YOU USE A QUOTE FROM HENRY DAVID THOREAU AT THE START OF YOUR BOOK. WAS IT, AS THOREAU WROTE, PLEASANT TO GO TO A PLACE THE WAY A RIVER WENT?
Amongst other things
Thoreau was a naturalist and a leading transcendentalist – believing in the
inherent goodness of both nature and people… I thought this was a pretty good
place to start from.
To follow the Volga
from its birth and to watch her story unravelling in front of my eyes was a
privilege. It was like passing through centuries of Russia’s gilded and varied
history – the river is in so many ways representative of the country through
which it travels. I passed through regions as rich in diverse cultures as they
are in arresting scenery – Orthodox churches and hilltop kremlins share a stage
with the concrete brutality of Stalin’s industrial vision – whilst all the time
meeting Russians who lived their lives a very long way from the skyscrapers of
Moscow.
The Russians speak of
the river with a god-like reverence, and spending a prolonged period in its
company I really got a sense of its place amongst the people; it truly is a
thing of spiritual wealth and of hope, not to mention employment and food. The
Volga River is the heart of the country at the heart of the country.
HOW DID YOU DO THIS JOURNEY, AND WHY?
Travelling the length
of the Volga in one trip had been something I’d harboured thoughts of doing for
a while. For anyone with more than just a passing interest in the country and
its history, it seemed so obvious – here was this great river that sliced through
the heartland of Russia, a river that wasn’t particularly long (relative to
other great rivers) and one that didn’t throw up too many physical challenges (again
, relative)… a river that many Russians would cite as relevant to them for so
many different reasons. Eventually the nudge – well, shove really – that I
needed to get on and do it came when a friend of mine chose to get married in
Astrakhan, a city located right at the end of the river. If that wasn’t a sign
for me to get on with the journey, I don’t know what would have been. I went
for it and will be forever grateful for being handed the excuse.
I made the journey by a
variety of means. Having originally planned in a moment of fancy to row down
the whole length, I eventually ditched the dinghy after about eighty
kilometres, after travelling the gentlest stretch from the source to the
provincial town of Tver. It was then local buses, train, passenger boat; I
hitched the stretch from Yaroslavl to Nizhni Novgorod, eventually getting a
lift from a trucker with a keen interest in thermodynamics, and I walked some
of the more picturesque stretches of the lower Volga. I joined a freight carrier
for the final leg from Volgograd down to Astrakhan as I thought it only
appropriate to complete the journey on the water.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE EXPERIENCE, AND HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR JOURNEY FOR READERS IF YOU HAD TO?
I like to find stories
about the people of Russia that are essentially fun and uplifting (they do
exist), away from the politics (as much as that is possible). This is a side of
the country I see when I travel there. I see the warmth and generosity of
spirit of the people, something we tend not to hear so much about in the West.
It’s hard to choose a favourite experience, as so many stand out…
Perhaps the Mamaev
Kurgan: nothing could have prepared me for this memorial to the Battle of
Stalingrad, which was simply mind-blowing in size and statement. I was kindly
taken by a man called Alexi who I’d met only hours earlier on a train. The 82-metre
Mother Russia bearing down on present day Volgograd, sword aloft, is more than
a little intimidating, and a fitting memorial to one of the most brutal battles
of WW2. My enthusiastic guide Alexi then insisted that I stay with him and his
wife in their apartment, which I duly did for the next four days…
… Or perhaps my
favourite experience was in the boat along the early stretch from the source,
through a Russia apparently untouched by modernity…
… No, the highlight has
to be finishing the journey with friends at a wedding – Russian style! A double
celebration that went on for several days…
THIS WASN'T YOUR FIRST JOURNEY THROUGH RUSSIA. WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION WITH THE COUNTRY?
Ever since a first
visit to the then Soviet Union with Mr Gardiner’s A-level history class, I’ve
been hooked. My first big trip through Russia was in Max the Campervan
travelling from Tallinn in Estonia to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, in
the nineties, and I’ve been a long and short term visitor to Russia ever since.
A Russian boss I once had joked that I was ‘just another Englishman coming to
Russia in search of adventure!’ I guess I was then and still am perhaps;
however, nowadays I have good friends in Russia so my motivation to return is
less fanciful. I have lived and worked in St Petersburg over the years and
consider the city something of a home from home – although I increasingly find
myself avoiding the winters.
