A Practical Guidebook for Free Travellers. Translated from Russian by Peter Lagutkin

A Practical Guidebook for Free Travellers. Translated from Russian by Peter Lagutkin
Anton Krotov

This book describes the technology of hitch-hiking. It’ll teach you to get lifts from cars, locomotives, and steamers in Russia and other countries, to cover up to 1,000 km (620 miles) a day, and to find food and lodging in any city of the world. It’ll teach you to contact correctly with the police, local residents, and your own parents, to treat people and the surrounding world with respect and to be happy as you travel.

A Practical Guidebook for Free Travellers

Translated from Russian by Peter Lagutkin

Anton Krotov

Translator Peter Lagutkin

Illustrator Anton Krotov

© Anton Krotov, 2021

© Peter Lagutkin, translation, 2021

© Anton Krotov, illustrations, 2021

ISBN 978-5-0053-7561-2

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Introduction

Hitch-hiking started in the West with the advent of the car and became a popular method of travelling, but later was disregarded as supposedly dangerous and inefficient. But recently, beginning in the 1990s, hitch-hiking gained quick popularity in Russia and other post-Soviet countries, and it was the book you are holding in your hands that started this revolution. At this moment, hundreds of Russian hitch-hikers are exploring some of the remotest corners of this planet in the name of «the science of travelling,» an elaborate yet humorous system built around two cornerstone beliefs: first, that the world is kind to you and full of help, and, second, that all relevant information should be organised systematically and shared for others to use. Tens of thousands of people, after reading this book, were inspired to go on the road and set out for the big world – lying out there waiting to be discovered.

About This Book

I made a hundred trial copies in the spring of 1995 and peddled them on the famous pedestrian street in the centre of Moscow, the Arbat. The book was well received and sold well. In the following years (1995 to 2010), I made eight editions, gradually updating the book’s contents. It became known by its abbreviated Russian name, PVP (native pronunciation: peh-veh-peh), and it helped tens of thousands of people to discover the world. The book became a classic and sold over 140,000 copies.

Meanwhile, the surrounding world was changing. The internet and cellular phones appeared; a veritable «information revolution» occurred; working in Russia pays very considerably better in the 2010s than in the «hungry» 1990s. Some methods of travelling or communication, in demand at that time, now appear too difficult or completely irrelevant. New editions of this book are updated in accordance with how our time, and our country, changes. However, the general message and the general applicability of this book remain unchanged.

This book will teach you how to reach any city or town in Russia, how to get back home, how to cross the entire country if necessary (even if you don’t have one rouble of your own!), and how to travel in other countries. You will learn to find a place to sleep in any city, town, or village, even if you don’t know anybody there (yet). You will learn to deal with the drivers, the law, the locals, and your own parents. You will understand how to treat other people and the world if you want such travels to bring you joy.

All the methods I describe have been tested out in practice; moreover, they were born from practice. This book generalises collective experience of many and many free travellers, and I hope this experience will be of use to you.

I will gladly accept feedback and suggestions. Write me email at krotov_avp@mail.ru (mailto:krotov_avp@mail.ru) (I can read and answer in English). For my travelling news and upcoming events announcements, visit my blog at http://a-krotov.livejournal.com (http://a-krotov.livejournal.com/) (Russian only).

About The «Free Travellers»

(instead of a translator’s foreword)

A free traveller is an original concept introduced by Anton Krotov, defined by him as traveller who spends half or more of his or her travelling time in the company of people who are NOT employed to be his or her company. According to Anton, the world is kind to you and full of help, and every sequence of events is correct; if a sequence of events you’re observing seems to be wrong, you haven’t watched it to the end. Because of all that, Anton’s teaching goes, one needs no paid help from tour agencies or touts; the world is there for everyone who has thought about it once, and so all help one might need will come from the world brotherhood in exchange for the little the world needs from you, or nothing. Free exchange of help is essential; hitch-hiking isn’t freeloading, Anton insists, and he urges you to share as much of the comfort you enjoy while at home as you can with the needy (travellers included) whom you might meet in the streets of your own cosy city, or the doors of your own cosy home.

