Omsk, the gateway to Siberia

I am curious at times. I wanted to go to Siberia and ended up in Omsk. A metropolis that disguised itself as a small country town but has the charme of a sleeping beauty.

The following picture shows an impressive view from space on the city. To achieve that, I boarded on the last PROTON-launch from Bajkonur.


(Courtesy of transsib.ru)

A closer look at Omsk reveals a few more details:



(Courtesy of Google 2005)

From space you can see a few interesting features about Omsk. First the airport. It is also one of the two main entry points into the city. Flights usually arrive from Moscow with Aeroflot or Sibir. But the city of Omsk also has its "own" airline, the Omskavia. The airline has around 10 Tu-154 (who dares to enter them) and offers flight especially to German cities like Hannover, Frankfurt and Cologne.

The other main entry point to the city is the station, a halt for the Transsib railway (by the way you can see the railway as a thin dark line in the first picture).


(Courtesy of transsib.ru)

The more interesting parts of Omsk conprise the riverfront and the river boat station. The there is an icehockey team, a theater, a few more or less international known universities a nice market (ahem,..) and also a huge library (named after Pushkin himself) with almost no budget for new books. Omsk used to be a closed city in the past, probably related to the tank production facilities (OMSKTRANSMASH GUP (State Unitary Enterprise "Transport Mechanical Engineering Plant").

Walking around Omsk can be quite nice a times, but of course it is harder in winter as some streets are in bad shape. A nice tour through the city can be found here from sibtours.com.
Still, it can be quite difficult for young people to find jobs that really matter. It is not unlikely that 50% or more of a last graduate class will either move to Moscow or St. Petersburg or go abroad. Well,..one day this brain drain might be reversed but when is unclear.

But there are signs of hope. In November 2005, a group of 80 representatives from Omsk flew to Berlin to present themselves in the German Ministry of Economics and to promote their region for foreign investors, especially from Germany. Osmk is claiming to have strong links to Germany (the "Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GTZ" and the "Goethe-Institut" being present there). And not to forget there is this very personal link that I have with the city, and at the end that is all that really counts :-)

Meet the Iden-Zellers

Thought you done it all, he? Fsjo? Toutes les choses? Wirklich alles?
Enter Anita und Oskar Iden-Zeller.


(picture published in his book 1914 with the Reclam-Verlag, Germany)

Sometimes man feels the call of destiny, that (s)he is to be awaited by adventures and new frontiers and maybe a record in the history books. Well, adventurers they had, but today both Anita and Oskar Iden-Zellers are almost forgotten. We want to change that. Now.


(Taken around 1905; courtesy of Library of Congress, Washington D.C.)

It was said that Oskar Iden-Zeller was the first white man to cross the Tschaun Mts., Siberia, on foot. Around 1904 Oskar Iden-Zeller first ventured deep into siberia, also publishing a book about his ventures. A highly fascinating and amusing piece of travel literature.


(The picture is taken from the book "Der Weg der Tränen", published 1926 by Reclam Leipzig)

Anita Iden-Zeller also wrote an unbelievable account of her journey to Russia. Together with her husband she planned to move into Russia in 1913. One year before the 1st World War... Eleven years the couple was held in Siberia. Arriving as ethnologists to explore the ethnic people of the Far East and the sub-arctic region, they suddently became isolated and trapped in a country that took foreigners as a potential negotiation power and threw them into prison. Managing to return home in the middle of the 1920s the couple broke up, but Anita Iden-Zeller kept up the legacy of their unbelievable journey and published her diary accounts.

Westerners and especially Germans have always been fascinated by the wild empty spaces of Siberia. Opposites attract, the small crowded Germany against the "endless" plains behind the Ural. Other samples of people venturing into the great emptiness are Otto Heller, Hardy Krüger, Klaus Bednarz, Kate Marsden, Egon Richter, Hugo Portisch, Wilhelm Radloff, Otto Finsch, Traugott von Stackelberg and many more.
More recent trips included Colin Thubron (we will hear of him here shortly), Gerd Ruge, Thomas Roth and the German TV-series "Sternflüstern" sending families into a few month long adventure close to the Baikal Lake.
However, I think the fate of the Iden-Zellers can only be compared with those that went into prison in Siberia and managed to flee like Josef Martin Bauer, Gottfried Buller, Leo Moenke or Joachim Haller. The stories of these men are appaling in their desire to flee from this country. They wanted to get out of it as fervently as Oskar and Anita Iden-Zeller wanted to venture into it.

The axes of eagle - Part 1, Belarus

When talking about geostrategy, the name Russia had sort of disappeared from the agenda in the last couple of years. Russia, a serious factor? You must be kidding, that used to be in the old days of the cold war, the times when western societies thought of the average Russian as a monster who was planning nothing else then preparing for the invasion of Europe.
Now, after almost 15 years since the iron curtain came down, the first signs of a renewed foreign policy of the Russian state seem to emerge. Not always, do these new alliances show a reasonable and ethical dimension for either side, but they seem to become more obvious and factual.
The Russian eagle looks both to the west and the east with its double head (the foto shows a well known version from the "security service" FSB, the KGB successor, but the doule headed eagle is to be seen in virtuelly all heraldic images of the Russian state).

