Traveling to foreign places, is surely one of the important things we do to understand the world we live in. Furthermore, living in Canada gives us often a rather false idea of what the world is like. This is particularly true of places like Russia, which during its USSR period tended to be equated with a place of great evil.

So, now that it is again, easily, possible to travel to Russia, one tries to understand the place without the prejudices which had been fed to us. Taking a look at the place, meeting its people, and trying to judge it fairly seems to be a worthy undertaking. That, of course is difficult to do if you do not speak the language (which I don't), Still, even with that difficulty, it is possible to get a general idea of the atmosphere.

The Russians we met on the boat, were a pretty select group university professors, teachers, recent university graduates, hardly the kind of "ordinary people" that populate a country, but, on the other hand, people who spoke English and were willing to talk about their views.

But even betond them, we were able to observe the society going about its business. What did we see, what impression did we get?

Judging from the traffic, particularly in Moscow, I got the impression that they were a pretty agressive group. They drove their cars agressively, pushing their way into a new lane if their was the smallest little space left open. My impression, watching the goings on from the elevated level inside a bus, certainly made me glad that I did not have to drive.

But, despite of what I saw as aggressiveness, I saw no accidents, the traffic flowed quietly, there was no honking of horns, and I observed no angry, physical gestures. Perhaps, what I interpreted as agressiveness was the necessary driving style of a very large and crowded city.

Moscow is a very large city. Officially it has somewhere about 11 million inhabitants. When you live in a place that big, I guess, you need to insist on your space in it. But there is another point to be considered. While the official count is 11 million, apparently, in reality it is closer to 17 million or more.

How, one wonders is such a large discrepency possible? The answer apparently lies in a nice little story. Because Moscow is rich and well-to-do, everyone in the backwoods of Russia wants to live there. To prevent the whole country from moving to Moscow, there are laws which stipulate that no one who does not have the official residence papers is allowed to live in Moscow for longer than 3 months. But, the population having some time ago learned to live under the pretty controlling system of Communism, had needed to learn ways of dealing with such controls.

And, the system being a good deal more gentle today, allows the population to twist existing laws to their own needs and desires. There are, it seems many millions of people who fall under this 3-months residence category. But rather than packing their bags and moving back home, they take a trip every 3 month and leave Moscow. However, having reached the necessary distance from Moscow, and having notified the appropriate authorities of their doing so, they then take the next train back into the city, get the necessary, date-stamped, arrival papers and continue to stay and work there for the next three months.

This procedure is so well known, that the officials in charge providing these papers are in on the scheme. I imagine, though I have no such evidence, that the official being thanked for handing over the necessary paper, might reply with some such phrase as this: " Your welcome, and, I'll be seeing you in 3 months' time."

Whether things really are carried on in such a relaxed fashion, I, of course don't know, but whatever the exact procedure needs to be, some six or more million people maintain their residency in Moscow by such periodic little trips.

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HOMES:

Obviously, Russian life must also depend on where they live. In Moscow for instance, I cannot remember having seen a single, one-family home. There are apartment buildings, huge, squarish, apartment blocks and once in a while something that looks more interesting and appealing.

Getting away from the cities, however, the houses in which people live, have a much greater variety. They range form tiny, little, homes to, occasionally, impressive mansions which one might find in North America. Still, we were told that it is not at all uncommon for a family home to contain three or four generations.

But, even the smallest little place at times reveals by its colourful decoration, just how proud their owners are of their homes.