RUSSIA IN WADERS

Chapter 1

       When I was only just thirty years old I was still bumming around. Of course, I had a degree in Russian in my pocket, obtained very easily, two years earlier. My mother, originally a Muscovite, saw me already as an interpreter, or even better, as a progressive intellectual, travelling from Paris to Moscow and from Petrograd to London. But I did not feel at all happy with this bourgeois straitjacket. What I needed was an outdoor life, big horizons and the absence of constraints, in particular in matters concerning hygiene and clothes. For many years my morning toilette can be summed up as a quick brush of the teeth, which I had to do well before going to the university, where I caused an additional sensation among my friends by my unchanging clothes : dirty jeans, black rubber boots and old worn leather jacket.

       In 1993, for my normal work I was making crappy translations for private firms who wanted to make a profit on the backs of the Russians. The Commonwealth of Independent States had started and that became the occasion for a memorable stay. A lady friend at the University had spotted a small ad in Libération asking for a Franco-Russian interpreter for a 4x4 "Trans-Asia" rally. The wording stated that the interpreter had to be a accomplished sportsman and not afraid of rolling up his sleeves......It was a perfect opportunity to bring together vast muddy spaces and my linguistic abilities for a well paid time.

       And that is how I left for Moscow, then for the frontier between Europe and Asia in the centre of Russia in spring of that same year. I did not want to be a drag : I took less than the strict minimum with me, resolved, as usual, never to change clothes. The rally would last between six and nine weeks depending on the climatic conditions. I had therefore packed in a travel bag, some big pullovers, two pairs of rubber gloves - one short and one long - a very warm parka, a particularly dirty pair of overalls and a pair of camouflage trousers which were just as dirty. The organisers of the rally had been very explicit : to take the least possible clothing and, yes, I really had heard the organiser of the rally, who was not put off by my most unusual appearance in his office in La Défense, say "rubber waders are obligatory : that is the nature of the sport. I am counting on you."

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