Metro Stop Dostoevsky: Travels in Russian Time

by Ingrid Bengis

A Russian American writer catapults herself into the maelstrom of Russian life at a time of seismic change for both

The daughter of Russian émigrés, Ingrid Bengis grew up wondering whether she was American or, deep down, “really Russian.” In 1991, naïvely in love with Russia and Russian literature, she settled in St. Petersburg, where she was quickly immersed in “catastroika,” a period of immense turmoil that mirrored her own increasingly complex and contradictory experience.

Bengis’s account of her involvement with Russia is heightened by her involvement with B, a Russian whose collapsing marriage, paralleling the collapse of the Soviet Union, produces a situation in which “anything could happen.” Their relationship reflects the social tumult, as well as the sometimes dangerous consequences of American “good intentions.” As Bengis takes part in Russian life—becoming a reluctant entrepreneur, undergoing surgery in a St. Petersburg hospital, descending into a coal mine—she becomes increasingly aware of its Dostoevskian duality, never more so than when she meets the impoverished, importuning great-great-granddaughter of the writer himself. Beneath the seismic shifting remains a centuries-old preoccuption with “the big questions”: tradition and progress, destiny and activism, skepticism and faith. With its elaborate pattern of digression and its eye for the revealing detail, Bengis’s account has the hypnotic intimacy of a late-night conversation in a Russian kitchen, where such questions are perpetually being asked.

Genres: Russia, Nonfiction, Memoir, Travel, History

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2003

Reviews

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting chronicle of one American woman's romantic fascination with Leningrad/St. Petersburg (and Dostoevsky) during the turning point when communism falls, and of her odd friendship with a nasty, ungrateful local woman called B. (I still don't know why she is so forgiving...) The author also tells of a stay in a Russian hospital which reminds me of The Women's Decameron. In spite of her admitted naiveté, she offers up plausible, if subjective, general keys to the Russian people, historically and during this tumultuous change from a known, expected way of life.

People don't laugh about the soul in Russia. They just worry about losing it.

But I am too much enamored of this city to see its faults as anything other than a manifestation of its suffering, and I suspect that I might love it less were it more perfect, and thus, in some sense, more ordinary. Besides, I have always been reluctantly dragged along by progress, and if there is one thing communism has done for this city, it is to stave off progress.

Is this the decay of neglect or the decay of trauma?

entitlement: "the most dangerous legacy of socialism"

Yeliseyev's a 19th century food emporium

... how much patience is a virtue, how much rage is a necessity?

"Only the privileged can afford to be polite."

... spite is one of the most recognized traits of the Russian character.

According to the old Russian proverb, Moscow is the heart of Russia, St. Petersburg its head, and Kiev its mother.

This is the real Russia, the Russia of remote villages and vast extended families of Russians, Tartars, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Bashkirs, all mixed together, who have been combing and spinning and knitting the down of goats into shawls for generation. This isn't business. This is poetry.

Since this is Russia, such things are to be expected, though of course, neither he nor anyone else expected it.

The history of Russia is the history of lost opportunities, the history of nostalgia for lost opportunities.

"It's a known fact that looking at fire cures the soul. So does looking at waves."

Anyone connected to words that don't appear in the dictionary is a swindler for sure.

Maybe in the end I will have to rent a room in a communal apartment. Half the city's population lives in communal apartments. What makes me so special?

What I remember is no proof of accuracy.

Russians are often gray on the outside but brightly colored on the inside, whereas in the West it is just as often the opposite. Appearances are more deceiving in Russia than in any other country I have ever known.

For Russians, life is just reality, not something to be tinkered with in order to get a prettier result.

What did I know and when did I know it? This is the question that prevents safe escape into the protection of naiveté. I knew. I was not naive. I didn't want to know. I was naive.

... keep being distracted by some small and unexpected daily pleasure (a shaft of light in some side street, an elaborately tied ribbon in a child's hair, snow, a radio program devoted to Akhmatova) that makes me forget there is still murder in my heart. I think this is what Dostoevsky meant about beauty saving the world.

The great anomaly of this city is the way in which beauty and evil are so inextricably linked.

Hopelessness isn't part of the Russian character. Suffering, yes; but hopelessness, no.

