Travelogue: A passage to Russia

By Wale Okediran

IT’S almost midnight in Saint Petersburg and the sun is yet to set!

From my vantage point at the window of the bedroom of my rented apartment on Muchnoy Pereulok 1, Tsentralny District, the city appeared angelic and very beautiful in the brilliant late night sunshine. Outside on the streets, lively, friendly, romantic and bustling Russians were out to mark the day when the sky stayed reddish-gold all night.

Hours after my dinner of lamb soup, rice and vegetables with chicken roast, I was surprised when rays of sun that peeked through the window curtains kept disturbing my sleep. Unknown to me, I had arrived Russia on the Summer Solstice (also known as White Night) ‘The Longest Day of the Year’ with about 19 hours of sunshine. Welcome to Russia, the land of “endless wonders and achievements,” the land of great writers, musicians and inventors.

For example, it was the brilliant Russian engineer, Mikhail Kalashnikov who invented the AK-47, one of the most popular small arms weapon in the world. Till date, the powerful gun, the favourite of many guerrillas and militaries in the world, remains one of the most controversial masterpieces from Russia.

At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the earth’s inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with over 144 million people as of December 2017, excluding Crimea.

I had come to Russia to watch the 2018 edition of the World Cup, my first ever. My decision to make the trip had been inspired by Alex Iwobi’s 73rd minute goal at the Nigeria/Zambia match which I watched live at the ‘Nest of Champions Stadium’ in Uyo on October 7 2017. It was Iwobi’s goal that made Nigeria the first African country to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The feat gave the country her sixth World Cup finals appearance having first qualified for the international football showpiece in 1994.

Dr. Wale Okediran and a Russian soldier

My decision to travel to Russia was further reinforced by my US-based secondary school mate, Tayo Popoola who was attending his 7th World Cup. It was Tayo who further motivated me with pieces of advice and logistics for the trip.

Another reason for my Russian trip was literature.

As an ardent lover of Russian literature, who has devoured the works of several Russian literary icons such as Leo Tolstoy, Boris Pasternack, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, among others, I was looking forward to a visit to the land of the ‘Literary Masters.’ Anna Karenina, my favourite novel by Leo Tolstoy, was first published in book form in 1878 and widely considered one of the greatest works of fiction ever written.

And while Chekhov the medical doctor/writer and my professional forebear was one of my literary inspirations, Pasternack’s Doctor Zhivago, a moving historical book about the Russian Revolution, is one of the few books that I have read and watched its film adaptation. Surprisingly, (just like the yet-to-be released film adaptation of my book Tenants of the House) I found the film adaptation of Doctor Zhivago better than the book. I also recalled that it was Dostoevsky’s The Possessed, a haunting psychological fiction that inspired my own psychological, tragicomedy book, Dreams Die at Twilight, which was adjudged in a 2009 National Literary competition as one of the best 50 books in Nigeria in the last 50 years.

The accounts of my literary and cultural experience in the land of the red hair (an allusion to Russia’s ancestors who came from the Middle East and believed that red hair was a sign of nobility) will be captured in another article.

Since spectators themselves sometimes watch football matches with occasional tragic pensiveness, I decided to go for a medical check up before boarding the plane to Russia. Moreso, I didn’t want Messi, the Argentine soccer maestro, to mess up my Blood Pressure during the potentially hypertensive match between Nigeria and Argentina on June 26, 2018. Luckily, my doctor found my Blood Pressure and heart good enough to withstand the expected ‘nail biting’ and ‘leg kicking’ tension of the games.

My first match in Russia was the Argentina vs Croatia match on June 21 2018.

Since I didn’t have a ticket for the encounter, I watched the match a few hours after my arrival in Russia at the FIFA Fan Centre in St. Petersburg. The experience showed how the experience of watching football opens several dimensions in time and space. The FIFA Fan Centre where large viewing screens had been mounted for spectators was a beehive of activities.

