I often hear an opinion saying that the farther from the capital you go, the less local people are interested in politics. However, having visited a number of Russian small towns in Central Russia, I got to believe this is no true statement. People in province are interested in politics no less than we, Moscow people, do.  

Two mushroomers from the city of Dzerjinsk accompanied me for over an hour, walking in a rain-poured forest to the federal highway “Volga” just to show me a billboard about which they were so indignant. The billboard said “Roads unite Russia: united Russia is strong Russia!” Those people were exasperated about two key words – “united” and “strong”, which hinted obviously at a concrete political power, allegedly to whom people oblige the fact there are roads in the country. “Ok, let them also take responsibility for potholes where we lose our wheels!”   

It appears that the party in power is not going to be held responsible for any bad things happening in the country. In the small town of Balakhna I was shown a local post office with a sign on the entrance door saying “this facility was reconstructed under initiative and under control by United Russia party and the deputy of the State Duma Alexander Khinstein”. And right in front of the door there was a huge pit filled with rain water. I asked an old woman approaching the place with difficulty “why the party did not fill up the pit?” She grinned “It wouldn’t be possible to put a sign on the buried pit, dear!” Yes, really the sign saying something like “The pit was filled up under initiative and control…” would look like an absolute nonsense, and the voters would not understand what it is about, if the pit were filled up. And the entrance to the local post office was there before the repairs and will be after it.       

The locals tell in the city of Murom that a huge billboard was installed for long near a ferry, informing the passers that soon a bridge over Oka the River would be constructed under initiative by United Russia. Well, it appears that something went wrong and the construction was not started. They say, the local bosses installed the billboard not for informing the passing people but for the pleasure of the United Russia parteigenosse Gryzlov, who visited the town during the campaigning period, after which the billboard was just put off. I guess next time (the campaigning period is likely to be held in winter or autumn season) one might expect some placards saying “The heating season was started under initiative and under control by…” The propagandist effect will be great, as no one wants to get cold and if people will just get warmed, everyone would be grateful deeply for this care about common people!      

Political province does not invent anything new; it only adopts things from the Center. I remember how people were intimidated with inevitable collapse of Russia in case they did not vote for United Russia, who was speaking for the vertical of power. Well, in the small town of Gorodets I saw a leaflet remaining after the municipal elections. The leaflet said “United district is strong district!” I tried to imagine the collapse of the district with border lines and roadblocks on the roads, and with village Central Banks issuing their own local currencies. And all that might happen in case the local electorate disobeyed and did not support the local United Russian chiefs wishing only the good to people!   

If we compare with soviet times, the Russian province lost many employment opportunities, as many enterprises were closed down and very few new ones were created. The only novation is the selling booths and drinking houses with poor assortment of cheap products. There are no luxury things sold, as local population cannot afford it, with the exception of some youth “managering on the side” (an expression that I heard from a man from Kalyazino whose son is working as a manager in a large shop in the city of Ivanovo). 

May one affirm that people in the province are content with their situation? No. Prices going up for all kinds of goods, the wages in non-government enterprises still remain at the level of 2-3 years ago. Two thirds and maybe even more of the provincial population live off the land, having kitchen gardens at their dachas where they need to get, and the petrol prices in the province are even higher than those in Moscow, which has never been! Can anyone explain why it is so?  

Life has changed, or course, in larger and smaller towns. No one from near-Moscow locations would come now to an idea of taking a trip to the capital to buy sausages, as today they can buy everything at their places, under condition they have money. The problem is they don’t have enough money. The lack of means influences the political opinions by local populations. A year ago my acquaintances from the provincial places did not make any statements about authorities – local or central ones. Now with the situation getting worse they began to express their discontent in a low voice. “Tell me, is it possible to go on with such a salary?” This question I was asked everywhere. One of the middle managers at the paper mill named “Volga” in Pravdinsk admitted to earning only 8,000 rubles (less than $300) per month, out of which 2,500 rubles he pays for bills. So he has just ludicrous money for the other expenses. While having a talk with him in a local bar, I treated him with kebab and some vodka, for which I paid about a thousand rubles. Alas, I realized too late I had done a silly thing, when I read in his eyes an annoyance as if he wanted to say “You scribblers get easy money!”          

Provincial discontent hotting up, it has no address yet. It’s too early to estimate the outcomes of Medvedev’s activities, and so everyone just shrugs shoulders. As for Putin, the situation is getting worse for him gradually. It appears that he has stepped on the minefield of the Russian enmity and might easily become the target for future arrows. It has been repeatedly so in Russia: general admiration - especially when it is generated by a nice TV picture – growing fast into common dislike. Before, the province voted for Putin mainly because it remembered the terrible lack of money of the Yeltsin’s times, while with Putin governing in the Kremlin the pensioners began at least get their tiny benefits on time. But the head is always advised by the pocket. And what does the pocket say this summer? It’s easy to guess. The rising bills for communal services might play even more significant role in the Russian politics than the stocks of large companies that came in hands of those close to the authority or who are the authority themselves.      

The problem is not that something must be promised or even given to people in the province. The problem is that life itself has not changed there. There is more welfare but there are no opportunities to use it. Exactly this fact, and not some ephemeral doctrine, may cause people to expressing their sensible protest with unpredictable political consequences.  

Sociologists say that the number of people dissatisfied with their situation is bigger in the capital and large cities. That means, the farther from the Kremlin, the less people realize their vulnerability? This is hard to believe. It is probably because the statistical data, which are likely to be true, are interpreted wrongly in qualitative terms. For example, many provincial people are not inclined to be frank with strangers about politically delicate subjects. They are afraid of their local bosses who are more potent than Putin himself, in terms of possibilities of affecting their own lives. All of them know perfectly what revenge or reprisal might be. No assurance of anonymousness can help. Those who believe it to be intimidated condition, they are wrong. This is just intuitive mistrust in justice that may be expressed with a formula “You will leave, and we will continue to live here somehow”.            

What is an obvious feature on the provincial authority? It resembles very much the federal one. Big bosses of small towns also like to have only faithful people in their entourage. Using their administrative and budget resource they promote businesses by their relatives. They give protection to useful for them structures, which are also called there to be “socially-responsible” and they create problems for allegedly “useless” ones. Like the federal authority, the local one has an idiosyncrasy towards the local press, considering it to be the source of its troubles, and examples of that are just numerous. And the major likeness between the two kinds of authority is a kind of segregation that has become a norm. Everywhere, with very rare exceptions, the local bosses organize “closed” life for their entourages, the life that has nothing to be connected with their electorate. What can be done about it? Nothing. This is the case where no purification is possible unless it starts from the top. And would it start from there?