It probably takes endless postings to describe all the new axes that the eagle has observed in the last years (not to forget the historic ties to old allies from the Soviet era), so we start this series with one of the "closest" and at the same time most complicated axis members to Russia, Belarus.

* Belarus:
The "Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS" had briefly talked about the Russis-Belarus dilema in an article in 2000 when stating:

"...Russia’s Belarus dilemma can be formulated as two questions. Should Moscow continue the process of political integration with Belarus--which necessarily entails interaction with and support of the regime of President Aleksandr Lukashenko--in order to enjoy certain geopolitical, security and economic dividends? Or, should Moscow gradually give up the current bilateral “special relationship,” which depletes Russia’s financial resources, implicitly complicates the Russian-Western agenda, and threatens to bring negative effects for future relations between the two countries should the opposition one day come to power in Belarus?"

Then the Center for Defense Information (CDI), said in a brief in 2003 that:

"... In 1995 Russia and Belarus signed a friendship and cooperation treaty. In 1996 they agreed to form a Russia-Belarus "community." In 1997 there followed a treaty of union, envisaging a confederal structure in which each state would retain its sovereignty. Since then several supranational bodies have been set up, and a committee to draft a new constitution for the union is at work (though with no visible result).Putin's ascent to power has further slowed the process, as unlike Yeltsin he does not have close ties with Belarus. In summer 2002 Putin offended Lukashenko by proposing that Belarus simply be incorporated into Russia, leading to a temporary rift."

Not long ago (Feb. 2004), the gas trade contracts between Russia and Belrus ceased, mainly because of a steep increase in prices from the Russian side. Recognizing the powerful price pressure and its huge dependecy on foreign energy exports, Belarus obviously seems to become a bit more "icelandic" in its energy policy, thinking about geothermal solutions. What an interesting idea, Belarus (by the way known for its active geothermal potential, har har...) heating its people with energy from deep inside the earth. In 2004 and 2005, the gas "issue" had been on the table a few more times and officially is declared "resolved" today. However, irritations still linger around.

In late 2006, Lukaschenko will go for the 3rd period of his presidency. Moreover Putin and Lukaschenko seem not to be a nice couple. Putin still claims that Belarus has a Russian history and current link to the "mainland", the Belarussian president is still sour over the quarrels during the "war on gas" in early 2004. Still Putin might support Lukaschenko in his rally for 2006. As Vladimir Frolov from the Fund for Effective Politics, Moscow said in an interview in August 2005:

"...In Belarus, Russia lacks a pro-Russian candidate it can support in a way that would not be antagonistic to Lukashenko and could be sold to him as the best guarantee of his peaceful and honorable retirement. Moscow cannot place a bet on Mikhail Chyhir or Mikhail Marynich; even less so on pro-Western “democrats” like Anatoly Lebedzka, Mikola Statkevich, or Andrei Klimau. Their desire and intention to orient Belarus toward the EU and NATO is too obvious, and their lack of support for the Union State with Russia is too pronounced."

Victor and Julia (no more) we are coming! What colour is left? Pink, Orange,.... why not use water steam white, maybe at least some reference to geothermal activities...

The polycentric Susdal-Blues

I visited Susdal in March/April 2005 during a journey along the Golden Ring, north-east of Moscow, that led us also to places like Jaroslavl, Nishni-Novgorod and Vladimir (which ist actually just 45 minutes by bus south of Susdal). I do not know why I chose to see Susdal that very day, but I probably was the only foreigner in that small town on the day.
Before talking about Susdal, we should be fair and approach the topic by giving it a chance. It was first mentioned in 1024, though probably inhabited earlier. Especially in the 13th,14th and 15th century (also again in the 17th), the little town became a very important religious centre in Russia, developing up to 15 (autonomous) cloisters or abbeys in its vicinity. Today or actually since 1992, the kremlin in the town is part of the UNESCO world heritage sites.

The first thing a visitor sees when arrivng is,.... the bus station. Being one of the most desolate places on earth it is situated 2 kilometers outside the towncenter, and I do not why but our bus stopped upon arrival from Valdimir there. Looking at the bus station can be a quite trying thing, for those who dare...



After waiting for 15 minutes a bus took us to the city center where we first looked a various monasteries´, who in general tend to be in an awful shape but which make up for a nice photo motive a few hundred meters away.
One of the nice things about Russia are always the bars, cafes and restaurants. So we decided, after a few religious impressions, to go into a nice cozy place not far from the central square of this place of almost 11ooo souls.
It took us about a tea and a salad length to find out that we would witness a post-burial family lunch before our eyes. When the family arrived we kindly retreated into the blinding snow and the religious polycentres of Susdal`s monasteries.

