OPINION

Shift to a Better Life Starts In People's Heads

Academics in St. Petersburg State University's department of international affairs want Russia to get closer to Europe, but not all of it at once. They are thinking only of regions bordering the European Union that could be used as stepping stones for the further development of relations between Russia and the EU, scholars said at an international conference held at the university last week.

One of the places mentioned was Ivangorod, located on the border with Estonia, whose citizens have a mentality that is quite different from that inherent in the rest of Russians, according to the department's staff.

I found this quite amusing because I have traveled through Ivangorod on numerous occasions on my way to Estonia. I can say a thing or two that suggest that the academics are wrong.

1. The police patrols located at the entrance roads to Ivangorod take bribes from drivers traveling to the border checkpoint.

2. A large number of alcoholics can be seen throughout Ivangorod at any time of the day.

3. Badly dressed people who look poor hang around on the Russian side of the border.

4. The customs officials, most of whom live in Ivangorod, are rude and unwelcoming.

For this reason I can't rid myself of the impression that the mentality of the citizens of Ivangorod is not much different from that of people who live in other Russian cities of a similar size.

One thing that is different, however, is the presence of the customs post, which is a reliable source of income for residents of the border town.

In October 1999, I wrote a story comparing Ivangorod and Narva, the first Estonian town on the other side of the border across the Narva River. It became clear to me then just what a big gap there is between the mentalities of the Russians living in Narva and their neighbors in Ivangorod.

The river, which changed from being an internal border of the Soviet Union to become an international border at the beginning of the 1990s, these days also divides two approaches to life - a Russian one and one that is approaching a European style of thinking.

"The fish stinks from the head," Viktor, then 24, a Russian student with Estonian citizenship, told me just after he had stepped off the border bridge on his way to Ivangorod. "Estonia is a civilized country and there is only chaos [in Russia] - nobody cares about anything in Russia. Everyone cares only about themselves." It sounded right then, five years ago, and it sounds right now.

But it would be wrong to say that all Ivangorod residents are so Soviet-minded that there is no hope of this place improving.

Five years ago, some 500 residents signed a petition to the Kremlin asking for Ivangorod to be given back to Estonia. On the one hand, that sounds unpatriotic. But on the other hand, this is a clear sign that there are people who really want to enjoy a European standard of living, and spurn alcoholism, poverty and lawlessness. It is not only people close to the borders who yearn for a better life. Such people can be found all over Russia, but the problem is they are in the minority.

I remember quite an interesting Russian joke about this. It reflects a certain approach to the problem: "St. Petersburg declares war on Finland and capitulates after a minute." For me this joke is not about an intention to surrender part of Russia to a foreign state, but a hidden wish to make the place more civilized.

For this reason, I have to disagree with the academics and say that rather than just looking at border regions increasing cooperation with the EU, this should be done by addressing the progressively minded people throughout the country.

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