"This is some other city"

How the Sochi residents live in the Olympic Sochi - The New Times Diary

Winter Olympic Games, preparation for which Russia cost Russia in an astronomical amount - $ 50 billion, started

The pre -Petrine history of Russia, according to the scriptwriters of the opening ceremony of the Olympiad. Sochi, February 7, 2014

On February 7, the long -awaited opening of the Olympic Games took place at the FIST stadium in Sochi, which, according to forecasts, had to watch 3 billion people around the world. The ceremony went smoothly, but opinions about her scenarios were divided. Many liked the colorful, filled with meaning, modern shows, social networks were full of congratulations to the organizers and leadership of the country. It seemed to some that even the opening ceremony of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 did not carry such an ideological charge as the show prepared by the team of Channel Channel Channel Channel Channel Konstantin Ernst. A glorious military story, ballet and colossal money - this is what was intended to emphasize the greatness of the country of the hostess of the XXII Winter Olympic Games. The shelves marching in the stadium looked especially strange, as if it was about the next military parade, and not about the sports international festival. “Russia is the largest country in the world,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of the Sochi-2014 Organizing Committee, repeating the words of Vladimir Putin, which he said two days before. This seems to be the meaning of the event, and the games themselves.

From the desire to understand how the Sochi residents live on the eve of the main event of the year, The New Times asked the local eleventh grader Vladislav Slavsky to keep a diary:

February 2, Sunday

On TV in the news, one Olympics and Sochi (show how cool it is), Facebook also (laugh at how bad everything is), but in general it feels like it is some other city, and even another country, for nothing that everything has been dug up for several years.

You don’t think about the Olympics at all, especially since there are still no money for tickets. I learned that the house neighbor was in the hospital with a fracture of his leg - he was shot down by a car at the transition. We decided to visit him with my friend Dima. For traffic jams for a long time they got from the host to Adler to the regional hospital No. 4. together we were not allowed into the ward. So while Dima went to the neighbor, I was waiting on the ground floor. Two women in the registry were discussing in an undertone that in the hospital there is a friend of one of them, on whom the police fabricated the case. He was beaten in the site, and then, when he ended up in a hospital with fractures, he was handed over to the handcuffs and sent two police officers who regularly hit him on the head and bring him to suicide. I tried to talk to them about it, but they immediately fell silent: they were afraid of consequences for themselves.

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There was no English, the teacher was taken to volunteering. If I find out that she translated the “language in the test” as Language in the Test, I won’t be surprised at all

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After the hospital, they decided to go to the Sochi Center in order to eat in Rostics KFC. In general, you can get on a “swallow” - it costs only 42 rubles and quickly, but there at the inspection points they make all food and liquids throw away, and in general they go through for a very long time - you need to remove the belt, shake the bags. We already bought some food on the road and decided to go by bus. It was about five in the evening.

They got to Sochi in an hour (on a swallow - half an hour), spent another half an hour to get on another bus to the Olympus shopping center in the Central District where this KFC is located. We had dinner, left from there at half past nine. Despite the bus schedule and the Olympic Decree to travel until 2 a.m., there is no transport in the evenings. After waiting for the bus for about 15 minutes, we decided to go on foot and spent the path from Olympus to the station for about an hour. The bus has never appeared for the entire journey. Thank God, they managed to bus a bus to the host. I arrived home at 23.30, there was very little to sleep - until five in the morning. Tomorrow to school.

The German team was held in costumes of the flowers of a gay-Flag. Officially, however, the Olympians denied any connection with the support of Russian LGBT

February 3, Monday

At 7 in the morning I am already standing at a stop. It’s cold, dank on the street. By 7.30 he arrived at school - half an hour before the start of classes. I did not have time to have breakfast at home, I went to the supermarket. I paid a card, I have it with PayPass NFC. The cashier had no idea what it was, and did not even know that their terminals were supported by PayPass, I was very surprised when I just put the card to the terminal.

There was no second lesson (English), the teacher was taken to volunteering. If I find out that she translated the “language in the test” as Language in the Test (foreign journalists who arrived in Sochi reported about this curious inscription in the Olympic menu. - The NEW Times), I won’t be surprised at all.

Only after school he arrived home, cut down the light. It often happens with us. Not only is it dark, but also cold

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At social studies, they were forced to record in the diaries that on February 6, everyone was obliged to meet the Olympic fire, threatened that those who would not go, would underestimate the grades in the semester. Let them try. I will write to the prosecutor's office.

Only after school he arrived home, cut down the light. It often happens with us. Not only is it dark, but also cold: the boiler room works on electricity, and there is no diesel generator. There is 50 heat on the street, in the apartment is 150. The phone has only 5% charging, connected it in case they give light at night, cut down 3G, Wi-Fi and went to bed.

February 4, Tuesday

In the morning they never gave the light, on the phone 2% charging. The school was lucky: the classmate had a “charging”.

The opening ceremony of the Olympics in Sochi gathered the best Russian talents living both in the country and beyond
February 6, Thursday

I did not go to school, I decided to observe Olympic fire, as they carry a torch. Together with the class, he did not go out of the principle, went to the opposite end of the city. The first thing I saw: how they paint a bus stop along the route of fire. It turns out that they realized two hours before the event. Then he noticed that the covers of all sewer hatches were sealed with mounting foam. So that terrorists do not come out of them? Well, nonsense ...

On the street. Donskoy, where I stood, was carried at 12.47, and schoolchildren were forced to go out to meet him in two hours. I watched everything from the cafe nearby. People were given flags, many brought Russian flags themselves. In general, the people rejoiced, it looked like some kind of holiday. At 12.45, the mobile promotions of Coca-Cola and Ingosstrakh drove. Then they carried the torch, everyone tried to squeeze closer, photographed, shot it all on the phones. The whole city is blocked, but still the grape street was left open. I went to the bus while standing at the stop, spoke on the phone about the Olympics, mentioned that the money was stolen at the construction sites - Putin - a thief, an elderly woman immediately attacked me, who began to shout that I was an animal and so that he did not dare to insult the president.

Olympic souvenirs appeared in all Sochi kiosks long before the Games

February 7, Friday

In connection with the Olympics at the school, an extraordinary vacation until February 24th. True, the graduation class, therefore, from the 12th day we will go to consultations on the exam in a day, if, however, teachers are not taken to volunteering.

Today, in connection with the opening of the city center, it is blocked from 2 a.m. In the morning I managed to get to the center and arrive back, and in the evening even public transport began to be launched. Only Olympic buses are entered in the city, which deliver fans to Sochi Live sites - screens broadcasting the opening ceremony. These screens are located in the square near the city administration, next to the seaport and opposite the art museum. Everywhere where the buses leave, as well as near the ticket offices, huge lines. The opening tickets cost 50 thousand rubles, but people are still worth it. I will probably stay at home. The Olympics began. We will wait until it ends.

Photos: David Gray/Reuters, Matt Dunham/Ap, Mark Blinkh/Reuters, Alexandr Demianchuk/Reuters