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When I tell you the Russians really, really, really revere their Great Patriotic War heroes, I'm not just whistling Dixie. Their memorials and museums and cemeteries are in every town across the entire expanse of their country, right along with art museums, every imaginable type of museum, and theaters and opera houses and gorgeous parks and playgrounds and seemingly endless restaurants and nightclubs and street vendors of all sorts.
Yeah, it's way more low key out in the tiny towns where dashas abound, and half of them don't have even electricity, let alone plumbing, just places to go be away from the pressures of the city, and closer with your family, in the summertime.
There really are a thousand things about Russia you would find admirable or even enviable if you took the time to educate yourself on it, instead of just letting propaganda waft through your head... I, for instance, have still not gotten over seeing the late night street cleaners in Peter. Not just the vehicles with the brushes, but guys emptying the trash cans that line the streets and SHAMPOOING the sidewalks with those spray wands you see at the car wash. If you are amazed to see how Russia's cities actually sparkle, this would be part of it.
It reminds me of San Francisco and Portland and Seattle back when I was a young lady... only even safer, cleaner, and prettier. It's as though Russians are like Americans before we were debauched and demoralized to bits.
pipe up any time....
