A Russian person could not visit New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and then say they visited The United States and have an understanding of Americans. They might think they understand, but any American would giggle at the notion.
Conversely, the same is true in Russia. You cannot visit Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan and think you have an understanding of Russians. However, if you give yourself time, join in the daily tasks and challenges of ordinary Russians, you can easily discover some of the deeper stuff that really puts context on life in the Russian Federation.
Perhaps what follows is a different perspective.
It took a while, but I finally figured out what this phrase “the Motherland” is all about.
Let me start by sharing another phrase that almost every American will find familiar, yet virtually every Russian asked has no reference to comprehend: “you work for us.”
When talking to a federal, state or local government official in the United States and saying, “you work for us,” everyone listening would completely understand your sentiment. However, in Russia that phrase is akin to asking a Martian for a canoe. This is the way to understand “the motherland.”
Within Russia the social compact is organized around the premise (key word “premise“), that government is the mother figure within a family – and all of the citizens are children. The government knows best. The state engages in all facets, systems and structures as if they are the omnipotent mother who cares about the children.
Women, the generally forgotten sense of the word woman, are held in high esteem, and “Women’s Day” is the biggest holiday throughout the federation.
The people of Russia generally accept this system. Generations and generations of compliant, well behaved, very structured and regimented ideology still permeates. The muscle memory is deepest in the psychological muscles that run through generations.
Oddly, this social compact is understood, but only understood insofar as the Russian people do not have any other reference point, or alternative system that would enable them to see the deficit in the oppressive system that surrounds them.
The average Russian knows the “West” is different but doesn’t really know why the social system they see outside their window seemingly operates with well-organized randomness. What is this efficiency within unbridled capitalism you speak of, and why would Americans be willing to give it up?
Karelia Russia, early spring ’24
♦ As stated previously, the level of social compliance within the motherland compact is stunning. Some observers might brush off extreme lawfulness as a remnant of strict authoritarianism – decades of hardcore soviet influence. From that perspective, yes being an invisible “grey man” is safe; drawing attention to yourself can only bring the glare of Mother.
It is safer to be a “non-vulgar” generic sardine in a school of sardines.
Live within that system long enough, and it just becomes the natural way it is. It doesn’t matter what the uniform rule is, generally Russians act with extreme compliance.
Standing in line, waiting for the light at a crosswalk, standing on the right side of the escalator, remaining stoic, “cultured” and “not vulgar” in a subway or public venue, putting your trash in an often-changed public receptacle, appropriate (quiet) use of the cell phone, the odd lack of talking in just about any venue, all the way to accepting ridiculous outcomes as a matter of engagement with the motherland bureaucracy.
The customs and norms circle around ordinary compliance and social acceptances, learned behaviors over time, and so they do. Note, in part this behavior pattern makes it very easy to spot a non-Russian. [That is also one of the reasons why I was careful about taking ordinary photographs, especially considering there were literally no tourists.]
From the 30,000 ft level, generally speaking, somewhere above 85% of the Russian population are compliant children, very well behaved with low expectations of anything in life that is not ordinary. That larger part of Russia accepts their malaise as just “life,” and they move along. The other 15% are part of the social strata (government worker or connected to a higher status), that affords them additional benefits.
St Petersburg, Russia – Spring ’24
Yes, there are definitely two castes or classes within the population, and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy, something the intellectual left in the United States will always deny. Totalitarianism is on the far-left side of the political continuum. Within that leftist system, a process the USA is working toward, there are ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ – or what is more familiarly called “elites.”
Have you ever visited Disney or a theme park in the USA where you can purchase a higher priced ticket to go into a “fast lane” at each attraction? The average price visitor stands in one long line, those who pay a much higher price get to skip to a much shorter line. In Russia, that’s the analogy for the general population engaging in everything; literally everything in their life from shopping to where they live, the better system experience is based on wealth, and connection to govt, ie. “status.”
♦ There is no part of this social system that an average American would enjoy in the long-term. Do not romanticize Russia. Edward Snowden gave up his best life when he made his hard choices.
Put simply, ordinary life as an ordinary Russian is just not easy. The concept of a social system structured around liberty and self-determination is unknown. Russians are not “free” people in our western definition, not even close.
It is not uncommon to see police on foot, regular beat cops, on crowded streets stopping people and asking for “their papers.” I am told the people being stopped are clearly not native Russians; but honestly, I watched this take place several times, and they all look Russian to me.
As I walked in the crowd with my friends, I asked them, “Do I look Russian”, because I was not being asked for my papers.
The response was generally that I look “white”, and the people being stopped by the police were not white. However, again I repeat, everyone being stopped looked like a white Russian to me, so what do I know.
There were also a few seemingly random road checkpoints where you are stopped by police and asked for your papers when driving, or a passenger. This always made me nervous (and my friends, although they were embarrassed to admit it), and with my passport I was always questioned and checked closely (but never detained – except as previously noted in the airport).
On the overall social oppression aspect, yes there are signs the Russian government is trying to change, to figure out a middle ground. However, the default position of the social mechanism is set to strict control, oppressive govt and authoritarianism.
Step out of the sardine line, and you will end up regretting it – big time. Ordinary Russians do not want to step out of line.
The problem for the Russian government is the generational compliance system does not create forward-thinking, independent thinking or entrepreneurship at the scale needed (Western scale) to rapidly advance modern society or keep up with technological changes and advancements. The DNA of Russia is static, lacking innovation, and built on this system of compliance.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov is a great representation of this outcome. He created the social media platform inside Russia but then found out if he wanted to really control what he created, he needed to leave Russia. He now lives in Dubai and operates Telegram with a small group of innovative tech experts.
On one hand, there are too many grey people, not enough independent thinkers, and that appears to be part of the problem in Russia. Hence, the government has all kinds of financial and economic incentives for innovative Western tech people and businesses to emigrate. However, on the other hand the government likes the domineering social compliance aspect, and they want to control communication networks, so they face recruitment problems.