Anton freely uses the concept «free travelling,» but I (the translator) chose to steer clear of it as, quite obviously, he means it as in «free of restrictions,» not as in «free of charge.» Once again: hitch-hiking isn’t freeloading; and being a free traveller (or simply a free person) certainly doesn’t mean always travelling (or simply getting stuff) for free!

    Peter Lagutkin

The Author’s Foreword

Every one of us knows this feeling when you want to peek beyond the horizon and see other cities and faraway countries – not on the TV screen.

I first tried travelling when I was 15, using the once-great network of suburban train services covering large portions of ex-Soviet territory. How exciting it was to get off at the end of the route and hop on another train, then another… I could set out from Moscow and reach St. Pete, Kiev, or Minsk if I wanted!

The second discovery I made was hitch-hiking. It turned out that some of the cars I saw driving down the road could actually pick me up and want nothing in exchange. In the course of several years I visited most of the former USSR territory – from Yerevan to Magadan, and then went on to visit some more countries, with warmer weather, and longer distances, involved. I tried hitch-hiking in India, China, the Arab world, many African countries, and I was ever assured of the helpfulness and kindness of the surrounding world; I was assured that the methods of getting lifts, food, and shelter available in my country could be applied nearly everywhere. Yes, you can go to any city in Russia, or anywhere else on the Eurasian continent, or to Africa, and even if your purse is thin, but you know how to love and understand the surrounding world – it will be open for you, drivers will stop their cars for you, local residents will invite you to their homes, everyone will be your brother, and all planet Earth will be your home.

Anton Krotov

American Friend’s Note

Russian hitch-hikers are a unique breed of travellers that have much to teach. They have proven time and again that the only necessity to travel literally across the world is the ability to connect and relate with locals. In 2005 I met with hundreds of Russian travellers who taught me much about the world and it was with this inspiration, coupled with my intrinsic desire to understand humanity, that I embarked on a 21-month travel through 27 countries of Asia, former Soviet Union and Europe. After returning home, I must say that Anton is truthful when he teaches that humanity is a hospitable and kind brotherhood and that the world is plentiful.

    Brandon Gottung. Madison, WI, USA

Hitch-Hiking

Hitch-hiking (Russian: автостоп, pronounced off-toss-top) means getting free lifts from passing vehicles. There are two common misconceptions about hitch-hiking. One goes: «there are no free rides nowadays» (or: «who’s gonna pick you up for nothing?»). The other one is to the effect of, «it is pure luck when you get just the lift you needed,» or «you never know when you get there.» The good news is, both have been proven wrong by numerous hitch-hikers (myself included). Believe it or not, we get lifts (from cars and lorries), don’t pay (and aren’t expected to), and, to boot, when we hitch-hike, we can control the process.

Hitch-hiking (Anton Krotov and Katerina Boyarova)

Moreover, many patterns we notice while hitch-hiking in Russia work all the same in the other ex-Soviet states, in Eurasia, in Africa, and just about everywhere. You yourself can try this out when you want to.

Like all other things people do, hitch-hiking can be done either consistently («professionally’) – or spontaneously, or out of need, or casually. «Spontaneous» hitch-hiking without any rules or methods emerged in the first decades of the 20th century, with the advent of motor transport. In our time, people often flag down a passing car to get somewhere, sometimes for free, but not many of them know that information about hitch-hiking can be systematised in a certain way, turning it into a robust, comprehensive travelling method.

Having mastered the methods of hitch-hiking, one can cover about 500 to 600km (or about 350mi) in ten hours (in the daytime, sticking to major roads). For example, you can set out from Moscow and reach St. Petersburg or Minsk on the same day – or you can spend 24 hours on the road and reach Petrozavodsk, or Samara, or Brest (Byelorussia), or Rostov-on-Don, with no fares to pay or train schedules to keep in mind, sometimes faster than the train. Finally, your journey will be more of a lesson, teaching you things you would never have learnt in other ways – and letting you feel the genuine taste of the road experience.

The Teaching Of Hitch-Hiking

There’s more than one school of hitch-hiking thought in Russia; the oldest one styles itself (in clumsy English) Petersburg AutoStop League (or PASL; a better translation would be St. Petersburg League of Hitch-Hiking, and the Russian acronym is PLAS, pronounced PLAHS). It was founded in 1978 by Aleksey Vorov who has hitch-hiked more than 1,850,000km, or 1,150,000mi, setting an unsurpassed record.

