Two Tales of a City

Looks like there was a full moon last weekend in Moscow. Below are two stories reported by email by friends who live in Moscow, both of which took place last Sunday.

Here at Scraps of Moscow, we may no longer be based in Mo-town (until this summer, at least), but we still try to bring the flavor of the city home to the English-speaking reader. If anyone had questions about which gender has the stronger moral compass in Russia, these stories should help with that determination.

Tale One - Babushka Triumphant - By Friend A

I was unsuccessfully attacked in the Tverskaya Metro Station this evening. While peacefully waiting for my train, a clearly drunk (and likely crazy) gentleman approached me as I was busily thumbing away on my blackberry.....he slurred something that was not only incomprehensible to me, but would have been incomprehensible to native Russian speakers.

In my best Russian, I responded, without looking up from my blackberry, Ya nye ponyal. He then decided the best way to make me ponimat was to grab/pull one of my arms....when he saw that this did not dislodge the blackberry from my other hand, he decided that slapping my other arm was the next logical step. At this point, I am stunned and shocked and standing there with my arms entangled with this maniac.......

Suddenly....to my immediate left (he approached me from my right) a blood curdling scream issued forth and we both turned to see a babushka entering into the wind up of what would have been the most terrifying southpaw roundhouse this side of Trenton....simultaneously, my shock switched to anger and this strange gentleman decided it was time to cut and run (with the Babushka yelling epithets at him as he ran, seemingly upset that she did not have a chance to unleash her mighty punch).

I was immediately very grateful to my savior who brushed it off like a superhero saying it is all in the day's work for a babushka. She apologized to me that the metro is so full of drunkards. I was tempted to slip her 500 rubles but worried that this might wound her pride. We can all make fun of the way they yell at you to put your hat on or elbow you getting into a crowded metro, but the babushka is the one segment of Russian society that has any sense of a human role (as opposed to nature) of telling right from wrong and acting accordingly. If everybody behaved like them, Russia would be a better place.

Anyway, I am home safe no worse for the wear (the whole thing lasted a matter of seconds) -- just thought some of you might appreciate the vignette. One little piece of irony....the police presence in the metro this weekend was simply overwhelming.....incredibly oppressive. I have notice that since new year, the metro is FULL of militsia. Of course, it is the babushka who are keeping this place safe (while their pensions are being cut to fund more money into the military industrial complex).

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Tale Two - Dedushka Triumphant - By Friend B

I also encountered a bit of strangeness. I dropped 100 rubles on the ground as I was stuffing the change into my pocket after buying a bunch of spinach and other veggies at the outdoor market at my metro station.

I had taken a few steps when a woman, one of the sellers, pointed to the ground and said I had dropped the money. When I turned around a man, a well-dressed pensioner who had been standing behind me, already had pocketed it. I went up to him, and asked if he had found the note.

He didn't look at me, but responded softly, 'Nyeeet.' He took it. He knew I knew he took it. And so did his wife. I smiled and began to walk away. When I turned around again he was frantically shifting it from his coat pocket into his pants pocket.