Kursk rises with economic tide

In the last of a series from southern Russia, the BBC's Steven Eke reports from the city of Kursk, where life is slowly but surely improving for those with vivid memories of WWII.

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Kursk is a city of 400,000 people in western Russia. The region was the site of the largest tank battle of World War II and reminders of the heroism of its people during that period are never far away.

In Soviet times, the city was a centre of industry, and it was hit hard by the collapse of communism.

Now, the service and trading sectors are driving new economic growth, and living standards for many are slowly rising.

The city centre still sports a huge statue of Lenin. The surrounding buildings have been re-painted and spruced up.

Churches converted into cinemas and museums by the communists have been handed back to the religious authorities, and restored to their former glory.

There are many new shops and restaurants, as well as conspicuous advertising for holidays and property.

Waking up

Out in the industrial suburbs, the picture is sometimes very different. There remain visible signs of poverty - abandoned, rusting factories, packs of stray dogs, and dilapidated apartment buildings.

But ordinary people are improving their homes. Signs for "Eurowindows" - plastic double-glazing - are on every street corner.

Kursk's well-polished centre contrasts with its industrial suburbs

Larisa Trubnikova, the editor of a local newspaper, the Kursk Herald, says many of these changes are due to a change of attitude in Moscow.

She told me that Moscow had finally woken up to the need to invest in Russia's provinces.

The Kursk region has recently received millions of roubles for road and other repairs. And it shows - the massive potholes of Soviet times have vanished.

As elsewhere in Russia, the gap between rich and poor is stark. Life remains a struggle for pensioners and others who are unable to find a niche for themselves in Russia's new, capitalist economy.

A visit to the Union of War and Labour Veterans was especially illuminating. Its chairman, Mikhail Bulatov, said life for the elderly was often far from easy, but it was no longer a daily battle for survival.

Getting better

His organisation helps run a special food shop for war veterans.

Subsidised by the local authorities, it provides basic products at discounted prices on a rationed basis.

Kursk's elderly danced with tears in their eyes to WWII songs

The shop reminded me strongly of a gastronom - the name given to general purpose food shops in the USSR.

The most basic items - sausage, milk, cheese - are dispensed in precisely regulated quantities to veterans on production of their ration cards and certificates.

In contrast to the Soviet period, however, the staff in this shop were extremely friendly to their clients.

They treated them with genuine respect and interest, asking them about their health and families.

Pensions are growing in Russia but, in a country where utilities and services have become very expensive, they often stretch only to the bare essentials.

Dancing in the park

Later, I paid a visit to Kursk's Borodino Park.

Once a week, pensioners gather here to catch up with old friends and dance to music performed for free by local orchestras and, occasionally, well-known artists.

It was a moving experience. They danced to the sounds of WWII songs, some with tears in their eyes.

The struggles of WWII shaped an entire generation

When I first started visiting the Soviet Union some 20 years ago, I would often find the constant discussion of WWII, and the enforced visits to memorials tiresome.

It took me a long time to understand that the suffering and struggle of those years formed the outlook of a whole generation of people in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Kursk still celebrates the key war anniversaries with great pomp.

Nonetheless, some of the elderly people I have spoken to here say they would not return to the Soviet system.

As well as the energy and determination of the post-war years, they remember the material poverty that made daily life for all Soviet citizens, bar the Communist elite, a struggle.

One elderly man chuckled when I asked him if life was better in those years.

"Do you think I want to get the train every week, to go and buy sausage in Moscow?" he said.

Kursk has its own elite. As is often the case in modern Russia, many of those who have prospered come from a Communist party background

Kursk has its own elite. As is often the case in modern Russia, many of those who have prospered come from a Communist Party background.

The links forged in those days have served them well in the new system too.

Alexander Samsonov is a successful businessman in Kursk, the owner of the city's best hotels and restaurants.

Well-connected, and the former chairman of the city's Komsomol (Soviet-era Communist Youth League), his hobbies include collecting traditional Russian textiles.

He has made a great success of his businesses, which he said were "aimed at average, normal people".

But the cars gathered in the car park of one of his hotels, the Nightingale Grove, were hardly those of the average Russian.

Kursk is much more representative of average Russian life than Moscow.

Many people remain poor, some very much so. But I have found most people to be optimistic about the future. And that is a real change in places like this.