Russia is a strange country. For me, a tourist used to Western European and American society, Russia is not merely different, but seems like an unfamiliar world.

Church construction does not follow the European model. The ubiquitous, brightly colored onion domes display the thousand-year-old division between western and eastern Christianity. Bell towers are built separately from the main church building. The inside walls of Orthodox churches are covered with painted narratives of biblical figures and Orthodox martyrs.

Another set of differences concerns food, and especially drink. Russians drink tea, everyone knows that. Coffee is nearly impossible to obtain; even in “cafés” only instant coffee is provided. Vodka is the drink of hospitality and generosity. Borsht is a favorite soup. Bread is dark and heavy. The Western European taste for creamy sauces is foreign in Russia, as is the broad use of exotic spices.

Russians may eat more simply because they have much less money. In contrast to decades of Soviet propaganda about economic success and the accompanying Western credulity about the “Soviet threat,” the Russian economy is far behind the industrial West. It’s not just that certain consumer goods, like toilet paper, are often absent where they are expected. Nearly every machine that I saw, from trains to subways to trucks to construction equipment, was old, noisy and inefficient. A construction site means a gang of men with shovels.

In the countryside, there are few paved roads and fewer sidewalks. People and vehicles move along rutted dirt paths. While housing developments for the few newly rich are springing up amongst the fields, most buildings are visibly in need of repair.

The United States and other Western governments poured billions of dollars into the Russian economy after the fall of communism to help the Russians make the transition to market capitalism and political democracy. It looked to me as if billions more would barely make a dent in the woeful state of the Russian infrastructure.

The Russians are working very hard to build an economy that can compete with Europe and America. Thousands of buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg have been thoroughly renovated to make tourism more attractive. This process is spreading to provincial cities, like Yaroslavl, where our daughter is studying.

Slowly, the basic infrastructure, which has been neglected for decades, is being improved.

Economic growth and modernization may eventually help Russia catch up with the West, but it will not make Russia like the West. The inefficiencies that infuriate a Western traveler, used to immediate service, are not simply a legacy of the Soviet system, which the free market will wipe away.

Russia is different in more fundamental ways. The mentality of a strong central state, supported by ubiquitous police presence, preceded the Russian Revolution and outlives communism. Police, militia and army are everywhere in Russian cities. Armed men stand around on the street day and night, watching both the Russian people and tourists. When we asked directions to the train station, the response was a demand to see our passports.

What appears as inefficiency is a combination of technical backwardness and the state’s observation of personal life. The sphere of private life has always been sharply restricted in Russia. Although Russia could profit from increased tourism, it continues to be difficult to travel into Russia. Group tours controlled by official guides are welcomed, but the individual traveler is faced with bureaucratic hurdles and high fees, for example for a visa. We filled out lengthy forms with personal information just to spend a week in Russia. Once there, the movements of foreign and native travelers seem to be closely monitored. There are long lines to buy train tickets, because one must show a passport so that the ticket can be made out with the traveler’s name and passport number.

The powerful state is ruled by strong men. Vladimir Putin’s recent decision to eliminate the democratic election of provincial governors is an indication of the weakness of democratic institutions in Russia. Significant decisions in Russia are made by a few executives without public input or even public knowledge. The government acts without the transparency that Western voters take for granted; Mikhail Gorbachev’s encouragement of glasnost in the 1980s is still needed. Legislatures in Russia exist more to give the government legitimacy than to allow the people’s representatives to determine policy.

The open Russian interference in the recent fraudulent Ukrainian elections demonstrates how little democratic processes count in the land of the czars and Soviets. The habits of authoritarian rulers and obedient citizens have developed over centuries. Neither a free society nor a free market economy should be expected in the near future in Russia.

Steve Hochstadt lives in Lewiston and teaches history at Bates College. He is temporarily teaching in Germany and can be reached at [email protected].