EndorphinFam™ Life in the Late 90’s
On February 26th I wrote the below ‘reflection piece’ a few day’s after the war in Ukraine started. It’s hard to imagine that the war continues. I revisited this today and felt like sharing it. The sequencing is more by memory than structure, but there is some structure to it. My life in Russia was very special to me. Every day I pray for peace for Ukrainians and Russians and all affected!
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Saturday, February 26, 2022
What is happening in Ukraine is very heart wrenching, and like many, I too have shed many tears. It is bringing up a lot of memories for me related to the part of my life when I lived in Russia. I am writing this partially because it feels therapeutic, but also to share with my children (their names have been changed to protect the innocent - wink wink) who may remember some of this and can too appreciate the shared experience. I hope it is a nice reminder of their life in Russia, meeting many amazing Ukrainians, Russians and others from around the world.
My Russian experience starts pretty early, though there are some longer gaps in between actually living there.
I have one memory of hanging out on the stoop of my apartment building on 218th Street in Upper Manhattan where I grew up. I was about 9 years old, and one day I was talking with some friends about Russia. Somehow we had heard that kids in the USSR didn’t have easy access to Coca Cola or Levi jeans (or dungarees as we liked to call them). I also remember us wondering if McDonaId’s was there (it wasn’t until 1990). One of my friends mentioned that the price was something like $75 for a pair of jeans - this was the early 70s. That always stuck with me; I knew next to nothing then about the former USSR, but was still intrigued, confused, curious.
Fast forward 20 years or so, and I find myself actually living in Russia. Post-USSR. While it was a short time-period of my life, it was a significant one. Living in Russia in the 90’s, literally being part of change in a country that had been controlled for so long, was a truly interesting experience.
I landed in Russia because of the international company I was working with. We initially moved to Sweden, with my young family, because the base of infrastructure operations was handled from the office there and Eastern Europe / Central Europe was just opening up from communism. I traveled to Moscow frequently, as did my then husband for business. It was a natural move for us to relocate to Moscow with our young EndorphinDaughter™.
We arrived at the end of 1996 and left at the end of 1999, although the 2 prior years I was commuting between Sweden, Russian, and other Central European countries (Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary) where said international company had just opened offices.
I have so many memories of this time - some very personal, some difficult, some funny- but overall it was an outstanding time. While some of my stories might sound scary - stuff happens everywhere. This was a rapidly evolving time in Russia, so some of the scenarios are not surprising. I was never afraid living there.
The bottom line is it was one of the most interesting, enjoyable, at times difficult, experiences I have been fortunate to have in my life. I met some of the most amazing people - Russian, Ukrainian and variety of other nationalities! Here is a little bit about this experience, which to me reflects that we all have so much in common, whether we have come from the streets of NYC or are raised under Soviet, post-Soviet, or other circumstances. While there are shenanigans and people who may push some to inappropriate limits, there are good, kind people from every nation and place we go. People are people! And more importantly, the leader of a country doesn’t define the vast majority of its citizens.
Living in Russia was also a place where my children and even I had some ‘firsts’. It was a great time. I truly pray for Unity and Peace in Ukraine and Russia for the sake of us all. So read on if you like!
Some firsts
My first visit to Russia was to St. Petersburg for a business trip before I actually moved there. It was an introductory visit to meet the team there. One person who joined us was an amazing colleague Gordon B., the global head of Mobility/Movement for the company. He and Bart R. (another amazing company leader) and some local and expat colleagues met in the small company conference room for our meeting and later in the evening gathered at a local Russian restaurant for dinner.
Our host and translator was Kay H., a feisty freckled-faced redhead from Michigan who spoke flawless Russian and was the office administrator. I can’t remember the dinner discussion, but I do remember some funny anecdotes from that night. Dinner was paid in cash (rubles) and Gordon needed a receipt which was an uncommon concept for this particular restaurant at least. A handwritten receipt was drawn up and I recall Gordon getting flustered because he was former military, very by the books, and didn’t know how he would get this through US accounting. The funnier part was that the dinner for about 7 people (a Spaniard, 4 Americans, 2 Russians - an interesting mix), was probably less than $US50, but because it was paid in rubles we were not quick enough to do the exchange and thought we had paid a fortune. We later figured out the price paid, and Gordon of course did get reimbursed. We had so many collective laughs over this!
