are being told by the stove. Next to the Bible the Russian epic novel has its seminal, diverse and metaphysical power to sum up topics such as humanity, salvation, redemption, human brutality, stories of hope and struggle, people of all classes and situations and that is why it is so real and so applicable to the most people, for its universal and yet unworldly/spiritual search for truth and meaning. When I get over the long, tongue challenging names I find characters with whom I can relate to (that symbolize each portion of society and the different types of people that exist in the world), with a rich plot and a pathos (Power of pity) that takes the reader by the heart especially when he reads about the gulag penal system. I must admit that for the greater part Russia has not been fully commercialised nor given into globalisation but is collection of fiefdoms, rural communities lost in time and perhaps more Asiatic than Occidental.

The problems with Visas, the political powder keg between east and west and the language barriers are sufficient enough to keep the tourists at bay, yet I have wanted for years to go for a holiday to St.Petersburg at the very least,: yet these difficulties are enough to tell me that my love of Russian Classical music and literature may be outdated, idealistic, falsely romantic and over optimistic in the face of a very harsh reality.