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Siberia Diary
With Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins
The Washington Post
Monday, Sept. 10, 2001; 1 p.m. EDT

Washington Post correspondent Robert Kaiser and photographer Lucian Perkins have returned from a month-long journey across eastern Russia's vast region of Siberia. Reporting and sending photographs from every stop along the way, they created an online record of their odyssey in Siberia Diary.

Monday, Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. EDT Kaiser and Perkins will talk about their trip, what they saw and what they learned.

Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.

Kaiser is associate editor of The Post and a former Moscow bureau chief. Perkins is a photographer for The Post. He shared the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for coverage of the Kosovo conflict.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

New York City: Did you visit as reporters from The Washington Post or as ordinary citizens? Could ordinary American citizens travel freely in that area with simply a passport and a credit card?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Greetings to all. We have received several dozen questions already and will try to answer as many as we can in the next hour or so.

We were unmistakably from The Washington Post, but almost nothing we did couldn't also be done by an ordinary citizen. But don't rely on the credit card. It could be used in about half the hotels we stayed in, but nowhere else. On the other hand, we were amazed to see ATM machines all over Siberia; neither of us had brought a bank card so we can't guarantee they work, but it looked like they did.

The big challenge would be language. You can find English-speakers eventually, but they are far from ubiquitous, and sometimes trying to get things done without Russian would be very hard.

Reston, VA: Dear Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Perkins, thank you so
much for a thoughtful and compelling series.
Mr. Kaiser, what is the greatest change you
noted in Russian society from your first to
your latest visit? For the better? For the
worst?

Mr. Perkins, what did the eyes of Russian
youth reveal to you?

Would either of you recommend eastern Russia
as a place to visit? Or should an American
with a Russian heritage go to Moscow and St.
Petersburg for a first trip t

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: From Kaiser: I guess the biggest change is what is gone: red flags, portraits of politburo members, portraits of Lenin in every office--all the paraphernalia of communism has disappeared, and with it, happily, the gloomy looks on peoples' faces, too. I think the one thing I will remember longest from this trip is the smiles on peoples' faces in ordinary situations, something you just didn't see thirty years ago. Russia has a huge number of grave problems to confront, but Russians are enormously talented people, and I am, on balance, with footnotes and reservations, optimistic.

From Perkins:
Russia's youth seemed to me to have desires, problems, ambitions and clothing styles similar to their American counterparts. But there's one difference: Russians want to make progress, they want their country and their own lives to be much better than they are today.

from Both of Us: Moscow and St. Petersburg are both great cities, and much easier for foreign tourists to navigate than Irkutsk or Chita.

Somewhere, USA: What film are you using?

Please forgive such a simple question, but I am none the less wondering what your response will be.

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: color negative 200 and 800 ASA film, developed in one-hour photo labs which we found in every town we visited.

Hong Kong, China: Dear Robert and Lucian,

Would you take the same trip in the heart of winter and report how people cope with it (by the meantime, drawing any interesting comparision with North America)?

Thanks for your answer,

Marc-Henry

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: We would love to do it. May not be easy to persuade our editors that we have to go back a second time. But we talked often about the fact that Siberia in August isn't exactly typical.

Manassas, Va.: I am planning to adopt from Russia within the next few months. A lot of books and articles stated that most Russians dress in black or dark clothes, but your photos seemed to contradict that. Is the way people are dressing now related to the New Russia emerging? I was afraid my clothes would shout 'American person,' but now I think I'll fit right in. Would you say that will be the case?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: The truth is, Russians no longer look "Russian." The old cliches about clothes are all out of date. The big thing that distinguishes Americans from Russians now, alas, is their shape: Russians are slimmer, as a nation, than we are.

Chicago, Ill.: Many Europeans from countries such as Poland and Germany were shipped to Siberia during and following WWII. Was there any evidence of their past or current presence?

Thank you!

p.s. Great series!

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: We did meet several people with German last names, the descendants of Volga Germans send to Siberia by Stalin. One of them runs the huge aluminum factory in Krasnoyarsk--sorry, I don't have the name with me now. Lucian notes that we also saw European faces in Siberia that didn't look obviously Russian. As you may know, it was the Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, that were most heavily represented among European exiles to Siberia; Poles probably came next.

Bloomington, Minn.: Hello,

In a few weeks, I'll be moving to a small village outside of Chita for the next year. I have two questions for you.

First, why do you think that Chita is more economically depressed than cities such as Krasnayarsk and Novosibirsk? What are the factors that you think cause these differences in fortunes?

Second, I'm wondering if you can comment on your impressions of gender differences in the post-Soviet economic landscape. Do you have a sense of the different ways that men and women have been affected (socially, politically, and financialy) by the economic transformations?