When we left the restaurant, our lovely friend Kay said she would get us all to our hotel. Apparently, the easiest way was by taxi. Well, during those early post-Soviet years there was not the typical taxi driver, rather if you stepped a little off the curb and put your arm out, any civilian driving along was willing to stop and transport you, regardless of whether or not it was on their route for a negotiated fee. Initially, a few of us hesitated, but we trusted Kay (and had no other choice, hahahaha); we got back to our hotel safely and for a very reasonable fare. Needless to say, this is how I travelled around Moscow when I eventually moved there. And this is also where I first haggled and built my confidence in haggling. I love to haggle now, yikes!
At 3 years old, EndorphinDaughter™ got to go on her first business trip with me to a conference in Sardinia, Italy. A notable time for Momma and EndorphinDaughter™ (aka Momma Mia). One of the best memories (aside from EndorphinDaughter™’s first pair of Italian shoes and business trip of course) was her hanging with my workmates speaking fluently to them in Russia. They were astounded at how well she spoke. As was I. By that point, she was trilingual!
I always loved going to the ballet. Periodically, EndorphinDaughter™ and I would spend a Sunday afternoon watching either a ballet or some other performance at the Bolshoi Theatre. It was EndorphinDaughter™’s first experience in watching this form of art and we thoroughly enjoyed it. She also spent a few years taking ballet lessons from a retired Russian prima ballerina during these years; said teacher was a very good teacher, albeit extremely strict!
We left Russia briefly to go back to Sweden where we had lived prior, for EndorphinSon™’s birth and returned within a few month’s. EndorphinSon™’s first word was ‘car’ in Russian - a.k.a. machina. My husband at the time had a company car and driver who would take us around, and I am sure EndorphinSon™ learned this word from Zhenya (RIP) who was a lovely man. His daughter wound up becoming a baby-sitter for EndorphinSon™ and EndorphinDaughter™ sometimes and was the one who introduced me to borscht (a favorite soup to this day). She would even bring her homemade soup to us sometimes. It was so good!
Daycare stuff in Russia
When we moved to Moscow, EndorphinDaughter™ was a little over 2 years old. She started day care at the American Embassy in Moscow. It was a compound where upon entering, you felt like you were transported back to middle-America. The commissary sold all American or Western products and the row houses on the compound had furniture from an equivalent of Ashley furniture. At times this could be comforting, but mostly I found it limiting because many of the staff at the compound never left it and never really experienced life in Russia. For instance you could go to the Embassy on the 4th of July and see bbq, baseball, and apple pies across the compound. EndorphinDaughter™’s classmates at the daycare however were international and she had a grand old time.
There was a high rise building that went up on the Embassy compound. It was like a building you might see on 5th Avenue in NYC. The most interesting thing to me about this building was that the construction of it was halted when it was about 3/4ths complete because it was being infiltrated with bugging devices by ‘staff’ of the local construction company. I often wondered whatever happened with that building.
One time I got stuck at the office and missed my ride to daycare to pick up EndorphinDaughter™ not knowing there was a snowstorm outside. I only realized the snowstorm when I left the office. I was not able to get a ‘typical’ taxi ride (i.e., stick my arm out at the curb and haggle my fare with a commuter driving home) so I could go to pick up EndorphinDaughter™. This was also pre-cell phone time. The office had cleared out and I was stuck until I roamed the office to see if those still around had a car and could take me - a young colleague Dmitry R. graciously took me to pick up EndorphinDaughter™. I had only been physically working in the office about a month then so I was beyond grateful to him to offer. Of course it was a solvable situation, being late for daycare is stressful enough, but in a foreign country with limited language skills and access to transport because of snowstorm added a few extra layers if you get my drift!
