Yeap. At a glance this observetion looks pretty much correct. I'm saying "pretty mush" because it is actualy a little pinky. The life over there is actualy much more tough then it is pictured in this article...
But never mind! There is still a lot of hope and we all belive that some day it will all be top-notch again. Russians never give up - it is the key!

Thanks very much. You have reassured me that I was thinking the right way. I expected it to be tougher for more people than the article suggests and you have, kind of, confirmed that.
I know that Russians are a bold and determined people and I feel sure that things will come together in time. From my perspective here in the UK, the world needs a strong and successful Russia to lead us culturally, otherwise we will be swamped even more by tacky, shallow, substance-free, distasteful, unintelligent American-ness. And that worries me more than anything else.

And by that last comment I mean, and there is no way that I want to upset my wonderful American friends, not American individuals but American big business. I hate it when I travel the world to see a McDonalds on every street corner, Coke advertisements everywhere, KFC on every High Street and all the other stuff that comes with globalisation. I want to go to another country and for it to be different, I don't want every street in the world to look the same - I wouldn't know where I was!

It is very good to know that you understand it this way.

In my way of thinking it is very important for all of us to understand that there is no such thing as general standard of lifestyle. Whatever is perfect for one person might be the absolutely worst for the other person. We all know it is true.

I'm personally being so attached to IT industry in the same time still enjoy the life in deep forest more then most of benefits from suburbia. I'd regret deeply if all the world would become flat regular suburbian pattern with all the "standards" distributed smoothly all along the way. I'd be the first one who would start smashing lampposts just to make the landscape look like it has some distinct spots.

BTW there is nothing wrong in leaving in so called "tough" environment. There is definetely something wrong in judging it on the ground of comparision. It is just wrong to say the life somwhere is WORSE just because it's DIFFERENT from the other place. In fact that comparision IS what makes it worse. If those people who live their lifes in Russian province would NOT try to "rise their life standards" to some illusionary degree then their life would be just fine. For some reason people see false values in things they don't really need like top-model cellphones, tv-sets and you name it. It is the problem that people who don't actualy need those so called "high life standards things" are wasting a lot of their effort on them. This waste of energy IS what is wrong, not the difference in lifestyle. All that false luxury and extravaganza which is brainwashing people IS the real problem.

There is nothing wrong with getting your water from the well. There is definetely something wrong in saying that doing it this way is "low life standard".

I'm sure you know what I mean.

Yes, I know what you mean and I agree with you totally. I think you have put it very well indeed. Thanks for your help! :))

You are completely wrong considering DIFFERENT people who can enjoy living in Russian province nowadays. They are not stupid at all! They sometimes watch TV and know perfectly well that there are those "high life standards", not available for them. I assure you they aren't quite happy about there living conditions. Especially young ones, who apply any efforts to escape to large cities.

I admire your answer, bro.

No worries!
I'm just being honest, that's all.

Unfortunately I have to admit it is true. I've been in the poor places like that. There is definitely vast gap between big cities and province. I don't even talk about Moscow. People say that Moscow is like another country inside Russia. For example. Average salary in Moscow, as I can say looking at my friends, is around 1000USD. To rent an apartment will cost you no less than 500USD. For 100USD you can BUY regular house at the country side like you've seen on the pictures in BBC's topic. Average salary in that villages and small cities is approximately 100USD or even less.

My mother for her full-time job (acting courses for kids) earns a bit more than 100USD per month.

Thanks so much. I really helps me understand what my friends have to deal with and how things are. I'm very grateful for your help. :))

In 2000 working as a full-time core midwife in Tomsk (Russia, Siberia) I was earning 35 USD per month!

That's incredible. Such an important and responsible job too. No wonder you are now in New Zealand where you are respected and appreciated so much more. Thanks for the information, I'm getting a much better picture of things now. :))

You are welcome indeed. :)

Yes, unfortunatelly, it is true
I am lucky that I live in Saint-Petersbourg, it is the second capital of our country.

