Livin’ on the Russian Poverty Line
By Sean at 14 June, 2008, 11:53 am
Who is leading the tandem dance? Is it Medvedev’s or Putin’s turn this week? The answer to who is at top in Kremlin Inc. is superfluous to those who live at Russia’s poverty line. Like in most places, the little guy is mostly a creature for cardboard cut out used for political rhetoric and posturing to those inhabiting the commanding heights. For the class conscious lumpen, it’s not who’s dancing that matters. It’s the dance itself. Each twirl, dip, side step, or skip is another assurance that the Russian elite will remain prosperous and the Russian prols will have to continue fighting over the scraps that trickle down.
For those living at the very bottom of Russian society, that trickle down is a fine mist. With costs of food, energy, and other staples rising that mist is leaving many Russian more and more parched. All the Russians can take comfort in is that they are not alone. With food riots in Haiti, Bangladesh and Egypt, fuel costs hitting pocket books the world wide, and a commodities bubble fueling the shebang, one can only wonder what will come next. For the Russians, its a sign that being part of the globalization block party isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Medvedev may pirouette and motion to West as the source for the despair all he wants. But the nature of the economy can no longer be thought of in terms of states or even regions. It’s all connected making the latest global economic crisis structural in nature.
With rising inflation in Russia (up 5.3% in the last three months), those living at the poverty line are forced to make it by with less. According to the Russian State Department of Statistics, Rosstat, the minimum subsistence level in Moscow is 62 Euros a month (or about 95 in sinking dollars terms) . This is supposed to cover food, clothes, housing utilities, and transportation in the capital. As of 2006, 21.6 million (15.3%) of Russians live below this threshold. Just to add some perspective, a recent figure says that there are 131,000 millionaires in Russia. That’s about sixteen impoverished Russians to every one millionaire. Sixteen live on what every one minigarch throws down for decent sushi. Can living in Moscow on 62 Euros a month be done? If so, how?
For answers we have to turn to Polit.ru journalist Liz Surnacheva, who recently pulled a Barbara Ehrenreich to see if the seemingly impossible is indeed possible. She chronicled her travails in a three part series on Open Democracy. The latter recently teamed up with Polit.ru to provide a bit more comprehensive coverage of the Russian scene for the English reader.
In part one, Surnacheva quickly finds that Rosstat’s statistical “shopping basket” and what is actually possible to do with it are two different things. Also, she finds that livin’ on the line is not just about cheap food, its more about what one has to do to first find it and then not getting screwed over when you get it. Kiosks are cheaper, though you run the risk of getting cheated. Prices at supermarkets are “catastrophic.” “From now on,” Surnacheva writes, “everything that saves time is out: nothing oven-ready, and above all, no eating out. Breakfast cereals, yoghurt, sweetened curd cheese, buns, frozen ready-meals, pel’meni and pizzas have all become forbidden foods. Kinder, Kuchen, Kirche.” One day of shopping: 628 rubles 90 kopeks. 1552 rubles 80 kopecks left.
By the time part two is published, Surnacheva is down to 920 rubles 50 kopecks. Sick of the “soup selection,” she laments that she has no choice. “I can’t afford meat, poultry or fish.” The Moscow favorite business lunch is out and days at work are spent hungry. But what is most revealing is not that she’s not managing, but why. Here is her conclusions:
1. I’m inexperienced. This is my first attempt at living on so little money. The worst time in any crisis is the beginning, when you haven’t worked out a survival strategy.
2. I’m irrational. I can’t even turn the classic female trick of making a salad and a scandal out of nothing. My grasp of energy and nutrition values is weak. 2000 calories still means half a kilo of sugar to me rather than so much cereal, milk and meat. Apparently I even use carrots inefficiently – I’ve had readers explaining to me that that the body can’t digest raw carrots without fat.
3. I haven’t got my bearings. I haven’t a clue where to get things cheap, or what to buy. In the first week I discovered that a perfectly fresh carrot that’s broken is half the price, and that apples that cost 15-20 rubles per kilo do exist – they just don’t look so great. For me, the word ‘meat’ means an expensive cut, and I haven’t yet learned what to do with cheaper cuts, bones and offal.
