RUSSIAN CIVILIZATION

This report was formed after I had stayed in St Petersburg for 7 months starting in August 2004. I studied there in two different universities and also was trained in a small company for 10 weeks. This report is based on my experiences both in Finland and in Russia about several topics of the Russian civilization. I will write about Finnish attitudes towards Russia and vice versa. I will bring quite a lot of business aspects since I have studied on that field. I will write about how I feel about the Russians, what I think about the culture, where I have been visiting and what I have seen and been doing and what have I heard and thought of it.

I received all types of criticisms and warnings as I told I will spend time in Russia and in St Petersburg. Older generations in Finland have quite effectively passed the suspicious attitudes and thoughts about Russia and Russians to their children. Even today I am able to hear from a mouth of a relatively young, educated Finnish man who enjoyably sips from his can of Baltica that "all Russia should be removed from the map" if I put it nice. Someone asked in front of several little children that who in the world had made me to go there for such a long time. Now that is an attitude to inherit. I answered that it was a result of sweat, blood and tears plus hard and demanding insisting and planning and knowing the correct people that made it possible for me to do so. According to my stubborn character I was sure that Russia has to be millions of times much more than those attitudes let me know. That was one of the reasons that brought me to this country. I was warned by so many people that I just couldn't wait to get to this scary, horrifying country for a longer time than all the other students ever have been here from my school in Finland.

The rotten attitudes of some poor and narrow minded Finnish definitely roots from the common history of Russia and Finland. The wars left deep scars and hate remained somewhere in Finnish minds. Generally I would dare to say that Finnish people can roughly be divided in two groups with some exceptions. Those who dislike Russia and those who might have had some negative attitudes but have later on in some respect fallen love with the country. On the other hand I don't think that there are many Russians who love Finland with any sort of passion. Some of the Russians seem to rather ignore Finland. Finland is not important to them since it used to be just a small part of Russia and located far away in Northwest. "There is nothing interesting in Finland for a regular Russian" I was told by a Russian girl. Russia itself is much more interesting in every aspect. Russians have been through tremendous history of very different kinds of leaders and with different ideologies. As looking analytically the characters of the leaders of Russia and Soviet Union you can notice that every other leader of Russia was a developer and every other pulled back. So how should the country develop forward when all the achieved advantages are taken back by the next leader of the country? By looking at the pictures of the leaders it seems like the development has something to do with having good hair on a head. Somehow it amazes me that after going through such times as the history tells us Russians still are looking into the future, well, more or less. Maybe the future is another day sitting on a side of a big street a hand passed forward, humiliated and insulted hoping to receive a coin from the people passing by at the age of 88. Maybe there passes by another type of a future in a form of a perfectly stylish white leather jacket with fur decorations and modern high heels accompanied with the trendiest pants. Perhaps the well cared soft skinned hand with gorgeously decorated artificial long nails will drop the coin thinking whatever which I haven't been able to find out, yet.

In a few days after arriving I realized that St Petersburg is just another European metropolis with some added eastern spices. Every single time I look at the cupolas of the "Blood Church" I feel that I really am in Russia. Of course I know it all the time but there is something in those cupolas when you see them above some trees on the side of the Field of Mars. Those spices make this city and this country and the atmosphere very special and unique. Maybe it is the inner desire of Russian soul to be proud and to show that we will survive no matter what the environment gives. For some of the Russians it is very easy to show some success. The gap between the rich and poor is almost too visible and it gives a great tension to this country. People got enormously rich in such a short period of time as the businesses were privatized after the collapse of Soviet Union. Some of the factories were in good shape and had or received a lot of foreign customers and so money kept pouring in. Still I don't deeply enough understand how did the new owners of the quite nicely operating businesses managed to get such good profits from their busi-nesses. During the Soviet times there were no entrepreneurs around since that state owned everything. The answer must be very logical but so far it remains a mystery. I have to say that Russian really managed to educate themselves fast in order to run a business successfully. From my experience success doesn't come too easy at least not in most cases. One has to remember that there will be no change without pain. Business shows problems in every 15 minutes so business is solving problems and it is hard work. Changes don't happen in minutes or even in days. Power talks with power and money talks with money. I believe the networks run the business also in Russia, so it is valuable have good connections. People make emotional decisions for logical reasons so that is why it is important to be aware of the cultural differences. Lobbing is, beside having lunches and drinking also a way to build up bridges and trust between nations. Building up bridges creates credibility at company level and also at practical level.

