What I Heard From Passengers on the Last Train Out of Russia

There were no long wait lines for anything in Russia since the 1990s, according to a Russian woman with dual citizenship with an EU country. She said before the Ukraine invasion that Russia's big cities were prosperous and thriving, and that her friends in Moscow considered Paris a provincial city because you couldn't find a good meal in the middle of the night.

She said that after the invasion triggered international sanctions, lines were forming for more and more things, and shortages were expected across the economy, including in medicine and health care. Many urban Russians were shocked by the closing of Western chains.

The horrors experienced by Ukrainian civilians under attack by the Russian military paled in comparison to the privations of these Russians escaping by train. They are also refugees from the Putin regime.

Maria, a technology professional from St. Petersburg, said that she was running away from Russia because of Putin and other young people in the IT field. Everyone wants to leave. At the airport, police are stopping people and reading their phone messages. Some people think I hate my country. I love my country so much. I don't like the government. Someone who sees the negative side is a patriot. When I criticize my country, I am like a good mother, who loves her children but helps them understand how to work on negative things and become better. Russia could become like North Korea. If I ever do go back, my mother showed me her cemetery documents so I could find her.

I was born in the Soviet Union, according to a 50-year-old art director. There is an army in Moscow. They will stop and arrest you if you say something out of line. There is fear all over. There are many Russians who can't admit their mistakes and can't see that we are trapped in a nightmare. Russians are sensitive to criticism. They can criticize themselves, but they take it very personally if it comes from outside. People don't want to admit mistakes. It's easier to watch TV than it is to read the government propaganda. It is easier to not think. We did it for the 70 years of the Soviet Union. The anti-Putin people are not the majority. There are many poor people in this country who have never traveled outside. They only have their television and no communication. They work hard all day and come home exhausted, but the TV is their only source. The world needs to know that some Russians are against Putin. I love my country. It is a great country. I am proud to be Russian. I have to leave my country and not come back. My mother was a big fan of the idea of her country being free. She was crying at the train station this morning as she said goodbye to me.

Her mother said that she would die behind the wall as well.

Anatoly, a 30-year-old business manager, told me that there are two different opinions in Russia. The government propaganda tries to make it seem that a majority of people support it. None of the people I know support it. I think the pressure from other countries should be increased.

Maria said that she didn't think anyone supported the Ukraine invasion. Nobody supports the regime. Everyone was shocked. She explained that anyone who wants to access global news sources can still do so with a virtual private network on their phone despite the Russian government's efforts to block non-Russian sources of information.

A woman from Moscow said that everyone she knew was shocked by the news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A tall Russian man stepped out of the rear car when most of the passengers had left the platform. When I asked if we could talk, he initially refused but then changed his mind.

He told me that it was worse than going back to the Soviet Union. I don't have the words to compare it, but if you've read Russian, you've heard of someone named Vasili. He was the first to say the Iron Curtain was about Russia.

One hundred years ago, in 1918, he wrote that with a clang, a creak and a scream the iron curtain dropped on Russian history. The audience was told to leave. The people got up from their seats and looked around, but the fur coats and houses were gone. After writing this in the wake of the Russian Revolution, he died of illness and starvation.