Over time EndorphinDaughter™ switched to the Finnish Daycare in Moscow. It was housed in a building without the same tight security as the American Embassy. It was not only daycare, but also housed the classrooms for elementary grades, as well as the Swedish daycare and elementary school. The Nordic countries really know how to do education. It was such a warm and nurturing experience for EndorphinDaughter™. EndorphinSon™ was too young to initially attend daycare, but on occasion he did experience some days there. My Swedish boss’ kids attended the Swedish school there.
One of Mia’s daycare friends, a family from Turkey, lived in a beautiful old Russian building where top military officials from Soviet times had lived. I don’t recall if it was part of the “House on the Embankment” or some other building used for Soviet military elite. The first time we visited these friends they gave us a tour of their beautiful apartment with high ceilings and secret rooms. We were told the ‘secret rooms’ were used in criminal ways during Soviet times. I remember mentioning this apartment, specifically the secret rooms, over lunch to some work colleagues one day and was met with some skepticism so I just dropped it. It surely ignited some curiosity in me.
Fun stuff
We first lived on the 22nd floor of an old Russia building on the Novy Arbat. We were but a handful of expats living in what was called a ‘Western’ apartment because the inside of the apartment had been paneled in imitation Scandinavian wood. It was a small, but very cozy apartment. I really enjoyed living there and while we did not have too much interaction with our neighbors, everyone was cordial and we consciously chose to live locally and not in an expat community. I’m so glad we did. We integrated as much as we could into the culture.
Our second apartment was closer to the Starry Arbat, one of my favorite spots in Moscow. Every Saturday morning I would walk on the Old Arbat pushing a baby carriage with two young ones in tow. I loved those walks and those moments. We have quite a collection of Russian plates, trinkets, Matruska and some from those days.
My office in Russia was filled with local Russians and Ukrainians and many other expats from across Europe. I was always struck by the education system there; many of my colleagues had completed masters or phd levels and beyond. While many had studied abroad, most had not. The education system was so impressive in Russia. The infrastructure in Moscow was beautiful. The subway systems were amazing. Having grown up in NYC, I felt very much at home living in the big city of Moscow.
My parents visited us when EndorphinDaughter™ was a toddler. We ventured to a beautiful Monastery (I wish I could remember the name of it) with a lodging place, we stayed a night, ate in a fabulous Georgian Restaurant, experienced a day-long brunch (see below), and did a little gambling at Chuck Norris’ casino, and had a grand old time.
One summer I took a walk pushing EndorphinSon™ in the baby carriage to the American Embassy to visit the park and playground there. EndorphinDaughter™ and her dad were in Finland. It was a hot summer day. I got onto the compound and I guess many of the people who lived and worked there had left for summer holidays because it was very quiet on ‘campus.’ I got to the park and noticed it looked a bit different, but very nice. I sat while EndorphinSon™ was running around a bit. Then out of nowhere, or so it seemed, I noticed a guy and a dog looking at us. Now mind you, we were securely on the American Embassy Compound - it took a lot to get through security, so I knew we were safe. But this guy kept looking at us and it felt weird. He finally walked over and started a conversation. Apparently he had already recognized me. It turns out we had gone to high school together and he had had a crush on me. Hahaha. He had gone off to college, became an architect, and had recently redesigned the playground. He was married to an embassy employee. WHAT? He was also friends with some friends I had made at the Embassy through EndorphinDaughter™’s times at the daycare there. Can’t make this stuff up! We had a few laughs!
True confession - McDonalds was a happy place for me sometimes when I lived in Moscow. Sometimes on the weekends, I would take the kids and we would wait on long lines for our Happy Meals. Other times, I would take a stroll on the Old Arbat and find myself at McDonald’s on my lunch hour just for those French fries. It never was crowded on a weekday! I think it was the ‘little comfort’ from home. It’s been years since I’ve stepped into a McDonalds. Haha.
Boris Yeltsin was president during the period I lived in Russia. There was a period we really didn’t know if he was still alive. This is intended to be funny - he had a lot of health issues, was notoriously known for liking the vodka, and every time he was featured on the news he was wearing the same clothes and in the same locale. We genuinely thought he had passed and someone else was running the country. Putin took office 4 months after we left Moscow. When I see pictures of Putin on the news today, I have the same thoughts - is he still running the country or is it someone else and we are just watching continuous repeat video footage?
