English Russia

Russia is still somewhat of a mystery to most Westerners. Once the evil nemesis of freedom, now an ally, but still very foreign; McDonalds and Starbucks might be smoothing the way but to most people in the West it remains the country of the Lada, the Gulag, the KGB, the Red Army and lines of freezing housewives queuing for potatoes. So perhaps it's time to change that image, and take away some of the mystery and, perhaps, the remaining fears that this country could yet produce another Stalin, another cold war. In that sense, EnglishRussia does pretty well. Far from being shown only the glorious goose-stepping march-pasts of Russian missile units on May Day, we are now permitted to see the crumbling apartment blocks, the shabby ordinariness of suburbia, and the harsh face of the Russian climate. Life behind the mask, if you like, and because it's still a relatively new lifestyle, contradictions abound. On more than one page here you will find innumerable gleaming Russian cheerleaders, polished up like apples American-style, and endless decaying, rusting and now-useless heaps of agricultural and military machinery on the next. If the imagery is anything to go by, the Russians exploited their considerable uninhabited empty spaces by simply abandoning anything unwanted when the Iron Curtain finally came down, and what was once the iron infrastructure of their society is rapidly becoming a tourist attraction, nothing more. Is this a fair image of an entire country? Of course not. And from a Russian point of view, perhaps it isn't helping. But maybe, people in the West want to see the proof that Russia was never the enemy they believed it to be; they want to see the empty and rusting tunnels, the abandoned military vehicles, the collapsing architecture. It brings us closer together, because we, too, look around us and see that our leaders are also economical with the truth when presenting our nations to the rest of the world. And if someone does decide to build a balcony or two without noticing that there are no windows, or drives around in a truck with only three corners populated by wheels, then yes, that's funny regardless whether it's in Moscow or Maryland. As with all blogs of this type, everyone has their own opinions, and some of the material works for them and doesn't work for others. I think this is one you need to make your own mind up about. And while you're doing that, consider how you'd feel if a Russian blog was devoted to posting amusing material about America, or England. Would that be provocative, given that the material is out there on Google and a thousand other (American) blogs, anyway? Is it OK to make fun of ourselves, but not if someone else does it? I have to disagree with the earlier reviewer, I really don't think EnglishRussia sets out to be offensive or degrading to the Russian people. And I'm darn sure that if the Russians were to put together a "RussianAmerica", it would be just as humiliating, or otherwise, to us over here. Both sides were once empire-builders, some claim that at least one of them still is; it's important to see what lies behind the glossy images that our leaders would wish were true. If this blog is anything to judge by, both sides share things in common; and that's not a bad message to send. It also happens to be one of a handful of time-killers that I keep returning to, not because I hate the Russians and want to see them in a humiliating light, but because I find it consistently interesting. And that's a lot more than can be said of about a million home grown blogs out there. More Lolcatz? Oh, please.

It is very offencive website! It says it is an enterteiment website, but it is not! I T is very sarcastic.It says it is about events in Russia, but you can cleary see it is not about events it is about how to put the russian nation down. Website trying to make the people more angry and against each other.It is not a good model of a website.