Hello, everybody! I'm really eager to read your ideas about what you associate Russia with. In fact, I'm working over a research paper, so this kind of opinion poll would be really helpful. So, what do you think of when you hear oread the word "Russia"? Is it a bear? Vodka? Putin? Frost? An eagle? Thank you for answers!
bear, vodka, potato, cold, putin, soviet, poor, poverty, alcoholism, aids, agression, illegal, war, nukes, gas, energy, oil, siberia, winter, snow, communism, kremlin, kgb, orthodoxy, slavs, nationalism, militarism, police state, undemocratic, illiberal, autocracy, hostile, secretive, propaganda
History, travel, opportunity, friends, proud, cuisine, caviar, arts, educated are some of the words that come to my mind.
Dat dance where dey scrunch down.. ... an hop aroun'... ... an' kick dey's own butts... ... wiff dey's feets. What's dat dance called?
Half Slav/mongol, endless winter, permafrost, Siberian gulags, KGB/FSB, liars, poor health of people, heavy smoker, chronic alcoholism, rudeness, never evolved, archaic orthodoxy, human worth is worthless, oil and nothing more, gold digger women, HIV, poverty, junk for vehicles, same with military, faulty planes that crash all the time, seem to think a toilet bowl is for washing potatoes, and several dozen more, but it's a start!
Pretty women, warm friendly people, emotional, patriotic, blunt, interesting history, misunderstood, views the world differently, a little xenophobic and paranoid of the west. Still shaking off a cold war mentality. Neither western nor eastern and still seeking a clear and unique identity. I suppose the first thing that might come to me if asked a snap question then I would say vodka and the Rodina.
. "200 Years Together" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn If you collect the information that is in that book you will be on solid ground in respect to Russia politically. .
Firstly I associate your OP with bad grammer on your behalf "what do you associate Russia with" ... Don't you know the quotation "never use a preposition to end a sentence with" ???? Or are you too ignorant to understand your own language? Anyway other than your ignorant use of English grammer ... With what do I associate Russia? Russia : I see a Country that is under threat on a daily basis from the West, I see a Country that we in the West have an immense & deeply troubling misunderstanding of that Country. And that error and misundertanding may possibly lead us into war, something that we should strive to avoid. The Soviet Union has retreated from many 100s of 1000s or square miles from which it had formally sat upon heavily with tanks and troops and the Soviet Union wanted to expand to cover the Globe. The Russians have done to the Western political leadership the cruelest thing possible, they have deprived them of an enermy and created a yawning vacuum .. What was the Western leadership going to in the future worry about? So what was it the Western leadership has to now worry, what was the Western leadership going to convince its population to worry about .... General Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Bashar Assad, Colonel Gaddafi ??? Anything will do. The tiny Island of Grenada ????? All these enermies have failed, as it is impossible to believe any of them are convincing or have rivaled the power or menace of Soviet communism. All these new enermies has led to nothing but farce & tragedy. All these substitutes have failed this endless search for foriegn enermies has led the Western population to see beyond the Western leadership for phoney enermies have failed and not doing us any good at all ... So they Western leadership had a brain wave ,,,,, "why not just go back to being terrified of Russia"! If you know nothing about Russia at all, then it easy to fall back into the mind set that Russia is just the same as the old Soviet Union that wanted to expand to cover the rest of the World. So how can I defend Vladimir Putin? I believe he is indefensible in any moral terms, so how can we connect with him? Well I have spoken to Western journalist that lived in Russia in 1990-91 during the collapse of the Soviet Union, firstly being anti-Russian and being anti-Soviet are not the same thing. During the 1991 Communist attempt to take back Russia that failed, 1000s of Russians burnt their Communist party membership cards in vast pyres in trash cans throughout Moscow and many other cities. On that day Soviet Communism died and Soviet Global ambitions to take over the World died. And from that day you can not view Russia in the same way as we in West have viewed Russia in the past. And all this given up without a shot! Now unlike the UK or the US, Russia has not defensible or physical borders at all. Where we have oceans, Russian have China & Germany & Poland on its borders. The last time the US was invaded was in 1814 by Britian & we burnt down your White house, Russian on the other hand has a history of being invaded on several occassions. So anyone that wants to portray as an agressor nation a Country that has withdrawn from 800,000 sq miles of territory and has no intension of re-conquering them, then why do we Western people fall for the same old arguments from our leaders that Russia is a threat is a joke. Why do we continue to fall for this same old argument? So when they say Russia is a threat, ask for evidence of this treat, how many tanks, how many troops make up this threat are taking place to justify their claims and wonder why it is that an immense pice of dishonesty is being perpetrated upon you .. And then think back to the idea that Russia has done to us the worth thing possibe.... they have deprived us of an enermy...
You have great knowledge about the way of life of Russian loafers and other idiots in the remote places  of Russia. You are very long lived in Russia. You lived in a society of "professional" alcoholics and various parasites and and they forced you " to wash the potatoes in the toilet bowl.".. Perhaps it is their favorite entertainment . Most likely, you have been working for the CIA, and you had to go into hiding from the KGB in this way. .
` ` 1) Russians 2) Stalin 3) Czar's 4) Vodka 5) Cold weather 6) Gulags 7) AK-47's Maria Sharapova/Anna Kournikova 9) Putin
Well one must admit that this is not far from truth, you can add, I can think of a few more negatives, wait I can be positive, good vodka, much oil and gas, great athletes(if not using steroids), blonde ladies, caviar.No..not hiding from KGB or FSB I should say, meet new boss same as old boss. Anyway no hide since they can't find out much these days...they couldn't foresee collapse of CCCP, so no worries...ROFL.
Now this dance is called "gopak" (гопак ) This dance is composed of elements of the forgotten species of ancient Russian martial art. It is called "buza" ( "буза"). The "buza" has 1000 years. Here Russian "buza" is being compared with "capoeira". .....1:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10PMLdoEQ0
It isn't necessary. Your association is in your answer # 8. It's true. Why not? Russia is a huge country. Russia has everything. PS This theme has an age - two months. Topic has 800 visits and only ten responses. Why? The people have no associations or lazy to answer? I added a bit of humor to the topic, to stir up the people. # 14 I would like to have had a lot of answers. I'm interested. .
When I think of Russia there are too many things that come to mind, good things, great things. The Soviet Union that lost 25,000,000 million people fighting against Nazi Germany and whom saved all of Europe and possibly the world. I think of all the Soviet heroes that I have read about, the movies I have seen. Then things start to shift to a more modern point of view. I think of Putin for example, he is a great and intelligent leader. A very strong leader too, a leader that other countries should take note of. I also think of "Stop a (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)bag." the youngsters who are trying to make Russian cities safer whilst producing excellent Youtube content. I don't know, too many things. As for the stereotypes, heavy drinkers, vodka, beautiful women, addidas. Things like that. My opinion of Russia is very positive, you are a country that has stood up against the West for many, many years and you continue to do so now.