Why, at that very moment, knowing nothing of B, nothing of Theater Square and the Kirov, nothing of buying apartments, did I go on a romantic quest for literature, when I must have been aware, even then, that literature always leads right through life, that in the end, it takes no shortcuts?

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A friend highly recommended this book to me, about a few years the author spent in St. Petersburg around the time the Soviet Union was dissolving. For the historical aspect alone, getting to see an American perspective as the world changed, this was a fascinating read! The author spent most of the time living with a Russian friend she'd made, referred to only by the nickname of B, and detailed their complicated friendship over the years, from trying to get a a new apartment to starting a business together as B tried to learn how to become a businesswoman in the new open market.

Parts of this book were quite interesting to read! I loved the exchanges the author had with average citizens trying to get things done from day to day and the complicated nature of everything, whether it was due to the individuals coming at issues from different perspectives or just the typical "mentalities." For example, there was a part about the author trying to buy theater tickets and the ridiculous circus that ensued with tickets only going on sale at certain times, and then only to certain people, and then the mafia gets involved to sell tickets to those who don't want to take part in the craziness of the box office... I found this completely relatable and about what you'd expect. I also really enjoyed the author's take on the opening markets in Russia and the ways in which people were simply not prepared to adapt to a world they'd never experienced, especially in a country that had not seen prices increase in years. Even when the author had to have surgery and decided to do so in a Russian hospital, she wrote about how they were apologetic about how much she'd have to pay - but compared to America, it was such a small amount that she couldn't believe the bargain. Again, very different perspectives and this definitely highlighted that! It really was a window into a changing world, and I enjoyed that very much.

At the same time, much of this book felt disjointed and I had a hard time truly becoming immersed in it. I read a chapter here and there, always a little curious to pick it back up again but never in a real hurry to do so. I got frustrated more than once with the author's depiction of her friendship with B and how naive she seemed at times, unwilling to confront actual problems and instead doing whatever she could to keep the peace at the expense of her own life/sanity/happiness/etc. I thought perhaps this friendship was the real story in this book, but it ended with no real answers or enlightenment of how anything eventually resolved.

While this book certainly gave voice to the author's experiences in Russia over the years, it felt uneven overall and I finished not truly sure what the point of the book was. I did enjoy parts of this but ultimately did not love it as much as I'd hoped. Interesting period of time for sure, and there were nice details about day-to-day life in here, but I feel like much of this could have been condensed. Or perhaps some of the threads in here could have been removed, as they never truly came to a conclusion and I was just left hanging at the end.

[Gemma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book while living in St Petersburg and it started out as such a promising book. Right setting, right topic, even my favourite Petersburg underground stop as a title...but it quickly descended into farce.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeously written memoir by the kind of eloquent, thoughtful person I aspire to be - I reread it every now and then just to recharge my batteries.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could have used a bit more editing and the epilogue was an unfortunate choice, but the writing was often incandescent and the perspective itself was incredibly useful

[Kathleen Fowler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am fascinated by the Russian culture and will read anything I can get my hands on about it. This particular book is about life in St. Petersburg, the setting for most of Dostoevsky’s novels. The author lived in St. Petersburg off and on during the early 1990’s, the era of the transition from the Soviet “workers’ paradise” to-–well, to whatever Russia is now. Bengis is the daughter of Russian émigrés, and does a fine job of characterizing the average Russian citizen through personal anecdotes. As a Russian speaker, but born and bred in the United States, she is in a unique position to provide an insider’s view, but from an outsider’s perspective. The result is slightly schizophrenic, but informative and entertaining. In the final analysis, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The average Russian citizen is a survivor, adept at adapting, and always has been. An encounter with the Russian mafia at the ticket booth of the Mariinsky Theater, and an extended stay in a Russian hospital are examples of experiences that provide Bengis with a mother lode of fascinating material. I only wish that she (where was her editor?) had deleted the last chapter, which, although brief, is rambling, annoying, and out of synch with the rest of the book.

[MartinaSofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written by daughter of Russian immigrants to Amerika who travels back to Leningrad /St. Petersburg, Russia, in the time of breaking up of Soviet Union. She finds Russian people in the time of a profound distress, in the time when anything and everything they ever knew doesn't exist anymore, when everywhere they look for comfort of known and an order are just giant question marks staring back to them. This is such an utter state of panic and fear for surviving which this American writer can never comprehend; even though she is a daughter of Russian emigrants. That is why she has difficulty to fully describe the state of the Russian soul. One can't claim just the nation's background, one needs to live through to fully understand. However, she finds a beauty, like a hide treasure, in most of the people she does encounter on her travels back to Russia; just a sample of who the Russian people really are, friendly souls who take hospitality most seriously, truly giving to even a stranger. They are humbly proud people who understand that hungry comrade doesn't need only food for a stomach but also beauty for its soul.

[Jest · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting but somewhat unpleasant account of one American woman's experiences in Russia during the 90's.

Bengis is really terrific at getting down the sort of mundane details that create an air of authenticity. However, I'm vaguely appalled that she would publish what seems like so much dirty laudry regarding her (former) friendship with 'B'. Read it and cringe.

[Randi Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this book, though it's tempting to make this author's experience in Russia a universal experience. Though it's a little difficult to tell at times if she's being accurate with her portrayal of the Russians she meets, I did like all of the minute details she provides about places and customs. Her attention to detail gives a feeling of actually living in modern day Russia.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating as a source of information on Russian culture and thinking, but I couldn't help but feel that the author needed to buck up a bit and face things. I got a little frustrated with her, but I suppose she had to fulfill her own journey of beauty through suffering.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir tells of the author’s love of Russia, her parents’ homeland, and her multiple extended stays there in the early and mid- 1990’s. It was a time of transition in Russia, and the author was there to see the unraveling of the Soviet Union, a coup, the resignation of Gorbachev, and the rise of Boris Yeltsin. Her observations are interesting, particularly her attention to how generations who had only known communism were impacted by the embrace of Western ideals: “ . . . you could count on the price of bread. It was always the same, almost all her life it was the same. And the same was true of meat or sugar or potatoes. But now life has been inundated with all the horrors that come from the West -- the messiness and uncertainty and unpredictability of everything. How can people live this way, when their pensions are worthless, their savings worthless, their plans to buy a wall unit or travel to America rendered futile?” Entwined with these reflections are details of the friendship, joint venture partnership, and deteriorating relationship with B., a temperamental, high-strung Russian whom the author met after singing in a performance of Boris Gudanov. Added to this are the author’s forays into the Russian medical and legal systems. The book is fascinating the way watching a train wreck in slow motion is fascinating. B. is described by various people as being “insane,” but the author’s mental health is also in doubt given some of her choices and loyalties (“I can’t help wondering whether it is my destiny to love those for whom I am the eternal enemy.”), along with some strange wanderings through Leningrad (“I see an old woman coming into the yard” and startle her by asking if this is the building where Raskolnikov (a character in Crime and Punishment) killed the landlady.). There are lots of questions left unanswered in this book. Somehow that’s okay and in keeping with the adventures of a trusting wanderer in a land where anything can happen.

[lev cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

I wanted to like this more than I did? Bengis has this particular reflective quality to her writing that continued to surprise me through the book -- over and over I was impressed at how much she was able to recall up to a T. Whether it was conversations or specific events or the names of people she'd met, Bengis transforms her experiences into an extremely detailed book-recollection that almost feels manufactured with how precise everything is.

I think that's what made me continue reading even though I found the book dragged on more often than not? That and a lingering fascination with the subject of Russia in itself that has existed since 2018, while I found parts of the book hard to get through, and B absolutely insufferable, I found myself powering through the book, whether it was during class or in a car ride home. I think my favorite part was the epilogue? While the latter half of the book, following B's abandonment and suddenly the new important people being Misha and Masha and Nadia and Vica, people who I found it relatively difficult to keep track of, was significantly more difficult to get through, I found Bengis's character study of the "Russian character" to be quite interesting. As a fan of Crime and Punishment myself, I liked that the epilogue took the reader back to the main reason why Bengis even came to St. Petersburg in the first place -- Dostoevsky.

Overall, I think it was all right? It took me longer to read than most books I read that are of the same length, but I didn't particularly dislike it?

[Jeanne Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful read!!! Can't recommend it highly enough