Dear readers,
My year in Russia was far too crazy and transformative for me to sum it up in one or two blog posts. I wrote home to various people while there and amassed a bunch of anecdotes and observations about the country. These I will reproduce, with pictures, in a series of blog posts over the coming weeks. I will not describe my year of study in much depth but will, if asked, talk endlessly about it in person.
I dislike Russia. While I was there, I made a lot of people angry by calling it a third-world country full of brainwashed savages. My interlocutors' anger was, to some degree, justified, and it led me to conclude that it is better to describe what one has seen than to pass judgement on it, especially as one's personal observations and conjectures can hardly be extended to an entire people. I believe that Russia lags far behind Canada, and many other developed countries, in terms of health care, education, infrastructure, equality of wealth distribution, political freedoms, human rights, infrastructure, social welfare, environmental awareness, science and technology, safety, government accountability, freedom of information, and other important areas of statehood, and I believe that many of the core values reflected in people's day-to-day behaviour in Russia directly contradict my own, but I will try to avoid putting everyone there in the same pot, as exceptions will be found to any generalisation that I make about Russians as a whole.
That having been said, a lot of my early reactions to Russia were to condemn all of its citizens and wish that they be swept into the sea, and this is reflected in my early travel notes. I do not have time to revise them, and it would be less interesting if I did anyway, as it would prevent the reader from seeing the progression of my thought. Please keep in mind that my views have changed, if glacially, over time and that I have become slightly more accepting, especially as I am no longer in it, of Russian culture.
I want to end this little prologue on some sort of intelligent note, but I cannot think of anything to say, which usually indicates that I should stop writing. My time in Russia was well-spent. I consider myself unabashedly Canadian. I enjoy Russian literature and will continue to read and translate it. I will also return to Russia, political leanings aside, as I now have a great many friends there and consider short visits to the country more or less harmless. I will never understand Russian culture and would not want to. I am pleased to be growing increasingly farther away from it as I make my way across Europe.
Sincerely,
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