My first visit to Red Square was with Kay and Thomas V. on a snowy evening following an airport pickup. Red Square was across from the National Hotel. It was magnificent. Snow falling, lights everywhere, friendly people. Pure magic. In addition to remembering the magic of the place, I remember not having the right foot wear - I was wearing my LL Bean duck boots and Thomas chuckled and perhaps was perplexed. This was an American non-practical shoe for wintery Moscow!
We had an office retreat in Sochi (think 2014 Olympics!), Russia in 1997. A beautiful resort town on the Black Sea. Most of us flew there on Aeroflot. It was the most amazing jet, literally I recall it feeling like being in a submarine in the air. The company I worked for had just been part of the branding/naming competition of a Russian vodka. I believe at least up until the war, the vodka is still on the international market. The winning name was Ruski Standard or Russian Standard. Well, for some reason, we were traveling with some of this vodka. At one point many of us congregated together at the back of the plane (when that was allowed) for a shot of vodka. I don’t know if it was that we had more than one shot of vodka or if the plane really was tilting but this plane was lopsided and we were ‘flying’ in the aisles. I still ponder that one. A funny recollection is generally I remember it was just Russian men who drank vodka, ladies typically drank red wine - but not that day! Haha. And I never felt restricted from sampling the vodka!
Learning Russian was so much fun. I had actually taken Russian lessons with my husband at the time shortly after I got married - never knowing I’d live in Russia one day. Was it serendipitous or did he know. Haha! Upon arriving to Moscow, my lessons started up again. I would attend a short class a few mornings in the week before the work day started. The older Russian woman who taught me (Svetlana?) was teacher to other expats in the office. She thought the best way to practice the language for confidence at least was to sing in Russia. So many mornings you could hear us singing Russian children’s songs from the basement conference room. Once I mastered the alphabet, I got quite confident with the language, but suffice it to say after so many years, so much has been lost. A side note about learning the Cyrillic alphabet is that I finally learned how to interpret CCCP!
I absolutely loved the role I was in during this part of my career. It started out a bit shaky for me though, when I was told I needed to handle the compensation structure for the region - Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. No big deal right? The Russian comp structure was easy to manage because salaries were ‘pegged’ to a US$ structure. Although since I spent a lot of time in Russia I knew about their local currency, the ruble. But when I learned I had to set up a structure in zlotys, korunas (aka crown) and forints - my reaction was ‘what the heck is a zloty’? Truth - I didn’t know. There were many things I surely didn’t know moving into the region back then! Talk about moving with a fast learning curve. Haha! And it all worked out!
We bought a lot of bootleg movies back then. Sometimes you could stumble upon them on the street. Although the most fun movie purchases as in VHS movies was purchasing from the secret shop. It was in a ground level room in a beautiful old apartment building in Moscow. I have no recollection as to which part of Moscow, but I do recall a secret knock/code was required to enter the place. We were let in by an older women. Once inside every imaginable movie, even ones that had not hit the theatres in Europe, were available for purchase. Bookshelf upon bookshelf held the cassettes. Think library scene in a Harry Potter movie, but these were VHS not books. I still have some of the video cassettes!
Some unusual situations
Novy (New) Arbat apartment - I was home from work one day with EndorphinDaughter™ because we were not feeling well, and heard a knock at the door. Someone had told me to never answer the door if someone comes knocking. After I heard the knock on the door that day, I quietly looked through the peep hole and saw a man in a military uniform. I tiptoed back into the bedroom with EndorphinDaughter™ and waited. The knocking continued and I called my office speaking in a whisper to ask what to do. I was told best to just sit it out until he left. The knocking continued, but eventually it stopped and he never came back - at least when we were home.