And I am lucky because of that too! Did you see the comment from my friend lananz? She now lives in New Zealand but when she was still in Tomsk she was earning only the equivilent of 35USD a month and she was a professional midwife. I was astonished by that, it is such a responsible and important job. No wonder so many people are desperate to move out of Russia. And yet, the richest man in Britain is a Russian! There is no justice in the world.

By the way, I showed the photo of the baby hedgehog in the bunny suit to my mother and she thought it was so sweet! You have a gorgeous daughter and she is very lucky to have such a wonderful mother! :)))

Sorry, but I need to point on that prices on food and all the usual stuff are 1.5-3 times lower than here. I really don't get how person can live on such a small amount of money. A lot of people know.

Anyway, I think that it's all _up to person_. Lana didn't want to live like that, so she is here.

sad...
but it's true.
and sometimes we have more terrible details, which I think most people from big countries won't understand.
but. for example, Vladivostok doesn't have a McDonalds at all. And behaind Ural (Kavkaiz Mountains) - at all. I read it's hard to put buissnes there. And I saw McDonalds only in Moscow and Piter... and now here of course.
more than that... I'm thinking about very often... Russia has another view to the beauty. Most my friends are happinest people without water (it's very often in Vladivostok, I am about hot water), and the same houses (like here comunity), and... it seems that people from Russia can live in USA, for example, but nobody from another country can't live in Russia.
actually, I have a choise - live here or live in Russia. What do you think I will choose?:)

It's really complicated question: where I'm going to live?. I can complain about a lots of things like hot water shortages, lack of McDonalds, but as you've said above a lot of people are really happy to live there. Furthermore, we should continue our discussion in terms of culture and mentality.

In case of money and stuff... I can live in Russia and I'll get the same level of salary (in Moscow it can be even higher than I've got here). But all my friends and parents will be reachable in 3-6 hours of flight. I will speak my native language. It is very important.

Beside disadvantages you've mentioned living in your natural environment has pluses as well. So this is _really_ hard to decide.

I don't think it is hard to decide. It is simply impossible to make any general decision which would be applicable to any one, that's all.
One who values McDonalds availability, tap water and lights on streets is making his personal decision on that ground. Anyone with other values may decide to go deep in the forest and spend the rest of his life over there with no roads, not lights, no taps and no anyoneelses opinion.
My point is that it is not that difficult to make actual decision for yourself. We just should not apply our decision to others, which seems to be pretty simple to me.

I've got your point. We're moving to offtopic with this. I'll talk to you later about decision making.

Thanks for your comment Yana. :))) I have got a lot of information now, thanks to the kind people of LJ. I know, because you have told me before, about how things were tough for you when you were growing up and how hard it was for your mother too. You have helped me a lot in trying to understand how things are in Russia and how they are different. I'm not going to judge what is right or wrong (it is not my place to do so) but I know that it can be very difficult.
As for your question. I don't know the answer. I think it must be very difficult to choose between your home and your culture against a place and a 'culture' that are so different. I think that the values and morals are probably more grown-up in Russia than America. Have you made the decision yet? :))

to my opinion, the layer touched upon in this article is rather a surface one, the main problem with Russian small cities being not really having or not having hot water from tap. by the way, here, in St. Petersburg, there still are old houses with no hot water in them, or no capacity for a bathroom (and no money by the inhabitants to do a thorough reconstruction).
the problem mentioned above lies deep in the social care and state budget dispensing system. I live here and still can not understand why on earth such all-important jobs as educational and medical ones should be systematically underpaid. the same refers to retirement pensions.

In the center of Paris there are a lot of old houses where there a bathroom can fit only a sink and a shower. No place place for a bath/tube at all.

Yet, these houses are very fashionable and expensive... Ok, their condition may vary, but so as in StPb.

you've probably didn't get my meaning quite well. not just 'no bath' - no bathroom and no hot water at all, just one sink for a, say, three-rooms apartment. and these houses are not fashionable :-) they cry for total reconstruction because there was no repair for some 100 years :-)

Thanks for your comments. When I posted this entry I was genuinely interested to see if the story reflected the way things are in Russia. I know the journalist has a good reputation but I was slightly uncomfortable about the way she was highlighting the differences between towns and the country as if they were bad things. I know it's all relative and happiness is what matters most. Thanks again. :))

I see you've seen enough of Russian reality :) I am sorry if my comments were a bit but excessive.
it's all relative and happiness is what matters most
exactly :-)

Everything is true, yeah.

