I've been wondering about this. On one hand, there are these astonishing changes, and on the other, we're sitting in a pit of inner unrest while remaining stoically calm on the outside, coping with all the crap we're put through without taking action. How come? It's not like we don't have examples of such changes - you've listed plenty of the major ones. I used to think that it's so because life is crap enough to complain about (low wages, high prices, low culture, bad job market situation etc.) but not crap enough to inspire doing something about it (people aren't killed or abused regularly, wages are livable, air polution we don't have much info about to do something with, so on), but now I'm not sure about this. I'm not an educated politician or sociologist, so this is me stabbing in the dark. In-country, as well. I remember seeing our newly-repaired yard (in Russia, five-storey houses often share a yard much bigger than what a single house in the US has) and wondering that, for all the complaining, we've got some good going our way from the government. The yard was a mess beforehand - terribly-broken roads (google "дороги в россии" and go to the images section), overall chaotic layout, no zone for children - and has become a well-done area where the above-mentioned traits are reversed. Yay, United Russia! (which is the main political party in the country, claiming to have supported the work) Since then - only seemingly incremental changes, as far as I know. Thank you for sharing your point of view! I wonder if you have any other kind of perspective to share about Russia. I presume that you've been over, considering your negative experience with the Hermitage queue. How did it feel? Why did you come to Russia, if you don't me asking?I've always been impressed by Russia's ability to remake itself. From Peter the Great's titanic efforts to modernize the country over how the country came to span two continents to the october revolution and then the dissolution of the union, it seems that few countries have the penchant for abrupt change Russia has.
For a time, a few years ago when Putin just got into power, things were starting to look up.
When does discontent spill over into open revolution? It depends. Certainly there's a lot of historical examples to look at, but one factor is always an inciting event: something that sets people off. It can be something small that spreads into bigger events (like a produce vendor setting himself on fire), to the dismissal of a minister. And usually the situation is far more dire than today's Russia. For all our bitching in this thread, things aren't that bad yet. The Hermitage's queue - it's funny, it symbolizes a lot about russia for me, actually. People line up there in the morning and then sell the queue position to tour groups. They make quite a lot of money that way, but everyone else gets screwed! And since so many people do that, an d nobody really feels responsible, it just keeps happening. Wanna know how my family got in? My father just pretended to be part of a tour group that had bribed one of the guards, and then fetched us. I'm still not quite sure how the fuck that worked :P The museum was worth it though! I loved being in Russia though (we went to Moscow and St. Petersburg). We were just there as tourists, and to visit our friends. I'm a bit of a subway nerd and I still like Moscow's the most (those soviet-era stations are incredibly beautiful!). I actually spent one day with a group of older students - it was really fun trying to communicate with them (I was, what, 16? And could understand Russian ok, but not really speak it).