Tinda, Wednesday March 18th 2009.
A piece of adventure...
Getting on the train at Komsomolsk, the “provodnitsa” (train manager) tells me to be careful with other passengers because they are on their way to work and will surely drink. I thank her for the advice, but what can i do? Arrived at my place, I discover my neighbours and recognize in them the type described by my dear provodnitsa. How to describe them? Mercenaires, animals, solid guys, alcoolics, unpolite, dirty, noisy, violent. The full team is here: 20 of these guys, who are heading to their work place, in the forest for wood industries, or to the metallurgic manufacturing sites of the region of Tinda. And me! 20 of these mercenaires and me in a dormitory, 5 of them with me in 4m3, for the next 24 hours. All have left their family for one month, and will be working in extreme rough conditions for a very low salary. I do my best to understand them and integrate myself in the group. I discover in some of them kindness and curiosity. One of them offers me from his dinner some bread with a big piece of... fat, purely fat, that i enjoy with a vegetable soup. This is typical Siberian meal, and i have to say it fits well with the local climate in winter. Another of them, my neighbour, helps me for my exercises of Russian, smiling at me with his golden teeth and multiple scarces on the face.
Finally, the alcohol will have inhibited my dangerous neighbours for the rest of the night, until they got off in the early morning, the same morning that offers me this beautiful taiga landscape before my arrival in Tinda.
En voiture! :-)
A piece of adventure...
Getting on the train at Komsomolsk, the “provodnitsa” (train manager) tells me to be careful with other passengers because they are on their way to work and will surely drink. I thank her for the advice, but what can i do? Arrived at my place, I discover my neighbours and recognize in them the type described by my dear provodnitsa. How to describe them? Mercenaires, animals, solid guys, alcoolics, unpolite, dirty, noisy, violent. The full team is here: 20 of these guys, who are heading to their work place, in the forest for wood industries, or to the metallurgic manufacturing sites of the region of Tinda. And me! 20 of these mercenaires and me in a dormitory, 5 of them with me in 4m3, for the next 24 hours. All have left their family for one month, and will be working in extreme rough conditions for a very low salary. I do my best to understand them and integrate myself in the group. I discover in some of them kindness and curiosity. One of them offers me from his dinner some bread with a big piece of... fat, purely fat, that i enjoy with a vegetable soup. This is typical Siberian meal, and i have to say it fits well with the local climate in winter. Another of them, my neighbour, helps me for my exercises of Russian, smiling at me with his golden teeth and multiple scarces on the face.
Finally, the alcohol will have inhibited my dangerous neighbours for the rest of the night, until they got off in the early morning, the same morning that offers me this beautiful taiga landscape before my arrival in Tinda.
En voiture! :-)
Our shared samovar (to supply wagon with hot water)
Saleswomen at train stops selling famous Baikal lake fish "omul"
And some history...
After the foundation of Vladivostok in the early 1860’s and to sustain the colonization of Far East, it became a priority to build a proper infrastructure to replace the existing “sibirsky trakt” built with stones and linking Moscow with Irkutsk in only 2 months. The work was launched by an oukase dated March 17th 1891. France took active part in the project by engaging capital and industrial competences: for example, Eiffel factories delivered metallic elements necessary for the numerous bridges. From a territory only synonym of exil, Siberia could become an integrated part of Russia, and the Empire could start exploiting its immense resources. This development reminds us strongly of the story of American Far West.
Historic train from Blaise Cendrars's time (see below quote)
Today, the network is composed of 3 main roads:
Moscow – Vladivostok, the so called Trans-Siberian road,
Moscow – Oulan Bator – Pekin (Trans-Mongolian),
Moscow – Karbin – Pekin (Trans-Mandchourian).
To go from Komsomolsk to Severobaikalsk, I used the Baikal Amour line that doubles the Trans-Siberian one on the North. Going on average 60km/h, it is a game of patience, but above all an incredible sociologic experience and opportunity to read, think, and admire Russian taiga and steppes, sometimes accompanied by music.
