Well, in your case you have another "good" country to identify with: Taiwan (although i'm sure learning Traditional writing system solely for this end is too mu

Well, in your case you have another "good" country to identify with: Taiwan (although i'm sure learning Traditional writing system solely for this end is too much). We have no "good" Russia. Moreover, we are not descendants of any "good" culture (such as those who brought us famous Russian classics): they were all either brutally killed or pushed out of the country. We are the descendants of illiterate peasants who came to power in 1917 and killed everyone else - we have no good heritage behind us, apart from the heritage of Communism, which while did some cool things to be proud about, was inherently evil - to be proud of Soviet achievements is like being proud of Nazis because they built cool autobahns.