Thank you.

Jessica Jacobson

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: We'd love to know what you are going to be doing in Chita. Sounds fascinating. I think you will hear from Russian women that they still resent the customs and habits of the ages that put men in the drivers' seats in most families, still. At the wedding palace in Krasnoyarsk, the wonderful woman who conducted the ceremony went over to the new husband when it was over and shook his hand: "I congratulate you as head of your new family." That sort of history dies hard. Russian women have long had professional opportunities, but they are still expected to cook breakfast--and dinner, and supper.

El Monte, Calif.:
How many days does it take, from Moscow to Vladivostok, or vice versa, by the Siberia Railroad, non-stop. And how much does it cost per person.
Best Regards
Peter Gu

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: It's just a few hours less than one week to go the whole way on the train. We don't have the current cost, because we only took relatively short sections of the trip--which were cheap.

Towson, MD: In response to the first question, which asked whether "an ordinary citizen could travel throughout Siberia with a passport and credit card?"...Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins neglected to mention that one would first need to acquire a visa, which could be difficult to come by if you weren't staying in a tourist establishment, such as a hotel or hostel. Frankly, I would be quite interested to hear what kind of visa that Kaiser and Perkins required and any difficulties/hassles that they encountered once they actually received the visa, such as registering with OVIR, etc.?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: It's actually easy now to get a tourist visa (easy, but not cheap) from gotorussia.com. look it up. You can get an application for a visa from the web site of the Russian Embassy in Washington, sorry I don't remember the exact address, try Google. The only problem we had was described by Lucian in his final dispatch. You can look it up, too. You no longer have to show that you have bought a tourist tour to get a tourist visa.

Pennsburg, Pa.: Hi,

I may have missed this question -- answer, but I read in a Stanley Kaminsky 'Inspector Rostnikov series' book that the Tsar had offered to throw in Siberia when he sold Alaska to the U.S.A.

Is this true?

Thank You. Dennis

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Don't think so.

Austin, Tex.: Where is this "honky-tonk diner" near the Chinese border that you could've spent a month in?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: The diner was really a kind of trailer that the mother and daughter I described had turned into a tiny eatery. It reminded me of something you might find outside of Austin (where I went to school). It was on the road from Krasnokamensk to Chita; further I cannot say. LP.

Rockville, Md.: I just want to thank both of you for the great report for your travel in Siberia. I never read Washington Post so seriously every day. Even I visited St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1997. This diary really opened up my eyes about the mysterious place like Siberia.
Do you think you will have a special program some time on TV? If you do I am sure you'll have a lots of viewers (great ratings).
Thanks again. Marjorie

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Hey, Marjorie, we are PRINT (and on-line) journalists! WHat's television?

Seriously, Lucian took some videotape while we were in Siberia. He told me this morning he has enough good footage for a five-minute documentary. Maybe we'll make it.

West palm Beach, Fla.: I had the chance to fly in and out of Siberia during 1992. I was working for a U.S. Corporation, flying their corporate jet. I spent many days in Irkust, and stayed at the Intourist hotel. I found the people there to be very friendly and very curious of the west, I remember how they looked in awe at our private jet, and astonishment when we told them that it was owned by one individual! We could have been from Mars as far as they were concerned!
The country site and the people of Siberia are magnificent, thank you for taking me back there through your pictures and words.

Jean L. Novel

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Thanks!

Lafayette, La.: Any comment on Chinese influence in Siberia?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: This is a big and fascinating subject. We saw evidence of Chinese presence and influence all across Siberia, from Chinese restaurants to Chinese salesmen in street markets to Chinese tourists in Chita. In Irkutsk we were told of chinese famers who came to that area for the summer and grew vegetables in a field they rented, selling their produce in the local markets to make money. The tensions here are obvious: one of the world's most overcrowded countries, China, just over the border from the underpopulated vastness of Siberia. The Russians hope to sell a lot of Siberia's natural resources to China, too.

Kimberton, PA: Hi,

Was wondering if you got any special shots before leaving the United States? Also did you have to take any precautions in what foods you could eat and what you could drink?

Thanks for a great series!

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: The doctors recommend hepatitis shots, and your basic ones need to be up to date. Drinking water is problematical all over Russia now; we bought bottled water everywhere. We both had brief periods of upset stomachs, nothing serious. We ate everything we could get our hands on--well, not really, but we ate well, and heartily.

DC: Were there still military personnel in Siberia? Are their morale high?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: We saw a few men in uniform. We saw some big military bases, and we saw some that looked abandoned, or nearly so. We didn't talk to any military personnel, but there is abundant evidence that morale in the Russian Army is very low.