4. I don’t belong to the local network. Those who live on really limited means belong to a sort of informal club, whose members know where, what and how much. The moment cheap dairy products appear on a neighbouring stall or good cheap meat in the market, its members find out about this from one another. Outsiders like me only get to hear about these bargains by accident.
5. I live alone. Of course it’s a bit different for families- wholesale is cheaper. I went to this conference on regional poverty a month or so ago. The researchers noted something interesting: people always think of pensioners as the group most at risk of poverty. Actually, the group most at risk are families with children. Without going into the reasons (discrimination against single mothers, tv propaganda about programmes of social support etc) I must admit I made this assumption myself when I took on the role of lonely pensioner for this experiment. True, it would have been complicated trying to simulate being a family with lots of children – I might have had to starve the entire editorial team of Polit.ru.
Apparently living poor isn’t just about surviving, it’s about surviving artfully.
In part three, it’s day twenty and Surnacheva is down to 583 rubles, 70 kopecks. Life is consumed with a new consciousness of prices and looking for alternatives and substitutes (margarine for butter, damaged fruit and vegetables for fresh ones, and organ meats–liver, kidneys, and bones–for quality meats). Other items are put into perspective. “I could live for half a day on dictaphone batteries, and as for a ticket for the Paul Anka concert at the Kremlin, I’d last almost six months on that.”
Advice from babushkas on the street and readers begins pouring in. “Eat ground elder and dandelions. Sunbathe. Make rusks. Buy sea kale. Make friends with some Uzbeks and eat pilaf. Plant Jerusalem artichokes,” a reader suggests. Students tell her to eat “lots of kasha,” pop vitamins instead of fruits and veggies, and processed and canned meats instead of the real deal. Heroin chic devs write in urging a diet plan where eating less is more. A spoonful of cottage cheese for breakfast and soup for dinner. Surnacheva admits she could live on six days with a diet like that. But for your average person? Forget it.
By day 31 she’s down to 18 rubles. Even her colleagues at Polit.ru began feeling sorry for her. Invitations to lunch and offers of food began to pour in. The desire to be fed restaurant food even leads her to agree to a date.
In the end, Surnacheva survived one month on Rosstat’s “shopping basket.” Barely. Proving that living in poverty is as much about how you live than what you have to live with. “I did survive,” she concludes, “but I won’t be doing it again.”
If only 20 million or so Russians had such a choice.
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Comments
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Very good post Sean, really interesting and sad and shocking. The price increases for staples must be screwing these people totally.
I wonder how much a shopping basket per week is costing in Moscow now? Any numbers Chris? So much for amazing economic growth. Your point about the millionaires is especially poignant. I know Westerners are well capable of it too, but the ostentatious flaunting of wealth by some Russians in the face of such dire poverty is nothing short of disgusting. I know Abramovich has done good stuff for Chukotka, by $2M to hear that hag Winehouse singing? Actually I have massive arguments with the wife about this, and we started whispering abuse at each other in the cinema a few months ago when we saw ‘Eastern Promises’. Without trying to sound like a Communist here, why cant people be happy with being fed, having a few smokes, a few beers and a good book? Why do people earn validation from material things? I’ve never understood it. Maybe thats why I’m poor. So, Russia is loaded with millionaires, has no free media and roughly one-sixth of the population are close to hunger.
What precisely has changed since 1917 then?:-)
On a more upbeat note, Russia beat Greece 1-0 an hour ago. It was edgy, nervy and they rode their luck a little, but deserved the win and now at least have a crack at the quarter finals, if they can beat Sweden (they must beat Sweden, a team who traditionally love beating the Russians). Best of luck to them.
“As of 2006, 21.6 million (15.3%) of Russians live below this threshold.”
Officially. (cough cough shadow economy cough cough)
Anybody in that bracket (almost all pensioners) is also getting a near-endless list of state benefits.
I dunno Ger. I buy groceries very rarely, being too lazy to cook. Inflation is hitting me — no more taking cabs to work for Chris!
