Living in the metropolis full of contrasts
The professor
Tatiana Jonina, 70
Loud applause for Gidon Kremer in the big concert hall of the Moscow Conservatory. "I love this hall with the excellent acoustics," says Tatjana Jonina. "It's fortunate that the biggest international stars are finally here."
The petite woman comes from an old Moscow intelligentsia family and would most like to become a musician. Violinist, like her sister, who allows her to attend concerts today. The 70-year-old could never afford 40 euros per card.
Worse than the Soviet era
Your pension is small. That's why she still works as a professor at the Moscow Institute of Aircraft Design. Financially it is doing much worse than in the Soviet era: "We scientists today are not only poorer than young managers, we are also recognized less." Nevertheless, the agile old lady enjoys the new lifestyle in her city. Out of the apartment and to the meeting with the girlfriends in the cafe. "For us it's an unfamiliar luxury to drink espresso, cappuccino or latte macchiato - a few years ago I only knew the words from literature," she laughs.
Can travel again
Her favorite: the "Kofemania" right next to the conservatory. The large room, which looks like an old station waiting room, is now something of a home away from home. Tatjana takes a drag out of her cigarette: "Basically, I had a nice life," she says. "Only we could not travel, even socialist foreign countries were banned because our institute was subject to secrecy." But now they are catching up with her husband Volodya. She saved. "For me it is a dream that we are allowed to experience the freedom of travel together."
For most of their 48 years of marriage, they lived together in a confined space: initially in an old wooden villa, five in a room without a bathroom and with only one kitchen for 14 families. Only in 1967 they got a three-room apartment not far from the center. They still inhabit it today - at the moment with the sons of their niece.
Dreams of bread
Not everything has gotten better. She wistfully agrees with the culinary offer: "The world has grown bigger, but our bread does not taste better." In the past, on Tverskaya, there was a bakery called Filippow with a juicy black bread, which smelled like cardamom and caraway. " You could theoretically get it in the gold-adorned delicatessen Jelissejew, the sparkling shopping paradise from the tsarist era, in the middle of Tverskaya Street. There is the old bread still - at horrendous prices. Unaffordable for her. "That's the way it is", smiles Tatjana, "in the past we dreamed of traveling, today of real bread ..."
The taxi driver
Larissa Ivanova, 41
Just before noon on a Wednesday afternoon on the big stone bridge over the Moskva, which leads to the Kremlin. The traffic is still, a good 30 minutes is no more. Larissa Ivanova sits at the wheel of a yellow taxi. Totally relaxed. She folds down the mirror, corrects the lipstick and shakes her blond hair.
Moscow and the streets are made for men
In Russia, most taxi drivers are men. Larissa is one of the few female exceptions. Until ten years ago, Larissa lived as a teacher in Kyrgyzstan. She likes to teach, she says, but at school she only earned $ 200 a month. Taxi driving brings six times. She drives tourists or Moscow's new middle class. On wide clogged streets, at the edges of which sparkles brightly. "The streets in Moscow are actually made for men," she grins, "just like the Russian cars, just like me sitting here ..." Legs apart. If she could pee like a man, it would be easier, because in Moscow there are only a few public toilets.
Withstand the rhythm
Another peculiarity of the city is that it has several pompous stations instead of a central station; they were built in communism as palaces of the people. Larissa often heads to Paveletsky Train Station, where many tourists arrive by express train from Domodjedovo Airport. Porters push carts full of suitcases to the taxi lines. Already Larissa can drive her favorite route: along the bank of the Moskva River. Her gaze wanders over the Red Square and the illuminated Art Nouveau department store Gum. In the foreground the St. Basil's Cathedral with the colorful sugar-hats. Behind the Kremlin walls the golden domes of Kremlin churches. 60 minutes a week, Larissa drives a taxi. She has to, she says. She lives in one of the most expensive cities in the world. If you do not follow the rhythm, you can not do it.
The hairdresser
Lanna Kamilina, 37
When Lanna Kamilina looks out the window at breakfast, she sees the monument of Yuri Gagarin. Russia's first man in space graces the Lenin Prospect in survival size. Five years ago, Lanna bought this apartment from the Stalin era.She is ideal for her as a jogger, as it is only a few steps to the Sparrow Hills, Moscow's most beautiful viewing point. If she stands here, she knows why she loves her city: the Moskwa at her feet, the golden domes of the New Maiden monastery beyond, and the modern skyline of this metropolis on the other side.