Socially, the extreme compliance creates unity, cohesion and lawfulness. However, that same permeating mindset chokes out innovation and independent critical thinking. The lack of home-grown innovation, the people who actually think independently, means the industrial and tech business sectors must steal their ideas from other places. It is not accidentally the same in China. I think this is also why Russian hacking is so advanced.
The current/modern Russian government seems to hate the social wokeism stuff, within the “West,” more than they like innovation in a free-thinking capitalist society. As a consequence, Dear Mother is not willing to allow her apples to fall away from the tree.
♦ The Western financial sanction regime against Russia has driven the Russian economy into a very close relationship with China, India, South Korea and larger Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN). The new automobiles in Russia are almost all Kia, Hyundai and then Chinese models. The Russians notably do not have many EVs; they are mostly standard internal combustion engines. There are some newer USA and EU import vehicles, but those carry the cost of the 3rd party brokers (super high prices afforded only by the elites).
The odd thing about the sanction regime is the invisibility of it, unless you are looking deeply. Sure, many western retail companies were forced to leave by western political demand, but their products are still mostly available. I cannot visibly see any segment of the Russian economy where the sanctions are having a strong impact. Quite the opposite is true, and all outward appearances of the Russian economy looked strong in both 2024 and 2025.
Again, in a general sense, because Russia lacks innovative capitalism, their infrastructure innovation is archaic and outdated. This does not mean the old infrastructure is necessarily broken or doesn’t work; it only means it is old and very odd to see. Russia spends a lot of time cleaning and maintaining its infrastructure, but large sections of housing developments and apartments are very old and look well past their use-by dates.
Analog is still everywhere; digital systems have yet to become mainstream. If you step outside the center-city tourist perspective, you enter the 1970’s or 1980’s system in the suburbs dominated by the sardine cans where people live. As a person who was born/raised like Huck Finn in Florida on the beaches, islands and backwater bayous, the stacked-up rows and rows of sardine can apartments is seriously wild and simultaneously “yikes.”
The sardine Russians enjoy their parks, and to be fair they have some really nice spring and summer parks to enjoy, provided and maintained by Dear Mother. On nice weather days, the benches are full of people quietly talking to one another, enjoying the fellowship outdoors and generally being well cultured and exceptionally civil.
Random park in center city, St Petersburg, Russia
The well-mannered expectations of social rules, within the suburban and city park system, were explained to me, and I did not see a single reference of non-compliance or crude behavior anywhere – not even once. NOT ONCE.
Truthfully, it’s really weird how quiet and stoic the Russian people are when they are enjoying their recreation time. It’s like something out of a 1950’s pod-people movie, and after a while I found it to be very disconcerting, almost bordering on annoying for some reason.
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) May 21, 2024
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) May 21, 2024
I woke up early and hiked up to that specific and beautiful hilltop in Kareila, Russia, just so I could record that train video. No one else was on the mountain. It was a cold and beautiful morning.
♦ Food and Diets – Russian people eat well, and generally you would say they eat healthy fresh food. Because she was apparently concerned about it at some point, Dear Mather banned Canola oil in Russia as a food additive.
Fresh foods in Russia are what the average American would consider “organic foods.” For those of you who grow in your own gardens, you understand what the food markets are like in Russia.
This is not to say Russians are “healthy,” because overall they might not be. Smoking cigarettes and heavy alcohol drinking are very visible, and the difference in appearance between a 20-year-old and a 40-year-old is striking; perhaps that’s why.
Good quality food is cheap in Russia. Everything you see on the counter in this picture (left) was purchased for less than $70. I transposed the prices that I would pay at my local grocery store in the USA, and I came up with around $150-$175.
Processed food prices in Russia (crackers, chips, candies, cereals) generally are about half of what you would pay in the U.S. However, on the fresh foods side (produce, fish, meats, dairy), the Russian prices are a fraction of the U.S.A costs.
[10 eggs for $0.50, bread $1, bananas $0.05/lb, salmon $2.00, head lettuce $0.50, berries less than $1, apples $0.45/lb, steak $2/lb, ground chuck $1.50/lb, etc]
A 30-mile cab ride is around $5 to $8, and gasoline costs less than $2/gal.
A typical “nice” restaurant meal for 2 people is around $15.00, and you can easily grab a burger and fries for $3/$4 at any fast-food place. The average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment (city or suburb) is around $300-500/mo. The average income of a middle class (blue collar) worker is around $1,000/month.
Those grab-n-go electric scooters and electric bicycles are well used in the Russian cities and cost around $1 for an hour (kinda cool, and yeah I used them).
Keep in mind, during the soviet era religion was essentially forbidden. As a consequence, the Christian calendar within economic life (something you don’t think about in the USA) was erased.
In the USA the typical work week, Monday to Friday 9-5 weekends off, was an outcome of Christianity in the economy. In Russia you can get a dental appointment at 8:00pm on Sunday, or a haircut at any random time of day. All of the private sector businesses operate based on paying customer needs, not the social economic history of church attendance or worship schedules.
You can open a bank account in Russia using a passport, you do not need to live in Russia to open a bank account. Almost everything in “modern Russia” is done through your phone number and apps. On the downside, I have no doubt Dear Mother monitors all of the connected activity on the phone number.
FYI, there are no sanctions on telecommunications, and USA issued cell carriers operate reciprocity systems in Russia.
Instagram, Facebook, Rumble and all pornography sites are blocked on Russian internet, but people use VPN’s. However, before you think it’s big government remember, the number of sites blocked by Russia is less than the number of Russian web sites and domain ip’s blocked by the USA govt.
If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) carries a Russian identifier, about half the USA websites will block it, including President Trump’s Truth Social platform. This happens in cell phone networks and targeted apps also.
