What Russia has wrought - in Photographic Art

A really excellent website, though perhaps painting Russian a bit more bleaker than it is.

Though much of Russia seems frozen in time (the '30s? the '50s?), its not uniformly that way. I found the pastel buildings & strolling along the Volga in Yaroslavl quite charming- a very decent city to live in, if you don't mind living in an apartment. -a great tonic to living in an overhyped, attention-seeking society: A visual vacation for the mind.

The hotels are favorably quaint- and I had no complaints at all about them (outside of some touristy Moscow hotels that is).

About the Moscow megastructures: when I arrived, I was totally overwhelmed at row upon row of white, high-rise apartment buildings in Moscow (of which 80% of Russians live in). Apparently, no one had much thought what to do if they starting needing repairs all at once (which seems to be the case from looking at them). However, the commercial district is finally helping offset concrete drab with more color- with all the lights and advertisements- a big surprise.

Russian people: well, hardly no one smiles except in private (& where they're very generous as well). I was surprised that almost no one is overweight and most are very well-dressed (albeit in black, dark colors). Women especially take exceptional pride in their appearance.

Dachas (here and here)- which a majority of Russians own.

I really didn't like the heavy hotel food in Moscow, though The Baltic (restaurant) in Yaroslavl was quite good.

Other pages.