Last time I spoke with mates in local pub in Cambridge I said I am Russian. Anyway they heard my accent and they thought I'm Polish. I think it is easy to understand why I was confused with Polish - there are lot of Polish immigrants in England nowadays. And Polish people who live in England are part of contemporary British society. Unfortunately for Russians (but fortunately for members of English Defense League) Russia is not a member of European Union. That is the reason why Britain still haven't overwhelmed by huge wave of Russian immigrants.
That's why the Polish in Britain are more familiar than Russians. The two only people you could know about Russians are Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Putin. Maybe somebody could remember the name of Andrei Arse shavin'. Everybody could say that Russians don't smile. That's all. Although for ordinary Russian person it is the pitiful and rather scandalous fact, but as Metallica said that's "sad, but true". Ordinary Russian person who lives the life same as the life of inhabitant of Chatsworth Estate thinks that Russia is a centre of galaxy. Common Russian person has a noteworthy self-conceit. He believes in historical mission of Russians, he presumes in exclusiveness of Russian civilization, he reckons that Russia is the best place on Earth and everybody all around the world suck the Russian's Bear's Dick.
Obviously the main part of these beliefs is the result of propaganda. 70 years of Soviet reign made the indubitable foundation of state propaganda. Though Vladimir Putin is a President of Russia, but he is also a KGB-officer. You know: you can't be "former" KGB-officer. He always made confessions that he regrets about the crush of USSR. He has a nostalgia about Soviet past like the many Russians today. Thus it is not unexpected that he uses the tools of Soviet-like propaganda which embraces media and school education. Both the school-lessons and news-shows are propaganda. The ordinary Russians still hold believe that "media don't lie" and miss about blessed Soviet time.
We don't try to impress other people with our gentle and friendly behavior. We behave ourselves in rude and disgusting way and we wait that you will love us in this way. So we live in the mud and dust, but we feel that our dust and mud is the world's best. But you won't be surprised if you knew that the main part of Russian population haven't been to anywhere than Russia. And they believe in propaganda, they believe in Putin. Because Putin gave them everything. They actually think so)
It is widely believed in Russia that 90's and Eltsin's period were the time when millions of people were robbed and downtrodden. It is true. It was the time of economic transformation, when people who all were state dependents lost their sponsor. Somebody managed to familiarize with new life conditions with freedom in business and creativity. But many people didn't want to live on their own. They waited for somebody and they found him in the person of Vladimir Putin, who came to the authority on the wave of nostalgia.
Putin is a lucky man because in 00's the oil prices significantly grew. That's why the Russian budget suddenly found money after ten years of poverty and collapse. That's why Putin had source to give a bone for these freeloaders. That's why they support Putin and don't want to change anything. Though the traces of degradation significantly remarkable they still believe that everything is fine and Russia still has a power to browbeat all the world. We want that everybody have a fear of Russian power and also have a respect. And it is "shocking" that ordinary Englishman doesn't know about Russia and Russian life.
So I'll try to explain a bit of Russian life today in this blog that you could make an opinion about these crazy weird Russians. I'll speak about some aspects of everyday life and I'll show you the way that Russia lives.
Stay tuned and enjoy!