Last night I watched the movie K-19 The Widowmaker. I enjoyed the movie as entertainment, but was more detached than I usually am when watching intense movies. Which was a good thing because when people are drowning, burning, or sloshing around in the malfunctioned nuclear reactor plants of submarines it is better not to be too involved emotionally. But that isn't really the point of this post. What I really want to say is that
I really have a hard time understanding why God created Russia.
I know, I know; that is pretty harsh. But I'm not saying that there isn't a good reason, I'm just saying that I am having a hard time identifying it. I guess watching that movie helped me suddenly focus on how negative I was about Russia.
Here's why:
In my mind Russia has gotten the short end of the stick in a number of ways. Russia has pretty much the worst weather of any country in the world. Russia has one the stinkiest governments ever. Russia seems to be spiritually depressed all the time. Russia is one of the ugliest places ever.
All of my mental images of Russia involve snow, grey skies, barren wastelands, and subzero temperatures. How's this for an incongruous sentence: "Sunny Russia, favored holiday destination for millions, is basking in yet another glorious summer day- bright sunshine, blue skies, and balmy temperatures will continue all through this week and well into the next." I bet they don't even have a word for summer in Russian.
Of course, I don't equate good weather solely with warmth; I do appreciate crisp, clear winter days, and even English foggy days have their appeal. But Russia seems to have this perpetual grey, dingy look, as if all the buildings had been built poorly 20 years ago, with only economy in mind, all the natives dressed in shades of brown and grey, and the sky had that sort of heavy feel and color to it which comes from smog.
Russia means gulag, Crime and Punishment, communism, fruitless, endless, mindless suffering, vast emptiness, slavery, faceless masses of people with no personal identity, dishonest politics, mass deception, tortured history, uncertain future, mind and body-numbing temperatures and basically everything bad I can think of.
In conclusion I'll add that Russia is absolutely the last place on earth I would ever voluntarily visit or live in. Bar none (except possibly Amsterdam).
Having said all that, I would sure love some balancing opinions. Do any of you have anything good to say about Russia? I would LOVE to hear anything good! I don't really want to think so negatively about the place, but I can't help it. I think I have watched too many movies. :-)
I think I might do some research on my own. Surely lots of good things have happened there. Maybe there are some spiritual giants who originated in Russia. Of course there is Russian literature (even there, I can't really think of any happy books written by Russians), and Russian music...
11 comments:
You already mentioned the Lit., which is probably the biggest Russian positive. I don't know about spiritual giants, but solzhenitzyn was a christian. As for the books even if they aren't happy, they are so full of truth and wisdom that happiness is irrelevant.
Another plus for Russia is that if it weren't for them you would probably be speaking either french (napoleon) or german (hitler). They have stopped at least two world conquerors.
That is all that comes to mind right off. If you gave me a bit, I might be able to come up with some more. ( In case you can't tell, I rather like Russia, or at least parts of it :-)
It's all very well from our point of view, I suppose. I mean, its nice to have a massive and populous country to throw against world aggressors, but surely that mustn't be a good substitute in their minds for happiness. I mean, can you just hear them saying, "Thank God we are here to save the world from the Germans! Of course, living in Russia is horrible, and I am never happy, but what does that compare to the greater good?"
This post was all from a personal perspective (i.e. Katie hates Russia, Katie thinks it is ugly and depressing), but my opinion of Russia is more than personal: I also think that the Russians must be unhappy about living there themselves.
One doesn't really hear them enthusing about their country except when they say loftly things about dying for the Motherland, or the good of the political party.
What Russian in their right mind wouldn't want to leave if they had the chance?
Maybe this is just one rather large cultural disconnect on my part. Just because I have had only negative exposure to Russia, and can't seem to understand the Russians themselves doesn't mean that life there is all negative, or that they are always depressed and suicidal. Which I would certainly be if I lived there.
And I am rambling on.
I hope I don't get lots hate mail from Russians who visit this site.
Anybody shocked at this can just write me a comment and I'll explain myself fully.
I understand, Katie. I think I've always felt similarly about Russia. You expressed it very well. I am intrigued by its history... even though it seems to be full of treachery, wolves, cold, drab peasants, death, privation and communisim. But, I agree: NOT nice in the least. The only thing that I can think of that seems remotely attractive is that onion domed cathedral place...
I suspect your visions of drabness and cold and peasants and all that are a distinct one sided view. Now, I can't say I've seen anything else. But I've never looked. I don't care.