Another time in that building we had an overflow (‘flood’) from the small washing machine in the apartment. The owner of the apartment told us that the neighbor downstairs had water damage. I remember going to look and not seeing anything. We may have given him a few rubles, I don’t recall exactly, but several days later a dossier of Russian documents showed up saying we were being sued because of the water damage. Details are fuzzy in terms of what we had to pay - we didn’t have to go to court. We were never even really sure if the documents were upfront because laws were literally changing day to day and there was lots of grey area around laws in the country then. All the same, we paid what we paid to be done with it. Aside from that, I do remember really liking the landlord - and he helped navigate us through the legal stuff - or was he behind this - still unsure on that one - haha!
Starry (Old) Arbat apartment - While EndorphinDaughter™ was in daycare, EndorphinSon™ was home with our amazing baby-sitter Olga and sometimes her cousin Ira. She adored him, and he her. Since it was during the financial crisis, one of our neighbors was working from home (she was ahead of her time with the working-from-home concept) EndorphinSon™ was also home with Olga during the day; he was so young and sometimes would cry. Rather than confronting us directly, the neighbor decided to call the police because of a ‘crying’ baby. The police showed up a few times. Fortunately it was Olga who intercepted these visits and handled without any ‘lawsuit’. You gotta laugh!
In December 1999, I excitedly attended the company Christmas party. The venue was just a few blocks from where I lived, so I made some strategic decision to walk there and back. Heading there, I had the company of my friend Ingrid who was visiting from the Swedish Office for the event. We got ready together at my apartment. I was now living in a small apartment building with about 6 apartments.
During this time in Russia as an expat you were required to travel with your documents (i.e., passport and other ID). Since I lived just a few blocks away from the event, was all dressed up, and carrying a tiny purse, I thought I’d leave my passport at home. It actually didn’t fit in my purse. The event was spectacular. Lots of celebration, good cheer, and in typical Barbara fashion I stayed later than I probably should have. I gathered myself up and proceeded to walk home. By this time it was snowing and I was a little tipsy, but I didn’t have a long way to go. I exited the venue and crossed the street to head home; it was late and dark and the streets were empty. I did notice a car in my rearview which proceeded to pull up alongside me. I did not look. The men in the car did yell out the window ‘documents’ in Russian at which time I looked and noticed it was a police car. I thought ‘oh shit’; I explained in my broken Russian that I did not have my documents and was almost home. They pulled away and turned down the next street. I could see lights shining down the street and thought ‘do I run home (where my kids were with a babysitter) or run back to the party’ where I knew there were likely still some colleagues to help me if needed. I proceeded to cross the street, but I could ‘feel’ the car heading my way so instinct told me to run. And run I did in the snow in my fancy clothes back to the party. Just as I approached the venue, my colleagues were exiting and the police were literally on my heals with a handcuff just about to go around my wrists. My Norwegian friend Paul stepped in between me and the police officers and started yelling in Russian. A number of my Russian colleagues also joined in. The end result was supplying the police officers with a case of some left over vodka and other alcohol from the party. And my work colleagues, about 10 people in total, walked me home! Later that week I learned that one of my colleagues was carrying a gun, after he pulled it out and showed me. Gun-carrying was legal, depending on the day (remember the ever changing laws!). He told me it was for protection for reasons just like this. Yeesh! Yeah, it was crazy, but I never really was afraid during that incident because as a mother, I knew I was not going anywhere with those officers - not leaving my kids - think mother-adrenalin!
Capitalism was the idea during this time in the 1990s, so the laws were ever-changing, catching up maybe, let’s just say they were ‘gray’. So when dealing with any of the Russian bureaucracies, you needed to have patience and a calm confidence because a ‘guideline’ could change from one day to the next. Whether it was related to a visa to get into the country and its requirements, or something related to exports, imports, receiving mail, etc. This ‘grayness’ affected for instance not only what duties on a shipment you may need to pay, but also how long something might take for action. Case in point - my washing machine lawsuit - we quickly paid it off sort of blindly because we didn’t understand potential repercussions. That said, I think expats learned so many great skills during this time including negotiation (haggling wink wink), patience, persistence, cross-cultural communication, and making things happen.
