All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
Ivangorod is the far outpost of Russia on their western border with Estonia, a NATO member country. It’s also the only open border with NATO but it is fast shutting down as well. It has been in the news since 23rd May of this year when the Russian military moved 24 out of the 50 buoys from the Narva River, which mark the official border between Russia and NATO. And this happened during the early morning hours of the 23rd and became major headlines across the world as NATO accused Russia of provocation. In fact it was the first Russia-NATO border provocation since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war (note-Ukraine is not part of NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). And the strangest thing about Ivangorod’s sister city Narva (on the other side in Estonia), is that 96% people of Narva are actually Russians. I was there just a few weeks back in July, so this feature is fresh from the oven.
As you can see, this won’t be an easy article but as always I saw it from the eyes of an ordinary traveller and will try my best to stay neutral, which is my basic starting position on all geo-political topics, and it is my world view at large. I maintained that neutral stance while on the ground in Ivangorod -Narva area as well since I didn’t know if I was speaking with a pro-Russia or pro-Estonia person. Clearly the Russia-Ukraine war and possible future invasion at this border point was on everyone’s mind but they were going about their daily lives too. I just had to be sensitive about it.
I feel the reason why many don’t keep a neutral view these days is because it can be perceived as being wishy-washy or indecisive. Such a stance would also mean that a lot of news channels or commentators won’t be able to hold a certain audience captive as most people want to align and take sides. But the key to understanding this world is that you can’t see it as black and white, since it has a lot of greys in between too. I believe there is no single version of the truth and in fact, because today everyone is gaining a wider view, it is a lot harder to fool us. I also believe that today ‘neutral’ is a stance just as picking a side is. This is becoming more and more common amongst the educated, both young and old. So with that, here’s my attempt to put to you what I saw and more importantly, what I felt.
First of all let me talk about the architecture and infrastructure – the housing was drab and classic Russian. Blocks and blocks of boxes which people call homes. But from the inside they were as good as any home and I stayed in one such abode of a local, a person called Sergei and his son, Aleksandr. This bland housing was just as I had imagined it to be. Another bit of architecture was their forts and castles. Classic European but a bit more understated – both the Ivangorod Fort and the Narva Castle. The roads were clean, and the parks beautiful but largely empty. This too is how I had imagined it to be in a low population density country that is fast aging. Again, it was very European on this front. And finally the baroque churches were absolutely stunning, and very Russian it must be said.
When it came to the people, I should start by mentioning that there were very few of them and most were old. And I was absolutely the only tourist around, which made it interesting as my brown skin was clearly drawing attention of the folks there. I had so many come up to me asking where I was from and then answering themselves with their follow up question “are you from India?.” You see, India was top of mind for them because of our Prime Minister, Mr. Modi’s visit to Moscow just a week earlier. He and the Russian president, Mr. Putin met for diplomatic talks at the Kremlin in Moscow and one of the obvious topics that came up was Ukraine. Our P.M. had maintained a very neutral diplomatic stance on this topic and it came up in my conversations with strangers over the course of the trip. One old man, visiting the fort with his daughter and son-in-law, got very excited and started saying “India is friend, India is friend, welcome, welcome”. Another said “See it’s so crazy, there Estonia-there Russia, only river” (he meant that the 2 countries are next to each other and only a river separates them).
During my visit I also wanted to meet some fishermen as I had read that since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, fishermen gathered on either side of the river to fish and wave at each other as a sign of friendship and brotherhood. I did indeed meet quite a few fishermen and the vibe was largely very positive. Only one man didn’t like my taking a photograph of his, but luckily I deleted it before he asked me to show the camera. I told him I was taking the photograph of a bird on the tree. I was glad I escaped as he was big and seemingly bad tempered. Phew.
Since I was alone, I had to request the locals to take a few of my snaps from time to time. It was the perfect reason to strike a conversation although they hardly knew any English and I knew no Russian (other than Spasiba which means Thank You). I am glad we live in the age of mobile phone cameras, since I didn’t have to explain anyone how to take a few photographs and to take them right. Most obliged me with both landscape and portrait shots, without my asking them to do so. I am not much of a ham in front of the camera, but sometimes I am.
When it came to the beers they were fantastic and cheap, the cafes nothing to write home about (it wasn’t a tourist place), the summer sun was mild and relaxing, the river clean and the grass very green (on both sides). It was all very strange and eerie. The only sign of something not being normal was the heavily barricaded and militarized ‘Friendship Bridge’ that was being crossed on foot by very few. All vehicle traffic had been barred from February of this year and we don’t know when all people will be barred from crossing as well, as they have been in every other Russia-NATO border. The bland recorded message (in 3 languages) that I heard in my bus that stopped at the border was “from here you have to cross by foot as automobile entry has stopped due to ongoing construction work at the bridge’. Well, construction work my foot, you don’t fool me that easily. The bridge was simply a divide that ran through the hearts and minds of the same people, but caught on opposite sides of the river.
Ivangorod-Narva wasn’t for tourists. No one cared about these twin towns as they didn’t have cobbled streets, beautiful town squares, artistic bakeries & breweries, nor any museums or souvenir shops. But this little part of the planet was the highlight of my entire trip as this is where the modern East and West meet (the historic East-West meeting point is of course, Istanbul in Turkiye). Today the Eastern World is fast moving away from the Western World, in all things such as currency, trade, arms, supply chains, transportation and most worryingly in ideologies.
Ivangorod – Narva is just the place that symbolizes the deepening divide and the formation of 2 worlds inside our only home. Today we have as high a risk of destabilization of the entire planet as we did in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I just hope no one resorts to ‘escalate to de-escalate’ or even thinks of the ‘N’ word. I am no expert in geo-politics, but I believe it has to start with a dialogue. The world has no shortage of translators & interpreters to get the 2 sides to talk on the same table, but they can’t bring diverging ideologies on the same page.
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. More than anything else, he loves his Himalayan home. Reach him at facebook.com/MostTravelledIndian/
