A Russian man has become an unlikely internet legend after waking up covered head-to-toe in coal dust on a freight train bound for Siberia — with no memory of how he got there and his first priority being to call off work.
Dmitry, a young man from Yekaterinburg, had apparently blacked out during a heavy night at a local club before somehow climbing into an open coal freight car and passing out. He woke up bruised, filthy and approximately 330 kilometres from where he started, on a train heading to Tyumen in western Siberia.
Rather than panic, he picked up his phone and filmed a deadpan 54-second selfie video addressed directly to his colleague Sanya, explaining his predicament with the weary composure of a man who has fully accepted his situation. “I’m in Tyumen, for f**k’s sake. I don’t even know how,” he says into the camera, face streaked black with coal dust, hair matted, squinting into the morning light with an expression of exhausted bewilderment. He notes it is 6am, that his neck hurts, that he has no idea when he will arrive, and that he will not be making it in to work that day.
The clip, shared on Russian Telegram and on X by @BrianMcDonaldIE, went viral almost immediately, racking up thousands of reposts and drawing comparisons to the film The Hangover — with viewers dubbing it “The Hangover: Siberian Edition.” Commenters praised Dmitry’s composure above all else, with many noting that prioritising a professional work absence notification while covered in coal dust on an unscheduled freight journey represented a form of dedication that deserved its own recognition.
Dmitry eventually made it home safely. He has since been widely declared a legend of epic nights gone wrong — a title he appears to have earned with remarkable calm.
