The following transcript is largely unedited and therefore has many grammatical errors that reflect the difficulty of English as a second language. Occasionally when the language barrier makes the content of the story unclear I will insert bracketed notes.
Adam: Hello everybody and welcome to Conversations From Around the World, an interview series where I meet with interesting people and try to talk about interesting things. Today I’m here with my friend Dimitri in Balkhash, Kazakhstan. We’re sitting at the Kimchicken outside the English Center, drinking some Pepsi and talking about life. Dimitri, do you want to introduce yourself a little bit?
Dima: Dimitri is official name, my name is Dima. It’s very simple for foreign people, because two four letters D and Ma. Very simple. Yeah, I am just usually guy, I don’t know, maybe a man. Anyways, Adam asked me about story from my trip, my former trip to Belarus and Russia. The first trip, it was two years ago in 2023. Yeah, and my mother, my sister and I would go to the Belarus to my relatives, and firstly, my destination was Minsk. And we were sitting, we were sitting in an airport in Astana and we have our first problem. Our plane was delayed, yes. For four hours, or three or four hours, yeah. But we had a good mood in the time. It’s not big problem for us.
Then we arrived to the capital of Belarus in Minsk. And I have very good mood, very good weather outside. I took my phone and made, yeah, and made the video by myself and started with commentary, with comment different. “Oh, I am in Belarus. I am very happy. Yes. It’s my mom, blah, blah, blah.” And one officer, one Belarus officer stopped me and tell me, oh, come, come here. He took my phone and were just very polite, asked me about – I must delete my video, because I have made a video with a place when I can’t made a
video. After my mood was less. But Belarus is a good country, very old country, I saw a lot. I attend museum about great patriarch war in Belarus, is a perfect place.
But after Belarus I have a second big problem because before, until the special war operation in Ukraine, the citizens of Kazakhstan have a free trip [passage] from Belarus and Russia. But in this time I knew we can’t go to Russia by bus, by car, by train, because only a citizen
Belarus and Russia could have free trip. So I bought a plane ticket from Minsk to Moscow before three days. Fortunately it was not expensive, it had good price for us.
Later in the country, I’m arrive at border control, yeah, passport control in Russia. Oh, I know this is one fact, it’s comparative Belarus and the Russian Federation. In Belarus, the women was awful. Yes, I had a problem when I look at the women, I can’t see beautiful women, they have special faces, like, I don’t know why. Belarus people, old woman, old woman, man, very awful.
Adam: Ugly
Dima: Of course, yes, ugly, ugly, yes, ugly, ugly, yeah. But, yeah, it’s interesting fact, it’s fact true, because I even asked my sister about this situation, because [sarcastic] I think maybe I’m very, very perfect man, yes, I’m very, very wonderful man. But my sister said it’s true, because they, uh, they had a special face with, nose is like, yeah, it’s not like in Kazakhstan or Russian. Mm-hmm. And of course, when I saw the Russian lieutenant [at passport control], yes, she was very beautiful, yes, with uniform, I want, oh yeah, it’s my special, special dreams.
Adam: You’re giving me a new dream right now.
Dima: Yeah. I want this, this woman, yeah, this lieutenant, yeah. And she started, she took my passport, yeah. We separated with my sister, my sister went to the second window, I went to the fourth maybe, I don’t know.
And it’s a nightmare. I started to see this we have a very very long discussion and very
special discussion because the lady—and she’s perfect beautiful woman—asked me about why you flew into Moscow from Belarus, not from Kazakhstan, because I have Kazakh passport. And after that she took my passport and gave this other woman with a big rank my passport and she called me over to her. And I saw my sister with a group [redacted], yeah [redacted] and Muslim woman. And when I asked my sister about if she had problems, she had some problem like me but because she had Lithuanian nationalities in a passport, she flew from Belarus, and she is citizen of Kazakhstan. So the officers was suspicious I think But we got our passport back with a group of [redacted].
Yeah, but of course after that I don’t have a problem with Moscow. Yeah, generally Moscow is very friendly, friendly capital, very safe, safety capital. And I have also known the Red Square, I know it’s one of the famous places in Moscow, the Red Square. It’s a history with historical monuments, historical buildings, museum, historical. And it’s an evening, one time, we went to the Red Square and I saw like opera singer. An opera singer stood on the street, took the speaker on the music and started singing.