Landscape from the train on a sunny morning
Photo souvenir at one of the numerous stops
After a short (at -31 grads) visit of Tinda, emails check at the post office and some grocery shopping, it is already time to catch the next train for 26 new hours of plaskart. Next stop: Baikal lake and Severobaikalsk, the location of my project with local schools.
Along the way, contemplation pure: sun, blue sky, deep taiga and mounts covered by snow. The train is navigating in an amphitheater of mountains, and suddenly enters a 17 minutes long tunnel to exit in the middle of a new range. After the Swiss Glacier Express from Zermatt to Saint-Moritz, meet the Russian Trans-Siberian!
Blaise Cendrars, who has also lived the experience of Trans-Siberian, will conclude for us this article, with an extract from his Prose du trans-siberien:
Les vitres sont givrées
Pas de nature!
Et derrière, les plaines sibériennes le ciel bas et les grands ombres des taciturnes qui montent et qui descendent
Je suis couché dans un plaid
Bariolé
Comme ma vie
Et ma vie ne me tient pas plus chaud que ce châle écossais
Et l'Europe toute entière aperçue au coupe-vent d'un express à toute vapeur
N'est pas plus riche que ma vie
Ma pauvre vie
Ce châle
Effiloché sur des coffres remplis d'or
Avec lesquels je roule
Que je rêve
Que je fume
Et la seule flamme de l'univers Est une pauvre pensée...
And some history...
After the foundation of Vladivostok in the early 1860’s and to sustain the colonization of Far East, it became a priority to build a proper infrastructure to replace the existing “sibirsky trakt” built with stones and linking Moscow with Irkutsk in only 2 months. The work was launched by an oukase dated March 17th 1891. France took active part in the project by engaging capital and industrial competences: for example, Eiffel factories delivered metallic elements necessary for the numerous bridges. From a territory only synonym of exil, Siberia could become an integrated part of Russia, and the Empire could start exploiting its immense resources. This development reminds us strongly of the story of American Far West.
Historic train from Blaise Cendrars's time (see below quote)
Today, the network is composed of 3 main roads:
Moscow – Vladivostok, the so called Trans-Siberian road,
Moscow – Oulan Bator – Pekin (Trans-Mongolian),
Moscow – Karbin – Pekin (Trans-Mandchourian).
To go from Komsomolsk to Severobaikalsk, I used the Baikal Amour line that doubles the Trans-Siberian one on the North. Going on average 60km/h, it is a game of patience, but above all an incredible sociologic experience and opportunity to read, think, and admire Russian taiga and steppes, sometimes accompanied by music.
Landscape from the train on a sunny morning
Photo souvenir at one of the numerous stops
After a short (at -31 grads) visit of Tinda, emails check at the post office and some grocery shopping, it is already time to catch the next train for 26 new hours of plaskart. Next stop: Baikal lake and Severobaikalsk, the location of my project with local schools.
Along the way, contemplation pure: sun, blue sky, deep taiga and mounts covered by snow. The train is navigating in an amphitheater of mountains, and suddenly enters a 17 minutes long tunnel to exit in the middle of a new range. After the Swiss Glacier Express from Zermatt to Saint-Moritz, meet the Russian Trans-Siberian!
Blaise Cendrars, who has also lived the experience of Trans-Siberian, will conclude for us this article, with an extract from his Prose du trans-siberien:
Les vitres sont givrées
Pas de nature!
Et derrière, les plaines sibériennes le ciel bas et les grands ombres des taciturnes qui montent et qui descendent
Je suis couché dans un plaid
Bariolé
Comme ma vie
Et ma vie ne me tient pas plus chaud que ce châle écossais
Et l'Europe toute entière aperçue au coupe-vent d'un express à toute vapeur
N'est pas plus riche que ma vie
Ma pauvre vie
Ce châle
Effiloché sur des coffres remplis d'or
Avec lesquels je roule
Que je rêve
Que je fume
Et la seule flamme de l'univers Est une pauvre pensée...
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