Thread: "Russophobia" and "Russophilia" :)

This is the Russophobia and Russophilia thread? LOL. My bad. I thought it was Ancient History 101.
It is really strange that so many people diss the USSR... except the Russians that lived there. They don't seem to have any serious issues with it.
But I looked at my monitor and it claims that it's 2014 so I really don't get how the USSR or some Cambodian tyrant is relevant to Russia today.

And yeah, Russia is sovereign, strong, and independent but it's also the future of space exploration. Russia has the RD-180 rocket engine and that's serious levels up from the US Merlin-1C. Since our country turned the space program over to private corporations, we need 9 Merlin-1C's just to get the million pounds of thrust required for near-Earth orbits. That's 9 Merlin-1C engines or just 1 RD-180. And don't forget, the MIR space station was built and constantly manned for over 10 years. The US Sky Lab space stations 2-4 were manned for less than 6 months. And now the new Angara heavy-lift vehicle is scheduled for a test launch at Plesetsk cosmodrome in just 6 days. Now we're talking serious manned, deep-space capability!

No way! If this was the 1910's then yeah, I'd discuss that part of ancient history. But this is 2014 and any ethnic group of people that can accomplish what Russia is still accomplishing in manned space flight totally is worth friending. Russia=space=the future.
So yeah, I think Russophobia totally would disappear if the conversation was limited to the 21st century, accomplishments, and personal experience with Russians. You can't know anything about anybody until you meet them dead-on and without prejudice.
It doesn't mean you'll like every Russian you meet or that Russians would like every American they meet but hey, only very strange (or drunk) people like everybody they meet, lol.

I also think it's pretty wonky when people accuse Russians of being too aggressive. What? More aggressive than us? Not even! It's aggressiveness that builds strong nations and explores space. The non-aggressive Earthlings are living in under-developed, 3rd world countries... like California.
LOL @ the toilet paper issue! But yeah, I can believe there would be people stupid enough to buy into that.

Originally Posted by UhOhXplode

It is really strange that so many people diss the USSR... except the Russians that lived there. They don't seem to have any serious issues with it.

For those who interested in life in late USSR I'd recommend watching "Служебный роман" movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR-1...ViDwsbTd9SV5gz
link seems to still work despite that new youtube copyright policy
Unlike most other movies of that time this represents REAL life of soviet office workers of that time.

english subtitles suck btw