When you learn more and explore more your awareness will expand and you will start to understand other cultures and other people better. Such skill wills help the businessmen of foreign countries to create markets for their products since people buy from people. You can't sell to someone who can't buy. Finnish don't have such strong knowledge in Russia any more. Finnish should improve that lack quickly before it is too late. Other European countries have already shown interest in Russia. To some of my Finnish friends to know there really are western products of all sorts in Russia, even some brands that haven't yet come to Finland. The lack of knowledge is one reason to assume things and stick to the idea that development doesn't happen in foreign countries. Finnish companies still think that there will be enough time to run to the Russian markets meanwhile the European and American brands are already getting stuck in Russians' minds. Taking a part of the Russian market doesn't happen just like that. Russians share such a unique culture which is useful to know before taking the concept to Russia that has been used at home.

I have had a great desire to explore Russia and dive into the culture from different as-pects. I have visited many museums and exhibitions. That is to see, to feel, to experience as many sides of the civilization as possible. There some rather interesting museums in St Petersburg. One of them is a museum of hygiene. There you can find two mummies and a lot of body parts in glass jars. The most fascinating sight was another one of the dogs that Mr Pavlov used in his famous experiments. The dog stood on the table where she had been standing while the experiments were done. In another museum which contained only two tiny rooms belonged to some local author which I have never heard of I was asked what for am I, a foreigner, doing there. Perhaps it was the museums I will always remember. I started to really think the reasons why I wanted to see this museum and all the rest. I thought that in the future when I have a possibility to communicate with Russians most likely in business matters I would somehow be able to understand their culture a little better and to understand and to see what kind of cultural and artistical history they share among them. When I get bored to rush along the Nevski I head to one of the former storages or swimming pools that nowadays are churches to have some quiet time.

Part of the understanding the culture is to taste Russian cuisine. You have to know how it tastes like. A lot of mayonnaise and real butter is added to the food. Still it is healthy and good. Some foreigners find it hard to imagine that people eat those blinis on the streets year round. There are a lot of small kiosks selling blinis with almost every kind of filling you could imagine. Even mashed potatoes. In Russia you will get real tee that doesn't have the taste of the teabag. One of my Finnish friend told that she never buys the real tee since it takes so much time an effort to fix it. The bags are enough. Surely you can make a circus out of fixing a real tee but I have seen it made so many times that I think it is more of an attitude and prejudice not to try it. Well, Finnish are used to having the extra baggy taste in their tees perhaps as well as the rest of the Scandinavia I would say.

With a full stomach it is easy to join the operas or maybe a ballet. Russia is famous of its ballerinas and it is a must to go and admire the well trained ballerinas in at least one of the several theatres. For me it is overwhelming to realize how many possibilities there are in the city to get a piece of culture. Unfortunately there are different prices for foreigners but as I have heard it is about to change in the future, perhaps. I know in Moscow there already are tickets sold with same prices to everyone if it is not a rumour. I forgot to ask about it when I was there. I wouldn't even dare to look at any guidebooks and get delirious about all the sights and museums etc. they have there. I have enough to do with St Petersburg so far. Of course in Moscow I had to feel exhausted on the Red Square and walk around the Kreml and wonder if I could see Mr Putin from some window. But I did see Mr Gorbatsov and the precious jewelry of the crown! I couldn't talk much of the big difference between Moscow and St Petersburg. Moscow is of course much bigger but during my short visit I still couldn't see the people who were running after money I was told about. Perhaps there were more people on the streets but that was it so far. I have planned to go there again. So will see if I can be more analytical.

Besides going to see an opera and other concerts and also taking some dancing lessons of my own in two dancing communities and experienced the atmosphere of some of the clubs I have also took a look in to the areas outside St Petersburg. I wanted to head to western Russia and of course I wanted to all the way so I took a trip to Kaliningrad and on the way there and back I visited former Soviet countries, Belarus and Lithuania. Minsk was such a Soviet type of city by its architecture. I saw a lot of those wide roads and those typical Soviet decorations on the sides of the buildings. It was like walking on an extremely extended Moskovskii Prospect in St Petersburg which doesn't give anything to a person walking along it if one doesn't know anything about the architectural ideas of those in Soviet times.