But since you do seem to care, you should do some serious looking around. Most of what we percieve of Russia is from a "coldwar" viewpoint. The powers that be painted the worst possible picture. Those pix are true, but not balanced. So find the balance. Just might take some work...
Just so that you know that it is not all gray and dreary, look at this pic I found.http://149.142.206.28/travel/Archive/CIBER-Russia/RUSSIA.JPG
Ok finally the girl who loves Russia writes. Now i love Urkaine more-but I was there more recently too... but they also speak Russian in Ukraine.
Anyways God called me in a special way to go to Russia on my mission trip with Teen Mania.
He gave me a heart for Russia! I loved it. I went in the summer when it was warm. It was even warm enough to go swimming. I have some really cool pictures of wehre we went swimming. It was this quarry and there was this huge white hard sand sculpture... it was really neat and beautiful in it's own way.
Where we ministered was a camp out in the boonies. think of Fairwood,country, cept it looked different,the trees are differnt, out in the country. The children are beautiful. Some of them very talented in painting and beadwork. Making like beading lace... that's what some of the necklaces looked like. THe kids were friendly and generous, giving us little gifts... We did friendship evangelism with them. we got to spend time with the future of Russia...:)
There is a body of believers over there. A number of our translaters were believers. One was I believe a more mature believer, she was like 30-40's. One of our translaters actually went to Teen Mania's Honor academy... kinda like a Bible School over hear in the US. The Babushka's are big soft woman and the kids are skinny and beautiful.
I have alot of pictures from my trip. Come on over and I'll show you some of the beauty from Russia. People and places.
There may be big defining incidences in Russia's history that make it distasteful but there's alot about Russia, especially the people that is beautiful...
The people over there laugh and cry, and love and enjoy each other just like they do here.
We had sunny days there... we went on a little excursion on some boats...in this meandering big stream...it was really pleasant trees on both sides...same day we went swimming in the quarry. The quarry was huge by the way, we walked there from the camp. You woulda never guessed it was near the camp. It was totally separate from the camp and the landscape was totally differnt...different world.
I think you may like the country side of Russia more than the city. Cause there's actually like plants, lots of trees and meadows...we walked alot to get to places(in the country on gravel roads) to get to like transportation to go to the cities.
THe sun does shine there and there are definatley people there that love and follow Christ, I met some of them and saw the sun:)
Does that help. I'd love to talk more about my experiences there if ya want:) or email...etc... maybe I'll blog about it and post a pic or two...we'll see:)
that huge onion dome cathedral is called St. Basil's Cathedral.
Did you realize that one out of every 4 people in Isreal is Russian... from the former USSR...
Dostoevsky
Tchaikovsky
RACHMANINOV
Dostoevsky may have written dark novels, but you can't get much more beautiful that Sonia's salvific suffering. That beauty came out of Russia!
And, since the Olympics have now begun, I'll just add that Russian athletes seem pretty psyched about their country.
Which leads me to another good, if slightly more trivial, thing about Russia: incredibly figureskating.
PLUS they have the COOLEST names.
But I admit, I, too, picture grey skies and subzero temperatures.
1st reaction:
Freezing cold.
Endless snow.
Obscene weather all around.
Socialist government.
People who for some strange reason choose to live there nonetheless.
....
Are you sure you aren't talking about New England???
2nd reaction:
Russian summers can be beautiful. If you want some good images of the natural beauty of russia (interspersed with some human ugliness) try watching Dr. Zhivago.
Most people beat me to my comments. I thought of the onion domes, and the Russian Orthodox Church in general. Not that I know much about it, but it seems an entity of some beauty...like the onion dome church in Jerusalem.
I had a friend who did some touring in St. Petersburg and she was very favorably impressed with the beauty of the palaces, etc., in that city. Did you read "The Russians" Christian historical fiction series? Not the highest quality of literature, sort of cheap romance, but when I read a few of them many years ago I had a very positive fascination with the aristocracy and feudal system and such.
And not all of Russia is Siberia. (Remember Siberia is where they send people they don't like?) There's lots of grain farming and stuff that goes on there...so maybe throw in a little Pennsylvania into your perspective.
and the music...and the ballet! Go see the Nutcracker to help your perspective...and the CHOIRS!!! Russian choirs are renowned for their huge, amazing sound, and Russian basses can sing SOOOO low!
And Gordeyeva and Grinkov! Enough said.
*agrees with Isaac...
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