I find this to be very troublesome, because communication is critical to avoiding conflict. The “West” and Russia are building walls around their internet protocols making it harder for Americans and Russians to talk to each other. I do not think this is good.
♦ Healthcare – Russian healthcare is very cost efficient, and the system of healthcare itself is really cool. This is one element where you could say Russian outcomes easily exceed the USA. Healthcare for the average Russian is free; essentially, socialized medicine paid via taxes. However, yes there is a private sector healthcare system available for those who want to pay for extra stuff.
Dental is a good example to give you an idea of costs. You can get braces in Russia for less than $1,000 (generally $500). Standard dentists visit for cleaning around $20. That cost ratio carries throughout the general healthcare system that is remarkably modern, although if you need a specialized test like a CAT scan ($75), PET scan ($200) or MRI ($100/$150) you need an appointment at a govt institution (although, super-efficient timelines there too).
Within private sector healthcare, I’m told medical tourism used to be a big thing with people traveling to Russia for low-cost high-quality healthcare. I can see why. I went on several visits to healthcare providers, and the in/out efficiency within both the govt and private sector was impressive. You can also purchase just about all prescription medications (except narcotics classed meds) without a prescription at pharmacies (that are seemingly everywhere like convenience stores).
♦ The Russian Federation, at least through the prism of life as an ordinary Russian (generally middle class/worker class), is not really close to the portrayal that we see about it through Western media.
Russia is a beautiful country; it is massive and filled with natural resources. From the landscape beauty and natural resource perspective, it is similar to the United States in many ways, but the USA is better. Culturally, there is a big difference between the USA and Russia, some of the differences may be considered good, some of them not good depending on what point exactly we were discussing.
I can see how a very specific type of rugged individualist person may enjoy living in Russia more than the USA. In a place where you are disconnected from the modern world and far away from the urban city centers; you can do just about anything you want in Russia – yes, even beyond what is possible in the United States. However, on the aggregate, the ordinary life of the average MAGA American is far superior in quality than the ordinary life of the average Russian.
The opportunities to improve your independent life in the USA are present and within reach. Those same opportunities are not easily found as an independent person in Russia.
When the innovative DNA is triggered in a Russian person, they are inherently compelled by disposition and expressive need to leave the federation. That dynamic is the irony you will find buried deep under the surface, and for very obvious reasons it is the one dynamic the Russian government will not discuss.
If you were to ask me what is the “one thing” I think that will culturally change Russia, you just read what I think it will be in that prior paragraph.
Russians are a strong people. Super strong mentally and extremely pragmatic. An American trying to be politically correct to a Russian will not stand a chance at the necessary pretending needed. Russians are brutally honest, but after you get familiar with it, it’s extremely refreshing.
During my 2025 visit there were some noticeable differences. The internet is turned off during times when the govt is concerned about inbound drones or other issues of Ukraine attack. The Russian people brush it off, meh – just war stuff, and do something else until the internet is returned.
There are lots of children in Russia, more children in Russia than any other country I have visited in the past few years. There’s honestly not even a close second place. Children are considered very important and the ordinary Russian will express a protective instinct toward any child in any situation.
Feel free to use this discussion thread as an ‘Ask Me Anything‘ about my time visiting Russia in 2024 (April, May, June) and again in June/July 2025. I will try to answer as best possible.
Love to all….
What are the warmer Black Sea Coastal areas like for year round living?
It’s cold in general there. Too cold for my preferred taste.
Love the picture. Poor Jimmy Buffett died from a rare form of skin cancer, post COVID shot.
Try Sochi and the Black Sea resorts.
How hard is it to learn Russian lol
Alphabet has some Greek familiarity.
Invented by the church. There was no Russian alphabet before the emissaries.
The Byzantine brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius.
The alphabet is the biggest thing. To us many letters look the same, и,л,п are all different. Also some that look like ours have a different pronunciation. Their letter р is said like a Spanish rolling r.
I gave up, but was never good at languages, even Spanish in high school. Some people do much better than me.
I can do the survival mode…buy a meal or a beer, find a bank, the embassy, airport or hotel…and sort of count. And tell someone who is helping me to not speak so fast…but not conversational Spanish, over my skill set.
Some say it’s one of the hardest languages to learn.
Has to be in the ballpark w Hungarian – Magyar language. A few phrases are helpful, but it is not Latin-root based….
You can read Korean pretty quick, but I asked some Korean friends how long it wd take if I moved to Korea for full immersion…2
-3 years….
It’s my understanding that the only harder one is Finnish, which is a mix of Russian with Scandinavian thrown in.
Crimea has the best weather but the Black Sea is cold, very cold.
Thus the vodka
The warmer Southern areas of Russia are Muslim majority.
Russia seems like the south in the 80s.
Exactly like that.
Very odd. The description in no way resembles the south in the 80’s. Or any other of the past 6 decades I’ve lived here.
Some parts of the bible belt came into the new age after the 80s, other parts of the south moved more quickly.
Yep.
I was thinking Mayberry, except maybe without the smiles for strangers and the “Bless your heart!”
More like Michigan’s UP in the fifties before the Bridge was built to me.
The South of the 1980’s was very rebellious, and “Damn Yankees” was a frequent lament. Not all obedient like Sundance describes Russia. Full of some good ‘ole boys, makin’ their way, never meanin’ no harm, in trouble with the law since the day they were born.
I caught that lyric from The Dukes of Hazard. LOL!
Somehow, I think one won’t find Smokey and the Bandit there…even if they are thirsty in Atlanta…I mean Kremlin. Oh wait, wrong drink…
Vicksburg did not fully and freely celebrate the 4th of July until the bicentennial in 1976….. and even then…well….
I am a product of “the South in the 80s.” 😁
Going to forward this to my Russian friend on substack to get his thoughts.
Is there a part 1?
