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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
My parents, the Soviet equivalent to baby boomers, were the first generation in Russian history to not experience famine. My grandmother experienced it as did her parents, and she did not know her grandparents, they died young. The average Russians were chronically malnourished. That is why child mortality rates and death rates from measles, typhus, scarlet fever, whooping cough had Russia at first place per 100,000 people.[/quote]

I don't know what to tell you.  My parents were born in the 1930s and the 1940s so whatever equivalency to the boomers you were using.  My father came from a family of railway workers. My mother was a daughter of a well-to-do baker.  None knew famine before the war came.   My mother and her three siblings were orphaned when their parents perished - father killed at the front and mother of TB.  My mother was five at the time. All four kids went to the state orphanage where they were fed and clothed as well as wartime Russia allowed.  All were also educated to become self-sufficient upon graduation (from the Leningrad conservatory in my mother's case).  None became a street kid, was abused or starved or lost in the great wartime vortex.  All siblings went on to marry and have children of their own and maintain close ties.

My generation (born in the 70s) was vaccinated religiously so not sure what you mean about the rates of infectious disease. [/quote]
Boomers means born after 1945.

This was my family experience. Some of my friends’ grandparents starved and others did not. Access to food and famine before WWII was a huge issue in Russian history. It touched significant populations. My mother never starved, but she had spiradic access to food when she visited her grandparents in a Russian village and when she went away to college in the 70s. The reason why so many Russians left their country or want to leave speaks volumes in and of itself. It is not Americans who wish to move to Russia. Russia may be nice to visit, but it is not a nice place to live. Hence you and I are here in the US. Soviet Union was a nanny state, which left many government-dependent people totally helpless and vulnerable after the Soviet Union fell apart. Many people did not know how make independent living, were economically and psychologically illiterate.You should check out an interview on BBC Russia with a widow of Vasily Ignatenko who was featured in Chernobyl on HBO. In 1986-87, she was offered to move to five western countries, including the US, Germany, France and Canada with housing, medical care and a job. The Soviet government told her to refuse a better life because it would have created a negative image of the USSR. HBO Chernobyl series beautifully and respectfully portrays the government’s disregard for human life in the name of the reputation on the world stage.[/quote]

As a matter of fact, the reason I'm here is not because Russia isn't a nice place to live but let's leave that out for now.

The world is not black and white, and migration flows alone aren't enough to put together a nuanced picture.  Very few countries attract migrants; should all others be summarily dismissed? There are good sides and bad sides to all societies. I consider it a sign of weakness to talk crap about your homeland. There's enough disregard for human life among all governments to go around.

Actually Moscow is a perfectly pleasant place to live these days, and extremely child-friendly.   We have the BEST time when we visit. There's SO much to do.

[/quote]
I already said that Russia may be nice to visit, especially with US income, and Moscow and St Petersburg have a decent standard of living. Speaking of Russia as a whole and as a place to live, it is not a nice place with ever-decreasing opportunities and ever-increasing corruption and government overreach. I can have love for Russia as a Russian, but I have no love for the totalitarian state and the way people are treated when they come into contact with the government corruption. It is easy to think well of Russia when none of the horrors affect you (e.g dark realtors, burial mafia, lack of cancer treatment access, no money for medicine, all good jobs taken up by the clannish connections, gay beatings, rural nurses making 165 dollars a month, regional hospitals and schools closing in the name of efficiency). And we are not comparing Russia and the world (all governments to go around). We are discussing Russia as a lesser, more backwards European country. Russia is European and needs to be compared only to Europe. It pales in comparison even to Poland, the former Soviet bloc country.[/quote]

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