In the 1970s, David Bowie visited the USSR twice. And it was like this — In 1973, after a Japanese tour, David Bowie traveled across Russia on the Trans-Siberian express. Who better to tell about this trip than Bowie himself? Nobody!
Therefore, next you will find letters from Bowie addressed to a girl named Sherry Vanilla, who was his public relations manager at the time. The letters are dated May-June 1973.
May 26, 1973
Dear Sherry. I think it’s time to tell you about my trip to Russia. Russia is an amazing country, and I was very excited about the prospect of seeing at least part of it with my own eyes. Of course, I had some idea about Russia from what I had read, heard and seen in films, but the adventure that I went through, the people I met — it all turned into an amazing experience that I will never forget. I hope that I will be able to convey at least some of my impressions to you.
My traveling companions were Jeffrey McCormack (he plays congas in my band), Bob Musel (a reporter for United Press International) and Lee (my personal photographer). Our trip began on the ship Felix Dzerzhinsky (Bowie writes “Nzerzhinsky” in the original), which left the port of Yokohama and went to Nakhodka, a seaport on the Far Eastern coast of the USSR.
This part of the journey took two days, and I must admit, I really liked it. The ship itself was good and even in a sense gorgeous. I even performed a concert for the other passengers in the mess hall. I didn’t plan anything special, I just played a few songs with an acoustic guitar. The passengers seemed to like it, at least that’s what I thought from their reaction.
In Nakhodka, we boarded a train. It was fantastic! Imagine an old French train from the beginning of the century, with beautiful wooden paneling inside the cars, decorated with antique oval mirrors, bronze and velvet seats. It’s like we’re in some kind of romantic novel or an old movie.
Any train is my home, but this one was very convenient. Let’s just say it was the best train I’ve ever seen, and in my travels I’ve seen many different trains! I was already looking forward to a long and pleasant trip across Siberia, but in this sense we were disappointed.
The next day, we were announced that we were going to transfer in Khabarovsk, and, in fact, an eight-day trip through Siberia would begin from there. The new train had nothing to do with the old one. He was simple, practical and, by the way, very clean, but we already managed to fall in love with our beautiful and romantic “Frenchman”.
Siberia was incredibly impressive. For days we rode along majestic forests, rivers and wide plains. I could not have imagined that there were still such spaces of untouched wildlife in the world. What presented itself to my eyes was like a penetration into other times, into another world, and made a powerful impression on me. It was quite strange to sit on a train, which in itself is a product of modern technology, and travel through places so clean and not spoiled by man.
But we watched all this from the train window. As for the inner part of it, we had two fabulous conductors in our carriage, whose names were Tanya and Nadia (in the original Bowie writes “Danya”, but most likely the girl’s name was Tatiana). In the morning they brought us tea, although, to be precise, they brought us that tea all day long, and I must say that this tea was very tasty.
Our charming guides were always cheerful, friendly, and over time we all just fell in love with them. In the evenings, when their work was over, I sang my songs to them. They didn’t understand a word of English and, of course, couldn’t know a single one of my texts! But it didn’t bother them at all. They sat opposite me for hours, smiled, listened attentively, and at the end of each song they laughed and clapped their hands! I found a great audience in their person, and it gave me great pleasure to sing for them.
June 2, 1973
Dear Sherry. Last week I told you about Tanya and Nadia, our wonderful car attendants, how I used to sing songs to them late at night and what wonderful tea they made for us. Tanya and Nadia made it a rule to go out at the stations along the route to buy us yogurt (apparently, we are talking about a product known as varenets), rolls and a lot of other products that are offered at the stations by local residents. They spoiled us, of course. The rolls and yogurt were fine, like that tea. And, of course, Tanya and Nadia always knew exactly what to buy and what was the best at this station.
I like to travel by train, I have a good rest in it, besides, it gives me a chance to see the world and the people who live in it. Since I write a lot of songs on the road, then, of course, they reflect the atmosphere of the country, the way of life of people, and my observations of them. I have written several songs about Russia, so I hope that soon you will be able to learn my impressions of Russia (and Japan) not only from letters, but also from music too.
I’m doing a great job on the train. I stick to my routine: I get up early, have a good breakfast, then read or write music all day.
I look out the window for a long time, I try to communicate with people more. I go to bed early, at 9 or 10 p.m., which, if you think about it, is a very early time for a musician. But sleeping on the train is the only real rest that falls to my lot.
But let’s get back to my Russian trip. On April 30th, we finally arrived in Moscow. That night we stayed at the Intourist Hotel, and the next day we were lucky to see the parade in honor of the First of May, which took place on the streets of the city.
May Day is the largest Russian holiday, which is held in honor of the founding of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
All party members are marching in the streets, carrying red flags and singing patriotic songs. It’s interesting to watch all this: the sight of a huge number of people united by a common goal is impressive.
We left Moscow by train to Warsaw, from there to Berlin, then to Belgium and Paris. In Paris, I met my wonderful wife Angie. All these impressions are still very vivid in my memory. I hope they will continue to live in my music.