There is also a lot to see even a little closer than Kaliningrad. When you take a suburb train and take off on some station go to explore. Gatsina was a nice and quiet little town with all the sudden a huge castle among it. Of course it helps a lot when you have bought some dull guidebook where there are mentioned some of the most expensive hotels and restaurants. Between the lines you are able to catch some pretty interesting places worth visiting and worth visiting. I managed to found out about this different kind of book about St Petersburg in Finnish language. It is published at least in Finland and it contains little stories about different people who live in St Petersburg. There is also a story about a visit to Krest, the jail next to Neva-river. Now the criminals don't have to leave to all the way to Siberia as during times of Stalin. Also now you are not a criminal anymore if you wrap your fish to a newspaper which has a picture of Stalin in it or if you put such a newspaper on the bottom of a trashcan. I would be centenced for lifetime to Siberia if there was still the rule that you served for 3-5 years in Siberia if you were late from work. If some things were kind of difficult in Russia like getting your passport and visa in some reasonable time after giving them to registration office some things were just advantages are quite easy to get. I am able to combine work and studies in University without any trouble. It is a value itself that I want to be trained here and also study and to experience the civilization. While thinking of my guidebooks on the way to Gatsina I was listening some salespersons selling everything from candies to shirts and from toys to accessories from their huge bags I saw the closest hill to the city. You were able to raise your eyes if you only looked at the edge of the ground in the horizon. For a Finnish person who is used to little rolling hills the sight was rather pleasant. There was a long line of cars waiting the train to pass. One the Russian character that is spread in foreign countries is that Russian is very much used to queue. That reminds me of Stalin who forced the peasants to leave their farms and move far away to east where they had hard time to continue their agricultural procedures since they had nothing with them and the conditions were totally different they were used to. In no time there was lack of food in the country and so the Russians where put to queue for everyday products. Later on when there were those huge farms where there worked a lot of people and some sort of production appeared and the queuing was not so much needed anymore Mr Stalin told to the crowds that how thing have become so much better now! Of course he took the credit for it to himself. The rest of the world doesn't realize how much bad things Mr Stalin really did. It will always lie in the shadow of Mr Hitler. Lenin warned about him but perhaps it was already too late. Propaganda worked well and it made people to believe in the communism and in Stalin. Stalin had already eliminated his enemies and was ready to take over the power and lead the country with stone hard hand and eliminating everyone who dared to say anything not nice about something related to him or his doings. People were taught to believe that the system will take care of them. No wonder it was a shock when the Soviet Union collapsed and capitalism started to take place. People felt that they were cheated when all the sudden they hear that communism is a bad thing. Also they were scared of the independence after trusting completely in the system. Some of the Russian find it hard to believe in anything after 70 years of believing in something which no longer exist. I wonder how many of the people wanted go back to the communism where at least somehow everyone was taken care of.

I also wonder how many of people who lived during Stalin's times wanted to go back to the times of the tsars. Tsars who lived their lives in glorious palaces that not only located in centre of St Petersburg but also in Puskin, Pavlosk, Lomonosov and in Petershof are simply amazing. I find it kind of acqkward that there are such remarkably beautiful palaces which have been renovated with such a delicate way that it is hard to believe ones eyes looking at that shine of gold and jewellery meanwhile the regular people live in such an ugly looking buildings in their small apartments with stinking bathrooms and balconies are just ready to fall down to the street. I am totally aware that there was a great lack of homes at the time those buildings were being built very quickly simply to have a place to put people from crowded kommunalkas. I also know that they were not planned to have people living in them for such long time. I have seen newer buildings being constructed which look nice and cosy where people will be able to move in near future. I have read the facts but when you take a metro to the last station and a "marshrutka" until the last stop to take a look around you can really see a different type of city. Endless rows of Stalin apartments and Krushev's apartments. There you could try to think that what if the 1754th window from the left was your home. Is it possible to even find your own home in the middle of this, was my first thought. How can they live like this? I wondered with amazement. I had a wonderful possibility to experience a typical russian New Year with a russian family. I dressed in colourful old dress and fixed my hair nicely. The party took place in the north far away from the centre. In one of the endless little Russian homes in the middle of the dark grey storey buildings in the middle of nowhere I experienced the cosiest and warmest New Year-party. The home was clean and nicely decorated, home with beautiful furniture and the nicely set dinner table was full of delicious foods and wine. We ate, sang songs and went out to see the fireworks and came back soon enough to see the speech of the president Putin on television. For me that was a big step closer on the way to really understand the Russian way of living.

The saying the street continues to the door of your home is quite true. The staircases have many purposes besides being a path to the upper floors. Some people use the staircases as toilets which nobody ever cleans. They are also used as an area to place your trash or where to sleep if you don't happen to have a home of your own. Also it is a handy place to practice how to break windows and to make holes to walls since you never know if there is a treasure hidden just behind the paint. There are a lot of artistic pictures and messages for other people written as high as ones hands ever reaches. The elevator might be too scary to try and it might have a life of its own. Some elevators go up and down or open and close their doors whenever they feel like. And there is nothing wrong with it since it works. The most surprising thing is that when you go inside to the apartments you might find yourself staring with your mouth open scenery from the newest number of House & Garden. There can be such luxurious furniture and the newest ideas of a modern kitchen. So it is impossible to even imagine what to expect.