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/04/21/well-outside-the-wire-a-non-pretending-discussion/
Thanks SD!!
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Sundance’s Pancake recipe is the best. You should really try it.
I had Russian pen pals after the USSR fell. They told me about the trials of daily life at the time, but I agree for the most part were very stoic about it. Only one was bitter, a high earning meteorologist with the government who lost his cushy job when the USSR fell and was told his communist University degree was no longer recognized.
Eventually I gave up doing that as their ISPs came and went so fast. I did mail some but letters often got lost or went undelivered as they put the return address in the center of the envelope and the addressee in the upper left corner which confused both countries postal services.
It was a terrible, terrible time.
The scars are still raw. They {spit} on the name Gorbachev.
I really enjoyed reading your experience visiting Russia. It brought back a flood of memories to me. I lived as an expat in a small city in the Urals region from 2015 until I was not allowed to return to Russia in February 2022 when the war started, after I had come back to the US for my Dad’s funeral, then had to extend my stay here because my Mom died 20 days later.💔
When I first saw a horse and buggy ride past our apartment, I told my husband it must be our taxi for the 3 hour drive to the airport.
You emphasize not romanticizing Russia. That in the long run, an American wouldn’t be happy. You are assuming most Americans are happy. But that’s not the point I want to make. As a long-ago Cold War warrior, when the Russian army was ready to swarm the Fulda Gap and destroy Western Europe, I easily saw Russia as the enemy. But it was really the USSR that was the enemy. The everyday Russian? Not so much. When the Berlin Wall fell, I thought this would be it, a golden age of sorts, where relations between the West and Russia would blossom as our common enemy (China) was to be confronted together. Well, so much for that pipe dream. Perhaps President Trump will prove me wrong. I hope so.
This is a good point about wrongly assuming that most Americans are happy.
I read recently that record amounts of women would leave America if they could- I assumed that they asked all these raging nutty blue haired obese feminists that are blinded by TDS, I wondered what a well done poll by say Rasmussen would look like.
If you look at the amount of sick Americans- which is what has created the entire MAHA movement, how can so many sick people then be happy?
The debt we carry is off the charts, how can people be happy with all that crushing debt?
Moving towards Socialism, the lowest birth rates we’ve ever seen here, these are not signs of a happy population.
Given the rates of addiction (as escapism and to self medicate) and then mental illness, how can we be so happy when we look at what is going on?
There is what we say and then there is the actual data being produced that shows a very unhappy people.
It paints two very different pictures..
There could quite possibly be more Americans that would be happy there than what we think.
No one can be deeply happy without God.
No one can be deeply unhappy with God.
Kindly speak (only) for yourself.
These might be signs of God’s judgment upon a nation that flagrantly thumbs their noses at God and pushed him out of their way.
Do an exchange program….wd take some heavy expectation conditioning, but the language has t/b the killer. Economics & expectations might be in target, but shock of leaving our dopamine-fueled crappy social media world wd create withdrawal pains…if you could live in Russia, but have sales of market into US, that w/b the ticket…
Basically life in Russia w/b living in a US 1950s-proxy – pre-monetization and financialization of everything that Wall Street could slap a P/E multiple of 20 on….without the commensurate inflation of a $10,000 boomer parents’ house selling for $750k 50 years later…
had this exact conversation with pops. He told me, he has a very difficult time imaging that Russia the STATE has really changed. He also told me that it has become obvious he was biting huge into a propaganda campaign and only realized the extent of it with cross fire hurricane. Yes, dad is not well physically, but he has an incredible mind that is objectively introspective. Yes, our ThanksGiving a few days ago, was a lesson in both humility and sacrifice. The things my father DID to defend this country cannot possibly be measured…I can tell you about it, but I cannot possibly put a number on it. So goes the old soldiers, who saw a risk, responded with valor, and are now looking at a new world, but with also the same kinds of risks..history doesn’t also repeat precisely, but it certainly does rhyme.
I support President Trump with his mission to end the Ukraine and Russia conflict and senseless killing. I prefer to think of President Trump as the hero we need, but don’t actually deserve. Ironically, and tragically, like all good men, he will have to make hard choices. Hard Choices: who lives, who does not .
thus I PRAY for President Trump and the people he has delegated enormous authorities. These are normal people given tasks that most people would never even contemplate….and so, I will also remind to others that read this, expect setbacks…success does NOT COME EASY WHEN YOU ARE CHANGING THE WORLD. and that really is MAGA.. When we make America Great, we make also the world great. it’s the opposite of when America gets a cough, the world gets the flu.
God Bless America
Russia has the “Motherland”. The USA has had the “MotherMedia” that through sites like this one, we have been able to break the bonds with, for “MotherMedia” has been a wicked stepmother.
Where I work there a quite a few Russians and Ukrainians, when they speak, they sound like they are shouting. When I read “appropriate (quiet) use of the cell phone” it made me laugh.
As a contrast to the Motherland Nazi Germany stressed the Fatherland. I am not sure but think they both want loyalty to the government, one stressing motherhood and the other fatherhood.
Genuine question regarding transportation to Russia. How do you plan flights around the sanctions?
As a white male with enough Jewish features, layovers in the middle east are of legitimate concern (sans Israel, though I would willing stop there to walk the grounds that Jesus did). The alternatives aren’t great (China).
You fly into a non-sanction following country then fly into Russia. Istanbul is a good hub, but any country will work. If you prefer the EU, fly into Montenegro first, then onto Russia. It’s easy. 80% of the world doesn’t comply with sanctions.
As of now the least hassle flight route I would choose is with Turkish airlines. Direct flight to Istanbul from Atlanta, Chicago. From Istanbul you can chose many cities in Russia to visit.
Russians like to have holidays in Turkey hence the large number of cities that fly directly to Turkey from Russia.
The Russians still want the Straits – which they’ve wanted since the Byzantium was a world power….
