Two Great May Holidays: Victory Day and…My Birthday

So far, these have been the two highlights of May and I thought I’d take a little time today to share them here.

May 9^th is Victory Day. All usual cynicism aside, Victory Day is a big deal in Russia. I would argue that Russians continue to pay significantly more attention to the Second World War than most Americans do. There are legitimate reasons for it: officially, 20 million Russians died in the war. They fought on their own soil and like in any country with war, there were tremendous hardships, including a 900 day blockade of St. Petersburg. And then there are the 3000 Soviet and now Russian movies made to remind us, constantly, about the war. Not to mention all the babushki. At any rate, all of this means that across the nation, Victory Day is a huge celebration—in every city, there are tanks, there are soldiers, there are fireworks. The day usually begins with a morning parade and ends, as far as I could tell, with lots of alcohol.

I was hesitant about going to the Victory Day parade with our international crew, mainly because—ironically—Victory Day in Russia has become a place where skinheads express their negative opinions towards foreigners, sometimes relatively “peacefully” [such as a group of people screaming “go home Yankees” at a parade that Jen attended in Petersburg a couple years ago] and sometimes more violently. But Ekaterinburg is exceptional in being a relatively peaceful and safe Russian town and thus, at 9:45 am on May 9^th, I found myself standing atop a crowded tank (#344) on the square of 1905, anxiously awaiting the start of the 62^nd Victory Day Parade. The scene was amazing: all around the square there were groups of soldiers in uniform standing also awaiting the start of the big day. Little kids were climbing all over the tanks as if they were trees and women in 3 inch stilettos were carefully climbing up onto the tanks for a better view. In the background, the Lenin statue calmly watched over the entire square. It was Soviet, it was Russian, and it was unreal.

And then the clock struck ten and the excitement truly began. Basically what happens is that two main generals (at least I think that’s who they were) ride around the square standing up in convertible Volgas. There are all sorts of official phrases said through a loud speaker—the best part by far is when the general rides around to greet and congratulate each individual group of soldiers with the victory. There is a scripted conversation that is repeated about 20 times as the general drives from group to group, the highlight being when the soldiers all together scream “Uuuuraaaa!” (which is Russian “Hooooraaaay!). From atop our tank, we participated in the cheer, somewhat to the dismay of the spectators around us. Our Russian friends sang the national anthem and everyone watched in excitement as all the soldiers marched around the square. There were veterans, cadets, and everything in between.

That was it. Afterwards, we carefully climbed off our tank [only after several rounds of pictures] and meandered around the crowded square. If you passed a veteran in the crowd, it was appropriate to congratulate him with the victory, which we proudly did in our accented Russian. There were also lots of booths selling “fair food” including cotton candy and something called “soldier kasha” that we were not brave enough to try out. From this moment on, the main focus of the day seemed to switch over to alcohol for a good percentage of the crowd, which perhaps means it is a good point to transition to my birthday.

At the end of May 16, Midori turned to me and said “I think it’s been a very Russian day.” That might be the best way of summing up my birthday, besides saying that it was an absolutely excellent day.

We started early—I woke up to pancakes and a festively decorated kitchen, compliments of Jen. After a relaxing morning, Midori, Jen, and I hopped on the trolleybus and headed towards…EUROPE’S BIGGEST INDOOR WATERPARK! [Or so claim most Russians in Ekaterinburg]. In the words of Jen “now I really want to Europe’s smallest waterpark.” At any rate, we enjoyed 3 solid hours of 30 degrees Celcius, which was my main request for the day. We also learned [not surprisingly] that Russian safety standards and waterpark engineering skills are…well…less than impressive. For example, I [foolishly, in retrospect] chose “The Black Hole” as my first waterslide. Well, at some point in the black hole I noticed that I didn’t seem to be moving at all. And so, keeping my claustrophobia under control as best I could, I crawled for 3 minutes through utter darkness until I finally reached the huge drop off that shot me out into the pool. It was frightening, to say the least. There were also two grown and intoxicated men having an inner-tube fight on the lazy river for almost the entire time we were there. Nevertheless, it was a great time—we even got to sit in a sauna that was 120 degrees C, at which point Midori exclaimed “This is the first time I’ve been warm since I came to Russia!”.

After that adventure, we headed across the street to the movie theater, where we watched Человек-Паук (Spiderman 3). Even this proved to be a uniquely Russian experience. Despite the fact that it was 3:00 pm, there was an intoxicated couple in front of us who walked into the theater with a glass tumbler full of vodka [that they had ordered at, yes, the theater’s concession stand]. We were worried that they would be out of control, but once the movie started, the woman stopped screaming “Max! What’s going on?” and they pretty much calmed down. Halfway through the movie, the sound went out and at about the same time, Max’s tumbler of vodka caught up with him. He bent over in his seat, leading his girlfriend to start screaming [in that lovely loud, drunkenly slurred voice] “Max, what’s wrong with you? Max?!” [Max тебе плохо, что ли?]. The family sitting behind us got up at this point…but apparently only to report the sound problem and not the drunken mess in front of us. That was okay, because after Max finished vomiting his vodka onto the movie theater floor, the girlfriend smacked him across the face and the couple abruptly left. All the while good and evil were going at it on the screen behind them.

Despite that excitement, the movie was excellent as well. Jen and I spent half the time watching Spiderman and the other half watching Midori, who was like a 3-year-old watching their favorite cartoon—she didn’t even notice the drama between Max and his girlfriend!

In the evening, we had a gathering of international students with cake and coffee. Around this time I also found out that Russian style is to just drop by with gifts without warning, which might be my new favorite cultural difference : ) Misha brought Cadburry chocolates and Sergei and Alfina brought about 20 roses. All in all, it was a wonderful day. It was great to hear from so many of you on the day—thank you for all the messages!

One more point of business: to answer the question that is running around out there, I am coming home in early September. It’s not official yet and it is going to take some serious maneuvering through the Russian visa system [though I must say, if there is one thing this year has taught me, it’s how to effectively tightrope walk through the tangled system of Russian bureaucracy], but that’s what I am shooting for. I will keep you all updated. And in the meantime, there is a big summer of traveling adventures coming up—but more about that in the next blog : )