Aleksey Vorov has spent many years training people in competitive hitch-hiking, which means more than getting lifts – it means trying to get the fastest lifts possible and outrace your rivals. To achieve this, PASL members stage lectures and even hitch-hiking races; they design, make, and use special equipment. A qualified PASL member can advance around 1,100 to 1,400km in 24 hours (in summer time, sticking to Russia’s major roads) in the day or in the night if he or she wishes so. You can easily recognise PASL members on the road by their characteristic, striking yellow overalls.

The author of this book has had the privilege to learn a lot while talking to Aleksey Vorov and some of his followers.

PASL hitchhikres

PASL’s biggest achievement was their 1992—1993 round-the-world hitch-hiking expedition they called AutoColumb («Car Columbus»). Its participants hitch-hiked around the world and never used any regular public transportation. They crossed 25 countries of Eurasia, North and South America, and that at the time when we ourselves didn’t even dream of such adventures. PASL is a somewhat secretive organisation; they are very poorly represented on the internet.

The second hitch-hiking school in Russia is actually called Moscow School of Hitch-Hiking (also known by its Russian acronym MShA, pronounced m-shah). It was founded in 1994 by Moscow hitch-hiker Valery Shanin. In the same year he published his book, entitled Hitch-Hiking: Free Lifts in the US and Europe (the original titular word is actually transcribed from English word and sounds pretty alien to many Russians; the more common word avtostop is included in the subtitle for explanation), still in print (as of 2014).

In the 1990s, Valery and his followers travelled all around Europe (sometimes with visas, sometimes without). The following decade saw Valery and the others switch focus to other continents. He travelled around the world several times (not by «pure» hitch-hiking) and authored some twenty guide-books and another fun-to-read book, Around the World for $280. More light used to be shed on Shanin’s deeds on his club’s web-page, but it is now defunct.

Of course, there were many lonewolf hitch-hikers in Russia, collectively possessing vast, yet unsystematised (hence, unusable) pool of experience; probably the earliest group of people to practice hitch-hiking regularly were the hippies. In recent years, more and more stories from such people surface on the internet. This book originated as an attempt to summarise the experience of a great number of hitch-hikers.

In 1995, yet another hitch-hiking school appeared in Moscow, called Academy of Free Travellers (the Russian acronym is AVP, pronounced ah-veh-peh) and founded by the author of this book. Our two purposes were, and still are: to make what we do a more popular practice and to gather and spread valuable information. Some of us write books. One of those is in your hands now.

We have organised 25 major expeditions and many more smaller trips and hikes. AVP sages (those who’ve made exceptional contributions to the common cause with their experience and wisdom) have visited every administrative division of Russia and all ex-Soviet states – and a good hundred other countries. We were the first Russians to hitch-hike to Iran, Pakistan, and India. We have hitch-hiked across Africa – from Egypt and Sudan to Namibia and Angola. And we still have time for our unique project, «House for Everyone,» which means that, somewhere in the world, we temporarily rent a house (or flat) and offer any sober and discreet traveller free shelter, food, and company. We have opened (and closed already) such Houses in Irkutsk (Siberia; 2006), Osh (Kyrgyzstan; 2007), Cairo (Egypt; 2008), Vladivostok (Russia’s Far East; 2009), Arkhangelsk (Russia’s North; 2009—2010), Dushanbe (Tajikistan; 2010), Istanbul (Turkey; 2012; we did it instead of Damascus because of the war), Krasnoyarsk (Siberia; 2012), Kunming (China; 2012—2013), Mexico City (2012—2013), and Antananarivo (Madagascar; 2013—2014), and as this translation is being prepared, we ourselves are preparing to open three more consecutive houses in Sevastopol (the Crimea; we had to cancel the house in Lvov due to travelling restrictions in Ukraine), Berlin (Germany), and Yogyakarta (Indonesia). Every June, we hold weekend-long Sober Outdoor Gatherings (in a forested area outside Moscow, and yes, alcohol and drugs are strictly prohibited) where some of the most interesting travelling stories are told in the form of lectures. We have organised about one hundred hikes (always off the beaten tourists’ track, sometimes quite taxing physically). And we do a lot more stuff.