{"id":155498,"date":"2026-04-04T16:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155498"},"modified":"2026-04-04T16:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T23:01:37","slug":"iron-vodka-and-coin-tricks-a-soviet-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/04\/iron-vodka-and-coin-tricks-a-soviet-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Iron, Vodka, and Coin Tricks \u2013 A Soviet Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

It began in the vast, cold stretches of the Soviet Union\u2014between the industrial smoke of Orenburg, the oil-stained yards of Azerbaijan, and the distant authority of Moscow\u2014a young foreign trainee navigating a world that was equal parts discipline, danger, and adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first year was spent inside a compressor factory that still echoes in my memory\u2014the famous Borets plant. It was a place of relentless noise, metal, and precision. Among the machines was one press I would never forget. It punched perfect circular discs out of thin 1mm steel sheets\u2014each disc almost exactly the size of a British one-pound coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curiosity turned into mischief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I quietly pocketed a handful of these discs. Months later, in London, those same pieces of Soviet steel slipped effortlessly into slot machines\u2014earning me a few pounds and a private smile at the absurdity of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second year was a different world entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was sent to an oil field repair yard in Azerbaijan\u2014a rough place filled with hardened men, opportunists, and survivalists. I was the only foreigner. That alone made me a target\u2014and an attraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men would approach me casually, their eyes always drifting to my jeans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sell?\u201d they would ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western denim was more valuable than money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, a policeman noticed a suspicious man trailing me. He stopped him cold and said, in a tone that needed no translation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If anything happens to this foreigner, I will catch you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time, I realized I was both vulnerable\u2014and protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weekends were surreal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian boys and girls would take me to the beach. There I was\u2014somewhere between cultures\u2014wearing swimming trunks, expensive jeans slung over my shoulder, laughter in the air, and tension never too far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One afternoon, I made a decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sold my jeans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And walked all the way back to the dormitory wearing nothing but my swimming trunks\u2014feeling both ridiculous and triumphant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not all ventures ended well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to make extra money, I struck a deal. Through a Burmese diplomat, I acquired gold coins\u2014valuable, discreet, and highly desirable. Buyers appeared quickly\u2014Georgian students with sharp eyes and sharper intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange was set in a dark alley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment I handed over the coins, one of them struck me and disappeared into the shadows. Just like that, the gold was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was left not only bruised\u2014but in debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had to repay the diplomat with money I didn\u2019t have. A hard lesson, learned the Soviet way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in Orenburg was another story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a gas field town where workers drank vodka as if it were water. The government, worried about productivity, tried to reduce consumption by limiting vodka sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People started drinking perfumes and eau de cologne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, even those disappeared from shop shelves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the Soviet solution\u2014remove temptation, and people will find another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was Kslushkaya\u2014remote, raw, and unforgettable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was taken there by my bulky Jewish professor, a man who believed rules were flexible\u2014especially internal travel permits, which we did not have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On that journey, we met with an accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police got involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports were sent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back at the university, I was reprimanded\u2014not for the accident, but for being there in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was another lesson: in the Soviet system, procedure mattered more than circumstance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid all this chaos, my academic work continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thesis focused on compressors\u2014specifically, diagnosing bearing wear through lubrication pressure monitoring. It was technical, precise, and demanded practical experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But equipment was scarce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, I noticed a man at the university replacing a small compressor from a gas water spring machine\u2014a common appliance in those days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunity again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I paid him 100 roubles and took the discarded compressor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That small, salvaged machine became the heart of my research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, it was a life of contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danger and laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scarcity and ingenuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rules\u2014and the constant bending of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But above all, it gave me something invaluable: real, practical experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That experience carried me forward\u2014to my first job on a Norwegian oil platform, where the cold winds of the North Sea felt strangely familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life in the Soviet Union was not easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it was never dull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for a young man far from home, it was the greatest classroom of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I leant hardway and reached pinnacle in my carrier in years to come <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Sarath Obeysekera It began in the vast, cold stretches of the Soviet Union\u2014between the industrial smoke of Orenburg, the oil-stained yards of Azerbaijan, and the distant authority of Moscow\u2014a young foreign trainee navigating a world that was equal parts discipline, danger, and adventure. My first year was spent inside a compressor factory that still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155499,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155498\/revisions\/155499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}