A side note on entry visas. Visas were and presumably still are required to enter the country. The maximum duration at the time was either 6 months or a year, I don’t recall, but not longer than one or the other. You could, however, renew an entry visa continuously, but have to of course pay for each entry. I have saved all of our paper visas from that time in our ‘time capsules.’ I do recall each visa entry required an HIV negative test result - no matter how old you were. Without the test you were not permitted in the country.
And another side note on visas. It was a hassle to get a visa each time, but for Americans we typically did not need visas to travel. All in all, it was not a big deal. Russians historically have had to get a visa for most places they travel. One of the few places they do not need one is Turkey. So one year for simplification, we had a company retreat in Antalya, Turkey. All of our Russian staff breezed through airport security, while those from some other countries - like the US, required a visa. It was a bit of a silly process, but still a process. Upon entry to the airport in Istanbul, prior to a connecting flight, there was a little booth where you could ‘purchase’ your entry visa for $30, which was a decent fee in the late 90s. It was certainly a reminder of the ease of travel I typically get to experience, because the visa process for Russians to travel to most countries is much more involved.
Hotel stays and other events
Sunday’s were sacred in Russia. It was the day of gathering typically over brunch, which was an all day event. Not in the way it was back in the day with my besties at P&Ks in the Bronx (wink wink). It typically included a buffet that was so big and indescribable, music and dancing, activities for the kids and meeting and making new friends. The Metropol was one of our favorite ones to attend. My parents got to join us for one, and still remember the details because it was so colorful and fun!
My stays at the National Hotel in Moscow were during my commuting in/out of Moscow. There were limited hotel options at the time and the National was one of the ‘cheaper’ options. But I was always horrified at the cost per night. I remember going to order room service for dinner and being shocked at the price of a sandwich so I would gladly walk around the corner to a nearby McDonalds - I wanted to save the company money! No kidding!
Monastery stay - I can’t recall the name of the Monastery which was not too far outside of the city limits, but my husband at the time and I would also sometimes stay there when traveling because it had an amazing historical feel, breakfast included, and it was very reasonably priced. I hope the name of it comes back to me some day, I didn’t recognize it when I googled for it. It’s the same Monastery we visited with my parents.
Similar to Sundays, kid’s birthday parties were a big deal for the parents. It was an opportunity for parents to also meet and socialize. I don’t recall how it got to be so big but EndorphinDaughter™’s 4th birthday was something else. My dear boss Micky let me use the conference room in the basement of the office for the party. There were a few rooms and bathrooms down there and we wound up utilizing all. Well anyone with kids who worked in the office was invited along with EndorphinDaughter™’s daycare buddies and their parents. The first notable thing about this party is that 2 weeks prior in that same room there had been a company meeting with a business man who would later become one of the many prime ministers of Russia during that year. There were quite a few in that particular year. The second was I somehow managed to hire a circus for EndorphinDaughter™’s party. I thought I was getting a clown and some random animal but a clown and a variety of animals including a snake, a balloon person, a contortionist, and much more showed up. It was quite the event. EndorphinDaughter™ was in her glory speaking Russian or Finnish or English with her respective friends/classmates!
I typically did my food shopping on Friday’s after work. Early on I could not find a place to get ‘fresh’ milk - we were dairy once. Haha. So I’d pop into random kiosks where I could find a mix of local and western items. Parmalat was the go-to milk of choice then. One day there might be dry Quaker Oats cereal on the shelf, butter and eggs from France, cheese from Denmark - etc. and the next day the kiosk would be stocked with completely different items from completely different countries. I do recall the fresh Russian bread being a favorite item.
I also remember shopping on the Novy Arbat in a large warehouse-like building with individual kiosks inside. Each counter person would give you a written slip including the item and price on it as you made your purchase. You’d then make your way to another section to pay. It was confusing at first, because shops were independent, but there was a single place to pay. Everything of course was written in Russian and not one person in the kiosks spoke English back then.
Eventually the first Western supermarket arrived - it was from ‘neighboring’ Finland, and called Stockmans. Most Friday’s I’d get there and load up on Finnish milk among a variety of other fresh goods. Thanks to Zhenya driving me, I could really stock up. I would buy extra milk so that I could freeze the excess never to run out for the kids. I never took for granted that this was a ‘luxury’ then. Such cool times!