Finnish and Russian might disagree with the meaning of something not working. Another Finnish family had moved to Russia and they where given a nice apartment to live at. The family noticed that the switch to bathroom was located in living room and vice versa. They called somebody to fix the problem but the man who came didn't think that there was anything wrong. He said the lights work so everything is fine. Perhaps Finnish people are too used to more logical connection between every detail.

So far I have spent time in Russia for more than a half a year. It is just a one crust of a cake. More I learn about the Russian civilization the more I still have to learn. Especially I learn to respect and not to think that the way I do in Finland would be the only correct and best way to do it. I know that I will never get bored in this country. All the Finnish I have met who have been working here have told me that there are never two days alike and that is the fact that keeps them here. In such a big, fast developing country things change easily especially in the business world. I know that the Russians think it is important to invest in education. Young people have to have skills to deal with foreign companies rushing into Russian markets and to defend their positions. I experienced an autumn semester as an exhange student in an private Institute in St Petersburg where they grow future leaders. Those young students without any experience in real, everyday business lives told that they will become important leaders of some major companies as soon as they graduate. Some of them unfortunately haven't been working a single day of their lives and some of them had found a great job of spreading some fliers around the city. At first it sounded rather weird but on the other hand those young, ambitious minds with more or less outrageous ideas are needed in companies to bring new, fresh ideas as ingredients in developing the company.

There are a lot of foreign companies running to developing Russian markets. Russia is seen as a very potential country where the middle-class is ever-growing target for many companies. The superrich people are even affecting the trends of the fashion. Russian are very demanding as well as they are willing to pay for the quality and style. But it is not easy to penetrate into Russian market. A company who is expanding to Russia country doesn't have to guess or imagine what would be the best way to reach the clients since local people know best what are the things they like and what they don't like. I met a man who had worked in Russia for a decade and he told me that it is not enough if you speak and write fluent Russia. At least as important is to understand the Russian mentality and to know Russian history. He told me that he has read all the Russian classics several times and he has been working in almost every Russian area so he knew what he was talking about. He said that this country is a huge possibility if you handle your things right and start it by respecting the Russian civilization.

Part of the respecting is to allow the Russian to be late. Being late doesn't seem to bother them at all. They are not always late but it doesn't matter if they have to wait. For example one evening there were more than ten people planning to go out in the evening. We planned to leave the dormitory at nine o'clock. All the Finnish and Germans were ready to go at 8.30. French and Italian were ready at 9.10 and the Russian girls just planned what to wear when they were asked whether they were going to go with as at all. In their opinion it was weird to be ready ahead of time.

In business life Russians generally allow themselves be late. Traffic jam is always a good reason to be late. Russians seem to expect Finnish people to be on time even though the meeting took place in St Petersburg where it might take longer time to from a place to another than originally was planned. Finnish people are famous of being punctual so there is no need to expect them to be late. That is the big minus in stereotypes. Try to be worth of your Finnish words when you find yourself sitting in a taxi in the middle or the centre with a few hundred other cars and nobody is moving. It is wise not to plan too many meetings in a day since you may be caught in the traffic.

Even though every nationalities have their own peculiarities co-operation is the keyword especially in business world. A foreign company needs to build a relationship based on mutual understanding and trust. It is extremely important to start a business with help of the local people. The local people know the best how to approach customers and how to deal with all the bureaucracy. Also it is important to not to take the foreign values to Russia but to try to explain the meaning of those values by talking and showing examples. For Russian it seems to be important to celebrate birthdays and other holidays. In foreign companies where there are Russian employees it is valuable to cherish informal occa-sions such as celebrating birthdays as well as official holidays in Russia. There is an important aspect to this besides having a nice break to an everyday work. During those occasions the atmosphere is more open and relaxed. Those are the times when the directors have an excellent opportunity to reach out to the employees and find out how they really feel about working for the company and what in they opinion should be improved. Young people are more eager to try and to learn new things meanwhile the older generation rather sticks to the old good way. Also here it is impossible to say that it is like that in every case