PS Ger, I would totally hit Winehouse, so take that back.
“So, Russia is loaded with millionaires, has no free media”
This is false, and you know it’s false.
But is Russia going to change under Medvedev?
Everyone in the west wants to know if Medvedev is like Yeltsin or more like Putin.
Or is he simply a puppet?
Can Russia go forward now or will she always be sliding from extreme to extreme benefitting none of the masses who suffer.
What do actual Russian people think of the new president?
”Officially. (cough cough shadow economy cough cough) Anybody in that bracket (almost all pensioners) is also getting a near-endless list of state benefits.”
So are most of the mentioned people below the poverty actually OK in reality? I ask that genuinely, not being a smartarse. I havent been in Moscow for a while now -be there in september, definitely, and we’ll have a pint hopefully, that is if you arent too busy being a cheerleader for the CARFs:-)
”PS Ger, I would totally hit Winehouse, so take that back.”
I would hit Winehouse too -with a brick or a kango hammer. She’s a minger. No Chris, she isnt cool!!!:-) I’ve spent a year telling students that and got nowhere -as usual! Check out Duffy, a new beautiful singer from Wales. Or that Gabrielle whats-her-name who sings ”Nothin’ Sweet About Me” -smoking!:-)
”So, Russia is loaded with millionaires, has no free media”
This is false, and you know it’s false.”
I admit wrong choice of words -but not sentiment. The fact is the main Russian media organs -ORT, Rossiya TV and NTV -do not openly and explicitly criticise the Russian government in any meaningful way, do not allow opposition parties any fairness and spend massive quantities of time criticising western governments, to no aim other than rabble-rousing – and saying otherwise is denying reality. Kommersant might have a go, but nobody reads it. Cos Russia is always right:-)
”I dunno Ger. I buy groceries very rarely, being too lazy to cook. Inflation is hitting me — no more taking cabs to work for Chris!”
What do you eat!!?? I used to buy fish and vegetables from an underground market near the south entrance to Prospekt Vernadskogo metro station. I didnt what the fuck the fish was, but I friend it for two minutes and ate it!:-) Can you answer this – how much is a cooked chicken? They were 90R in 2002. And whats the story with taxis? Chris you have info there that most of us cant get at really.
”What do actual Russian people think of the new president?”
I would guess Mick they think of him as a continuation of Putin policies, rather than a puppet, and thats all Russians want right now -more of the same. And to be honest, i think Medvedev will take over fully eventually- everything changes in Russia when you arent the Alpha-Dog anymore. It just takes time. Expect plenty of Putin stories in the not-too-distant future.
“I would totally hit Winehouse”
Not to be totally vulgar … but dude, I wouldn’t tap that with your dick.
Also in that “so skanky I’m afraid I’ll get herpes just by looking at her photo” category would be Courtney Love.
I love Amy Winehouse and I won’t stand by and hear her good name be dragged through the mud by the likes of you. She is a sweet and wonderful woman and does not deserve your callous abuse.
For several months I was taking a cab to work for 600 rubles a go, which is really a waste given that I live 20 minutes away from work by metro. Like I said I very rarely buy groceries, prefering to waste money on Caesar salads at Shokoladnitsa.
If it tells you anything, a full-time starting employee at McDonald’s in Moscow earns 20,000 rubles a month.
Thank you Chris. You’ll always be my best mate. Fok these wankers!
I just asked my roomie. A chicken is 150 rubles.
Don’t you live in London, Amy?
“So are most of the mentioned people below the poverty actually OK in reality? I ask that genuinely, not being a smartarse.”
Well no, but you do have to take all such numbers with a grain of salt, because of the pervasive tax evasion. This does not apply for pensioners though.
I also note that Sean’s figure seems to include children.
”I love Amy Winehouse and I won’t stand by and hear her good name be dragged through the mud by the likes of you.”
