Bald and Bankrupt begins this video in Saint Petersburg, standing near the Baltic coast where Peter the Great envisioned Russia’s “window to Europe,” before setting off on the opening leg of an enormous eastward journey across the country. He boards a long-distance train from the city’s main station, walking along Nevsky Prospekt and reflecting on Russia’s scale, history, and contradictions. Much of the episode is spent onboard the train itself, documenting the realities of long-haul rail travel—shared compartments, restaurant cars, chance encounters with fellow passengers, and brief stops at provincial stations like Kirov, where Soviet-era murals, statues, and railway architecture offer fleeting glimpses into regional life as the landscape gradually grows colder and more remote.

As the train continues east, Bald steps off at several small, little-known towns during short stops, observing muddy platforms, abandoned factories, and railway stations decorated with plants, murals, and Soviet symbolism. He reflects on how many of these settlements were built around labor camps and industrial projects, remnants of which still shape everyday life. After roughly 30 hours on the train, he finally arrives in Perm, exhausted but energized, explaining that the city was chosen as his first major stop because of its proximity to Russia’s only preserved gulag museum. The video closes with him checking into a hotel and preparing to explore Perm in the next episode, framing the journey as both a physical endurance test and an introduction to the deeper historical weight of traveling across Russia by rail.