Trying to find a nice subsitute for the the cafe we stumbled into a Medovucha degustation hall, where we could try for a few roubles 9 different sorts of this honeywine, that tastes a bit like honey diluted in wine.



Medovucha, especially when drunken under this sobering sight of the city can have a quite opposite effect on the human physis. On that day, I personally decided that Medovucha was my personal answer to the cold shoulder the town had shown me in the hours before, with its empty streets and crumbling historic religious monuments. I suddenly felt like a true Russian, at least for a few minutes. I almost was tempted to dance and sing in the open square.



Quite interestingly, Susdal played also small interesting part in the German - Russian relationships. Being captured after the defeat of the German 6th army in Stalingrad, Generalfeldmarshall Friedrich Paulus obviously spent a few months in a prison in Susdal, from where he was openly proclaiming in 1944 the "Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland", a kind of exile opposition to the NSDAP and he commanded Hitler to step down as a "Führer"...if only he had said this in 1933.

One last thing, that I learned in Susdal. Why do Russian monasteries on the countryside usually have two churches (a big main one, and a smaller one in a distance of a few dozen meters)? There is a big unheated church for summer and a smaller heatable one for the winter mass. Quite a clever happy end.

The Oligarchs are back

Just a few days ago the highly recommendable ARTE TV channel (German-French initiative dating back a few years), had broadcasted a TV premiere of the film Oligarch.
The international critique has been widely mixed but the film shows us a few interesting things:

1. Russia is suffering from a hard time after wild years in the 1990s when many dubious businessmen took a hold of the countries assets.
2. Russian filmmaking is not sure how they should see the oligarchs today: evil (as Mr. Putin does or so-so as many refer to Mikhail Khodorkovsky)

Moreover it raises some other questions for the real world. Why did Khodorkovsky had to go to jail, while Mr. Abramowitsch is still smiling? We are surprised after watching the movie, and in our desparate situation we turn to the Economist for explanations.
There we read in the issue from Aug 11th 2005:

"...One possible explanation is that in Russia “the rules” are different from those in the West. They are also liable to change suddenly. Indeed, understanding that has been perhaps Mr Abramovich's greatest talent. With Boris Berezovsky, one of the original “oligarchs”, he is said to have helped choreograph Mr Putin's succession to Boris Yeltsin. But Mr Abramovich understood Mr Putin better than his partner. From his exile in London, Mr Berezovsky recently threatened to sue Mr Abramovich over what he claims was the illegal acquisition of his assets after he was chased out of Russia...
Mr Abramovich has been ingratiatingly generous to Mr Putin's government. He has pledged to finance a new national football stadium. In effect, he gave a stake in a TV company that he acquired from Mr Berezovsky to the Kremlin. That helped to prove that he was no political troublemaker. Despite his pharaonic lifestyle, in political terms Mr Abramovich's profile has always been low: as one experienced oligarch-watcher puts it, where others—however belatedly and self-interestedly—discovered political principles, Mr Abramovich “discovered compound interest”. He does not influence parliament or cultivate foreign dignitaries as Mr Khodorkovsky did. Chukotka may owe more to business than politics."

An other quite well known source, the Foreign Affairs Journal was recently summing it all up this way:

"...The jailing of Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has revealed the fault lines running through the post-Soviet political economy. The reforms and privatization of the 1990s were so flawed and unfair as to make them unstable. A backlash was inevitable. Given Vladimir Putin's authoritarian tendencies, that backlash has proved equally flawed and unfair-and perhaps equally unstable."

Quite interestingly, the film "Oligarch" is making the connections between Russian politics and businessmen, between the law of the organized crime and the organized crime of the law. But to be broadcasted in Russia it carefully had to avoid making direct connections between "gospodin president" and his political apparatus. Russians might think, "if only Putin would know about what happens, he would do something about it". I guess he knows quite well, but what can a single person do...;-?

Well then, we better not pour our millions in dodgy political forums or parties but steadily invest them for the benefit of the real Russian oligrach in the Kremlin.

So all you Oligarchs out there, which face do you like better?



A very interesting survey was conducted by the German "Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung" in 2004, asking Russians about their "economic elite" and the role of the oligarchs in every day life. When asked what their viewpoints towards Oligarchs were, they said:
66,9% = indifferent, no special viewpoint
21,1& = negative viewpoint
7,5% = positive viewpoint
4,5% = does not know what an oligarch is
Especially the last group evokes sympathy from the western spectator, because I think these people probably know very well, what they were asked about but stand above those questions, either because their stoic attitude absorbs all sociopolitical affairs, or because it was the oligarchs themselves, who responded with "no clue",...

For those who want to invest more time I recommend the excellent (german-speaking site) by Netstudien.de about the oligarchs and how they became what they were. Ahh,...that feels better now,..can I see that movie again please, it was so refreshing.