In order to make my next match which is the Belgium vs Tunisia match on June 23 at the Spartak Stadium in Moscow, Tayo, Dion and I had to depart Saint Petersburg for Moscow on a High Speed Train which arrived the Russian capital city after a pleasant four hour journey. I was welcomed into Moscow by a blaze of sunshine, skyscrapers, beautiful streets and wide boulevards. With a population of 13.2 million, Moscow, the Russian capital, is the country’s most populous city.

As we filed into the stadium which had been filled to its maximum capacity of 44,190, we all made our way to our seats which had been inscribed on our tickets. After a series of official ceremonies, the football pitch was sprinkled with cold water obviously to make it conducive for a good match. However, despite the late hour, many football fans remained on the street of the famous Russian city with endless festivities of drumming, dancing and drinking. Not to be outdone, the Russians themselves abandoned their usual social restraint to approach foreign fans with broad smiles, with offers of help and local gastronomic tips. In this respect, I found the elderly Russian women more sympathetic to foreigners who usually found the language barrier a big challenge to cope with.

Since the long awaited Nigeria vs Argentina match was to take place in Saint Petersburg on June 26 by 5pm, it was inevitable that we should make our way back to the city. So it was that we found our way back to St. Petersburg from Moscow via the fast train arriving at the Moskovsky Train Station in the city in the evening of June 25 with the outside temperature now a sweltering 22-degree centigrade. We spent the early part of the following day sightseeing in Saint Petersburg. One of the important places visited was the beautifully decorated Kazansky Cathedral where many Argentina fans who are Catholics were lighting candles and praying at the feet of saints obviously for success in their forthcoming encounter with Nigeria.

Earlier in the day, Tayo had told me of his premonition that Nigeria was going to lose the match based on the previous encounters between the two countries where Argentina had always won. It was his belief that the psychological feeling of inferiority on behalf of the Nigerian team anytime it met Argentina in football matches will always be a big challenge for the team. I disagreed with him and predicted a Nigerian victory. Moments later, on our way to the stadium, we passed the central part of the town where a television crew asked for my opinion on the forthcoming Nigeria vs Argentina duel. Again, I predicted a Nigerian victory.

As we later moved towards the stadium, we chanced upon a crowd of football fans donning both the Nigerian and Argentina jerseys. Among the Argentina fan was a young man who spoke Hausa to me. He told me that he grew up in Katsina state where his father was a missionary doctor for many years.

In another corner were a knot of football fans without tickets who were haggling with some agents who were now selling tickets at the black market rate of $400-$500 from the official rate of $120-$200.

As we were taking in the convivial scene and taking photographs with fans from both sides, an agitated Nigerian fan suddenly ran towards a truck full of Russian policemen as he frantically shouted that his ticket had been stolen on the train on his way to the stadium. He was sweating and very angry, as he demanded to talk to a police man who could speak English. As Tayo predicted, Nigeria lost the match to Argentina. I was depressed all night and while Tayo and Dion later went out for dinner, I remained in our apartment brooding, as I struggled through a ‘mournful’ dinner of bread and chicken stew.

Although the World Cup was just beginning with the commencement of the knock out stage, for me, Nigeria’s ouster pulled the wind out of the sail of the competition. I therefore watched the remaining matches with half-hearted devotion. To Russia’s credit, the tournament, which only 10% of people around the world had viewed positively a year earlier, went very well. Prior to the competition, there were threats of boycott by some countries because of some political dissentions.

In addition, there were fears of dangerous levels of hooliganism while some people did not believe that the country’s transportation infrastructure could handle such a massive influx of people into the country. But to the surprise of everyone who expected these issues to boil over at some point, nothing of the sort happened.

As a first time visitor to Russia, the World Cup nullified the Russian stereotypes of a cold and hostile country. In its place I encountered first-world infrastructure, impeccable planning and mostly friendly people, except for the glum looking members of the security forces.

The Russians put their success story to years of planning for a government eager to improve Russia’s dire international image.

Perhaps, a final testimony of the success of the tournament could be seen in the statement credited to the US National Security adviser John Bolton who, on a recent visit to President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, said, “I look forward to learning how you handled the World Cup so successfully,” as the US top official referred to the fact that the US will host the 2026 World Cup along with Mexico and Canada.