Conversational Snippets

As Russian is not my first language (to be very honest here I know nothing more than what might be spelt like "Snorvin Godim" meaning Happy New Year) and as most Russians onboard speak English in an extremely slow and ponderous manner our conversations together are usually stilted and tend to die a sad death before completion. In fact, and not to be cruel here, should we ever broach a subject other than engineering I find it hard to stay awake or should I have just got out of bed, to sit still for longer than the first sentence.

Sometimes though snippets of a Russians current life back home, of times and cultural adjustments made under the communist rule are told and here I listen hard, I put the matchsticks in my eyes to keep them open and nod and prod when the opportunity arises. This to me is far better than reading a book on the subject, here I have reality and I will milk it for all it's worth.

Yesterday, the Third Engineer Sergey started to tell me about his previous job! Admittedly, I had to loosen his tongue with a beer but it worked. When the communist regime collapsed he was securely ensconced in his one-man business of buying old Japanese Cars, shipping them onto the Island, doing them up and selling them again. His business was so popular that he often had to fulfill orders to customer requirements, a black 1989 Nissan here a Kawasaki Motorbike there, but then communism collapsed in style and with it went the protection he had received from the local police force, who had ensured that his under the counter repairs and imports went unnoticed by the higher authorities and the party members, naturally in return for a car or two and some of the profits made. One fine day Sergey woke up to find that the Russian Mafia had moved in on his business in style. They wanted a cut, they wanted his business and they wanted everything that they could milk him for, legal or otherwise. Initially he tried to protect and continue trade by arming himself, unfortunately with a flare gun obtained from some friendly captain, but in the end when the cars he imported were stolen before he even got them off the ship he gave it all up. That was when he decided to go to sea for a living!

I've heard of the Russian mafia before! Some people tell me that they are all ex-members of the KGB or local police forces who lost there jobs when capitalism reared its head but in all cases they are a group of people to be wary of. It is notable that most of the seafarers onboard here have 'connections', one Captain quite openly told me that if I had any desire to go home early he could "arrange" for my passport to expire unexpectedly. I did not take him up on the offer, I had no wish to shorten my trip or cut it short, but it did make me wonder what else he could get done should I so wish!

Vadim, the Vessels Chief Officer
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

Talking to the Chief Officer, Vadim, he explained today's culture quite clearly. During the last forty years families have looked after themselves first and foremost and have done so through bribery, illegal and criminal acts, through selfishness and "me, me, me". This, from what I gather being a necessity brought on by low wages, party and state controls and the fact that there was never enough of anything to go around on a remote and freezing cold Island like Sakhalin. It must be remembered that the long arm of the law back in Moscow did not quite reach the Island 100% of the time and so bribery became rampant, not all remained equal and corrupt officials were to be found at the heart of all the social problems resulting. Today, communism may have all but vanished but the corrupt officials and the self-survival attitude still remains, despite the fact that many of those trying to survive have three cars, houses run by maids and butlers and that they have more money than they know what to do with. This manner of living prevails over all else, to the extent that anything not fixed down will be removed, that loyalty does not exist to a company worked for and that anything will be bled of all its worth even if it rebounds negatively on others around them.

On the other side of the coin, and contradictory to all that I have said above, this attitude only prevails with regard to work and getting by in life. At the other end of the scale is that of friendship, of being welcomed into a household with open arms and being given all that they have in one fell swoop of emotion! This complete swap is a pleasure to see, it shows that there is hope, that maybe the selfishness shown at work is a characteristic that will die out as time goes on and hopefully as communism diminishes as a cultural driving force it will all but disappear.

We sat there drinking beer, four Russians and two foreigners talking animatedly about everything and everything that one can talk about and without regard to the fact that nobody understood a word that the other was saying! This was where the other side came out! We drank beer and ate caviar! We ate caviar and then nibbled on smoked salmon, ate canapés and incongruously ate muffins that had been bought from the local bakery for the occasion. I learnt about life back home, the fact that today's teenagers love Britney Spears (name a teenager that doesn't), that if a child shows any proficiency in any subject whatsoever that they are then morally forced to study it fulltime ( a hangover from the past decades) and that Russian girls know that they are beautiful.

This last fact did not come from a Russian Seafarer. We were sitting in my office one fine day when a girl walked in and sat down in one of the chairs by the window. In twenty years at sea this has never happened to me before, certainly I have met woman and they have entered a space that I have been in but ……. she just walked in and said "Nastia, hello", shook all our hands and then sat down as if it was the most natural thing to do in the world. To build up the scene a bit more; my office is in fact the ships office, three of us advisors were sitting there drinking coffee of an evening, we were in port at the time and Nastia it turned out is the fifteen year old daughter of Sergey the Third Engineer (the one with the failed car-import business).

Nastia, the Third Engineers Daughter
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2007

I know of no girl in the world, or for that matter boy, man or woman who has such friendly audacity. She showed not one sign of shyness or of being insecure in our male dominated environment; she was extremely pleasant and very much in control of the situation. We seafarers though were tongue tied. I myself could not even utter "hello" as this was way out of my sphere! She though just plonked herself down and as if sensing our predicament initiated a conversation in a simple and forthright manner that we now could only expect from her. She said "basketball"!

Nastia stayed with us for well over an hour. We loosened up considerably once the ice was broken and over the hour we covered an amazing array of subjects from sports to parents, Christmas and music!

As I write this though, four days down the line I have come to the conclusion that Nastia did not know more than four words in English! Her introductory word "basketball" had us bouncing imaginary balls around the room to make sure that we were talking about the same sport and had us all dishing up our favorite sports of which mine that day was tennis (even though I have never played it in the last twenty five years). She also mentioned Brittany Spears which resulted in a rush to get the music on and told us that "Diet moron" meant Santa Claus in Russian and that her father was the Third Engineer! This last we had gathered for ourselves as he unusually passed our window about thirty times under some pretence of going to the engine room or something!

Silently, she told us that Russian women are very beautiful indeed and not in the least bit shy and that they know this without being told so!

Back in my secure shell of male dominated and work orientated Russian self survival, the more I talk to the Russians the more I can understand what drives them and what makes them tick. Yes, on the surface they are selfish but only due to a cultural heritage that they are attempting to shake off. As is often said, any cultural change takes three generations to take effect (except when it is by force) and so maybe it won't be today's Russians who are free of the stigmas brought on by communism, maybe it won't be Nastia, but one day her children should have the friendliness and openness that I was kindly given a glimpse of, a friendliness and happiness not muddied by the corruptness and selfishness that rears its ugly head in life today.

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 8th January 2007