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Ask HN: Best resources for learning about Russia?
I'm interesting in learning what Russians hear, see and think, preferably from non-state sources as close to regular folk as possible.
Some challenges:
- Freedom of speech is not easy in Russia
- I'm not familiar with Russian news / social / community websites
- I don't speak Russian
Please list any tools, websites, forums, apps or other methods you recommend for getting a feel for the honest thoughts and opinions of everyday Russians.
- gostsamo 5y agoWell, vkontakte is the local fb equivalent. The rest is google translate if you don't know the language. I'm not even sure how do you mean to understand an entire culture without bothering to learn its language because everything you learn will be biased due to many factors: translators, curators, survival bias (you will learn only from english speaking russians willing to talk in english). Maybe try to find russian movies and books translated in english and maybe some russian music, but it won't be a comprehensive understanding.
- nomilk 5y agoI should have been more specific. I'm interested in a 'crash-course' kind of way. Mostly to improve my understand of social, economic and political views/pressures/ideas among the populace. Definitely interested in cultural views too, although learning the language won't help me in the very short term.
- gostsamo 5y agoStill, it is like asking "crash course in understanding americans". It will be hard not to fell in a stereotypes trap. A few books that might help you with a glimps into modern Russia are: "Absurdistan" by Gary Shteyngart. "ДухLess by Sergey Minaev Maybe "Epidemy in Hell" by George Zotov as something more comical that can give you a feeling.
- marttt 5y agoI would recommend the books "Putin's Russia" and "A Russian Diary" by the late Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya [1, 2, 3]. In 2006, she was shot dead at her apartment building in central Moscow. The murder still remains unresolved. Politkovskaya was a contributor to the Kremlin-critical Novaya Gazeta. According to Wikipedia, seven of its journalists have been murdered since 2000 [4]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin%27s_Russia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putin%27s_Russia 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Russian_Diary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Russian_Diary 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novaya_Gazeta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novaya_Gazeta