(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Did anything good ever come out of Putin's Russia? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-11 I was thinking about how Russia under Putin has sunk to new lows. Not just from a humanitarian viewpoint, but also in culture. I visited St Petersburg in the early 90s, when things were beginning to change and Perestroika was gaining traction. It was still a bleak place. Everything was run down. Visiting a department store was eerie. People walking around in silence, sometimes whispering, but never buying anything. As tourists, we were technically only allowed to buy things with Western currency in "approved" stores, although changing money on the black market was easy (you had to be on the lookout for scammers trying to exchange your money into worthless Jugoslavien dinars instead of rubles though). You could also sell a pair of Lewis jeans on the black market for a small fortune. So with rubles in hand we decided to visit one of the newly approved private businesses, it being a restaurant. Again, a bleak place, dark, heavy curtains drawn, a few couples on dates whispering quietly at small tables. The trip was a weekend excursion with colleagues from work. We were doing a job in Helsinki together and decided to treat ourselves to this adventure. It's only a short flight from Helsinki to St Petersburg (or Leningrad as it was called then). My boss at the time was a Frenchman and he liked to show off. So when the waiter brought the menus in Russian and didn't have sufficient English to explain or translate, my boss simply said: "We'll have everything. Every meal on the menu.". It's one of the most embarrassing episodes in my entire life. Here we were, decadent Western tourists, being served meal after meal of food, while the locals were probably on a special outing that could cost them a week's wages. Throughout the meal, the owner got a grasp of the opportunity and soon the waiter started offering us black market caviar and vodka (both things that were illegal to serve in restaurants at the time). It was just surreal. The bill after all that? The equivalent of $30 per head. I later also ended up buying some beluga caviar on the black market to take home. That was again illegal, as was taking any rubles out of Russia. But we'd learned how to get around it. When we were at the airport, customs of course searched everything and found the caviar plus the few ruble notes I'd souvenired. They also found the $20 note discretly folded between my passport pages. All good after that. So even before Putin, the Soviet Union was a deeply corrupt, bleak and mostly mafia run place. Which leads me to the main reason for this diary. During the trip we visited the Hermitage Museum. A beautiful collection of fine art. Stunning and, at the time, a collection supposedly larger than the Louvre's. But all of it was pre-revolution. Faberge Eggs are amazing. The artwork and workmanship exquisite. But pre-revolution. Russian composers like Tchaikovsky created beautiful music that is loved to this day. It's pre-revolution. On the culinary side, I'm rather partial to Beef Stroganoff (the linked recipe is amazing). It's a pre-revolution meal. But beyond that, what has Russia as a nation and people contributed to the greater good of humanity, after the revolution and during Putin's reign? I'm struggling to think of anything. I'd love to hear what the community thinks. Surely something good has come out of Russia in the last 100 years. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/11/2174661/-Did-anything-good-ever-come-out-of-Putin-s-Russia Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/