CultureShock! Russia. A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

When the first McDonald’s opened in Russia, the employees were taught to smile at clients, which caused a lot of problems, or as one of the young employees put it, “People think that we’re complete idiots”. The serious, concentrated face that Russians wear on the street is not a sign of any particular glumness, but just a tradition that considers smiles to be something private and reserved for those close to you.

Only the Russian Orthodox Church refused to follow suit and follows the old dates to this day. So it is that Christians all round the world celebrate Christmas on 25 December, whereas Russians celebrate it on 7 January. The so-called
‘old New Year’ takes place on the night of 13–14 January.
Today, there is an increased interest in the country in new types of holidays

Thus, the famous revolution of 1917 actually took place on 25 October (and hence its well-known name, the October Revolution), which was already 7 November in most other European countries.
The Soviet government quickly ‘caught up’ with the world and switched over to the widely-used Gregorian calendar.

There is one obvious problem: the language

If you do not know the basics of Russian, not only will you not be able to explain what you want, in most cases you will not even be able to tell what is in front of you: a café, shop or hairdressers? Even standard international words such as
‘restaurant’, ‘taxi’ and ‘bank’ sound almost the same but look different when written in Russian. Here they are in order: źÆÇÃŵÂ, ǵ¿Æ½, ¶µÂ¿. Not everybody recognises even these, all of which strengthens the feeling of confusion, muddle and some sort of mysticism surrounding your arrival.

A taxi ordered in advance will take you from Sheremetyevo to the centre of Moscow for about 1,500 rubles, while something found on the spot will cost at least twice that.

In other Russian airports, there may be other difficulties. At Domodedovo, for example, they have increased the security measures in the wake of the terrorist atrocities in Moscow. All those departing are subject to a careful and thorough search.
Everybody must take their shoes off, and their coat, belt and other items of outerwear, as well as anything metallic. And this is all correct and justifiable. But the badly-organised line often turns into a noisy, chaotic rabble with everybody trying to squeeze in front of the others. On top of this, you have to put your items in plastic trays: small ones for shoes and large one for items and clothes. And these too can be in short supply, with people fighting and arguing over them.
For the rest, passport and customs control in Russia is much the same as anywhere else in the world. More often than not, you simply walk through and answer a few simple questions.
In spite of what many are expecting, nothing special happens.
If your passport and visa are in order, you have nothing to fear; you will not have any problems. Customs and border control officials around the world are not known for being excessively polite and usually assume that any traveller is in violation of border rules (I still remember fondly an old CS! Russia.indb 11
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12 CultureShock! Russia
Englishman at Heathrow, the only one in my many years of travelling to Britain, who smiled and wished me a pleasant journey). Russians are well acquainted with this groundless fault-finding when entering another country, when you have to answer for the colour of your passport. In comparison with what usually awaits them in airports all round the world, Sheremetyevo is a pleasant and refined place.
But it goes without saying that chaos and confusion reign here too. First you run to queue up for passport control.
Here, as a rule, there are two types of booth: one for citizens of the Russian Federation and one for everybody else. Queues spring up everywhere and people are let through everywhere, irrespective of the passport they hold.
Moreover, Russian citizens are checked no less rigorously than everybody else, which really irritates the Russians and helps to calm the foreigners.
Then comes the luggage hall, where there are the not infrequent fights for trolleys. After that the customs, usually a formality, assuming that you have not declared anything.
They are not trying to catch foreigners (they are more interested in foreigners when they fly out of the country, to see if they have any works of art) but their own citizens bringing in goods to be resold.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
So here you are in Russia. On the other side of the glass barrier, which separates two worlds, stands a large and confused crowd waiting to meet those who have arrived.
There are close friends and relatives with a welcome kiss, employees with greeting signs, and taxi drivers with their endless questions. If you have nobody to meet you, it is better to organise a taxi in advance before you fly, because there is a better than evens chance that the drivers at the airport will make the best of your helplessness.

At that time, it fulfilled its obligations just fine. But after perestroika, with travel in either direction a usual and daily occurrence, the number of passengers was clearly too much of a burden for this ageing airport.

Sheremetyevo airport now looks absolutely different from what it used to look like. It is very spacious, with lots of sitting places, various new cafes and restaurants, duty-free and souvenir shops. It is new and bright and still very clean.

The first thing that awaits any foreigner arriving in Russia is passport and customs control. In most cases, this is at one of two main Moscow international airport, Sheremetyevo or Domodedovo. Other options are to go through customs by car at the land borders with Finland, Belorussia and Ukraine, or arrive at a different airport. But airports nevertheless remains the main gateways to Russia. Both airports are in the process of general reconstruction but even
now they already can compete
Even before you have set foot on
with major international airports
Russian soil, there is a strange
Russian tradition that awaits
of the world.
you, particularly if you have flown
Sheremetyevo International
on Aeroflot where the majority
Airport is one of the biggest
of passengers are Russian. As
soon as the aircraft has touched
Russian airports in terms of
the ground, a round of applause
regular international traffic. In
breaks out