Travelling to Russia

I'm an eastern euro (from baltics) but I've never been to Russia, and most of my life I've been fooled into this neoliberal bullshit and hated anything to do with Russia or russians. Recently though, this has turned around, and I've grown very fond of Russia (especially their arts and culture, it's scope is magnificent). I have made a certain decision to travel to St. Petersburg to participate in their Design Week event, which would be my very first time in Russia.

I'm sorry this thread has probably nothing to do with leftism, but Holla Forums is my homeplace on the internet and there might be many people on this board who have connection to this land by studying Leninism and such, so naturally, there is some value in what people here could know about Russia or russians

I'm Russian diaspora scum, been to Russia last year for the first time as well.

I believe as long as it's the younger generation it shouldn't be a problem, especially in a city like Petersburg
Don't mention Crimea or the war in Ukraine, I had people tell me they don't believe Putin is sending there troops… and then they lean closer and whisper "and I wouldn't care if he did". Also avoid politics obviously.
Don't overstay your visa (seriously you'll get fucked). Don't rely on the cops to do shit for you. Avoid the periphery of large cities like Podmoskovyu, I was told you could potentially meet neo nazis. Be polite but don't help someone if you see that no one is helping them (they are possibly a seller wanting someone to help them pass their merchandise, happened only once tho.

Very intriguing, thanks! I need to keep in mind about not mentioning war on Ukraine. Even in eastern europe, the general rule is that you shouldn't really wander to outskirts of larger cities unless you know exactly where you need to go and you have someone on the other end to meet with you.

brainlet here, can you rephrase that?

i second this

On Moscow subway you have sometimes wandering merchants going from wagon to wagon selling things like potato peelers and other shit, packed by the loads in large suitcases.

didn't mean to sage

polite bump

in what manner could they tease you into passing their merchandise? I genuinely haven't heard of this trick.

are seriously trying to tell me you wouldn't buy perfectly fine potato peeler from old lady which fell on the street?

But then I would be buying the merchandise, not passing it along or helping her to sell it? Sorry I am a bit confused by your wording.

Ok I may have made a few assumptions. They don't. A lady once just asked me to help her with her large suitcase down some stairs in the metro, and I've noticed she was standing there for a several minutes and no one was helping her. I assumed people figured she was one of the sellers (and really who goes with packed suitcases in an intercity metro?). Anyway, naive me, only a week in Moscow, decided to help her get the suitcase down the stairs, only in retrospect did I realize she was probably a merchant. Maybe she wasn't one of the merchants and Muscovites are just rude, she definitely was, halfway down a large bloke is in front of us and she starts telling to "to move his lard ass" (rough translation) so he starts insulting her back. I have heard more swearing in the Moscow metro in two weeks than I have in my entire life in the country I live.

But no they don't actually ask people to carry their merchandise. If no is interested in the wagon they just pack their shit and either move to the next or stand still til the next stop.

in the sense that they don't want to help bystanders

In my balt country, I've only seen gypsies doing this (selling stuff by bothering people in public spaces). Looks like my parents were right all along - don't talk to strangers!

Tbh I will be spending a year out in Russia (am majoring in Russian) so any other tips would be appreciated.

where will you be spending it?

Which country are you from?

I don't know yet, it depends how well I do this year. I have a choice of a few, aiming for Moscow. If I do shit I will end up with Kazan or smtng.

UK.

As much as I can tell, here in eastern europe there is a special reputation of "single british lads getting drunk and acting stupid". If you manage to negate this reputation somehow, you could earn bonus points. I don't even know why it's particular to brits, but it does, and I've yet to figure out why.

sorry I don't have anything more to tell, I'm the OP and I wanted to give you something useful but this is all I've got. What said about visa is very practical. Russia is not in EU, obviously, so visa-related stuff is kind of a big deal around there.

Trips of inquiry. It's because they come there to get drunk for dirt cheap. As I heard from friends in Czech Rep and Poland.

just one. Don't go to russia.

this is stupid

cheap alcohol is one thing, also there might be something about british accent.

Dw that exists every European nation: lad culture at its finest. This is a part of it, also the fact this is how brits act in their own country. There is an old saying, "To the yanks we look like gentlemen, to the europeans we make the yanks look like gentlemen".

...

Can someone explain why? As a burger it's weird that the outer city would be worse.

I don't think it's that much worse, it's just as bad but in a different way. Mostly it's just Khrushchyovka buildings like pic related where most of proles tend to live, but depending on particular city districts, they can range from peaceful suburb-like areas to crime-ridden ones full of gopniks and potential mafia-members.

Actually, building such as pic related are INCREDIBLY common sight in entirety of eastern europe, mostly because it's affordable accommodation for everyone, from young 20-somethings up to elders. Private homes are usually a sign of middle-class or upper middle-class, since to be able to afford a private home, one must have at least 2 persons capable of producing an average salary each

Can't be anything like Detroit, can it?

that only took 4 years?! fuck

That's four growing seasons, plants can fuck up a building in one.

Russians hate it when you go to Russia and can't speak Russian you retard. You are not Russian lol

Yea dude. The next city over, Dearborn, is fucking loaded. You cross one street and it goes from that gif to mansions. I've driven through parts that look worse than that. It's sad.

Question about Russia: I know it is legal to carry non firearm weapons. Is it worth doing this or will it not help you?

Behold the efficiency of capitalism.

I'm a burger who lived in Russia (Moscow) for about 7 months.

1. Some young people speak decent English, most speak a little, but some just never gave a shit about their English classes and can barely speak it at all. Most restaurants will have an English menu and at least one waiter who speaks English. The main problem will be with government/bank workers who usually don't speak English and don't give enough of a fuck to try to get their points across in any way other than to repeat themselves over and over again in Russian.

2.Islam and Muslims are very unpopular among much of the population(an old man once tried to physically remove me from a bus seat because he thought i was an arab immigrant)

If you go to a Russians house always take your shoes off and don't leave empty bottles of alcohol on the table.

3. Make sure you keep your passport and migration card with you at all times and be prepared to produce them if you're stopped.

Any tips for learning Russian?

Not really, I learned most of mine in college classes while I was over there.
Maybe use duolingo, a textbook, and an anki deck for vocab.

Oh, one more thing. Some public toilets have to be paid for before you can use them so keep change on you.

Good advice, thanks. I'm concerned about learning russian part. I suppose when I just arrive on tourist visa for week or two, I don't have to come in contact with russian government/bank workers, only the embassy (or whatever institute deals with tourism visas) in my own country?

My overall impression is that perhaps I should try to take some sort of online russian language course, which would make me able to understand basic sentences and signs on the street, but that still wouldn't make me able to converse in russian. Only alternative I could possibly think of is to go to some russian subreddit and try to find some penpal who could guide me along as much as possible (maybe even IRL if lucky, but I doubt).

Question: can you read cyrillic?

I actually can, because I had russian lessons back in school I'm OP, the eastern euro, so we can choose between german and russian as third language after compulsory native language and english classes but the teachers really sucked and as a result, I have very basic understanding of russian only.

But yeah, I can understand cyrillic привет, лефтйпол товарищ