street roots
Jan. 6, 2012
One day in the life of a Russian vendor
Selling the street paper
with Vitaly, one o f the
homeless millions in an
unforgiving landscape
BY ALEKSEY TALIPOV
STREET NEWS SERVICE
ne of four million homeless people in
Russia, Vitaly Petrovich Shashlov is a
vendor of street paper Put Domoi in
St. Petersburg. He is 67 years old and has
been selling the magazine for 12 years.
To know what a day in the life of a
Russian street paper vendor is all about, I
am spending a day with Vitaly in St.
Petersburg. We meet at the Put Domoi
distribution center, where Vitaly arrives
with his iron cart and a rucksack. He looks
at me suspiciously and is thinking for a long
time before answering each question. He
says he wants to make sure he says the
right things. When I ask whether I can take
pictures of him, he appears somewhat shy
at first.
Thankfully, I manage to break the ice a
few minutes later. Vitaly picks up several
heavy packs of newspapers and realizes that
he can’t manage to put them all in his cart
and rucksack. I offer to help, which he
seems to appreciate. On our way to a
tramway stop, he brightens up, but still
Russian vendor o f street paper P u t Domoi Vitaly Petrovich Shashlov on the streets o f St. Petersburg.
does not want to speak much about himself.
After a while, he opens up and tells me
about his previous job as a street cleaner.
Then, something wonderful happens. A
He says he was proud of that job because
younger woman with grocery bags
he could do it regardless of his age. I see
approaches Vitaly, pulls him aside by his
him off to go selling, and we agree to meet
sleeve and tells him something
later at the Nevskiy Prospect tube station.
confidentially. Vitaly listens to her, almost
While saying goodbye, he looks at me for a
looking like a father figure, nodding his
while and offers me a handshake.
head sympathetically. To a spectator, the
At the meeting time, I search the area
two of them — Vitaly with his wild beard and
around the station but I can’t find Vitaly.
the petite Russian woman — look like an
When I call him to find out where he is, he
Orthodox priest and a parishioner.
sounds a bit irritated and says he is in the
In the flow of people, Vitaliy stands out,
station hall, but that he doesn’t have time,
despite his short posture. Unlike other
before hanging up the phone. I take the
newspaper sellers, he does not shout out
stairs to the station hall when he rings me
loud to advertise his product. Instead, he
again, and tells me to go to the
stands quietly, pressing the pack of papers
Vasileostrovskaya station instead to meet
against his chest, only moving his head,
him.
looking over his shoulder to make eye
As I arrive there, I see Vitaly stand
contact with a new stream of customers
proudly in the center of the hall talking to a
coming off a train or escalator. He moves
young person, who buys a copy of Put
his head slowly towards his shoulder from
Domoi from him. I decide to stay out of his
time to time but his body does not move.
sight not to distract him. It soon gets busy
And still, there is something about him that
as if he wants to say: “Just you watch.”
and another young man smiles at Vitaly and
makes you look twice. He mirrors wisdom
Within minutes after my comment the
buys a copy. I watch for a while as more
and life experience.
women start to approach us.
people approach Vitaly, talk to him for some
Slowly moving toward me, he tells me we
Vitaly explains that his readers are all
time and buy a street paper. When there
are boarding the next train and going to
very different. “I cannot describe one
Primorskaya station. Once we are on the
seemed to be a slight break in the steady
particular kind of buyer, it is all sorts of
coach, he complains that he is not allowed
move of customers, I walked up to him and
people,” he says. His comment is illustrated
to distribute the papers in a train, which
ask if my shooting pictures could interfere
by the many people that approach Vitaly in
seems unfair as a lot of illegal sellers get
with his work. Shashlov grins at me and
the short time we are at the station: from
away with it. “They are putting up a show,”
tells me his trade secret: “The more people
students to older women and young working
he says, with irony in his voice.
there are around me, the higher the
professionals who according to Vitalyu “like
At Primorskaya station I do not take any
probability that other people come.”
unusual things.”
pictures, but just stand next to him and
And indeed, people kept coming and
At the end of a long sales day, Vitaly
watch the business. Vitaly manages to sell
going and buying his newspapers as I took
seems satisfied with the turnover. I thank
almost all the papers. He has taken with
pictures and chatted with Vitaly. Business is
him. He explains how difficult it is to predict him and buy one of his last copies before we
good, but Vitaly explains that it is not
say goodbye.
each morning how much stock to buy, as
possible to stay at one station for a long
you never know how many papers you might
time, because police officers are watching
Translated from R ussian into English by
sell. A lot of young people approach Vitaly.
and often ask him to leave. He explains that
Elena Volkova
When I notice that not many younger ladies
was the reason why he had to leave the
seem to buy the paper from him, he smiles
previous station in a rush.
O
,A'
-Wj
i
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Don't let an old
paper get you
down! Vendors
are out selling
new issues of
Street Roots
every two
weeks!
P H O T O S B Y A L E K S E Y T A L IP O V
Homelessness in Russia
In Russia, a homeless person is not
simply someone without a home. Access
to virtually all state-funded social and
medical services in Russia is dependent
on a person’s having a “propiska” — that
is, registration at their place of residence.
If, for whatever reason (family
circumstances, a fraudulent property
deal, inability to replace lost documents,
etc.), a person cannot show that they
have this registration, they are effectively
excluded from society: they will not be
able to obtain a legitimate job, access
free healthcare, take recourse to law,
have their marriage registered, or obtain
education for their children, among other
complications.
There are currently about four million
people living in Russia without
registration. Many of these people have
nowhere to stay, face hunger, cold,
poverty and loneliness, and are treated
with suspicion by those around them. In
most cases, they receive no help in
solving their problems or surviving the
dangers of life on the streets. St.
Petersburg-based street paper Put
Domoi, a sister paper to Street Roots, is
one of the few organizations in Russia
that provides a financial lifeline directly to
the homeless.
Street Roots, Put Domoi, and 115 other
papers are members of the International
Network of Street Papers around the
world. Combined, the street paper
movement provide an income for about 1
million vendors globally.
The more a person loves
themselves and takes
themselves seriously, chances
are the people you come across
will do the same as well. ”
— Marlon Crump
Street Roots Vendor