And the Sultan has been barking about “liberating” the Crimea. Bringing the brotherly Turkic peoples of the Caucasus under the Ottoman fold.
Also, Turkish Air flies Denver to Istanbul nonstop.
Russia and Saudi Arabia can travel visa free between their two countries for up to three months. Thought that was interesting, good for tourism I guess.
Thank you Sundance. This article brought some understanding to my trip to USSR in 1985 as a teenager. We were a large school group. We rode a train just like your video. Clean and kept up.
“Everyone had a job in USSR.” Elderly people in every room of every museum, sitting in the corner half asleep, ready to scold you if you got too close to a piece of art. Also, old stooped over women sweeping out the tracks of the streetcars with brooms of branches with straw tied to one end. We did see a couple people who were living under a bridge in the countryside. They were shooed away from begging when we got off the bus.
We went to Gorky Park as the movie and book were popular at the time. In the US we have the swings that go in a circle that pivot out and high with the centrifugal force. We waited in line to go on the swings where each swing had a four foot fan connected to an electric motor. Switch on all fans and the swings go around in a circle. No whoops and hollers. Just Russians smiling, slowly going in a circle.
We had “Friendship Meetings” with hand picked locals. I learned early that people are nice and just want to connect and learn about each other. I figured governments hated each other for power reasons.
I was told I had an FBI file because of that trip. Meh.
Is that why you chose “Bugged” for your handle? 🤣
Do you think the 1970s technology environment especially in more rural areas is possibly intentional? Healthier alternative to all the 4/5/6G wireless technology? Non weather manipulation, vaccine mRNA triggering better Motherland protection? I would prefer this myself in all environments honestly.
Lol, I agree.
There are many New Englanders that live out in the boondocks that have chosen to remain in the 70s, the more modern ones ventured into the 80s but that was it.
Maybe that modernization is simply not their priority.
It’s there, it works, it does the job and it’s good enough- and what is wrong with thinking this way?
Excellent article. Thank you.
Thanks for the summary SD – great stuff as usual. BTW, I swore off the cocktail “White Russian” 25 years ago. My sisters still drink them during the Thanksgiving/Christmas Holidays.
Today I glanced at a headline to an an article in the WSJ criticizing PDJT’s embrace of commerce with Russia instead of continuance of war with Russia via Ukraine. I immediately thought of George Washington’s farewell address. I guess the WSJ feels that the father of our country should have re-worded his remarks concerning avoiding foreign entanglements (UKraine) while embracing commerce with all nations. I posted the relevant excerpt below in quotes.
“The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence therefore it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations & collisions of her friendships, or enmities.”
Q: What do Russians think of the American people? Is there any perception that the globohomo ideology in the West is despised by many here?
They pity us. They pity the fact that we take liberty for granted.
Very true. “Liberty” is of the most importance but it’s taken for granted by most Americans.
Perhaps I misunderstand, Sundance. You state in your article above, that the Russian people just “accept” the Motherland control way of life. How can they then (not knowing “Liberty”), pity us? BTW, I have never been one who does ‘take it for granted’.
Because they don’t know liberty?
You can’t know what you don’t know.
Visited St. Peterburg on a cruise in 2016 and took a day excursion to Moscow…4 hour train ride…both were fascinating…
St. Petersburg was gorgeous…Peterhof palace, Catherines palace and the Hermitage all worth seeing…from a war perspective imagining the Russians holding off the Germans on the outskirts of the City known as Leningrad…Germans with superior elevations militarily…
Moscow was incredible…the Kremlin…which I thought was typical non descript government building but consisted of about 160 acres with churches, buildings and a wall around it to repel invaders. Red square with the tombs of it’s leaders and the Subway with incredible tile work, paintings and was neat as a pin….no graffiti anywhere.
As a result of socialism…there is no middle class…fancy Mercedes and BMW’s are common with blue lights on top signaling government type people. You can tell this was from corruption, payoff’s, bribes etc. Lower class works for these people. An observation at the time was that this is the Dem dream…everyone works for them and to keep everyone down where they can’t advance financially in life and they would control your thoughts, behavior and life.
Viewing younger people was interesting…no tattoos , short hair, beautiful women….all white. Olders were different…probably from years of alcohol consumption and lack of nutrients in their food. Prostitution was evident…in fact some of the men in our group were approached…but not by trashy women but those that were well dressed.
State controls their behavior…step out of line and you pay the consequences.
Incredible trip…
Beautiful pictures. My mother in law, now passed away, was Ukrainian but her side of the family had a lot of Russian influence. One thing I have to agree with is they are a stoic people. It rubbed off on my husband as well. My MIL walked and took city buses throughout Los Angeles. She walked to the store and carried her groceries back. She never slowed down. She was crossing a street and a truck hit her and she fell and hit her head. She got up and walked away, although the passers-by insisted she go to the hospital to be checked, which she finally agreed to. The truck driver gave her $10,000 bucks even though she didn’t ask for anything.
The taiga is Russian motherland.
To dems this is the “Motherland”.
To the rest of us ruled by the uniparty it might as well be.
Exception: The mothers of invention aka the resistance.
You got some really nice photos & videos. That steam locomotive trundling through the countryside reminded me a little of some similar tourist attractions in Appalachia.
I see great potential in Russia. What’s holding them back is that the old money families are the ones keeping the whole nation decades behind everybody else. As long as those oligarchs are allowed so much say over the entire nation, Russia will remain behind the times. I think that’s why Russia is so reticent about aligning with the US or other western countries. Those oligarchs know that so much exposure to other nations will spell the end of their comfortable little bubble.
Hey Sundance. I spent many years in the Soviet Union and later in Russia. I speak the language and have been all over the country. Your take is right on. Russians want to be left alone to live their lives and raise their families. Family is very important to the average Russian. Your synopsis brought back delightful memories of my time there. I am so happy that you took the time to go there and, more importantly, to share this with the world.