Adam: Oh, wow.
Dima: Yeah, and I heard opera for the first time. It was amazing.
Adam: Yeah, so like a street musician, but with singing instead of an instrument.
Dima: Only opera, yeah, yeah. But opera in life, her voice was amazing. After maybe one or two minutes, a lot of people from, I think a foreign people, take around and start to hear this. Unfortunately, after five minutes, two of these police went to him, had a small discussion, and opera singer close the speaker phone. And go home.
Adam: Bummer
[Changing topics to the Soviet Union and modern day Kazakhstan]
Dima: And of course in the Soviet Union we have a free education, free medicine system. And every people can have a voice. For example, if you are my boss, and I understood, oh, you had, maybe it’s like a crime, you did a bad thing. And I go to the government and said that “Oh, I have a boss, he is a bad man.” And the government of course heard me and took the police and go to the boss. But in modern times if I said that “Oh, my boss is a bad man,” of course I get fired. Yeah. It’s real. But of course today I can say “Oh, my president is a bad guy.”
Adam: So the government listened to people in the Soviet Union is what you’re saying?
Dima: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course for others, other people, for Western people, they think about “Oh, we are, we live with a big, yes, authoritarian system.”
Adam: Yeah, absolutely.
Dima: But now we live very free. When I had a discussion with my father-in-law, he was born in 1960, he answered, “Before I live, I knew about my future.” All people knew. Because all people were like each other. Because we have a plan, a plan economical, not market [economy].
Adam: Yeah, like a socialist or communist economy.
Dima: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Firstly, [a person] went to the kindergarten. After he went to the school. After he went to the university or the college. And if they boy, he went to the army. Yes, army for two years. After that, he got a work. After that, he got a flat when he is married. And if they have one children, it could be flat with two rooms. If there two children, like a boy and girl, of course, only three rooms.
Adam: Yeah, it’s funny you bring up that idea of people liking the sort of structure in their lives. The idea that they know what they’re going to get. This was something I talked about with the Russian immigrants I met in Karaganda. They brought up that same exact idea that people liked the stability. We talked a lot about the stability and how people knew what they could expect. Where in America, it’s in some sense the opposite. Like you graduate college, but then it’s just up to you. Like you kind of have to figure it out for yourself.
And that appeals to certain entrepreneurial people. Like people who like to make their own business and choose their own path. But I’m sure there are many other people in America who would appreciate having this sort of like structured life set out for them where they just have to follow it. In some sense, I could see it being less stressful.
Dima: If you want to see a good example of Soviet Union Republic, you should go to, not Korean. But Belarus, yeah. It’s very comparative because Belarus has a very economic system like social system Socialism system. I was shocked when I go around to Minsk and I saw the old car. No, car were like old car as fuck.
Adam: Old as fuck cars.
Dima: Oh, yeah, old as fuck cars. With the numbers of government. Because I know if the government of Karaganda or Astana, it’s only Toyota Land Cruiser. But in Minsk, there’s a Mercedes, a Lexus, a BMW. It’s like very luxe cars. Every government sitting is a maybe Mercedes. Toyota Camry is only like cars for police. No top manager of government sits in a Toyota Camry. It’s like a car for poor people. But when I saw this in Minsk, maybe I think, oh, maybe it’s corruption. But I’m not sure about corruption. I don’t know.
But of course, in Kazakhstan, there’s corruption everywhere. From police, yeah, from government. But I’m not sure about buildings, yeah. I’m not sure. I don’t know.
Honestly, I don’t know about corruption system. You must have a very expensive… oh, expensive car as fuck.
Adam: Expensive as fuck.
Dima: Expensive as fuck car. Because if you drive like a Toyota Corolla, oh, you are poor man.
Adam: I got to cut you off here, but just one final question.
Dima: Okay.
Adam: If you had to leave my American readers with just one thing you want them to know about Kazakhstan, or about this side of the world, what is just one thing you would want Americans to know?
Dima: Kind as fuck people. Not like “Oh, hi, hello” kind, but very kind people.
Adam: Yeah, we would say, like, you’re not friendly, but you are kind.
Dima: For the first appearance, it’s only, like, very rude. We’re very strong. But inside, we are kind.