Rivethnoexp. Part V. Samara, Syzran, Balakovo

July 28—August 1, 2011

Most boat owners will rarely leave the confines of a water area constrained by locks. No one wants to bother with the hassle of locking through. As a result, every basin develops its own boating culture and customs. The most dangerous section on the Volga is around Samara. As soon as we passed through the lock after Tolyatti, all hell broke loose. Boats going in any direction they please, cutting each other off, no lights on at night—total mayhem, in other words. After Samara, everything returned to normal again.

Samara

Someone put a lot effort into making pretty bars for the AC cage.

And someone else put a lot effort into decorating the corner of the building.

Stalin’s bunker, where Stalin likely never set foot in his life, is being passed off as some kind of antiquity—despite the fact that every original item except the ceiling has long been stolen.

Kirov delivers a speech in front of the most beautiful pediment I’ve ever come across.

A trash can.

A gigantic street sign.

Victory St.

A reversible lane system. The traffic in Samara is almost as bad as in Moscow.

A tram schedule.

Tram. Paintless dent repair.

Standard street signs.

Samarskaya St.

The old part of the city is gradually falling into disrepair.

Not far from Samara is a training airfield with all sorts of relics, including one of the remaining Tu-144s.

Samara left me with a strange impression. It seems to be a big and interesting city, yet I can’t think of much to share about it.

Syzran

The main street has trash cans stylized to look like woven baskets. You can make out “Russian Railways. Syzran Station” where the decorative plaster has fallen off.

This “unloading zone 15 meters to the left and right” assembly is a thing of beauty.

Traffic signs.

The Syzran Kremlin.

Advertising.

Full range of plumbing services. You have a choice! Store fixtures. Little Button: fabric, sewing accessories, beads, rhinestone. Fishing

More advertising.

Soviet Street. Attention! Children! Dobriystil upholstered furniture showrooms

Syzran is a quiet and friendly town. The local supermarket sells three-liter jars for home preserving.

One of the bus stop signs dates back to the pre-perestroika era.

The houses have white electricity meters which, for some reason, I haven’t encountered in any other cities.

FOR SALE

What a pretty traffic light holder.

Many tin signs, tarnished with age, remain on the walls. Keep matches away from children.

Be careful when using electric heating appliances.

There’s a large number of hammers and sickles still hanging on street posts (hello to Pugachyov, Vyazma, Pripyat, Novoaltaysk and Barnaul, Kineshma, Kansk and Bratsk, and Yakutsk).

An illiterate sign confuses “their” and “they’re.”

The People ❤ They’re City

A typical provincial view.

A detail for which much can be forgiven: a set of gates for vehicles and pedestrians leading into the courtyard. Every courtyard in every Russian city once used to have gates like these. But today, only a few rare examples remain. Like in Syzran, for example.

Or take this window which narrows towards the top. Absolutely unreal.

Balakovo

Every city whose name ends with —vo carries a certain presumption of worthlessness. Such names are usually given to large villages, where there’s absolutely nothing to do. Balakovo is a surprising exception to this rule.

Who could have even imagined that Balakovo would have such a building?

As it turns out, there’s an old part of the city that’s incredibly gorgeous and pleasant. Notwithstanding the fact that it’s completely neglected.

Bait and Tackle Shop. Boats

The untrained eye might conclude that everything here looks sort of like this:

Let’s keep our city clean

Let us laugh at such foolishness.

A hammer and sickle hides in the foliage.

A sign indicates that there’s a school nearby.

Attention! Children walking to school

A PSA really makes you think.

YOU’re a good person, civilized and neat. But if YOU litter, that means you’re a... Busco Advertising Agency. Clean. Bright. Junk-free

Someone even put a bit of thought into wayfinding here at one point. Just once. And not very much thought. But they did.

Torch of Socialism Street. Balakovo Bank

All the street posts are painted with red and white stripes.

Balakovo has two things to be proud of. The first is the bus stops.

It’s as if there’s a competition here for who can come up with the most elaborate, over-the-top bus stop. I’ve never seen imagination run so wild in one city before.

And the second cause for pride: tobacco kiosks in the form of lighters.

All that is in addition to the old part of the city, of course.

* * *

After two weeks on the water, our boats had grown over with an incredible amount of gunk, multiple kilos’ worth of insect corpses, hundreds of sticky spots and other signs of flourishing river life. Sadly, yacht-washing services aren’t yet widely available on the expanses of the Volga (not to mention other bodies of water).