5 ms·

It's almost like the cold and wintry weather makes for a lot of time with oneself to think and build the skills needed to create beauty, no?

saiya-jin 5y ago
I would blame more the cold messed up soviet-era society for this. Artists produce their best works during suffering, not when having the best time of their life. And there was/is plenty of suffering for non-conformists in Soviet Union/Russia.
- distances 5y ago
  Some of the world's most celebrated literary works come from pre-Soviet Russia though. Life wasn't exactly easy in the Imperial times either.
- anticodon 5y ago
  Don't forget the huge bias in all of the materials describing Russia/USSR in the West, even coming from Russians themselves (like Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and other defectors/traitors/dissidents). One prominent goal of the Western world was always to destroy Russia (last prominent example: German invasion in 1941 which clearly stated that the final goal is to exterminate Slavs). There were and there are numerous plans in the current Europe and USA that continue the work of Hitler. Almost every day you can read in the news on the new plan of USA/NATO/GB to start a war with Russia. So, all the news, all the books, all the history you get on the West is dedicated to one thing: paint Russia and Russians as the most evil savages, the history of Russia as a bloody bloodbath, etc, etc. There's simply no English source on Russia/USSR/Russian-USSR history I've seen that was free from that bias. Even English prose contains absurd exaggerations when telling about Russia. Speech of famous USSR/Russian dissidents require different explanation, but most of them exaggerate the rusophobic bullshit with even more zealousness than anglosaxons themselves. I think the main reasons are that they need to find vindication for their treason and they need to demonstrate to the Western world that they're loyal. Also, it's possibly the only source of income for many Russian emigrants that have some humanitarian degree (writers, journalists) is to write rusophobic pamphlets.
  - TheGigaChad 5y ago
    Idiotic dumbass.
  - rpmisms 5y ago
    I am of direct Russian descent. Soviet Russia was a hellscape. It is not Rusophobic to say this.
    - anticodon 5y ago
      «О чем вся великая русская классика? Об абсолютной невыносимости российской жизни в любом ее аспекте. И все. Ничего больше там нет. А мир хавает. И просит еще… Для них это короткая инъекция счастья. Они на пять минут верят, что ад не у них, а у нас. Но ад везде, где бьется человеческая мысль. Страдает не одна Россия. Страдает все бытие. У нас просто меньше лицемерия и пиара.» -- Пелевин
      - thrwway34 5y ago
        So, your proofs of world-wide Russophobia are... posts on Facebook, travel forums and a quote from Pelevin? Very fitting.
        anticodon 5y ago
        LOL, Russophobia doesn't even need proofs. You can open any western media (BBC, CNN, DW, whatever), type Russia in the search box, and get tons of results that regurgitate the same thoughts over and over: "Russia is guilty for everything bad that is happening now", "Russia is guilty for everything bad that happened in the past", "Russia is guilty for everything bad that will happen in the future", "Russians are dangerous villains", "Russians are savages". If you open social network, like reddit.com/r/worldnews, it would be even more obvious. If you open comments under any news about Russia there, you'll find even direct appeals to kill Russians (BTW, always ignored by Reddit, Facebook and Twitter moderators, but try to write the same about any other nationality and you'll be immediately banned). My comment was about a small part of russophobes - Russians that emigrated abroad. Most of the time they become the most zealous russophobes. I don't really know the explanation, nor do I really care. I've just made a rule to avoid Russians abroad as most of them hate themselves to the point of schizophrenia.
- shakow 5y ago
  > I would blame more the cold messed up soviet-era society for this Please read The Prince, The Karamazov Brothers, Eugene Onegin, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, or Dead Souls before writing this kind of grotesque sweeping statements.
  - rpmisms 5y ago
    Pre-Soviet literature is dark, but it really doesn't compare to Soviet-era works. Soviet Russia was a fucked-up place, I hope you don't get your information from propagandists.
    - wayoutthere 5y ago
      America is also a fucked up place where people walk around in fear of the police and the paramilitary forces (sorry, “patriots”) that occupy most of the US outside the major cities. You never know when one of them is going to pop into a synagogue or a grocery store with an AR-15. This country is dystopian af too; the American dream died with 9/11. We’re just another empire that’s rotting from the core.
      - rpmisms 5y ago
        Out of curiosity—do you live here? America is beginning its decline, there's no question. I think you're worried about the wrong things, but that's simply a matter of opinion. Thankfully, we're nowhere near the insanity of 40s-50s Soviet Russia. Here, we have a right to freedom of speech, and at least ostensibly a right to bear arms. Hopefully we can maintain those rights and avoid the hellish police state phase of the collapse.
        wayoutthere 5y ago
        Yup I live in America, and the black eye and tear gas I got from the cops last summer during the protests told me all I needed to know about the state violence that occurs in the US. Not to mention the “cops” showing up in unmarked vans and snatching people off the street, or secret prisons, or the cellular surveillance planes, or the vigilante “patrols” that continue to this day and are encouraged by the police captains. The police state is here, and if you own guns they’ll just storm your house with a swat team, shoot your dog, and charge you for assaulting an officer.