Chris, I’ve nothing but respect for you, but have you ever actually seen pics of her? She’s a total mutt and we’re talking totally here. As we say here, on the lines of Walter Shedd’s comment above, ”If I had a bag of mickeys I wouldnt give her one”. I know there’s a wild woman/rocker element to her, but over here you’d be sick of listening to her ridiculous scandals.
Check out Gabrielle Cilmi, ever bit as good a singer and seriously easy on the eye (shame about the shite video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElY5Gr845Fw
”For several months I was taking a cab to work for 600 rubles a go,”
600 roubles for a 20 minute cab?? Is that a gypsy cab that you had an arrangement with?? Good grief, what’s going on there?! Its safe to say so that my dodgy Russian would no longer get me a 300R cab from Cabana at Kremlyovskaya Naberezhnaya to the end of Proskpekt Vernadskogo at 4am? Sorry for the questions Chris, but I’m sure there’s plenty of us out there -me included -who daydream sometimes of going to back to Moscow and wonder at the bill for it these days.
”I just asked my roomie. A chicken is 150 rubles.”
That is actually very serious. In 2002 the dollar was much stronger than now, around 32 roubles, so a chicken cost $3. At todays prices its $6.30. Leaving dollars aside, its a big increase from 80-90R. And in fact a cooked chicken is cheaper in Ireland than in Moscow.
”Thank you Chris. You’ll always be my best mate. Fok these wankers!”
This blog attains more and more fame every day Sean. We’ve had Julius Caesar, The Devil, Fred G Stanford, Professor Alexandra and now Amy Winehouse:-) Thats why LR is having a knickers fit!
“600 roubles for a 20 minute cab?? Is that a gypsy cab that you had an arrangement with??”
Nah, it’s a real cab driver, a Georgian guy.
As to your bizarre rage against the distillation of pure beauty and talent that is my Amy Winehouse, it is clear to the unbiased observer that you are just jealous, for she has rejected you, leaving you to cry all alone, wallowing in your hatefulness and bitterness. Let the woman go Ger!
”As to your bizarre rage against the distillation of pure beauty and talent that is my Amy Winehouse, it is clear to the unbiased observer that you are just jealous, for she has rejected you, leaving you to cry all alone, wallowing in your hatefulness and bitterness. Let the woman go Ger!”
Ah Shit! I’ve been seen through AGAIN! Well ye can have each other! Her and her scandals and you with your Cheerleading for the CARFs!
“That is actually very serious. In 2002 the dollar was much stronger than now, around 32 roubles, so a chicken cost $3. At todays prices its $6.30. Leaving dollars aside, its a big increase from 80-90R. And in fact a cooked chicken is cheaper in Ireland than in Moscow.”
A cup of coffee at Shoko is 109.
”A cup of coffee at Shoko is 109.”
Ouch. Again more expensive than anywhere in Ireland I would think.
I know from expat.ru that renting apartments now costs serious money and sharing one is looking at minimum of 15,000R. Dorogoya Moskva indeed.
I pay less than 15,000R on the Ring Road.
My neighborhood is full of big signs advertising the Sex Pistols. It’s quite surreal.
”I pay less than 15,000R on the Ring Road.
My neighborhood is full of big signs advertising the Sex Pistols. It’s quite surreal.”
Do you mean Garden Ring or MKHAD? I assume its Garden Ring. Thats good in fairness.
Told you before about the Irish language concert posters at Kitai Gorod. Moscow is freaky:-)
I live by the Oktyabrskaya metro station, which is where I met Tim.
The booze in Moscow is really cheap, none of those naff prices like in England.
So is food more expensive at McDonalds in Russia than in the US? I know that in the US, you can get your 2000 calories (and that includes protein) just by buying $4 worth of food from McDonalds. Add in a multi-vitamin and you are set for the day. That adds up to only $120 for one month. If you live on ramen noodles, rice and white/pinto beans, you could probably get by even cheaper.
Unless you live in a 3rd world shithole, I have a hard time believing that the price of food is an issue. It doesn’t have to taste good to be food, it just has to have calories and some protein. The rest is gravy. People get way to hung up on food and such. One should eat to live, not live to eat. To do otherwise, is being frivolous, not that there is anything wrong with that if you have the discretionary income.
