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I am Russian. Ask me anything.
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Anonymous
Interesting, OP. I think this Jewish Libby can see your true colors. |
Why even single them out?
Anonymous
Never been to russia, but I can answer You get a salary Schools are free. University students get a small allowance Salary almost the same in most professions. Doctors do not earn much Housing is hard to get in big cities. Regions that are in the north pay high wages. Vacations are affordable, mostly in russia. In soviet times you could travel to the west in organized groups, tuors Hospital and healthcare system worked well. A poor russian had access to better medical care than a poor person in america Not that it was a dream society, but not nearly as bad you imagine |
Anonymous
LOL, one can tell you have never been to Russia. Communism used alcohol to keep people drunk and ignorant. There was no freedom of religion; in fact people who did practice their beliefs did so secretly. No toilet paper. No real jobs--people pretended to work and the government pretended to pay them. Medical care was medieval and bribes were often paid to get decent treatment in the "free" system. |
Anonymous
The only gypsies I have encounterd were panhandlers. I would love to meet educated, nice gypsies, who WORK in entertainment or arts or whatever else. I am sure there are many of them! |
Anonymous
| Really, you get a salary? How do they decide who makes how much? If everyone is equal? |
Anonymous
This is OP. have YOU been to Russia? Because though the first quoted pp did not cover everything in his oe her reply, yours seems like something coming out of propaganda. I will come back and try to answer the other questions. |
Anonymous
I never thought of it that way. But many Russian women are more focused on money (expecting husband to be breadwinner) than American women. They also expect a man to "help" them with presents, money, paying for things etc. obviously not all of them but a very common expectation |
Anonymous
I wouldn't say culture, I think it mostly depends on a person. It is more acceptable to cheat the system, but not an individual. |
Anonymous
| Would you hire a nanny from Russia, or would you look for a nanny from another country? |
Anonymous
Salary was an incentive to attract people to less desirable and prestigious professions, so in many cases a building crane operator would get more than a doctor. --OP |
Anonymous
I have a babysitter from Russia, I really like her. I would not hire a more mature nanny from Russia- say over 50- to me many of them have a know it all attitude and outdated beliefs they are attached to. Ideally I would hire a Russian nanny in her 30s. |
Anonymous
No, but I spent much of my childhood in communist Eastern Europe, for several summers at a time. My grandparents told me about living in Russia, and parents told me about growing up in Communism. I'm a first generation immigrant, and my parents' country was no longer communist when i turned 13. I distinctly remember that bribes were expected for "free" medical care, but that was not in Russia. Not the case there? Please tell me what I've said that's inaccurate. I had an uncle who was a Catholic priest in my parents' home country who was assaulted by communist officials on numerous occasions and had to perform secret services, sacraments, etc. My father suffered at the hands of Russian police for speaking his mind. Is this not enough first hand information? |
Anonymous
In short, you did not say any lies, but you twist the facts. Besides, it was different for Eastern Europe, you have all the reasons to hate Communism, you lived pretty well without it and had it imposed on you. For Russians it is a slightly different story. Again, I will come back and try to answer in more detail. |
Anonymous
In short, you did not say any lies, but you twist the facts. Besides, it was different for Eastern Europe, you have all the reasons to hate Communism, you lived pretty well without it and had it imposed on you. For Russians it is a slightly different story. Again, I will come back and try to answer in more detail. Fair enough. Came back quickly to prevent any misunderstanding, though. Certainly didn't mean to deceive. Feel free to disregard my personal experience. |
Anonymous
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I am a Russian NP and read this with great interest. For the most part I agree with the answers the OP has provided, but I still see a lot of stereotypes being pushed around. I approximately the same age as the OP, so some of our childhood experiences might be similar.