No, we won’t be the best friends of the Russians or their leadership, but we can and must co-exist in a world with them. For our children, for our grandchildren. For God. We have to find a way to live together in peace.
Strangely for many reasons I found myself going back again and again to various parts of the Soviet Union and later Russia starting from the 1970’s to Moscow and Leningrad (St Petersburg) to see for myself (on a Swiss tour) who was this country we were spending so much American wealth to hate. There is a story in just that one trip and that one time.
Then two trips to Russia Far East and the Transiberian train from Khabarovsk to Irkutsk with a side trip into to Ulsan Baator, Mongolia right before the collapse of the Soviet Union and then again back to Kharbaroovsk, right after the collapse when changes are already dramatic and the Amur River forbidden cities was open for tourism. Just the changes in what could be purchased in that span of only a few years was a story.
Then cruise ports stops in now glittering St Petersburg. Another cruise to the Russia White Sea, Murmansk, Solovtsky Island and ArchAngel. Then a later cruise to various Russia Far East stops: Valdivostok, Kamchatka, Petropavlask, Sakhalin. Another Black Sea Cruise took us to Sochi, right before the Winter Olympics. With stops also in Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. Right before the Russian Crimean re-conquest.
And finally a land trip to the Harbin Ice Festival on the Russian-China border – a netherworld between China and Russia created during the construction of the Tran-Siberain RailRoad.. Is it a Russian City or as it technically is, a Chinese city?
All of this was done for pure tourism from 190’s to the present across a huge swath of the land mass. Observational conclusions, Russia and Soviet Union was, and was not everything we kept hearing about on the outside. It dazzles and is drab beyond all human description. Was a 1000 year country present in all these various iterations and timings, yes very much so.
Can one get a feel for a country in just brief port stops, a well as a few weeks on land? Yes. And quite frankly I think I saw and learned more than our assigned and cloistered diplomats.
Was this prior Russia travel history why I got a dreaded SSSS boarding pass during the Obama administration and had my taped travel impressions sent back to my parents in the US confiscated by the Nixon administration?
Thank you so much for sharing this perspective. I’ve listened to the takes of pro-Russian Westerners and pro-Western Russian ex-pats. It gets very confusing to know what the truth is. You certainly clear a lot up.
I’m curious about what the Russian people think about Mr.Putin.
It appears that they genuinely like him, but then given how you describe the malaise of the people, I wonder then if they just see him like the blue sky and the rising sun- he just IS, he’s just there, he’s not going anywhere, it all is what it is so why bother having any opinion about him? Do they even think about whether they like him or not? does that matter???
So this makes me wonder, do they actually like him or do they not bother thinking much about something that they have no power to change?
This all then makes me wonder what is coming next for Russia, what a Post Putin Russia is going to look like.
Honestly, I see Mr.Putin as a tremendous force of stability and I fear for what happens when he’s gone- both there and globally.
I have tremendous respect for what Vladimir Putin has been able to create there when we look at the before and after that has happened under his leadership.
Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, and Czarina Katerina … all absolute rulers – it is part of their DNA.
Is there any sort of unofficial enforcement of order via thuggish coercion, like, say, protection rackets, “for a small fee I’ll make sure your business doesn’t burn down” or direct/indirect (family/friends) payoffs to bureaucrats to navigate a system that blocks/stalls official approvals of commerce, paperwork?
Thugs are part of the tourism story – they are highly organized in the tourist areas, spotting and telephoning their gang members at the next tourist bus stop what to look out for and then run a smash and grab. The guides and bus drivers react with stony silence .
Sounds just like Guatemala. And any number of places. I was thinking about Russian mafia type operations, more peculiar to the style of Russia, not just garden variety.
And I’m trying to figure out why you would need to interact with their health care system? I’ve been to a doctor exactly once in 40 years, that being a typical checkup I thought I should get 25 years ago before I realized how unnecessary that was. I can’t imagine traveling and wanting or needing that.
And along those lines do Russians only incorporate western (allopathic) medicine as their health system, or are homeopathy, ayurveda, Traditional Chinese or other holistic health systems used widely, available? And if so are they regulated/prohibited like many states do here since Rockefeller and Flexner tried to eliminate competition?
My friends in Russia were doing their regular checkups, dental, etc. And one needed a CT scan. So, I went with them.
I think the notion of Russia being distinct from “The West” is just downright wrong. Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn, Dostoyevsky, Jesus, Shostakovich, ballet, Tchaikovsky, space travel, Stravinsky Prokofiev and on and on. Somehow Poland and Hungary are deemed members of “The West”. What is their legacy, their contribution? Certainly, wonton mass murder and genocide do not exclude you from membership in “The West”, and may be founding principles. So where does the manufactured Russia v West thing come from and why does everyone accept and promulgate this notion?
Poland was part of the Renascence. Same with Hungary but to a lesser degree. Russia was not part of the Renascence. Catherine the Great (1762) who was German brought the West to Russia.
So did Peter the Great. He actually disappeared from Russia for a time and traveled learning things like ship buildings. His goal was to pull Russia out of Asian influence and to become more European. Dress and hair style changed under Peter and he started building the Russian Navy.
Yes, he started it but the Russian Enlightenment really took off under Catherine the Great.
Russia was always part of the grand tour for European artists and musicians.
After Catherine the Great.
Also please explain what you mean by “Grand Tour”. For me Goethe’s “Italian Journey” embodied the “Grand Tour”.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Wolfgang-von-Goethe/Italian-journey-1786-88
In 1983, I worked for 6 months in a Siberian coal mine.
Yes, it was like stepping back in time, to a much simpler world.
Russia’s land resembles my country, Canada.
Vast distances, few people.
This poses unique economic constraints.
What SD says rings true.
Very informative, thank you Sundance!