saiya-jin 5y ago

I would blame more the cold messed up soviet-era society for this. Artists produce their best works during suffering, not when having the best time of their life. And there was/is plenty of suffering for non-conformists in Soviet Union/Russia.

distances 5y ago
Some of the world's most celebrated literary works come from pre-Soviet Russia though. Life wasn't exactly easy in the Imperial times either.
anticodon 5y ago
Don't forget the huge bias in all of the materials describing Russia/USSR in the West, even coming from Russians themselves (like Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and other defectors/traitors/dissidents). One prominent goal of the Western world was always to destroy Russia (last prominent example: German invasion in 1941 which clearly stated that the final goal is to exterminate Slavs). There were and there are numerous plans in the current Europe and USA that continue the work of Hitler. Almost every day you can read in the news on the new plan of USA/NATO/GB to start a war with Russia. So, all the news, all the books, all the history you get on the West is dedicated to one thing: paint Russia and Russians as the most evil savages, the history of Russia as a bloody bloodbath, etc, etc. There's simply no English source on Russia/USSR/Russian-USSR history I've seen that was free from that bias. Even English prose contains absurd exaggerations when telling about Russia. Speech of famous USSR/Russian dissidents require different explanation, but most of them exaggerate the rusophobic bullshit with even more zealousness than anglosaxons themselves. I think the main reasons are that they need to find vindication for their treason and they need to demonstrate to the Western world that they're loyal. Also, it's possibly the only source of income for many Russian emigrants that have some humanitarian degree (writers, journalists) is to write rusophobic pamphlets.
- TheGigaChad 5y ago
  Idiotic dumbass.
- rpmisms 5y ago
  I am of direct Russian descent. Soviet Russia was a hellscape. It is not Rusophobic to say this.
  - anticodon 5y ago
    «О чем вся великая русская классика? Об абсолютной невыносимости российской жизни в любом ее аспекте. И все. Ничего больше там нет. А мир хавает. И просит еще… Для них это короткая инъекция счастья. Они на пять минут верят, что ад не у них, а у нас. Но ад везде, где бьется человеческая мысль. Страдает не одна Россия. Страдает все бытие. У нас просто меньше лицемерия и пиара.» -- Пелевин
    - thrwway34 5y ago
      So, your proofs of world-wide Russophobia are... posts on Facebook, travel forums and a quote from Pelevin? Very fitting.
      - anticodon 5y ago
        LOL, Russophobia doesn't even need proofs. You can open any western media (BBC, CNN, DW, whatever), type Russia in the search box, and get tons of results that regurgitate the same thoughts over and over: "Russia is guilty for everything bad that is happening now", "Russia is guilty for everything bad that happened in the past", "Russia is guilty for everything bad that will happen in the future", "Russians are dangerous villains", "Russians are savages". If you open social network, like reddit.com/r/worldnews, it would be even more obvious. If you open comments under any news about Russia there, you'll find even direct appeals to kill Russians (BTW, always ignored by Reddit, Facebook and Twitter moderators, but try to write the same about any other nationality and you'll be immediately banned). My comment was about a small part of russophobes - Russians that emigrated abroad. Most of the time they become the most zealous russophobes. I don't really know the explanation, nor do I really care. I've just made a rule to avoid Russians abroad as most of them hate themselves to the point of schizophrenia.
shakow 5y ago
> I would blame more the cold messed up soviet-era society for this Please read The Prince, The Karamazov Brothers, Eugene Onegin, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, or Dead Souls before writing this kind of grotesque sweeping statements.
- rpmisms 5y ago
  Pre-Soviet literature is dark, but it really doesn't compare to Soviet-era works. Soviet Russia was a fucked-up place, I hope you don't get your information from propagandists.
  - wayoutthere 5y ago
    America is also a fucked up place where people walk around in fear of the police and the paramilitary forces (sorry, “patriots”) that occupy most of the US outside the major cities. You never know when one of them is going to pop into a synagogue or a grocery store with an AR-15. This country is dystopian af too; the American dream died with 9/11. We’re just another empire that’s rotting from the core.
    - rpmisms 5y ago
      Out of curiosity—do you live here? America is beginning its decline, there's no question. I think you're worried about the wrong things, but that's simply a matter of opinion. Thankfully, we're nowhere near the insanity of 40s-50s Soviet Russia. Here, we have a right to freedom of speech, and at least ostensibly a right to bear arms. Hopefully we can maintain those rights and avoid the hellish police state phase of the collapse.
      - wayoutthere 5y ago
        Yup I live in America, and the black eye and tear gas I got from the cops last summer during the protests told me all I needed to know about the state violence that occurs in the US. Not to mention the “cops” showing up in unmarked vans and snatching people off the street, or secret prisons, or the cellular surveillance planes, or the vigilante “patrols” that continue to this day and are encouraged by the police captains. The police state is here, and if you own guns they’ll just storm your house with a swat team, shoot your dog, and charge you for assaulting an officer.