Now if one wants to eat a low-fat, low-carb diet, that costs money, no doubt. But one would only want to be on such a diet if one was worried about weight. Not an issue, if you are worried about starving.
As a very frequent McDonald’s customer
I can state that a Big Mac is about 50 rubles.
Sure it’s hard to live in Moscow. How many of the 21.6 million Russians living below the poverty line live in Moscow? (Yeah, I know–a bunch.)
Admittedly, I don’t have much time in Russia, but a few years in other parts of the FSU, and not everyone actually buys vegetables. Many people have gardens, chickens, etc.
Last year I spent a week in Pokrovka in Kyrgyzstan. (OK, “Kyzyl Suu” these days.) The couple I stayed with made about US$50 a month. They had their own garden, some chickens and ducks, and a cow. They bartered for meat.
I’m not making light of the economic hard times—-but dang, man, it’s not like you can be surprised that living in Moscow is expensive.
Vot tak!
Self-absorbed, narcissistic, half-arsed and entirely pathetic ‘expose’ by Surnacheva.
That’s how modern Russian yuppie ‘going into the People’ looks like. We learn nothing about the people but a whole lot about Ms. Liz, with the large chunk of the last part devoted to detailed description of her dinner date.
What’s the fracking point trying to live on starvation budget while going to work in a swanky journalist bureau everyday, anyway? If you really want to learn how the real downtrodden live, you go and live their lives for days on end. Then you’d learn how they really live, how they hustle and scavenge, their survival skills, and finally, what kind of people they are. Then you can tell the story about them.
If you are blessed with a decent job and glamorous lifestyle, just flaunt it, baby! Eat your power lunches, romantic dinners and whatnot. Spread the wealth, it will trickle-down, stimulate the economy and really help the poor.
@ Your point about the millionaires is especially poignant. I know Westerners are well capable of it too, but the ostentatious flaunting of wealth by some Russians in the face of such dire poverty is nothing short of disgusting. … So, Russia is loaded with millionaires, has no free media and roughly one-sixth of the population are close to hunger. What precisely has changed since 1917 then?
Russian Revolution 3.0! I get mental images of the French Revolution and guillotines.
People will sooner or later get fed up with the greedy oligarches(one would hope).
Getting fed up with the oligarchs was one reason for Putin’s popularity…
According to the Russian State Department of Statistics, Rosstat, the minimum subsistence level in Moscow is 62 Euros a month (or about 95 in sinking dollars terms) .
I see the Russians prefer to deal with absolute poverty rather than relative poverty. Good.
Officially. (cough cough shadow economy cough cough) Anybody in that bracket (almost all pensioners) is also getting a near-endless list of state benefits.
This is the case for almost all poverty statistics you read anywhere. In the US, poverty stats don’t normally include non-cash state benefits such as food stamps or Medicaid.
You don’t like Amy Winehouse either, do you, Ted? That was just the kind of heartless statement I would expect from a man who doesn’t like Amy Winehouse.
Tim. Pardon for the misspell.
I live on Sakhalin. Who is Amy Winehouse? What is all this popular music?
My God, Sakhalin is a truly benighted place! No wonder your heart has turned to stone.
“Self-absorbed, narcissistic, half-arsed and entirely pathetic ‘expose’ by Surnacheva.”
Good God, I actually agree with Candide!
”Self-absorbed, narcissistic, half-arsed and entirely pathetic’
speaking of which, check out:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/05/15/bosnia-herzegovina-alexandros-lykourezos
where the great MAA is back in genocide denial mode, this time against with Marko Attila Hoare.
I don’t really understand the point in this.. Is living in poverty in Moscow any different than London? (Which has about the same percent below the poverty line and is just about as expensive). I’m sure it’s a lot better than places like Mumbai, India or Rio, Brazil where the poor would simply freeze to death if they had a winter.
Poverty is a sad thing, but it’s a problem everywhere in both the developed and undeveloped world. The truth is though that poor people in Moscow, New York, London, Paris etc.. still have it pretty good in comparison to many places.
