Yikes

February 7, 2007

Russia is such a fascinating country. I have one teacher who is a radical communist and one who is emphatically anti anything relating to soviet Russia. There's no middle ground here. In one class we are watching videos of the horrors of soviet Russia, and in the other class we are being taught that Putin is a god, and reading articles for homework about America interrogating and torturing Russians. Today the communist teacher made a comment about the smaller former soviet countries wanting to be apart of Russia again. I mentioned Ukraine's repulsion of Russia and their frantic reclaiming of their national identity. I don't understand Russian very well, but I'm pretty sure that she said it was simply a reaction, a phase, and they will get over it. My other teacher talked today about Russia's irrational, emotional behavior. She said that as a country they are so obsessed with being an "Empire" that they willingly suffer under the "Strong Arm" to protect their pride. (My interpretation of the every third word I picked up.) She said that visiting America completely changed her mindset as a woman and a human being. It's just so interesting. In America we have the right wings and the left wings battling it to the death, but, whether they want to admit it or not, they're in the same general spectrum of thought. They are related by the constitution, different interpretations of course, but the constitution non-the-less, by the agreement that Democracy is the best we've come up with yet. It's so volatile here in Russia, so dangerously precarious.