Short stories with cats set in mainly in TOKYO
Talking Location With Helen Whitten – MOSCOW
12th December 2023
#TalkingLocationWith…. Helen Whitten, author of No Lemons in Moscow – MOSCOW
It was autumn 1990, the Gorbachev era in Russia, when we landed in Moscow for the first day of a literary tour of Russian authors’ houses. The airport was dimly lit and uninviting. The passport controller took an inordinately long time to inspect and stamp our visas.
Then we were in, and travelling along, wide boulevards and looking out on grey concrete Communist-era blocks of flats. Reaching the Kremlin we suddenly saw gold domes and the beautiful buildings we recognised from paintings of Russia.
But our coach stopped outside this hideous monolithic block of concrete – the Rossiya Hotel, one of the largest hotels in the world at that time, with 3000 rooms. My room, as I describe in the novel, was incredibly basic, the mattress thin, towels like tea towels, no plug in the bath and the television didn’t work.
But it was exciting to be somewhere so different, to walk across Red Square and watch the soldiers change guard at Lenin’s tomb, to be approached by young boys bartering vodka and caviar for $5 a go, to know that it was an edgy country and one must abide by certain rules.
This background became the inspiration for my novel No Lemons in Moscow. That visit to Russia opened my eyes to life under a communist regime. I had always loved Russian literature and was thrilled to be taken to visit the houses of Chekhov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Pushkin during the daytime, then we would put the world to rights over vodka shots in the evenings. It was a heady time and so I created the character of Kate to tell this story.
I met a Russian similar to the character, Valentin, with whom Kate falls in love. He spoke very good English because he had been to English college. He had fought in Afghanistan and wanted to start a business but could not get his head around the concept of private enterprise. In my book, Kate’s young Russian becomes an investigative reporter exposing corruption under the Gorbachev and post- Gorbachev regime. Her love for him draws her into dangerous situations.
I returned to Russia in 2016 and the country was transformed. Moscow and St Petersburg had become like LA or Paris. The Metropol Hotel, where we stayed in Moscow, photo below, was plush and the rooms very comfortable, as was the Kempinski in St Petersburg. A far cry from the Rossiya!
The food in 2016 was delicious whereas it had been inedible in 1990. We had literally been served chicken stock with some alphabet spaghetti, or cabbage soup, or indeterminate meat or fish. We were never quite sure what we were eating!
One thing that had not changed was the gold – gold domes, gold pannelled palaces, gold icons. The opulence of the period of the Tsars was apparent in both cities on both my trips. It made us realize why there had been a revolution.
The sad thing, of course, is that the leaders of subsequent regimes have created their own hierarchy, made their own fortunes and bought their own dachas in the countryside. Our trips to the countryside in 1990 and 2016 both demonstrated that the poor remained poor. Life outside the cities was meagre but one had the impression that people with smallholdings could barter produce.
In 1990 we spent a night at a motel in Orel where some Russians were giving an anniversary party. The Russians know how to enjoy themselves and they happily shared with us their Georgian champagne and chocolate anniversary cake. In those days, of course, it was quite unusual for them to have a group of European tourists. In 2016 there were plenty of tourists. I suspect now there are very few. I wrote my book before Putin invaded Ukraine. When we arrived in 1990 there was a sense of hope that Gorbachev would bring an end to the Cold War and that we would be able to trade freely and visit and share culture and communication between the UK, Europe and Russia. Events have taken a very different turn and I cover some of these twists and turns as background to Kate’s story.
On both trips we took the train from Moscow to St Petersburg (it was known as Leningrad in 1990). It was an overnight train then but now only takes 3 ½ hours. When we reached St Petersburg in 2016, the city was full of soldiers preparing for their Victory Parade on May 9th. The street outside our hotel was lined with rockets and ballistic missiles! Our guide told us that his mother’s generation had ‘fear in the blood’ that they would be picked up for saying or doing the wrong thing. I echo this sentiment with Valentin’s mother in my novel, describing the fears of the older generation. With the war in Ukraine I gather this fear has returned.
I can fully understand why my visit was such an inspiration to me in writing No Lemons in Moscow. Russia is a fascinating place and I really hope that there is peace soon, a new regime, and that you will be able to visit it as I did, and enjoy the beautiful buildings, churches, palaces, countryside.
In the meantime, you can always read my book!
Helen Whitten is a published author, blogger and prize-winning poet. She is winner of the Elmbridge Literary Festival Adult Poetry Prize 2021 and 2014 and the Winchester Writers’ Festival Poetry Prize 2013. Her first collection of poetry, The Alchemist’s Box was published by Morgan’s Eye Press in 2015. During her career as a business coach she travelled extensively, including two visits to Russia, and has written six non-fiction books on the subject of personal and professional development and cognitive-behavioural coaching. No Lemons in Moscow is her first novel.
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