My parents grew up in Russia - actually, the USSR (Kazakhstan und Usbekistan, respectively). My family had been living in and around that area since about 1800! Probably needless to say, shit got bad during and after WWII (yay gulag) and eventually they emigrated to Germany, where my parents met. I don't have any relatives in Russia, and I'm the second kid in my wider family that was actually born here. But while you wouldn't ever be able to tell from the outside, our culture is still heavily influenced by that time. So I've always been interested in seeing the country's trajectory. I've always been impressed by Russia's ability to remake itself. From Peter the Great's titanic efforts to modernize the country over how the country came to span two continents to the october revolution and then the dissolution of the union, it seems that few countries have the penchant for abrupt change Russia has. Modern Russia? I don't like it (polictically). From the outside it looks like the fights Russia fights are superfluous are best. For a country that's already wrecked by so much ethnic unrest, inviting some more by annexing minority regions seems like a really stupid thing to do. For a time, a few years ago when Putin just got into power, things were starting to look up. The country became more open, our relations were better. We could've been such great friends! But now Russia is boogeyman #1 for europe again (ecept refugees maybe). And what have they gained? An economy that never really was that great to begin with that's really suffering now? A democracy in name only? I don't know, maybe Putin just can't stand being irrelevant - but they way things are going now, he'd doing his best to make Russia just that. I'm disappointed, because after all that really hard work that went into reforming (politically&economically) post-USSR is being squandered. I'm sad that people seem to choose promises of "stability" over freedom every time, but that's not something unique to Russia at all. But like I said before, Russia can change drastically in a short time, so I'll wait and see. I wouldn't count the Russian people out just yet. I like the country itself, and its people. For my money, Moscow has the most awesome churches, and the Hermitage is my favourite museum in the world (if not for that fucking queue). The Russians I know are all very awesome, and they don't like any of this shit more than I do, but I have to ask myself if that's just selection bias.
I've been wondering about this. On one hand, there are these astonishing changes, and on the other, we're sitting in a pit of inner unrest while remaining stoically calm on the outside, coping with all the crap we're put through without taking action. How come? It's not like we don't have examples of such changes - you've listed plenty of the major ones. I used to think that it's so because life is crap enough to complain about (low wages, high prices, low culture, bad job market situation etc.) but not crap enough to inspire doing something about it (people aren't killed or abused regularly, wages are livable, air polution we don't have much info about to do something with, so on), but now I'm not sure about this. I'm not an educated politician or sociologist, so this is me stabbing in the dark. In-country, as well. I remember seeing our newly-repaired yard (in Russia, five-storey houses often share a yard much bigger than what a single house in the US has) and wondering that, for all the complaining, we've got some good going our way from the government. The yard was a mess beforehand - terribly-broken roads (google "дороги в россии" and go to the images section), overall chaotic layout, no zone for children - and has become a well-done area where the above-mentioned traits are reversed. Yay, United Russia! (which is the main political party in the country, claiming to have supported the work) Since then - only seemingly incremental changes, as far as I know. Thank you for sharing your point of view! I wonder if you have any other kind of perspective to share about Russia. I presume that you've been over, considering your negative experience with the Hermitage queue. How did it feel? Why did you come to Russia, if you don't me asking?I've always been impressed by Russia's ability to remake itself. From Peter the Great's titanic efforts to modernize the country over how the country came to span two continents to the october revolution and then the dissolution of the union, it seems that few countries have the penchant for abrupt change Russia has.
For a time, a few years ago when Putin just got into power, things were starting to look up.
When does discontent spill over into open revolution? It depends. Certainly there's a lot of historical examples to look at, but one factor is always an inciting event: something that sets people off. It can be something small that spreads into bigger events (like a produce vendor setting himself on fire), to the dismissal of a minister. And usually the situation is far more dire than today's Russia. For all our bitching in this thread, things aren't that bad yet. The Hermitage's queue - it's funny, it symbolizes a lot about russia for me, actually. People line up there in the morning and then sell the queue position to tour groups. They make quite a lot of money that way, but everyone else gets screwed! And since so many people do that, an d nobody really feels responsible, it just keeps happening. Wanna know how my family got in? My father just pretended to be part of a tour group that had bribed one of the guards, and then fetched us. I'm still not quite sure how the fuck that worked :P The museum was worth it though! I loved being in Russia though (we went to Moscow and St. Petersburg). We were just there as tourists, and to visit our friends. I'm a bit of a subway nerd and I still like Moscow's the most (those soviet-era stations are incredibly beautiful!). I actually spent one day with a group of older students - it was really fun trying to communicate with them (I was, what, 16? And could understand Russian ok, but not really speak it).