Russia and Principles

Today, September 1st, is the opening of school in Russia. The day when the little ones go to school. For almost two weeks now, many families have been buying beautiful school clothes for their little ones, pencils, notebooks, erasers, crayons and other stationery products have been carried to the entrance of the markets, all of them are discounted, and those with schoolchildren are crowding the markets. You can feel the excitement in the market. Although the books are provided by the state as in our country, families have to meet the other needs themselves.

Yes, I said September 1 is the opening day of school. In Russia, schools open no matter what day it falls on, even if it is a Sunday. It is a matter of principle. I don't know who set this principle, but that's how it is, schools open on September 1st!

In our profession there are all kinds of people. The biggest problem we have had among the staff for years is the issue of working hours. Usually our office staff are Russian nationals, construction work starts early, but Russian office staff don't like to start work early. They don't like to stay late in the evening either. Especially on Saturdays, it is normally not so easy to get a Russian national to work. Of course, I am not saying that nobody will work, but we have a hard time to find a compatible staff. And most of the time we have to make compromises. Either we let them come in a little later than the others, or we let them finish their evening shifts a little earlier than the others. The field works non-stop. But if there are Russian subcontractors, the situation is the same as in the office. Even if you give them extra money, some of them will not give up this principle. 

Especially if it is a holiday, Russians are very strict in this principle.

There is also a principle in Russia about holidays. Not only are there many holidays and vacation days, but if that holiday falls on a weekend, the following day during the week is declared a holiday. In other words, if a holiday falls on Sunday, Monday is declared a rest day instead of Sunday.

The reverse is also true. If, for example, four days during the week fall on a holiday, they may declare one day in between as a holiday. However, in this case, Saturday or Sunday may be declared a working day instead of the day that was declared a holiday. Just a principle. No rights should be violated. 

This year there is no problem, September 1st fell on a weekday, but if it had fallen on a Saturday or Sunday, there would have been no school day on Monday or the following Friday.

Now you will say, that's fine, that's good. I think the problem is actually with us, the norm should be the way the Russians do it, right? Maybe you find what I am saying interesting and strange too.

I have been here for years, so I can say that I am a bit used to it. Still, construction work requires continuity for us, for some reason we are used to overworking as a nation. Since we mostly work with Turkish citizens of sister countries in the fields, they also adapt to us, they are also used to working non-stop. But as I said, when the office staff are also Russian citizens, there can be some problems with company discipline.

Sometimes I think, I think our work schedule is actually extremely corrupt. But this can be an advantage as it allows us to do things faster. Still, continuing to work during Russian holidays because we are not Russians and working during Turkish holidays because we are not in Turkey can be quite tiring, even if it is a joke between us. 

Russians are a principled people. No matter how much I eat, I also respect them. The norm should be to work well and on time. We work a lot but inefficiently, while Russians work little and inefficiently. 

Yes, I said inefficient, sometimes I feel like they would prefer not to work if they had the chance.

I think the reason for this goes back to the days of communism.  In the days of communism, everyone had to work. I don't know what they did to people who stayed at home without working, but the state had to give everyone a job.

So when I first came here, for example, one shopkeeper would work in the morning and another would do the same job in the afternoon. 

Half a day each, but everyone works. Actually, it's a good system. But since you have almost the same income whether you work a lot or a little, I think people's enthusiasm to work is broken when there are no opportunities for high earnings like in the capitalist system. A factory manager lives in the same type of house as a worker. Maybe the factory manager has a private automobile at most. Maybe a local model Volga. A department chief, on the other hand, could buy himself a Jiguli, maybe years later if he pushed too hard. Jiguli is the old Murat 124, the technology of which was actually established by the Italians, and the Russians, just like us, sold the same model car to the public as a car for years for the world's money with minor changes every year! I still come across these old cars from time to time.

Today there are still people who long for communism. Most of them are over a certain age now. There is a red brick building at the entrance of Red Square, not on the river side but on the Bolshoi Theater side, and on weekends they gather in front of this building to reminisce about the old days. In the parliament, the Communist Party continues its life. But those old days are long gone. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, otherwise known as Communist Russia, collapsed and from its ashes the Russian Federation was formed, which continues its life in today's wild capitalism.

One thing I have noticed since my first years here is that the streets are full of homeless people, most of them alcoholics, maybe drug addicts. I still come across old people begging for help at the entrances to the subway. Once upon a time, most of them used to sell smuggled cigarettes, or flowers from their gardens. Sometimes they used to sell whatever they could find in their houses, a lot of old and shabby things. 

For some reason they don't exist anymore, but now I occasionally come across old people selling flowers. But alcoholic homeless people are everywhere, on every corner you can find a homeless person lying on the grass, passed out. Even the police are not interested, sometimes if there is a complaint, they take them away with inhumane treatment, but most of the time they leave them as they are. Sometimes, if they call an ambulance, the nurse barely takes them to the ambulance with unspeakable curses.

Gorbachev, the last party secretary, in fact the head of state, of this great old principled Union of Soviet Republics, has passed away.

Some cursed him, blamed him for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some saw him as a spy, specially trained to destroy the Union and that the Americans had done everything they could to help him rise to that level and that they had succeeded. Some said that the Soviet Union had to break up, but that Gorbachev had made many mistakes in doing so. There were many who agreed that he should have made a smoother transition.

But whatever happened, maybe because of his personal incompetence, maybe because he lost control, whatever the reason, the Soviet Union disintegrated, Russians suffered a lot, there are still a lot of disgraced people on the streets. But the result is obvious, with Gorbachev's death, an era is completely over. Now history will write what it will write. Mikhail Gorbachev is now history, probably with his secrets, although he has given many interviews in which he has expressed his own views on what happened.

And the Russian federation continues its life with its old principles. Principles are important.

Yes, today is September 1st and Russian little ones are going to school.

Love and regards to everyone from Russia.