And here are the memoirs of Robert Musel, a journalist with the American UPI agency, who, at the request of David Bowie’s wife, Angie, accompanied the musician on his trip across the Trans-Siberian Railway
… And then a new passenger appeared on the platform (railway station in Khabarovsk), the sight of which made passers-by stop dead in their tracks. I will note that he produced such a reaction at all 90 stops of the train en route to Moscow. He was tall, slender, young, and ravenously handsome. His hair was dyed red, and his face was deathly pale. He wore platform boots and was wearing a bright shirt with metal thread glinting from under a blue raincoat. He had a guitar in his hand. Two Canadian girls boarding the same train couldn’t believe their eyes. “David Bowie is coming with us!” they shouted frantically. Bowie smiled at them.…
One of the few truly popular pop superstars, Bowie was returning from Japan to England after a phenomenally successful tour, only to embark on a record-breaking tour of the United States.
“I don’t fly airplanes,” he said, “because I was given a sign from above that I would die in a plane crash. If nothing happens to me before 1976, I will fly again. But I like trains, and maybe I would have chosen to travel this way anyway. And I have a feeling that this trip will be the most interesting of all.”
He and Jeffrey McCormack, Bowie’s childhood friend and band member, occupied a compartment next to mine. A few minutes later, the long train that would have delighted Summerset Maugham, packed to capacity with Russians in the hard class and foreigners in the soft, set off…
…Old ladies peddle at the stations. They sell potatoes, fried chicken, fish, and donuts stuffed with meat. They sell boiled eggs for 20 cents apiece, Hungarian compotes, canned fish and all at prices that would be considered quite high even in London or New York. The products themselves, packed in coarse brown paper, look rather unappetizing, but, apparently, they are tasty and healthy. Bowie, for example, drank several liters of local yogurt on the way. His assessment: “Excellent!”…
…It was still snowing at Yerofey Pavlovich station, and the passengers started a snowball fight. Soldiers were watching them from the side. They were almost collided with by a column of other soldiers marching past. They stared at the man coming down the steps of the carriage. It was Bowie, wearing a yellow raincoat with a fur collar. He didn’t pay any attention to those looks.
The girl conductor explained to people that the passenger is a star of world pop music. “This could only happen in the decadent West,” one Russian remarked disapprovingly. When this remark was translated by Bowie, he just smiled: “I wonder what he would say if he found out that I was offered to perform a concert in Vladivostok. On board the ship that brought us to Nakhodka, we gave an acoustic concert for the passengers. Among them was an official working for radio in Vladivostok. He really asked me to give a concert in his city. In fact, in other circumstances, I would have agreed. Besides, it would be interesting to perform somewhere in Beijing or Moscow.”
Bowie also encountered soldiers (or rather, demobbers heading to the dining car) on the train itself, when he left the compartment with a bottle of mineral water, looking for an opener. One of them smiled at David with a row of alternating his own and metal teeth, took the bottle from him, clamped the lid between his teeth and opened it in one motion…
…At one of the stations, Bowie drew our attention to an elderly woman outside the window, who was hammering a huge iron pin while her male colleagues watched the process, leaning on shovels. Apparently, the equality of Soviet women also means an equal chance with men to get hard manual work!
David Bowie, a sensitive young man of 25, admitted that he was somewhat disturbed by the sight of women working on the railway, old enough to be his mother and grandmother.
“One night at the station, I woke up, looked out the window and saw three women in sweatshirts and rough boots carrying heavy cans of gasoline. It was freezing outside the window. I wonder what the Women’s Defense League would say about this?”…
…For his exit at the Moscow station, our trans-Siberian sensation, world superstar David Bowie, traveling by train because of fear of airplanes, chose to dress in an orange Yves Saint Laurent suit. By Bowie’s standards, it was a rather modest outfit, which he complemented with a coffee-colored silk jacket with green inserts, a Dutch beret and yellow boots on a 10-centimeter platform. Over lunch at the hotel, which consisted of caviar, sturgeon and smoked salmon, Bowie noted that only two negative cases had happened to him during the entire trip.
“The first one took place in Sverdlovsk. The Russians explained to us that we could use our cameras on condition that we did not take pictures of military installations. When we were taking pictures at the station in Sverdlovsk, a guy in sunglasses and a leather windbreaker came up to us and demanded our film. We refused. At one point, I thought we were going to get into trouble, but then the train started moving and we jumped into the carriage. I think it was a KGB man.
The second one happened shortly after our train crossed the geographical border between Asia and Europe. We all noticed how friendly people live in Siberia and that people become more and more sullen as they approach Moscow. In general, four Russian guys were sitting at the next table in the dining car and were looking threateningly in our direction. I had lunch with Jeffrey McCormack. After discussing the situation, we decided to leave. I think it was the right thing to do. As we passed by their table, one of them, looking at us, scratched his throat with his finger.”…
…Bowie amazed the Russians with his appearance every time he got off the train.
“I find true freedom only in the realm of my own originality,” he often said.
His hairstyle, pale face and choice of clothing color are explained by his deep fascination with the aesthetics of the Japanese Kabuki Theater. David Bowie’s performances in Japan have been dubbed the new Beatlemania by journalists. The fact that his records are breaking sales records, and concert tickets are always sold out, does not surprise him at all. He always knew it would be like this. That’s exactly how it happens.…
Three years later, Bowie brought his friend Iggy Pop to the USSR. In Moscow, the musicians stayed at the Metropol hotel, where they celebrated the birthday of the grandfather of punk rock
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