VA: Did you meet any foreigners from Europe, Africa, Asia, and the middle East in Siberia?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: We met Chinese tourists in Chita. We saw a busload of Italian tourists, and many more Japanese tourists, in Irkutsk. And that was about it.

Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela: My name is Gustavo Naranjo, Jr. Freelance journalist, 70, but still active, writing this question from my home in Ciudad Bolivar on Sunday night in the Guayana region, just on the riverside of Orinoco. To Robert and Lucian. It is impossible, as you said, to know such a vast territory in one month of travel. But despite that fact, what did you learn from the land and it's people that can show or tell us that they are on the right track toward the future? Have the myth of Stalin really disappeared and what is now on the minds of the younger people?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Interestingly, the myth of Stalin has not disappeared: several people in their 50s or older told us what a great leader he had been. It gives me the shudders every time I hear that. On the other hand, many young people have no interest in or knowledge of Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev or any of them, and they are entirely oriented toward a new Russia in a new world.

Washington, D.C.:
Dear Mr. Kaiser,
I have thoroughly enjoyed your articles on Siberia. I have not been to that region, but have cherished a dream to head out there. Your articles have encouraged me to follow my dream. Thanks for a personal account and some wonderful pictures. I endorse the suggestion that you write a book.
I have a Siberian friend staying with me in Washington who wonders why it is you have not visited her hometown, Barnaul, located south of Novosibirsk. I realize you can’t be visiting every town in Siberia, but it would gladden her heart if you were to stop by Barnaul, visit her mother who runs a grocery store, and chat with her grandmother who volunteered to fight the Germans during the Second World War and was twice injured. I, of course, would love a write-up on the city of 700,000 people.
Best wishes,
Emmanuel D'Silva
ehdsilva-hotmail.com

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Well, we were in Barnaul--briefly. Our plane from Moscow to Chita landed there on August 2, early in the morning. And Lucian drove through the town again on his way to the music festival described in one of his dispatches, called "Music Festival" on the list of dispatches. But we didn't really see the city--or Omsk, or Tomsk, or Yekaterinburg, or many others. Next time.

Melbourne, Fla.: I was intrigued by your summary dispatch and your positive comments about future upside for siberia and russia. How hopeful are you for future, short term and long term? Could you expand upon the comments in your final article. Ray Leroux
P.S. Many thanks on superb series. Waiting for book version anxiously.

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Many thanks. Hard to expand on those comments off the cuff; I will be thinking about this for a while, and writing about it again. Russia has a lot going for it: talented people, educated people, amazing natural wealth. And it has a lot going against it: 70-plus years of communist mis-rule, no traditions of democracy or the rule of law, no banking system worthy of the name, a terrible national health crisis, etc. etc. Good things will happen; bad things will too. My hunch is that certainly for the rest of my life, the news from Russia will be mixed; Russia will have successes, and failures; it will make progress, and fail to make progress. Maybe 30-50 years from now, things will settle down. Yes, that's a cop out. But it's what I really think, too.

HUNTINGTON BEACH CA: ITS THE WHEATHER REALLY COLD AT THIS TIME OF
THE YEAR IN SIBERIA?. IF SO TELL ME HOW COLD
WHAT ARE THE MAJOR RESOURSES OF LIFE
THERE?THANKS JOSEPH

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Hi, Joseph. The leaves were turning orange and red when we left Surgut. But it wasn't really cold yet. Not sure what you mean by major resources of life--natural resources? SIberia has everything from oil and gas to diamonds and gold.

Tecumseh, Michigan: Hello Mr. Kaiser and Mr. Perkins,

Welcome back! And thank you for such an
outstanding series. I looked forward to
checking the site every day for the latest
dispatch, and am quite sad that it's now
over. (Where are you going next?)

Do both of you speak fluent Russian? If
not, how did you manage? Also, did you
make all your own travel arrangements,
or did you always have someone helping
you with that? I have found as a foreigner
in Russia that it is not always easy just to
walk up to a train station or airport ticket
counter and purchase a ticket. Do they
still have the two-tiered price system in
place that was common in Soviet times,
i.e., a lower price for Russian nationals, a
higher price for foreign passport holders?

Spasibo!

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Thanks. We already miss the daily deadlines, too. I speak a workable, inelegant Russian, which is a huge help. Lucian knows how to order vodka in Russian. He also knows small talk and compliments which helped him charm his Russian subjects. You're right; it's much harder if you don't speak any Russian. Buying tickets gets easier all the time. In Norilsk I actually walked into an airline ticket office, ordered and bought three seats to Novosibirsk on the next day's plane. The nice young lady at the computer in front of me was efficiency personified. And that, as you know, is a departure for Russia.