Airport shenanigans
It was always a little tense traveling to/from Moscow with a computer in the 90s. It was important to have the serial number showing and proof that it was yours (or your employers). One time I was stopped and summoned to an airport staff’s office to have him look at my computer. I was ushered into the small office with a person behind me, I got a little unnerved (mostly because I really needed my computer - all my work was on there - it was compensation time and I was handling the process and the concept of backing up data then was foreign - no pun intended). As I walked over to the office, I decided I did not want to be in an office with a closed door, so I stood in the doorway with my foot holding the door open. They were annoyed, but so be it. No way was I going to let my computer be confiscated. It was just always a little more challenging because my Russian was not fluent. After some discussion and a show of my documents, I got to leave with the computer!
Every time I arrived back to Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, upon leaving the building there was an indescribable smell for about 10 seconds and then I would forget about it. But this happened every single time. I mentioned it to a friend once who said there is a theory that the Russian government is controlling the weather. I had never heard of such a thing. But lo and behold there is a ‘thing’ in which one can ‘seed’ the clouds, typically with chemicals for instance to bring rain to an area. Moscow’s mayor at the time, Yuri Luzhkov (mayor from 1992-2010), was a proponent of this concept and believed the cloud ‘seeding’ could help reduce harsh winters in Moscow by eliminating snow with ‘manmade’ rain due to cloud seeding. I didn’t give much more thought to it, but it may have been a thing at times. And perhaps even had to do with that horrendous smell?
Whenever I returned to Russia with kids in tow or when I was pregnant with EndorphinSon™, the Russian security staff would always always let me and/or any other pregnant woman or woman with children go to the front of security to quickly pass through. It was at times a bit disorderly, but I never had to wait. They would walk over to me and kindly usher me through.
Probably one of the most memorable flights was traveling to visit my kids’ grandparents in Finland. We often traveled to Finland on weekends since it was a close and easy trip. In the 90s, especially on a Friday night flight from Moscow to Helsinki, there was a lot of Lapin Kulta (delicious Finnish beer) and/or Vodka (probably Ruski Standard) going around. The plane was happy and loud until the pilot came over the intercom and said ladies and gentlemen if you are sitting on the right side of the plane take a look, we are getting ready to land in Moscow, seatbelts on, tray tables stowed, backrests up, etc. There was dead silence on the plane. We were supposed to be landing in Helsinki! You would not know there had been any cocktail-ing going on. But wait, it was a prankster pilot. In fact there was a sign that said Moscow, but it was part of some James Bond movie being made. We laughed and laughed and laughed.
On those weekend trips to Helsinki, if my family went ahead, I would travel to the airport with Thomas V. who was heading ‘home’ to Vienna for the weekend. Often we’d leave the office at the last minute. Thomas never wanted to miss his flight (who did?) so he’d instruct the driver to take all sorts of short cuts including driving on sidewalks - I say no more! But we never missed a flight.
The Finnair Lounge in Sheremetyevo was the absolute best at the time. Amazing foods were available, both Finlandia and variety of Russian vodkas of course, and every one talking with one another. It was so high energy and one of the best networking places.
As part of the senior team in the Eastern European Complex of offices we held monthly leadership meetings for the development of the offices hosted by the office leader in one of the respective locations. One of our European colleagues was a pilot and owned his own small plane. He would sometimes pilot his plane to the meetings and had room for about 5-6 passengers. There was no standing room on the plane. It was cramped but exciting. I flew back one time with him from Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport to either Moscow’s Domodedovo or Vnukovo airport. Can’t recall which one but it was not Sheremetyevo Airport - the biggest one. It was late on a Friday evening and as we got closer to the airport for landing, the pilot, my colleague, was informed we were not going to be cleared for landing. Hmm. We all stayed pretty calm or maybe we were just out of it because the cabin pressure was tough on the thinking! Eventually we cleared for landing on a very narrow dark vacant landing strip. I don’t recall the ‘hiccup’ preventing us from landing, but perhaps we were just being messed with by airport control. There was not another person in that airport when we finally got off the plane.
