Ever-present reminders of the Soviet era

Even though the Hammer & Sickle flags have long since disappeared, there are still those elements of communist influence that still remain today. One such example of that is the heating system in our apartment. How is that, you might be thinking? Well, we currently don’t have any heat because they have yet to turn it on. Who’s they? The town officials( guess). You see, the communal aspects of life so strongly emphasized in the communist era made its way down even to the heaters. A large percentage of people in Tver, with the exception of those who live in houses or apartments built recently, live in Soviet-built apartment complexes that have centralized heating systems controlled by the government. Hence, there are two levels of heating: on and off.

For example, right now, as I sit in my living room, it is 9:30 at night, and our apartment is getting a little chilly now because the officials (I am not really sure exactly who does control the heating system) have yet to turn on Tver’s heating system. Everyone I talked to is without heat. I heard from our Nanny, who has a friend who works at the place controlling Tver’s heat, told us that we should have heat sometime this week. Now, when we were in Moscow, Brent’s apartment had heat—Moscow turned on its heaters last week—and their apartment was HOT. But, they had no way of regulating the heat, besides opening a window.

Now, before you get too worried about us, we are not living in -20 F temperatures; nor are we in danger of frostbite, hypothermia, or other cold-related malady. In fact, we have lots to be thankful for—our nanny was telling us that her apartment has largely been without hot water for a few months. Not only that, but our friends, Jaroslav and Tanya, were telling us that a few years ago, Tver was without heat most of the winter. Everyone just bundled up warmly. But, they also added, the mayor who in charge then was promptly voted out—that’s a good way to torpedo one’s political career!

This incident has prompted three thoughts: 1) the Soviet era still reaches beyond its grave into the present, 2) the Russian people are a hearty lot to live through a Russian winter largely without heat and 3) there is much in life that I have often taken for granted.