June 2020. The city was slowly coming back to life after the beginning of lockdown, and people were finding ways to get back to whatever they used to do. But things were still nowhere near normal, which made the summer of 2020 an excellent time to travel around Russia: affordable train tickets and cheap hotels.

My ex-boyfriend and I decided to spend a weekend in Yaroslavl. And since we were going there anyway, why not use the trip to film something?

So we invited Ruslan Rozanov to come with us.

To avoid any surprises, I bought all four berths in an entire compartment just for the three of us, on a Moscow–Chita train. I chose that particular train deliberately: it left in the middle of the afternoon — around 3:40 p.m., I think — and for the four-hour journey to Yaroslavl it traveled almost directly north. Which meant we’d have natural light coming in from the side, perfect for filming. And four hours would be more than enough.

The train departed. The attendant checked our tickets, and we told her we didn’t need absolutely anything and she didn’t have to worry about us. I think she was actually quite pleased about that.

We locked the door and got started.

This video eventually became something of a classic too, although only in Russia, and mostly among a slightly older audience.

Because in practice, having sex on a moving train — constantly rocking from side to side — isn’t exactly comfortable. Especially inside a compartment where there’s barely enough room to move normally in the first place.

But for people who spent a good part of their youth traveling on exactly these kinds of trains — and having sex in exactly these cramped conditions — the setting alone was an aphrodisiac.