Thread: Need some help with an assignment....

For my college class on Russian Culture I have an assignment that I could use some direction on. Here is the assignment in the teacher's words.

"Volunteer to be a participant in the panel discussion in next week's class on Russia's future. Instead of a formal paper, you will need to: (a) consult another solid source on Russia today and its prospects for the future; (b) make notes on a sheet of paper that you will use to make your argument about Russia's future and which you will hand in. You should focus on some aspect of Russian civiliation and culture that is dealt with in the last week's assignment."

Okay...here is my problem. We are running behind in class thus have not yet reached topics confronting present day Russia. I am a history major so current topics are a bit out of my realm.

Can anyone suggest a topic that is current regarding challenges that Russia or the Russian people are facing? Perhaps a timely issue.

Also, can you point me to a valid or scholarly source discussing the issue or issues. Preferably this should be in English as my Russian is not yet at the level where I could read a scholarly article in Russian.

Thanks in advance for any help on this. I'm at a total loss when it comes to present day issues.

Allison

Here's one

Russians used to do their accounting so that all the numbers came out exactly average for the industry (to avoid any additional taxes or attention from the gov't) These numbers of course did not reflect economic reality.

When Russia joined the global market their accounting standards did not conform to int'l standards, so they had to hire accountants to make 2 sets of financial statements, one for Russia and one for the rest of the world. International companies have to do the same to operate in Russia. Laws have been passes that Russian financial statements must conform to int'l standards and younger Russians are complying, but the old die hard Russian accountants are not willing to change. All this extra paper work costs a lot of money i.e. lowers net income.

Oh wait. you probably wanted something interesting.

DO NOT MAJOR IN ACCOUNTING!!!!!

Maybe the city duma election

moscowtimes.ru

Originally Posted by Rodja

Maybe the city duma election

moscowtimes.ru

IMHO Moscow News is quite biased but who cares... For the task given, it is even an advantage.

There are many different issues you can take on with this, all of them much bandied about: Putin's successor, the benefits reforms that took place earlier, HIV/AIDS, the looming demographic challenge -- to name just a few. I would suggest you consult Johnson's Russia List, which essentially culls from dozens of Western and Russian sources to form digests. A few articles on any subject here should give you some good background information, and after that you can pursue it as deeply as you wish. http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/default.cfm

Try "Media coverage and media accountability in Russia". A gold mine.

A bit off topic, but I find it ironic that one has an assignment to volunteer. It reminds me the old army joke: "I need three volunteers: privates Ivanov, Petrov and Sidorov."

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

By the way it says volunteer because it is an alternative to writing a paper. If you don't 'volunteer' for the panel then you have to write a paper on Socialist Realism.

After my 15 page Russian history research paper that is due this coming Tuesday I don't want to write another paper.

Originally Posted by translations.nm.ru

A bit off topic, but I find it ironic that one has an assignment to volunteer. It reminds me the old army joke: "I need three volunteers: privates Ivanov, Petrov and Sidorov."

I had to do 100 hours of "volunteer" work to graduate from high school.

It is all part of the brainwashing of the American youth!!!!!

I went to a special school. You can tell it's special because they taught us Russian.

Originally Posted by BlackMage

I went to a special school. You can tell it's special because they taught us Russian.

Well I went to California public school (which is more scary than special) and they taught Russian.

I took German instead though.

My school was public too.