QUESTION: How do they square their fidelity to Motherland and the love of their children with the seemingly unnecessary & ongoing war charge that kills them. Aren’t they upset with their govt for the ongoing war and their personal loss?
I’ll take my best guess, but it’s just a guess…
Taking over Russia was the desire of various other countries, notably Napoleonic France and Nazi Germany. The Russian people suffered enormously in these conflicts and ultimately triumphed. They now take pains to remember the suffering and the victory. They are not about to let anyone part out their country.
They regard encroachment of NATO into borderlands as the prelude to invasion. By the time of the Ukraine color revolution, it was a line they simply would not allow to be crossed.
In my younger days I was very adventurous. As my older self, i’ve found myself fantasizing about adventures in Russia . Boar hunting, sturgeon fishing, or pursuing any fish, or game anywhere from the Russian plains to the mountains and even to the coast adjacent to Alaska. Gold mining in indigenous areas, seeing and tasting how they raise honey bees. Many things i’m curious about regarding their way of life and how they handle survival and the means they employ for crops, meat, fish. For some reason I believe that very rural people live off the land. i really have nothing to back that up with the exception that there’s a lot of land without major cities nearby. There must be people out there living, exploring, enjoying life without much rule. Or I could be wrong. I do see parts of Russia being more wild than Alaska and a excellent place to explore/discover things one doesn’t normally see.
Where are the tent cities of homeless in those parks photos?
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/s
Historically, Russia was personified as female from the Middle Ages – Mother Russia isn’t anything new…Not unusual in a society based on fertile soil and agriculture. The masculine ‘Father’ element up through the 1917 Revolution was the Tsar who as sometimes seen as a father to ‘his’ children by Mother Russia…This sense is profoundly deepseated in the Russian ‘soul’ …or to be a bit more Western, Russian ‘historical consciousness.’
Rome as the center of Christianity moved to Byzantine Constatinople,. Until it fell to the Muslims. This left mainly the Russian Orthodox Church, while the European Holy Roman Empire fell into obscurity.
Then Rome regained its central place as the our of the Roman Catholic Church and the Soviets tried t wipe out the Russian Orthodox church, which failed and instead of being the opiate of the masses, the Catholic Church in its Russian Orthodox form ascended again.
So Russia has long had western Christian roots. And tenaciously clings to them. Plus adding music and art to the mix that remains stunning. Nothing more gorgeous than hearing classical Russian church music in a Russian onion-domed church., allowing it to echo and reverberate into celestial glory.
The Orthodox Church in Russia sent several Monks, Priests, and Bishops to Alaska and beyond, beginning in the 18th century and including Saint Herman of Alaska.
You talked a lot about how cheap it is for food and healthcare in Russia, but how much money a month does a Russian employee make? I’m betting they don’t make anywhere near $20 bucks and hour for flipping a burger. Our prices here in the U.S. are so high because employers are forced to play employees salary, healthcare benefits, vacation days, family leave and a whole host of other benefits to their sometimes lazy employees because of unions. And for employers to give such lavish benefits they need to charge their customers more for the products produced. So compared to America what are the wages Russian employees make?
Russians spend a significant portion of their income on food, with recent data indicating that over 60% of Russians allocate about half of their monthly income to food, according to a 2021 survey by the Synergy University. In 2022, the average Russian household spent around 40% of their disposable income on food—double the pre-war level—due to inflation and economic pressures following the Ukraine war. This is substantially higher than the average EU household, which spends about 12% on food.
As of 2025, the average monthly salary in Russia is approximately 104,158 rubles (about $1,209 USD), according to recent data.
According to the Social Security Administration, the average salary in the U.S. is $66,622.
False. Russians do not spend 40 to 50% of their income on food. lolol….. It’s so absurd a claim that it is ROFLMAO funny.
I guess you didn’t read the article. The answers are there.
I went back and found what I was asking but my premise is still the same. You said they pay between $300-$500 a month for rent and their average income is $1000 a month. Thats 50% of their income in the high end for a 1 bedroom apartment. So when comparing what they make to what things cost what is the difference.
For instance if you make $1000 a month and 50 percent goes to rent you have $500 left for everything else.
If groceries cost $75 dollars for food a week that another $300 a month for food. That means you ave $200 for utilities and clothes. I would say they are worse off than the average American.
You have to understand that Hillary Clinton’s book, “It Takes a Village (to raise a child) is on the same communist premise. Her village is the government.
Russia develop as a communal society long before the Bolsheviks. The local Soviet, kind of like our town board, decided who got what parcels of the shared land, and who got the most land based on need, like a bigger family. It changed almost every year leading to poor soil as the peasants never wanted to invest money in improving the (soil) land they might not have the next year.
“The people of Russia generally accept this system. Generations and generations of compliant, well behaved, very structured and regimented ideology still permeates. The muscle memory is deepest in the psychological muscles that run through generations.”
Sounds like an ant colony. Although some would say 1984 come to life.
One of the most striking parallels is the use of Orwellian language control, or what the novel calls “Newspeak”—the deliberate narrowing of language to eliminate dissent.
The Russian government bans the word “war” in reference to Ukraine, enforcing the euphemism “special military operation”.Media outlets repeat slogans like “Russia is under attack” and “the West seeks to destroy us”, echoing the Two Minutes Hate from 1984.State propaganda reframes historical events, such as portraying the Soviet Union as a benevolent “Empire of Good” and blaming its collapse on Western conspiracies.This distortion of language and reality serves to isolate citizens from objective truth, a core mechanism in both Oceania and modern Russia.
Interesting, Jack. Why is Europe so eager to go to war with them?
Resources that Europe does not have?
Sundance,
That was a great report! Thank you very much!
You’ve put into words what I have observed in my very limited interactions with people from Russia.
Someday, I hope to travel there and see it just as you have seen it.
You’ve described the people perfectly. All that I have met here are well, lovely.
