I apologize I offended your intelligent and objective mind.
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@Bisco how do you like Russia so far? The people, food? Language? Society?
Oh and tell me, who's more popular over there, Tolstoy or Fyodor?
Mother russia has been great if i am honest, however like any place in the world it has pluses and minuses. I find that there are more positives as opposed to negatives. let me tell you what i dislike first, then i will go on to what i like.
i have been living in Russia for the past 4 years and a half and to this day i find winter to be my worst nightmare! i hate it! please note i come originally from a country where +15- +18 is considered cold! so -27 or the hellish -35 is something my body and brain can't get used too. magically and with the grace of technology that goes into winter coats, boots, under garments etc i survive.
the second thing i dislike is Russian Bearcraucy!! there is a paper for every thing you can imagine. starting with setting foot in russia for the first time and every time you leave on holiday. getting my permanent residency was filled with drama, standing for hours on end in long lines sometimes in the freezing cold. the day you get your residency however it feels like a victory
the language. i arrived here knowing very very few russian words, and once you leave the airport you realize how everything is in russian. back in 2013 when i arrived here there was no english any where!! no english street signs, no english in the metro, no english in uni, no english in the supermarket etc. however lucky for the people who will fly in for the world cup they have taken strides towards making russia english friendly which is superb for you guys, but makes no difference for me now as i speak and write in russian after 4 years of torture it's a hard language to learn, and did i mention i hate cases??? падеж это кошмар
the last thing i dislike is the people. here it's important to understand i live in Moscow and just like any capital city in the world including Cairo people are not very friendly due to the fast pace of life in the city. so i had to get used to seeing people look literally pissed off all the time!!! regardless of the hour, people don't smile!! the women as gorgeous as they are look gloomy, or in other words they always have a straight face with no smile what so ever. you go to the metro ticket office and you get the impression you did something bad to the woman selling the tickets. HOWEVER once you understand the culture, traditions and more importantly the LANGUAGE you quickly realize how cool and friendly russians are! you will find many russians who speak english, but for some reason ( my guess is they love to fuck with your head at first
) they are either shy to talk to you in english, fearing you might make fun of their accent and grammar, or simply because russians by nature are reserved ( many factors go into this, and don't underestimate the effect of the weather on russians and anyone including myself who lives in Russia). it is also important to note that mosovites are super cheery and fun in the summer and less energetic in the brutal months of winter which last anywhere from 5 to 6 months, 90% of the time there is no sun!! its grey and blaaaaaaah depressing. it does affect your mood, something i quickly learned and experienced.
the best thing about russians, at least for me is this: russians are very straight forward and don't beat around the bush ( unlike for example egypt, where being direct and straightforward with people is sometimes considered rude. egyptians will treat you well even if they don't find you a likeable character out of "hospitality" ). this i find saves everyone the time for unnecessary BS when treating people. i know first hand whether from my daily interactions with my wife and her family, or even my colleagues in uni, that if a russian person likes you, he is a friend you can depend on forever. its no surprise therefore that despite seeing my uni colleagues for an entire year, i was not considered a good friend right away, it took a long time for them to know me well, and to trust me. now i can safely tell you i have a lot of good friends ( despite the age difference too ) who i respect and like. Russians are funny, and love to joke contrary to the stereotype people may have, but the key to seeing this side is knowing them on a personal level.
also going outside moscow, you notice the fact that russia is multi ethnic and so you find people with different cultures and a different set of ideals and personalities. so it is indeed interesting.
politically you will be shocked by the diversity of opinions you come across. ranging from people who simply love stalin, to people who despise him and the soviet period. people who love and hate putin, people who are flat out xenophobic, people who are liberal, people who think the EU is going to collapse, others who love it and dream of russia being part of it or at least having good relations with it. Ukraine is another hotly debated topic. so all in all you get to see a different side of russia other than the image the russian state media loves to portray. if there is something i felt deeply by my daily interactions its that the old generation ( the generation that lived during the soviet era ) are proud of their history and proud of being Russian and it comes as no surprise they are the ones who want the emergence of a strong russia, the younger generation is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! they look towards the west dominantly.
the food: i got used to the food right away
pellmini, manti, borscht, and have not been limited to slavic food i actually ventured into the world of uzbek , armenian, georgian, and ossetian food. i can safely tell you georgian food is superb.
I also love the fact everything's in order, meaning public transport is on time ( at least the metro), you don’t need a car if you know your way around the buses and other means of transport. I love the nature here ( particularly in the summer when you are not freezing and always looking for a toilet to pee ).
Despite not going to saint petersburg yet, which is a crime, i know it's filled with awesome places to visit such gorgeous orthodox churches, and museums.
Something i also admire about russians, is their love for reading! Hop on to the metro and you will find a lot of passengers are reading whether it is the metro newspaper,or books and ereaders. They also read books by international authors not just russian authors which is cool.
Even though its illegal and recently its coming under a lot of scrutiny by the policy makers, it's easy to find movies, series, books, software, games etc easily, they have a russian version of pirate bay. ( its called rutracker but they do get their servers offline often) . the russian version of facebook which is called VK has pretty cool features not found in facebook like the ability to watch movies, series, and listen to music without the need for second party apps even though its interface i find depressing.
now for the final question, who is more popular i have asked all my friends about this particular issue and instead of getting one answer i usually get a long list of others who deserve to be in the list
however tolstoy seems to have a tiny advantage over dostoevsky. chekov is another writer that is super popular in Russia.
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