Tran-Siberian Railway Journey through Soviet Union

by Milica Krcevinac (Serbia)

A leap into the unknown Russia

The journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway began with the last evening train from Moscow to Kazan. Kazan is also called the "third capital of Russia", after Moscow and St. Petersburg. He is older than Moscow and he is the most multinational city in Russia. 1789km from Moscow comes the first city in Siberia - Yekaterinburg. He is called the "capital of the Urals". Next up is Novisibirsk - the “capital of Siberia”. It is a city where daylight lasts until half past 12 in the evening, a city that grows incredibly fast and where everything is wide and huge, and most of all, the streets. Next up is Irkutsk, the "capital of eastern Siberia". It is a city of refugee officers, artists and royalty of the December Revolution. Last on the map of my trip was Krasnoyarsk. Russians visit it more for business than for tourism. As soon as we moved away from Moscow, I felt like we were in a different country and a different time. The Soviet Union is still alive! Through these cities, their streets and their people. Each street is "Soviet" or "Lenin's" or "Karl Marx".. I felt the basic communist idea of "all things being in common" on the train, when people would sit on my bed without asking (which I didn't blame them), and when they would immediately start talking to everyone as if they had known each other for a hundred years. In these stories, the Soviet Union would often be mentioned in a sense how people used to live better. The longest distance traveled on this route was from Novosibirsk to Baikal. After 33 hours on the train and another 5 hours on the bus - we arrived in the "holy land of Buryats and shamans". Lake Baikal is one of the most beautiful I have seen so far, completely untouched and unfit for tourists. The most popular place on Baikal is Olhon Island. Huzir is the only major settlement on the island and has a population of about 1300, which is mostly Buryats. There is no paved road on the island, no hotels, only old and new wooden houses and Soviet-made UAZ off-road vehicles. Baikal is perhaps the only lake where seagulls live. Cows walk completely free on the streets, without a shepherd, taught to return home. Baikal is synonymous with simplicity, non-commercialization and purity. When one of the island's residents first started tourism in the 1990s, the rest of the residents laughed at him with the remark "who would come here". From 2020 onwards, the number of tourists begins to be restricted on the island, with the aim of nature conservation! The driver, who has lived on the island for more than half a century, told us about the lives of local people. While there was a Soviet Union, most people were fishing only. They had a fish processing plant that supplied electricity to the island. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the factory closed and residents lived without power until 2005. Do you know that the inhabitants of this island are completely cut off from the world for about 15 days in the winter before the lake completely freezes? And that most of them never leave the island? Don't be surprised at that. When you see this nature with your eyes, you feel the silence and reflect yourself in the water - you have the feeling that you have reached the end of the world and that there is nothing more across the street. That's the charm. Nights spent in Siberia are magical. It's not always cold and snow in Siberia. On that last day of the trip - June 30, 2019, the sun warmed to 31 degrees. The Trans-Siberian rail trip ended with the first morning plane from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow. After this trip, I will never say that some place is far away.