January 27, 2016

Salt and Loathing in St. Petersburg


Salt and Loathing in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, winter 2016. Photo by Darina Gribova.

As any invading army throughout history can tell you, there's nothing unusual about heavy snowfall in Russian cities. But this force that has helped defeat French legions and German divisions is also an ordinary concern in Russians’ everyday lives. Usually, there's little cause for celebration, when considering the Russian winter. This season, however, thousands of people in St. Petersburg are so happy with their winter that they're asking to pin a medal on the city official who pioneered a new approach to snow removal.

In previous winters, St. Petersburg has had to put up with grisly winter conditions: salt and snow-melting chemicals littered the streets, inevitably leading to a dirty mush that damaged shoes, ruined cars, and even stung animals’ paws. Every year, the city's people complained, giving municipal officials dismally low approval ratings, and every year the city repeated the same approach to getting rid of snow and ice.

This year, the city Committee on Municipal Improvement finally changed its snow-removal tactics, and it's bathing in the public's adoration, as a result.

What is St. Petersburg doing differently? Officials stopped using reagent chemicals, reduced the amount of salt it uses to 5-10 percent, and instead added more sand on the streets (to avoid ice-slicks). Instead, the city is focusing its efforts on active snow removal from roads and sidewalks. You can even track the work of snow-disposal equipment using an interactive map in realtime.

In order to appreciate fully what impact these reforms have on life in St. Petersburg, you need look no further than an online poll launched a week ago on a major Vkontakte community dedicated to local traffic and road safety issues. At the time of this writing, more than 30,185 votes were cast, with just 2,464 people complaining of slipperiness on the streets. Meanwhile, a whopping 17,770 drivers and 9,952 pedestrians expressed total satisfaction with the city's new snow-removal policy. Moreover, people keep sending messages of thanks to the city's Committee on Municipal Improvement.

Though the RuNet has come to be known as the playground of trolls, bots, and hackers, the outpouring of support and gratitude appears to be genuine—even heartfelt.

On Facebook, Anna Zubakina wrote:

Большое спасибо за отказ от применения реагентов, душа радуется как чисто и красиво вокруг!! Машина чистая, обувь тоже, собака больше не обжигает лапы – одно удовольствие! Пожалуйста, продолжайте и дальше также!
Many thanks for ending the use of reagents! The soul rejoices as it's so clear and beautiful around! The car is clean, shoes too, and the dog's paws no longer burn – it's pure joy! Please keep it up!

Lesha Zenin wrote:

Никак не мог понять, откуда это ощущение зимы как в детстве. Теперь все понятно, спасибо за работу.
I couldn't understand why this winter reminds me so of the ones from my childhood. Now I know. Thank you for your work.

Tatyana Pogost said:

Спасибо за чистый город без ужасной слякоти и соли, которая разъедает обувь, автомобили и дыхательные пути. Эта зима в Питере чудесна! Я за то, чтобы и в будущем отказаться от реагентов на дорогах.
Thank you for the clean city without the awful slush and salt that erodes shoes, cars, and lungs. This winter in St. Petersburg is wonderful! I'm all for ending the use of reagents on the roads in future, too.

With a glint of satire in his eye, journalist Sergey Dorenko even dreamed about taking things a bit further in this fairytale:

Санкт-Петербург: 1. Перестали сыпать соль на дороги; 2. Ввод финского вторым языком в школах; 3. Заработная плата в Евро
Saint Petersburg: 1. No salt on the roads; 2. Finnish becomes the second language in schools; 3. Salaries are distributed in euros.

Proud of its public support, the city government highlighted all the love on its official website, quoting praise from citizens both in social media and in mailed letters. Most people singled out the chairman of the committee, Vladimir Rublevskiy, who spearheaded the effort to reduce the use of salt. St.-Petersburg-based artist Karim Ragimov has even launched a petition on Change.org calling for the city to honor Rublevsky with an award. (More than 2,000 people had signed it, at the time of this writing.)

Просим отметить правительственной наградой деятельность Владимира Рублевского, главу комитета по благоустройству Смольного, прекратившего вопиющее ежегодное изнасилование города солью и реагентами в зимний период. За многие годы впервые мы переживаем настоящую красивую снежную зиму в Санкт-Петербурге. Выражаем отдельную благодарность от имени владельцев автомобилей, домашних животных и обуви.
Please bestow state honors on Vladimir Rublevskiy, the head of the Smolny Committee on Municipal Improvement, who stopped the blatant annual violation of the city with salt and reagents in the winter. This year is the first time in many years that we have experienced a beautiful, snowy winter in St. Petersburg. We express our special gratitude on behalf of the owners of cars, pets, and shoes.

Meanwhile, not far outside Moscow, the public is less than satisfied with how officials are managing the local snow-removal process. One group of people even piled a small mountain of snow outside a municipal office, barricading the door of officials meant to be clearing the streets of snow. On Vkontakte, more than 2,500 people applauded the act.

Жители Подмосковья закопали в снег офис коммунальщиков, не справляющихся с уборкой дворов

— Лентач (@oldLentach) January 21, 2016

The residents of Moscow suburbs buried in the snow the office of utility providers who can not cope with cleaning the yards.


This article by Darina Gribova originally appeared on Global Voices on January 24, 2016.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Steppe / Степь

Steppe / Степь

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955