We encounterd the dual price system only once, and I am glad to have this opprtunity to give some bad publicity to the Hotel Intourist, or Hotel Baikal as it is now also known, in Irkutsk. They reallay tried to nail us on the laundry charges there--nearly ten times more for foreigners than for Russians. A museum in Irkutsk also stuck it to us. But in general that seems to be dying out.

Fairfax, VA: I've been following your reports - I never knew how advanced Siberia was - guess I was relying on information from old textbooks that I learned from in grade school! You definitely made me a wiser person. Did you feel safe over there? Did you ever feel like you were in danger? I had been to East Berlin on many occasions before the Wall came down and there was always a feeling in the back of my mind that something COULD go wrong (but luckily, never did).

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Before we left we worried about the cash we had to carry, and about our equipment, cameras and computers. But once in Siberia we stopped worrying and felt safe throughout the trip. Not sure why exactly, but it never seemed the least bit ominous. Your East Berlin and this Siberia don't have much in common.

Arlington: Gentlemen,
Thanks for your great work. As the adoptive father of two beautiful Russian children, I really enjoyed following your trip. I visited Moscow, Ulyanovsk, and environs multiple times '96-'99. What was your sense of how the children and the orphanage system was fairing in the "far east" compared to the late '90s? My last visits showed a marked decline in resources in Ulyanovsk. Thanks again.
Steve Walsh

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Neither of us saw orphanages a few years ago, and we only saw one on this visit, so we can't really answer the question. Sorry.

DC: The Washington Post paid for al your travel bills? Nice to visit for free.

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Do you work for The Washington Post? On the accounting side, perhaps?

Well, we were doing more than just visiting, don't you think? Well, maybe you don't, but we thought we were working pretty hard on behalf of the Post's readers. Yes, the paper paid the freight. And yes, it's a great place to work.

Washington, DC: Will you be publishing a book?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: No time to think seriously about that yet.

California: I just wanted to let you know how happy it was to run across the Washington Post to see photos and info on Irkutsk, Siberia. Over theree years ago me and my wife adopted an 11-month-old child from Irkutsk and the experience and what we were able to experiece was totally unbelievable. We stayed in an apt arranged by the adoption agency that belong to an elderly women just down the river from the Intourist Hotel. It reminded me of my college days with one room,kitchen and bathroom. When we first arrived I thought there was a bird in the tiny apt. I would hear this chirping inside. I later found out this was the door bell and our translater was trying to get in. I believe there was a train station just across the river and the erie feeling I would get when the whistle blew into the apt. It sounded like something out of the old World War II movies. I sometimes forget that my son , who is now 4, came from Irkutsk. He thrives in this country and has turned into another happy beach kid. I know that he would not have survived there being an orphan let alone being a mixed child (part buryak and russian)and I am thankful that we were able to make him a part of our family. I hope to see more photos and receive more information about Irkutsk.

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Thanks. Hope you can take your son back there some day.

Logan, Utah : Do the circumstances in Siberia vary from area to area and city to city? If so, is there effort being put forward to make the results of the development more consistent?
I enjoyed your complete accounts! Thanks to both of you!

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: As we tried to make clear in our dispatches, the cities were all very distinct from one another. Chita was poor; Norilsk was strange; Novosibirsk was prosperous, etc. These places all enjoy considerable autonomy now; the economic and political policies in each are different. Moscow can no longer impose uniform practices.

Benton Harbor, Mich.: Now that communism collapsed in a great exhale, I hear a great inhaling wind, and wonder what will take communism's place. Will pure capitalism work in this country, and if so, how do you think it will play out? If not, what do you think will take the place of old style communists?

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: See above answer about the future. Communism is truly dead; even the Russian communists, who can still win an occasional election, no longer profess communism. I don't know an example of "pure capitalism;" all the successful market economies temper their capitalism with regulations and rules, which the Russians haven't yet figured out very well. But they will.

New Jersey: Help! I have not been able to get into the picture gallery and I have followed directions!

Robert Kaiser and Lucian Perkins: Our production staff reports no problems from our end, in order to help, we'd need to know more information such as: Are you accessing it through AOL? Which browser are you using and which version of that browser. Do you have javascript enabled? If you are still having problems, write to us as siberiadiary@washingtonpost.com and we'll see if we can help further.

washingtonpost.com: Well, it's hard to say goodbye. We really enjoyed doing this Diary, and especially enjoyed the interaction with readers. On more than one occasion tips from all of you added to our experience, and introduced us to interesting people we would not have met otherwise. Your comments enriched the reading experience for everyone. We'll now start dreaming about our next adventure--and welcome suggestions for what it ought to be! Thanks to all. Dosvidanya.

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