June 03, 2019

Scooters Kick Off in Russia


Scooters Kick Off in Russia
Mother leading daughter’s scooter on a string in a small town of the Northern Caucasus. Katrina Keegan

What characteristic unites Russian businessmen in suits sporting expensive backpacks, active babushki, children in Victory Day parades, and hip baristas in the favorite bookstore of the St. Petersburg youth? Scooters.

Tip jar scooter Russia
A tip jar reading “For a scooter vroom vroom :)”
and the feet that wish to ride it. / Katrina Keegan
Victory Day Russia scooter
A scootering family in the Immortal Regiment march on Victory Day in St. Petersburg. / Katrina Keegan

Scooters have become a cross-generational, serious means of transport for urban Russians in the past few years. In 2011 the Moscow-based group “Let’s Kick!” was founded to form a community of scooter riders; their VKontakte group currently has nearly 6,000 members. Scooters really started to become common in Moscow around 2015, mostly among professionals in their 20’s, and continues to spread from there, both geographically and among the population. 

The latest development is kicksharing, or scooter rental, usually through an app. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin declared the inaugural 2018 season successful, with a total of 140,000 rides. Many providers are expanding services this year. For example, Samocat Sharing has 15 stations in Moscow, but will kick that up to 100 this year. Kicksharing can now even be found outside major cities, in places like Omsk and Sochi

Although the trend is likely due to worldwide popularity – 2018 was named “the year of the scooter” – scooters have a respectable history in Russia. In the Soviet period, they were a popular toy for children. Before factory-made ones became widely available, as several bloggers remember, practically all children had do-it-yourself versions made of planks of wood and rings of metal. 

Soviet scooters flea market in Russia
Soviet children’s scooters at a flea market in St. Petersburg. / Katrina Keegan

In 1973 a Soviet engineer published an article proposing an adult model that would quickly and effortlessly transport heavy loads, but it was never mass produced. That engineer was 40 years ahead of his time. Nowadays, children still enjoy playing on scooters, but adults also find them very practical. For example, Adel Mavzyutova, a 20-year-old student in St. Petersburg, said she especially likes riding her scooter to the grocery store, so that she can hang the food bags on the handles. 

Compactness is one of the biggest advantages of scooters for urban Russians. While a bike might make sense at the dacha, the apartments in which 66% of Russians live don’t have a lot of extra space. Indeed, 67% of scooter purchasers choose the even more compact, folding models. 

Mavzyutova also mentioned that she prefers scooters because she feels safer on the sidewalks than in the streets. Currently, scooter riders in Russia are considered pedestrians, unlike bikers. In Perm, for example, bikers were forbidden last month from cruising along a riverbank, but not scooter riders. However, this issue is being studied by the Scientific Center of Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the results should be available by the end of the year, which could lead to legal changes. 

The popularity of scooters is somewhat surprising in Russia. Roads leave much to be desired, according to the centuries-old saying “В России две беды: дураки и дороги” (In Russia there are two misfortunes: fools and roads). Additionally, as everyone knows, Russia is a pretty cold and snowy place, which keeps scooter-riding strictly contained to the summer season. However, these kinds of barriers aren’t stopping a people adaptable enough to nail together their own scooters out of wood, and there is every indication that Russians will continue to get a kick out of scooters for years to come. 

Scooter park Moscow
Scooter riders admire the Uzbekistan Pavillion in VDNKh park in Moscow. / Katrina Keegan

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
22 Russian Crosswords

22 Russian Crosswords

Test your knowledge of the Russian language, Russian history and society with these 22 challenging puzzles taken from the pages of Russian Life magazine. Most all the clues are in English, but you must fill in the answers in Russian. If you get stumped, of course all the puzzles have answers printed at the back of the book.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Little Humpbacked Horse

The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
PO Box 567
Montpelier VT 05601-0567

802-223-4955