I never saw a clean city in Russia, despite the valient efforts of armies of babuskhas with their willow brooms, but apparently they do exist…

Sterlitamak was amazing. There’s not much to do, but it is so fantastically clean. The first thing we noticed when we got off the bus from Ufa is that there was no trash on the ground for as far as the eye could see. This is highly unusual for Russia. There is also very little peeling paint, and buildings actually are painted, for the most part – not just bare brick and concrete – and in bright colors, too.

The first thing the taxi driver said to us was when we told him we’d never been to Sterlitamak before was, “Isn’t is beautiful? Very clean, isn’t is?” This struck me as odd – residents of clean cities usually take cleanliness for granted. But everyone else we met said the same thing, but they also mentioned that Sterlitamak is the second cleanest city in Russia.

Lovimoment has the full story, including more details of the Russian system for ranking cleanliness of cities. And, for those of you who won’t rest until you know, the name of Russia’s cleanest city…

Tagged as: General