From Siberia to Moscow
Lanna Kamilina knows she made it. 15 years ago, she came from Siberia to Moscow for a hairdressing competition. Won the first prize and promptly got a job in the capital. "It was like in a fairy tale, I knew immediately: Here I want to live! The dynamics of the city fascinated me." But then she went away. To Paris. To learn. For a year. Back in Moscow, a very special success story began. Today she resides in her salon in Samoskworetsche, the old merchant quarter with narrow streets and idyllic squares, directly opposite the Tretyakov Gallery. The business in a prime location is modern and rather simple.
Twelve percent of salary for beauty care
On two floors 50 employees work from 10 to 22 o'clock, which always have to do. Around a quarter of her salary is spent by a Muscovite on a monthly basis for personal hygiene. And Lannas clientele is young and deserves good. "Lanna Kamilina" is over the door, not anymore. A clear statement: The boss dictates the trend. Currently, blondes are preferred. Lanna à la Monroe is her best advertisement. Those who enter their realm feel like celebrating the beauty. And from head to toe. Moscow's women spend hours in these beauty temples. Finally, the city defends its reputation as the most decadent metropolis in the world.
Commuting between extremes for women in Moscow
With strumming eyelashes and a radiant smile Lanna balances even at minus 20 degrees on high heels to the trendy events. Because she also styles stars and stars for film and television. "I love this city," says Lanna with a winning smile, "because like no other, she commutes between the extremes, there is nothing that does not exist in Moscow." At least not for money. Designer boutiques make the former capital of the world revolution a mecca of excess. "Reality has surpassed our wildest dreams, and in no other city does Russia's new self-confidence become as concentrated as it does in Moscow, and the West no longer dreams of the Russian elite."
Lunch at "Baltschug Kempinski". The luxury hotel is an island of the West, and the "new Russians" are also drawn here. The café "Kranzler" is a meeting point and presentation plate for beautiful ladies: Oligarchs like to have fragile beauties around them. The menu costs from 30 euros. Lanna shrugs: "Unlike our mothers, we afford ourselves luxury without a guilty conscience."
The historian
Irina Sherbakova, 37
Before she leaves with her dog at nine o'clock, Irina Scherbakowa answers her e-mails. Husband and daughters are still sleeping. The five-room apartment is located in the north of Moscow. The four-storey house is a new building from the sixties in a faceless settlement. But there is the park next door. She drinks her tea while standing. Then she runs ten minutes in the working trot to the next metro. As at all stations here around the subway entrance small stalls waiting for people who want to buy a bite.
Women in Moscow are more active than men
Irina takes a quick look at the offer, gets a 50-ruble piece out of her pocket and gives it to "her" babushka, who is standing here every morning and is improving her pension by selling small bouquets of flowers. The graduate historian works in an old mansion at Memorial, her focus is Stalinism. Since 1991, she has been researching in the KGB archives and teaching oral history at the Moscow Afanasyev University. "In my generation, women are more active than men, and the Soviet system has only made men passively, and we women have settled much better into the new times," she says, smiling.
Lunch break. Irina meets with foreign colleagues for lunch in the cafe "Pushkin". The scene restaurant is located in an Empire style palace? but only a few years old. The whole ensemble, from the tables to the Biedermeier chairs to the wooden counter, is a large-scale copy. A Potemkin village of the new era, just steps away from the Pushkin monument.
Moscow is changing its image
In the evenings, Irina often fills up strength in the Arbat, the old aristocratic quarter where her parents still live. Irina knows every alley here, every nook and cranny. Many embassies and authorities are located in this district. The neighboring Kremlin was their playground, in the Alexander Garden on the Kremlin wall they sledged in winter. At first glance, the Arbat is still like the old days. But the apartments in the Art Nouveau buildings have been renovated at its best. "In general, the image of the city changes dramatically," says Irina. In addition to restored palaces and churches, today postmodern splendor buildings tower into the sky. Skyscrapers, 20 to 30 stories high, apartments for the emerging middle class. Chrome and glass as a mirror of new prosperity.
And also the pace of life of the city has become more dynamic. Almost every evening Irina has obligations.Here a reception, as an invitation to the concert, there an exhibition opening. "My daughters are also constantly on the move, either discussing in coffee shops or dancing in clubs, and the restaurants, bars and cafés give the city an open, vibrant feel," she says. That was - despite all the hustle and bustle - the positive thing about the new time!
Impressions from Moscow
Stay overnight in Moscow
For example, bookable through the city trip specialist Dertour, luxury hotel in the center DZ from about 202 euros (through travel agents or Dertour). An alternative to hotels are apartments, the z. As the Eastern Europe organizer Go East offers, from 63 euros for two people? Guide: Good tips, lots of background and maps supplies the "Merian live" guide "Moscow" (12.50 Euro).
