At Ludmila's

Photo of Church of Christ the Savior, in Moscow

My dear friend Ludmila Aleksayevna had to sell the home she had inherited from her parents and find a new place in Moscow, due to some difficulties caused by her ex-husband. Her new place is smaller, yet in the same fine neighborhood, and like the old building, was constructed in Czarist times, probably in the early 1900’s. Ludmila says the house has “good bones.”

There are perhaps twelve flats in the building, probably all of them privatized, with the building itself still owned by the city. Since it’s not a condominium, the city is responsible for maintenance of the common areas – which means that they’re not well maintained. The building has many layers of history. From the Bolshevik era there are broken tiles and chipped cement stairs in the central corridor of the building. The elevator is of uncertain age, but definitely Soviet. However, the flat that ‘Mila now owns was renovated extensively by New Russians in the last ten years. It’s too bad that virtually all of the changes were bad, from ‘Mila’s point of view, which is the viewpoint of a woman in her 70’s.

One look at the place and you know it was a bachelor pad for entertaining girls, probably lots of girls. Russian relaxation often centers on a banya, i.e., a sauna, with an alternate place to cool off, and a side room for eating and drinking. About one-third of ‘Mila’s place had been turned into such an entertainment complex. There’s a wood-paneled banya, an area with heated tile floor and walls tiled to 12 foot ceilings, a Jacuzzi big enough for a party, and two areas for eating and drinking. ‘Mila uses almost none of that. She has two small bedrooms and a great room that has a kitchenette at one end. The previous owners had no need for much in the way of kitchen cupboards or countertop space. There’s a microwave oven, but ‘Mila is suspicious of it. She’s read articles that say microwaves do bad things to food, so she’s not going to use it.

‘Mila can’t afford to heat up the banya or fill the huge Jacuzzi tub because her electricity costs are astronomical. The rest of her building uses gas for heating and cooking, and electricity only for lighting and such. ‘Mila’s place is all-electric, yet she has to pay a premium amount

Ludmila would not be able to survive on her pension, but years ago she followed a suggestion from me to use her assets to establish her place as a bed and breakfast in Moscow. She has a regular client from Italy who comes for one week a month, and she has entrepreneurially gone after business from France to Japan. With that income she has funded her own foreign travel, most frequently to sunny spots in the Mediterranean. She’d rather go to Corsica or Corfu than burn rubles heating the banya.

‘Mila spends about half her time at her dacha or country home, a large place that she also inherited from her parents. She didn’t exactly inherit the property, though, since private property wasn’t permitted under Communism. What she had was the right to continue to use the property that where she had been living with her parents. Her father had been a hero of World War II and had been lavishly treated. After the fall of Communism ‘Mila privatized her living quarters. Now instead of reverting to the state, the property she has will truly be inherited by her children. The dacha, she says, will be inherited by her son, who lives nearby in Moscow. Her daughter in Paris will inherit the flat ‘Mila’s living in, and will sell it for cash. Her daughter lives in a sixth floor walk-up with her husband and three children, the oldest of which is entering medical college at the Sorbonne. ‘Mila’s son is well off, having proved his skill in international trade. And his son is following in his father’s footsteps, studying now at the Academy for Foreign Trade.

Last year ‘Mila’s son presented her with a huge large-screen TV, and on our recent evening together we watched the Culture Channel to see a fine performance by one of Russia’s top pianists, Matsuyev. Quite often when I’m in Moscow we’ll go to some musical event. This time we enjoyed a good performance from the comfort of home.