June 03, 2019

Scooters Kick Off in Russia


Scooters Kick Off in Russia
Mother leading daughter’s scooter on a string in a small town of the Northern Caucasus. Katrina Keegan

What characteristic unites Russian businessmen in suits sporting expensive backpacks, active babushki, children in Victory Day parades, and hip baristas in the favorite bookstore of the St. Petersburg youth? Scooters.

Tip jar scooter Russia
A tip jar reading “For a scooter vroom vroom :)”
and the feet that wish to ride it. / Katrina Keegan
Victory Day Russia scooter
A scootering family in the Immortal Regiment march on Victory Day in St. Petersburg. / Katrina Keegan

Scooters have become a cross-generational, serious means of transport for urban Russians in the past few years. In 2011 the Moscow-based group “Let’s Kick!” was founded to form a community of scooter riders; their VKontakte group currently has nearly 6,000 members. Scooters really started to become common in Moscow around 2015, mostly among professionals in their 20’s, and continues to spread from there, both geographically and among the population. 

The latest development is kicksharing, or scooter rental, usually through an app. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin declared the inaugural 2018 season successful, with a total of 140,000 rides. Many providers are expanding services this year. For example, Samocat Sharing has 15 stations in Moscow, but will kick that up to 100 this year. Kicksharing can now even be found outside major cities, in places like Omsk and Sochi

Although the trend is likely due to worldwide popularity – 2018 was named “the year of the scooter” – scooters have a respectable history in Russia. In the Soviet period, they were a popular toy for children. Before factory-made ones became widely available, as several bloggers remember, practically all children had do-it-yourself versions made of planks of wood and rings of metal. 

Soviet scooters flea market in Russia
Soviet children’s scooters at a flea market in St. Petersburg. / Katrina Keegan

In 1973 a Soviet engineer published an article proposing an adult model that would quickly and effortlessly transport heavy loads, but it was never mass produced. That engineer was 40 years ahead of his time. Nowadays, children still enjoy playing on scooters, but adults also find them very practical. For example, Adel Mavzyutova, a 20-year-old student in St. Petersburg, said she especially likes riding her scooter to the grocery store, so that she can hang the food bags on the handles. 

Compactness is one of the biggest advantages of scooters for urban Russians. While a bike might make sense at the dacha, the apartments in which 66% of Russians live don’t have a lot of extra space. Indeed, 67% of scooter purchasers choose the even more compact, folding models. 

Mavzyutova also mentioned that she prefers scooters because she feels safer on the sidewalks than in the streets. Currently, scooter riders in Russia are considered pedestrians, unlike bikers. In Perm, for example, bikers were forbidden last month from cruising along a riverbank, but not scooter riders. However, this issue is being studied by the Scientific Center of Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the results should be available by the end of the year, which could lead to legal changes. 

The popularity of scooters is somewhat surprising in Russia. Roads leave much to be desired, according to the centuries-old saying “В России две беды: дураки и дороги” (In Russia there are two misfortunes: fools and roads). Additionally, as everyone knows, Russia is a pretty cold and snowy place, which keeps scooter-riding strictly contained to the summer season. However, these kinds of barriers aren’t stopping a people adaptable enough to nail together their own scooters out of wood, and there is every indication that Russians will continue to get a kick out of scooters for years to come. 

Scooter park Moscow
Scooter riders admire the Uzbekistan Pavillion in VDNKh park in Moscow. / Katrina Keegan

 

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

Some of Our Books

Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
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.
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.
At the Circus (bilingual)

At the Circus (bilingual)

This wonderful novella by Alexander Kuprin tells the story of the wrestler Arbuzov and his battle against a renowned American wrestler. Rich in detail and characterization, At the Circus brims with excitement and life. You can smell the sawdust in the big top, see the vivid and colorful characters, sense the tension build as Arbuzov readies to face off against the American.
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.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

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