It has been interesting to see the difference between young and old people. Their worlds are quite different since the capitalism was brought in to the country. Young people are interested in what the western world has to offer them. Young Russians spend time in small groups and get together in some cafe to have a chat. Most of the cafes where the Russians took me were owned by some western companies. It was rather difficult to ask them to take me to some Russian cafes or restaurants. All they could think of where the closest western places were since they were new and it was the trend to go to those places. It was fun to order in Russian language. The locals were eager to help in ordering and they patiently translated the menus into English. The waiters showed respect to when a foreigner even tried to speak Russia. Sometimes I received amused looks from the waiters or the salespersons as I ordered in Russian language. It seemed like I received better and quicker service when I spoke Russia. The service was very much dependent of the person but more rarely of the age of the person. Some of them didn't want to serve a person who didn't understand them perfectly. Some of them started to speak a little slower and using more simple language. I felt so good when I was able to understand what was said to me! The worst cases were sitting in those small kacca boxes outside of some turist traps and sold tickets. Sometimes they were ready to explode with their boxes when a foreigner came to buy a ticket with a valid student card. At those moments I was happy that I couldn't understand all the crosswords that came out of the little holes of the boxes. Those were times when it was better to find another kacca and hope that there would be better service.

It was interesting to notice that everywhere else I met nice and friendly people except those who were selling tickets to tourists. There was a great difference indeed. I received Russian generosity in many situations. It was impossible to get lost if you asked locals where a certain place was. If the person you asked didn't know where the place was he or she stopped some other locals and they started to figure out where they should lead this foreigner. In some cases they took my hand and led me there where I wanted to go even though they were going into the opposite direction as I had stopped them. It is quite difficult to imagine the same happening in Finland for instance. Also I saw this great appreciation towards elderly people. Elderly ladies with scarfs tied under their chins commanded their own children as well those of strangers. A Finnish friend of mine told that she had seen young fellow eating nuts and was throwing the shelf on the ground. He stopped doing it as soon as some elderly lady passed by and demanded him to stop it. From somewhere I have read that it is exactly those elderly ladies that keep this country in order! It seems to have a bit of truth in it. If you don't respect the elders you will be forced to do at the latest in public transportation. If you don't give your seat to an elder, child or an invalid you might get a verbal lesson by some lady about how to treat other people. Different roles of the sexes are quite clear in Russia compared to Finland for example. Men were polite and they keep the door open for the ladies. It is normal and nobody makes a big deal out of it since it is just the way to do it.

I have had an excellent opportunity to follow close how a Russian employees work with a foreign superior. It seems to me that Russians concentrate into their work very deeply and they do it very carefully and they are proud of it. I have had my training in a company that provides accounting services for foreign companies operating in Russia. I have followed the filing of numerous reports to every month, those reports that were created by Mr Lenin originally. They were needed in planning the economy of The Soviet Union. Those amounts of reports and the way the financial reports are formed have not much to do with the reality of the real state of the company. That is one good reason why Russia is trying, for the second time, to implement the International Financing Reporting Standards as a new accounting system. It varies from the present Russian Accounting Principles quite much by being more open and specific. IFRS is already in use in public concerns in the area of European Union and also in some other countries all over the world. EU and Russia realize that they need each other so there is a pressure to start using the same accounting system. That is the most convenient way for investors to evaluate the amount of risk they would have to deal with by investing into a Russian company and compare the potential of the company with similar companies in other countries. We will see how this implementing will take place in year 2008. One CEO of a Finnish subsidiary told me Russia will not easily take some western accounting system as it is since in his opinion Russians want to be just a little bit different.

I have had to visit Finland a few times during my time of study and work here. Luckily I had several chances to tell people my own experiences in and about Russia. If no talk could help I showed some good pictures of the old centre and of the castle of Puskin. People were simply amazed how extremely beautiful St Petersburg was and how many cosy cafes and western style stores there were. They even considered visiting the city.

I have enjoyed my time in Russia greatly. I like the Russian mentality of all or nothing. They might get really upset about things but they don't keep it inside and show their anger the next day anymore. I make it easy to be among Russian. When they say something about something they don't think it as an insult and when they praise you it is so overwhelming and sincere that you feel good for such a long time. They have a good sense of humour. It appears sometimes when you go to buy fruits from tiny kiosk and talk with wide and roundish Finnish accent. I have had some good laughs there. Russians have a good heart and they can laugh at you and make you laugh as well. Even though I have travelled around in several different countries has no country made such an impression in me as Russia. Russia as a country and the Russians have something so unique and something so interesting which is hard to describe. It would take a lifetime to really get into the bottom of it. I still have a few years to go.