American about Moscow: 'I decided that I would die in the very first hours of my stay in Russia'

New Yorker Bill Swersey first visited Moscow in September 1991. Acquaintance with the capital of the Russian Federation he was greatly remembered for its unpleasant odors and fear of dying. This publication writes Yandex Zen.

According to Bill Swersey, he flew to Moscow less than two weeks after the failed coup against Gorbachev. The first thing that surprised him while he was waiting for his turn at passport control at Sheremetyevo airport was the smell. “It was a kind of combination of stale cigarette smoke, body odor and urine. For me it was an unpleasant first nuance in my acquaintance with this country, ”said Bill.

Due to the fact that the direct flight from New York was delayed, the airline sent it on another flight - first to Frankfurt, then to Moscow. In the end, Bill was very late, and the people who were supposed to meet him were absent. Therefore, having enlisted the help of a stranger, he was able to use a payphone and call a cousin who lives in Russia. She recommended a relative take a taxi and not pay more than $ 5.

Bill then enlisted the help of other strangers who helped him get a taxi. It was a black sedan. During the trip, the American noticed that there was little light outside. The taxi driver drove along the access road to the airport and turned onto the main artery of Moscow - Leningradskoe highway. “I remember very much the memorial located on the side of the road. It consisted of several giant anti-tank obstacles - "Czech hedgehog". I suppose that it was in these places that the German offensive against Moscow was stopped during the Second World War, ”says Bill.

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There were many other cars on the road at that time, mostly people returning to the city after the last weekend. At the same time, the taxi driver pointed at the "summer residents" with disgust, and then turned abruptly off the sidewalk onto the grassy middle lane dividing the eastern and western lanes of the highway, and then quickly began to move in the direction of oncoming traffic. “So I decided that I would die in the very first hours of my stay in Russia. However, after driving a few awful kilometers, he turned onto the Moscow Ring Road, Moscow's main ring road, and returned to the right side of the road, ”said the American.

After about 40 minutes, Bill got to his cousin's house in southern Moscow. Ignoring her grandmother's instructions, he paid a taxi driver $ 10 per trip.

Bill spent the next five years in Russia. He documented "an incredibly complex and profound transition period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union." “I have gone through an incredible amount of adventures, made friends with this country for life, met my love. But I will never forget these first couple of hours that Russia met me with, ”he summed up.