The other anecdote about those plane rides is that as the head of HR for the complex back then, I either didn’t want to know how many of the leadership team were flying on that little plane during a given flight, or at times had to insist that only a small number (max 2-3) of the leadership team could get on the plane at once. Well you know in case the plane went down…
When we were moving out of Russia, EndorphinDaughter™ was 5 1/2, we met with another airport encounter. I had not realized her U.S. passport had expired. We got to passport control and the officer started questioning the validity of the passport because of the expired date. I was at first speechless and then a bit frightened because I wondered how I would get my daughter out of Russia. She does have dual citizenship with Finland and maybe we showed her EU passport too, I don’t recall, but what I do recall is that we we’re charged a random fee amount of $287 - I specifically remember the amount - to pay for an expired Americans passport so that EndorphinDaughter™ could ‘exit’ the country. Haha. Needless to say, I wondered on the flight back what US immigration would say when we arrived. After I shared my Moscow airport story (this was pre 9/11), they chuckled and said welcome home!
Other happenings
On the topic of Yury Luzhkov. He was mayor the entire period the EndorphinFam™ lived in Moscow. He was a bit of a character. While many in Moscow were still struggling, there was also the emergence of the then-called ‘new’ Russians - the ones who were first to have cell phones and to become uber wealthy due to a variety of work situations. Yury and his wife were of this group. His wife owned a construction company. She became one of the wealthiest woman in the country, allegedly because much of the ‘growth’ and building in Moscow was done through her company thanks to Yury. He was not always on the same page with Putin, but post my time in Moscow, he and Putin sadly became aligned on the retake of the Crimea region for Russia. And Yury had a Russian influence in Crimea through construction there.
Thinking about all the development in Moscow during that period of time, one noteworthy structure to mention is the GUM department mall in/near Red Square. The structure was built in the late 1800s for trading and continued to be used for some form of commerce. Post-Soviet times, it became privatized and a beautiful high-end mall. The primary structure stayed the same. Sometimes I would go there with the EndorphinKids™ to bask in the beauty of the structure and to walk through Red Square. It was a favorite shopping center for the ‘new’ Russians and tourists. I am not clear if Luzhkov’s wife’s construction company was also engaged in its redevelopment, but I would not be surprised.
In the Fall of 1998, the Russian Financial Crisis hit. It was rather heartwarming to see people in my office and community really supporting and helping each other. Frankly it was a bit scary, but there was also this level of excited energy in the country. The international company I worked for was so supportive to the Russian office providing opportunities for Russian staff to relocate to one or another of its international offices until things picked up. This said office was the only one in its industry that stayed ‘open’ during the crisis, which helped them grow more quickly in the years that followed.
I can’t even begin to imagine what the Russian locals are feeling today with financial sanctions in place. Nor can I imagine the fear of Ukrainians who are leaving everything they own behind. Fast forward 20+ years and this same international company has given Ukrainian and Russian staff opportunity to relocate to another of its international locations. Amazing gesture, but mind-blowing to imagine a repeat on a whole different level.
I was always grateful for my time in Russia, it was life changing. I remember one day sitting alone in the office conference room getting ready for some US visitors thinking, ‘WOW I am living and working in Russia’. I felt a tremendous sense of gratitude thinking about my first memory of Russia from way back on my NYC stoop and all that I had learned through this experience both personally and professionally. Things were positively changing for Russians and others who had lived under former Soviet rule. It was a good time for me and for my kids too! And now, things have once again changed in that part of the world.
I am sad for the reason I am reflecting on my life in Russia, but I know first hand that the Russian and Ukrainian people are good people. We are not our political leadership. In the office I worked in Moscow, we were people, with differences of course, but with so many more similarities. Ukrainian, Russian, Swedish, Austrian, Norwegian, American, British, Hungarian, German, Azerbaijan, Moldovan, Chinese, Japanese and some. All colleagues, all friends, a part of something together, bigger than ourselves! I pray that Ukrainians and Russians both get back to their peace and prosperity with caring, fair, and honest leaders - perhaps looking to an amazing benchmark of the current Ukraine president.