Russia a country of contrasts

After a couple of days abroad I came back. Russia and Finland were the destinations. The trip was organised by a University association that join the majority of the universities in Sweden.

I did not know anyone in the beginning of the trip, but soon I met a couple of friends. This was the "group". We have been the majority of the free time together sightseeing in the different cities - Helsinki, St. Petersburg, and Moscow.

For me, one of the most special places where I have been was undoble the "Red Square".
Kremlin and all area around it are amazing. It was a great surprise to visit Kremlin inside, a lot of churches, the opposite of a place that I had in mind (a lot of military staff and quite grey).

Moscow shows the power of an Impire - at least, the strong power that these impire had in the past.

The perception that I get from Moscow is that is an amazing place to live. It is not dirty and seems safe city, without homelessness.

But Russia has many contrasts. There is a huge gap between poor and rich people. The problem of Russia society and a lot of societies is the existence of many people poor and few people rich. It creates a contrast that is visible for the citizens that has implication in the culture and the life style. The people become jealous, so it hard to trust in the others. I have never been in a country where I saw that kind of feelings so well. The problem is not if there is an average standard rich or an average standard poor, but the gap between the classes that generate many problems.

St. Petersburg is completely different from Moscow - it is much dirtier and also more cultural. These was the reason because Peter decided that St. Petersburg should be the capital of the country and tried that Russia become similar at Scandinavian countries (in a cultural level), but in 1918 Moscow became again the capital of the country.

In St. Petersburg it is possible to see the structural problems of Russia - many retired people (1/3) and the average that the people die is 58 years old (in St. Petersburg).

Because of social problems the retired receive few money from the government, so for them is mandatory still working, because of that it is normal to see a lot of elders working in the museums, theatres, and so on. In that way the state can employ people for a cheapest price, because they are workers with an advanced age, the only opportunity that they have to get money is working for the state for a cheap price.

Russia a country of contrasts. An amazing country with a lot of culture, but strutural problems that only change with new/different generations. I think they are not able to change for themselves, it is necessary a revolution!

A mentality so adulterated and corrupted. In many ways they are really narrow minded. The youth, on the whole, do not speak English, only Russian; the pollution in the cities is really high (many old cars).

I think I will not go back soon to Russia. The country that Dostoievski described in his books is the gorgeous Russia but not with this mentality and culture.