1) Dental care. It's not universal and depends on a person. I floss and brush at least 2 times a day and often after meals and I have a picture perfect smile, some people think these are not my real teeth. When I was a child braces and retainers were also available for those desiring to improve the looks of their teeth and not cost prohibitive. My family was middle class and could afford this service for me. Dental care itself was mandatory in school with scheduled routine appointments and fillings. The quality was poor as work was sometimes performed by inexperienced professionals and I acquired a few severe cavities as a result of this. Currently, things like teeth implants and cosmetic veneers are also widespread in larger cities at least as one of my relatives recently traveled to Russia specifically to get this work done there on the cheap instead of paying crazy thousands of dollars here. 2) Russian women. There is a lot of BS stereotyping here which gets old and annoying when you live in this country and have to hear about this for many years. Russian women are just as different and individually diverse as American women or European women, etc. I am married to an American and I earn more than him and always had a great career opportunities and was ambitious type A person since grade school and I wasn't an exception. I never thought of a man who would be my "plan". I happened to meet some Russian women who were gold diggers of the worst degree and who were pretty open about it, and women who were extremely nice and even self-sacrificing devoted wives and mothers, women who were well educated and women who were under-educated, women who were incredibly attractive and the ugly ones, athletic ones and the overweight ones, etc. I've met a few hipster Russians too, who don't look any different from American hipsters. I guess this is the new generation. Oh, and there are also gay women in Russia too. 3) Russian food. A lot of dishes in what we think is Russian cuisine are not distinctively so and are cross cultural influences of other types of ethnic food, ex. mediterranean and asian. Except for the lard dish (salo), all other things mentioned are very yummy BTW and are delicacies usually served during holidays and special events, not everyday type of food. 4) Jews. Ok, I understand OPs perspective and her struggles, but jews are not the only ones who had it easier coming from the former USSR republics. Recent wave of immigrants to NYC for example is heavily middle Asia part of former USSR and a lot of Belarus citizens. Somehow, they managed to make it easier and I sincerely hope OP gets her break too. Antisemitism is ugly and was widespread, it was only in the US I was able to acknowledge for the first time that one of the sides of my family was Jewish. I am a mix with a very common Russian name and not distinctively Jewish physical traits. So, it was easy for me to hide it and hide it I did, like some sort of a disease you don't want people to know. To live in shame of your roots and ancestry in fear of being bullied and discriminated against is obviously not what OP has experienced, so it's hard for her to tell. In Russia, it is often about whether you have the right last name and I was fortunate that I did, but the inner shame (yes, it was cultivated this way!! as it was a dirty secret and bad to be Jewish) was something I hope I never have to live with again. You don't know what it feels like until you experience it. 5) Soviet Blocks. OP pretty accurately answered this, I cannot disagree, but I do disagree with her point on green spaces and playgrounds. I grew in several medium size cities and cannot vouch for Moscow, I only visited there. But wherever I lived I had outstanding access to great outdoors, woods, mountains, fresh air, beautiful breathtaking nature. Most of our blocks were medium rise buildings (mostly 5-story buildings), so there was plenty of open sky and trees and green space. In one complex we had a gigantic playground in the middle and it was really a great place to grow up, experience freedom (which you never will in American suburbia behind your fenced backyard) grow lifetime friendships and have this sense of community that many DCUMs are craving so much. We ran around unsupervised, went to movies as teenagers, walked around town, took PT to more distant places and were very independent. I wish I could give my kids some of my childhood experiences, but it is not possible here. Education system when I grew up was superior to what we have in the US. I went to school here and to the US university. Perhaps now it's different, so OPs POV might be more accurate. 6) Poverty and gypsies. I was appalled by the number of homeless in American cities and degree of panhandling here, plus other countries of the world (I've been to over 25 countries). We lived modestly in soviet blocks and our apartments were small, but we didn't have homeless, at least not in the open and most beggars were elderly religious women trying to supplement their meager allowance and gypsies. The communities were more uniform, there were no rich and poor neighborhoods and haves and have-nots often lived in the same building, just had different finishes and furniture/electronics in their apartments, plus cars, vacations, etc. I am sure this is rapidly changing, so, again, OP is more accurate in this respect. The funny thing, the first time I drove around ghetto areas of Baltimore I said to myself, "Yes, soviet propaganda was right, these places really exist!". |