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Poets, mystics, dreamers and scientists, or superstitious potato-faced drunks unfortunate enough to live in corrupt, decaying wasteland of collapsing railway sidings and abandoned nuclear reactors? (I've never been there, but I've always been fascinated by how one country could manufacture such an incredible amount of human misery for itself over hundreds of years, has anything GOOD ever happened there to offset the wars, dictatorship, pollution, serfdom, starvation, Gulag, etc)

― dave q, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hope they love their children too.

― Pete, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If it wasn't for Russia I'd probably be speaking German now. And as I only got CSE Grade 3 I'd be practically illiterate.

― Martin, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Friend of mine, Alexey, was the cliche Russia Novel: he could talk for HOURS about NOTHING. He could also drink gallons of beer and wodka. He was really sweet, though, so I could tolerate all the philosophical crap he was spewing my way.

― nathalie, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Aelita: Queen of Mars aka Revolt of the Robots = first best SF movie of all time (1923). (Aelita = one hot art-deco pixie...)

A.A.Bogdanov, founder of ProletKult, buddy of Lunacharsky, enemy of Lenin (who the hell wasn't?), wrote SF novel RED PLANET in c.1908, abt a failed russian revolution (= 1905) where they all flew off to colonise mars instead hurrah. Said to be Lenin's sister's favourite book.

Watching Chris Marker's The Last Bolshevik, abt forgotten but not executed director Medvedkin, pal of Dziga Vertov. Footage of Meyerhold's and Avraamov's radical theatre projects, early 20s. Nostalgia for summink already impossible?

― mark s, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(Aelita = soviet pop-art movie, obv. In 1924, thousands of little girl-babies were named Aelita, all across Russia.)

― mark s, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(little = obv. for that is what babies are...)

― mark s, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Beautiful name that (I'll try and remember it for a possible 2nd daughter). But yeah poets, mystics, dreamers, scientists and potato- faced drunks all rolled into one. They have a beautiful sadness, don't they. Recently I read about a documentary on Gorbachov and just the description of a scene where he sings along with his family to a Russian folk song about the loneliness in space, just got me misty- eyed (I probably would break down if I actually would see the scene). Of course a hopeless romantic view which will be bollocked immediatly, but some other GOOD stuff for instance Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev esp. the scenes of the witches' feast at the river and the whole story of the churchbell. And of course the sadness of Solaris.

― Omar, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Russian folk song about the loneliness in space"? Space as in verst on verst of wide steppe, or space as in Fireball XL5?

― mark s, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think Omar means Space as in the Guardian's interior design section. They consider it a haunting emblem of the vacuuity of Western culture.

― Nick, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well Mark I wouldn't know, but I sort of hoped the loneliness of outer space. But the steppe is also fine with me, as long as it is a BIG sadness. ;)

― Omar, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

>>> But yeah poets, mystics, dreamers, scientists and potato- faced drunks all rolled into one. They have a beautiful sadness, don't they.

That's the Irish, innit?

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

damn, if it weren't for the ruskies, we'd never have boney m's rasputin...now there's kulcha

― Geoff, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

for someone who has never been there, dave q paints a pretty accurate picture. they are poets, mystics, dreamers, scientists, superstitious drunks (not right about ptoato faced, well whatever that means....some russian girls at least are among the most beautiful in the world)

its easy to get romantic about russia. but russia of the future isnt so romantic, i dont think

aids + heroin has seen to that. in kazan, where my girlfriend used to live, i think about 1 in 50 18-25 yr olds have got aids.

i guess theyll get along somehow.

but its pretty fucked up.

been that way for oohh....800 years?

but as a holiday destination, i highly recommend it.

if you go out east, you will see some of the most amazing territory ever. eg lake baikal, deepest (1600 metres), oldest lake i nthe world...

― ambrose, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they provided many funny dancing sequences for 1940/50s warner bros. cartoons. and that's enough for me.

― jess, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pete, we'll have no Police references here. It's in the ILE charter.

― Graham, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mmm...nice answers, these. In America, the Cold War has forever twisted our portrayal and vision of the place, I figure, but in part it's also an extension of the nineteenth-century vision of Russia as the oppressive 'mysterious, half-Asian' empire -- find your biases as you can, there's plenty! Sad, really. I have a very charming friend from Moscow who I chat with, she's indeed a thoughtful and somewhat sad person, but I think it's more a question of personal condition than the nature of the country -- however, she admits that Russia itself could do with some work.

I was fortunate enough to take some classes in Russian lit and Soviet art at UCLA, including a striking class on Russian science fiction (the Strugatsky brothers, natch, but other efforts, include Tsarist-era visions of utopias -- I don't think we did Zamyatin, though We easily qualifies) and an overview of 1920's and 1930's Soviet literature and film, including a viewing of Battleship Potemkin. Also did an entire quarter's worth of work focusing on War and Peace, well worth the effort. Then there's Turgenev's (I think it was him) Rudin, which I found a remarkably effective slice-of-life vision of the mid-1800s and its 'superfluous' men.

Historically, meanwhile, the country and its history has quite fascinated me, though I fear my knowledge is a touch scattershot. Anything by W. Bruce Lincoln is good as an entryway into more in-depth research; his In War's Dark Shadow is a fine study of the thirty years or so prior to World War I.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hear that there's a saying in History departments, to the effect of "never trust a Pole when talking about Russians." Accordingly, I think I'll sit out from this thread.

Though I will add that the Polish-Russian thing is roughly comparable to the Irish-English thing and the Greek-Turk thing.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Pete is still safe, then, as that was a Sting reference and not a full-on Police ref.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A really good book on Russian cultural history is James Billington's The Icon and the Axe. It is billed as "an interpretive history of Russian culture," and has a lot of very detailed, readable and excellent explanations on the various artistic, political and religious quirks of Russian history and culture. It's also invaluable for anyone who's confused when reading Dostoyevski, Tolstoi, Turgenev, et. al. Highly recommended.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Also reccommended is the interpretive dance of Russian history called The Iron and the Arse. Highly reccommended, especially for those of you too classy to go to strip clubs.

― Dave M., Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anyway, Russians are fantastic, they have good vodka and you can mix that with tonic and it's delish. I'm going to go straight home and make one of those. Except possibly without the tonic, it wastes space that could be used for getting drunk way faster. Fucking migrane.

― Ally, Tuesday, 21 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

twelve years pass...

http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/2/13/5408660/please-dont-watch-this-video-of-2-russians-climbing-the-worlds-second

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Thursday, 13 February 2014 22:36 (twelve years ago)

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