“I’m sure it’s a lot better than places like Mumbai, India or Rio, Brazil where the poor would simply freeze to death if they had a winter.” – John
They don’t need a winter to kill them off; most of them get no access to clean water, so the toxins, sewage sludge, and waterborne diseases do quite nicely. What is vile that isn’t in the water appears in the food, so the people who survive past childhood are very hardy, but doomed to a shorter lifespan than first-worlders. Drinking and eating crap; another glory of capitalism.
Drinking and eating crap; another glory of capitalism.
Capitalism? I grew up in the capitalist UK, where I could drink the tap water. My wife grew up in the Communist USSR, where they used to boil the tap water before drinking it.
If you’re looking for a reason behind a lack of drinkable water, capitalism ain’t it. I suggest that shite government is.
I’m trying really hard not to make a joke about British teeth.
I’m trying really hard not to make a joke about British teeth.
British dentistry is utter crap largely because provision of health services is carried out in a not disimilar fashion to how the Soviet Union provided household goods.
Tim, check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hEZwqmnB9U&feature=related
Are you at home in the Valleys? I think one of the coppers featured in the video was Welsh if I remember right.
”If you’re looking for a reason behind a lack of drinkable water, capitalism ain’t it. I suggest that shite government is.”
I’m validating a pile of stuff in a water lab right now, and I can tell you unequivocally that water quality is indeed down to shite local government. Shitty councils = shitty water. Nothing else to it. The science/engineering behind clean water is neither new or complex or expensive. You just have to get your arse in gear. Look at London -drinkable water that has already been through 5 or 6 sets of kidneys. The only thing that cant be cleaned up is the Pill.
…drinkable water that has already been through 5 or 6 sets of kidneys
Holy piss, now that’s really filtered!
Technically speaking, hasn’t the world’s water supply been being filtered through a near-infinite set of kidneys for the last couple of hundred million years?
”Technically speaking, hasn’t the world’s water supply been being filtered through a near-infinite set of kidneys for the last couple of hundred million years?”
Well….no. Wee-wee has until the last 100 years generally been shunted into rivers and the sea etc, of course downriver from where water for drinking is taken, in a given town or city or village. I suppose some of that pee did end up back in the water system untreated, though heavily diluted. But modern water treatment systems actually clean up pee totally. This is especially true in places where water availability does not actually meet demand, such as London. In the government lab I worked in in NZ, they were sent samples of water from Singapore to test for The Pill. The Singaporeans quite literally have no scope for water wasting. Treated water eventually ends up back in the river, from which it can once again make its way to your cup of tea. The water in places like London is so well treated and cleaned it would have less crap in it than many bottled waters.
Has anyone ever been to the Museum of Water in Moscow? It’s a real hoot.
You can find it here
“Wee-wee has until the last 100 years generally been shunted into rivers and the sea etc,”
And, my Irish friend, what do you think lives in the rivers and the sea? That drinks the shunted water, which when it comes out the other end is evaporated into the air, later to fall as rain into your reservoir? You can’t beat the Water Cycle. The Earth is a (largely) closed system, baby (except for that sunlight thing).
“Has anyone ever been to the Museum of Water in Moscow? It’s a real hoot.”
I can picture it now. “And here we see a sample of the ancient water of the Pharoahs, mysteriously preserved through time.” (Points out the window at the Moscow River.)
While we’re on the subject of water, rather than Russian poverty, it looks like they found water ice on Mars. Pretty cool eh?
It occurs to me how maddening it will be if (when?) they discover some Earthlike planet orbiting a star somewhere nearby, given that we will never be able to actually reach it in the next few thousand years or so.
I had no idea Ger’s wife was so interested in astronomy. Great catch Ger!
Instead of finding water on mars with all the oil the have on their soil, Putin and Medvedev should erradicate poverty and corruption, the huge gap between rich and poor, stop killing journalists, allow free speech and be less hegemonic towards the ex-ussr countries. Russia could be much more devellopped and ballanced with a minimum sense of law and democracy. it would be good for their business for the whole world and for Russians too.