‘It’s like I drew a door and disappeared through it’ Meduza correspondent Irina Kravtsova asks Russia’s homeless population what it’s really like living on the street — and what’s keeping them from returning to ‘normal life’
Homeless people in Russia have their own terms for things — people who aren’t homeless are “domestic” people, while they themselves are “street” people, or simply “bums.” Meduza’s special correspondent Irina Kravtsova spent several days with homeless people in St. Petersburg, asking them the most obvious questions “domestic” people usually have: Why can’t they just update their documents, get a job, and rent a place to live? According to Igor Antonov, who’s worked with homeless people for years, questions like these underestimate the extent to which life on the street can transform a person. When it comes down to it, returning to a “normal life” is easier said than done.
Kirill Nikolayevich is a typical retiree — a lonely, trusting old man with kind eyes. For most of his working life, he was a locksmith for a large company. Later, because his pension was so small, he also did some part-time construction work on a church — it didn’t pay well, but they fed him. At the construction site, he got involved with some scammers who talked him into taking out a micro-loan on his apartment — 300,000 rubles, nearly $4,000 — so he could buy into a metal trading company.
His “business partner” then disappeared with the money, the pensioner couldn’t repay the loan, and the court evicted him from his apartment. “Kirill Nikolayevich isn’t able to defend himself in court,” said Igor Antonov, a volunteer from the charity organization “Nochlezhki.” “He ought to be watching a movie while they catch the criminals, walking his dog in the evenings, but instead, they’re dragging him to court. And in court, as he told me, instead of defending himself, he just said, ‘You’re all assholes — not judges, assholes.’ But the judge said everything was by the book. Now, Kirill Nikolayevich lives on the street in St. Petersburg, his hometown, where he has to ask volunteers to boil water so he can make instant noodles.”