However, I'd like to travel around China to compare :) piterpan, he've been there, so may be he knows...

Or whichever country that as large as Russia and which was brought through all the "changes" during the last 100 years.

I don't support our government policy, however, please be honest: it's impossible to govern/manage the country of its size. With the lack of connections, with the population that goes fewer and fewer.

I did some research on Russian (so called) civil society in past. It takes time to go where lots of people would like to come after all. Yeah, all words about different mentality are true. Yeah, couple of generations may pass out.

We're just pushed back in time. We will probably go the same way as Europe did, but 300 years ago: the wealth earned in large cities led to the civilized countryside. Still, only Novosibirsk region (a part of Western Siberia) has the same size as France.

Lots of work to do.

And by the way! Look at the bright side of our village people's life. It may sound terribly cinic, but they still live in natural environment, comparing even to a wealthy Europe. It's about what they eat, what they breath, what they drink. Yes, they die because of alcohol.

However, they do not die with cancer. If it was only possible to kill to birds with one stone..

Thanks for your comments. They have been very helpful. As I have said before, when I posted this I was not questioning the rights and wrongs of the situation, just whether the article was a true representation of the way things are. I think everyone has told me that it is true.

There was that famous article in the American Vanity Fair about Moscow’s night life – how nightclubs are built for a season, and then demolished, coz no-one would go there they come out of fashion so, so quickly. And how there are special chairs for women’s handbags (similar to kids’ highchairs) – because bags are so expensive, you simply can’t leave them on the floor. I look through those articles – and I say – yes, this is modern-day Russia.

And then there are these BBC publications, which describe Russia as a much nicer place to be born in rather than to go back to J and I’d agree. And they’d describe how terrible things are, and everything is in such despair, and how people are freezing to death in the streets – and I would also say that yes, it is true.

Probably, this is partly due to the whole ambivalence situation with the economical development, when the rich are just getting richer, and the poor are just dying out. And you can’t comprehend it just by having read one piece of news. And I cannot see a way of explaining to you how life is in Russia. And I don’t think we will ever figure it out. Sorry.

Thanks for your comment. I'm sure that Russia will regain it's rightful place as a cultural leader in Europe. When I posted the article I was interested to know whether it was true or not. I see from the comments that it is. I am not in a position to judge on the rights and wrongs of the situation, but I do feel for those who are in a situation they would rather not be in. Thanks again.

I have travelled in more than 25 countries (thanks to my profession). One day I want to live in France. My family lives in Moscow, and our current living standard could be described as a little higher than middle-class (as we know middle-class in europe). But let me tell the beginning.
In 1990 my parents with two little kids didn't have anything to eat for some period of time, after we left small town named Osh in Kirgizia in 1990 (they have wars constantly since that time). Young family moved to Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan, much more succesfull country), and after five years, when we already had our own apartaments, we moved to Moscow - only because some professor told that I need to study in central school.. My father worked a lot, and the only thing which helped us, is the positive energy, which everyone always can produce inside. Dad is the most kind and fair man I ever seen.

And you know what? I remember first 5 years of my life, which was spent in the simple 1-floor family house which was built by my grandfather, with the beautiful garden with vegetables and lots of fruits, with water from a spring (we also had chickens and self-made "pechka" to make bread) as the heaven. My family had everything to be happy.

But parents were happy in difficult times and happy now as well - that is what amazes me and gives example and orientation in this world.

And there is lots of families like mine, nothing special, no pathetic moods.

It is definitely question of menthality. So we can see that the choice is the most important thing! Choice of people. What to do, how to deal with reality, where to live.. and how to feel yourself.

Thanks so much for your comment. I really appreciate your help and taking the time to comment. I was not questioning the rights and wrongs of the situation but more whether it was a true representation of the way things are. I have many Russian LJ friends, most of whom live in Russia, but also some who do not and I was interested to know what the thoughts of those who know the situation were. I have a much better idea now and I am very grateful to you all. Thanks again. :))