They weren’t fighting for The Party in WW2, they were fighting for Mother Russia.
You have a wonderful eye for a photo. The images you shared were great. Perhaps you’ll treat us to more?
The steam locomotive was a a nice touch, by the way. I was under the impression that they had been all phased out in the ’80s.
Thanks again!
Oops
Sundance, I appreciate this article a lot. I have friends who are Russian who live in the US, and I have friends are American who live in Russia.
Your synopsis touches on a lot of social things that do ring true as others have said. And yet you have neglected any mention of the most powerful force in Russia, and the most important and valuable one: Orthodoxy.
Would you say that “super strong mentally and extremely pragmatic” are traits that are also shared by other eastern European countries that border Russia ?
what about autistic kids in Russia? has it taken hold like here?
No autism in Russia.
Fascinating. No chemicals in the food, plenty of exercise in fresh air due to the walking here and there, not big on a vaccine schedule for children? Or, is it just not recognized? I’ve long believed that the autism rate has skyrocketed in America due to big pharma and big food poisoning children since the time they are born.
Something has happened in our nation to bring about this crisis of autism.
May The LORD grant help!
AMEN
Sounds like they are doing OK for themselves and no famine stuff, wish em well and blessed be
three questions:
does russia have a constitution that prohibits the state from limiting firearms, and also regulations? second amendment, but I prefer to call it the most vital amendment given that all other so called freedom “suggested” by the state are subject to revolutionary dissent…dangerous action even…violent grave danger, is there any other kind? does that state exist?
does russia have a constitution that prohibits the state from censorship and banning language and news that is antithetical to the state? free speech, the first protection against a tyranny state..but certainly as stated above is meaningless unless the second amendment actually exists, in law, an in practice AND IN CULTURAL AWARENESS.
does russia manipulate its fiat currency with a pseudo private entity similar to the federal reserve, that can and does create inflation….See Milton for the straight unsalted truth about inflation and how it is created.
oh and the fourth, because I can’t count ahead of time and because its just fun to pop this last one without prior suggestion:
what is the mind of the Russian people about putin, the former kgb/fsb, who not only holds king like powers, but also conspicuously a massive fortune. (while we are having our own reference to congress and others getting filthy rich because there are no laws prohibiting officials from using inside trade secrets, information that is only privie to those having access to incredibly valuable Intel, is it not also true that we cannot be blind to the reality that putin is for better of worse, a king who answers ONLY to the elite? please explain a almost 95 percent vote record, not once, but three time now? is that just something we should ignore?)
okay, one more, and this one is more polite if you will: of all the places that you visited, name one that really made you feel wonderful, healthy, joyous. I just want to know what made this trip worth the effort? It does not have to be just one thing. For instance, during Thanksgiving, I hunted with some very young cousins. In the wilderness that no one even knows about. It’s right here in America, Louisiana to be specific. The look of the young eyes of these next generation Americans, captivated me in ways that I could never have expected. Unglued to internets and smart shitte…we took aim at game and had a grand old time telling stories, and almost all of them were true, and the one that wasn’t was definitely going to be traced for many generations.
tell me YOUR story. what did this trip really mean for you?
God Bless America
A popular Russian site, Top War, has a version translated into English. A list of illegal references – banned terrorists, NGOs, enemy foreign agents – appears at the foot of every comment thread:
https://en.topwar.ru/274275-kogda-v-rossii-zapretjat-nikaby-i-nachnut-bolee-aktivno-nakazyvat-za-publichnye-namazy.html
The article at the link is as interesting as the comments. It’s typical of the editorial content:
When will Russia ban niqabs and begin more aggressively punishing those praying in public?
What does the every day Russian think about the Jews considering their past history with them and the 1917 Russian revolution?
Nothing worse than what’s openly expressed both right and left here in the USA.
And some of the casual comments I’ve read here at the CTH are more pointed than what I read in Russian popular media.
Compare it with content from ten years ago on this site. Go into the archives, see for yourself. Someone wrote back then that the Treehouse had a healthy immune system: a toxic comment would be smothered by other treepers like a nasty bug.
Now there’s much more Scripture quoted, together with “Rothschilds” slurs and other conspiracy-addled, toxic garbage. It gets upvoted rather than clobbered.
For example:
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/11/28/russian-president-vladimir-putin-gives-remarkably-detailed-explanation-of-current-peace-negotiation-status-either-ukraine-concedes-diplomatically-or-we-will-win-militarily/comment-page-1/#comment-12247542
That might be why some of my favorite treepers so seldom post here anymore. I’m trying again, but I’m shaken by the change in tone.
So many with “88” in their name
The “88” tag is helpful.
A __s t o p__ sign.
Thanks, Sundance. I really enjoyed learning about Russia from an American’s perspective. The ‘sardine’ description seems like a tight way to live.
Is poor mental health as big in Russia as in the USA?
Thank you, Sundance, for the beautiful pictures and excellent commentary.
The response was generally that I look “white”, and the people being stopped by the police were not white. However, again I repeat, everyone being stopped looked like a white Russian to me, so what do I know.
In MN where I retired from tax assessing there is a large Vietnamese and Hmong population. Talking to them I realized that there are two very distinct cultures that I could not identify but they can. A Vietnamese can spot a Hmong and a Hmong can spot the Vietnamese easily. I even asked how and they just said you can. The Vietnamese eggrolls are better in my opinion.
Very interesting SD. Good reading! Thank You
I’m just watching our Irish friends Philly and Keely see their first bear in Yellowstone.
This website has numerous articles on the years of Russia’s Catacomb Church.
The Moscow Patriarchate of 2025 is not the same spiritual or ecclesiastical entity as the Orthodox Christian Church of Russia in 1917.
Catacomb History
https://catacombhistory.blogspot.com/
I recently read that Russia has a large and growing Muslim problem with many mosques being built in the country. Is this true?