Beltrami2005
Member
While there certainly are places like that, there are also many places that don't look like that. Where I grew up in Voronezh doesn't look like that. You're cherry-picking the information that supports your feelings on the subject. I could post photos of East St. Louis and talk about how bad it is in the US, but it wouldn't be representative. You also have a tendency to pick a bleak time period, winter or early spring with trees barren, and snow and dirt on the ground. But, for example, here's a more typical mid-winter photo from Voronezh;
Winter Voronezh cityscape. Frozen trees in a forest covered by snow...
Winter Voronezh cityscape. Frozen trees in a forest covered by snow near modern houses in the city of Voronezh.www.istockphoto.com
And here's one from the park. A completely different impression. Photography is an art, meaning there is typically a message behind the photo. It's not just an objective capture of everything that's there.
For a little more context here's a couple of photosets from Varlamov, a Russian blogger and urbanist. One captures the good features the other the bad, of Nizhniy Novogorod, another major city that isn't Moscow or St. Petersburg. Note the time of year is also that late winter early spring part where the partly melting snow and barren earth contribute to the bleakness.
EDIT: Full disclosure, photos are from 2017. They're not completely up to date. But they do illustrate the variety of urban environments from half-rotted century old wooden houses to modern apartment complexes, and historic buildings which also vary from very well preserved to in rather poor state.
Хороший Нижний Новгород
Сегодня – хороший Нижний Новгород! Но для начала кино. Я рад, что вам понравился прошлый ролик. Как, вы ещё не видели его? Быстро сюда...varlamov.me
Плохой Нижний Новгород
Ура! Видео! Впервые на ваших экранах! Легендарная серия отчетов "Плохой/Хороший" теперь и в формате видео! В этот раз я решил взять...
This is simply not true. Plenty of people change their circumstances, get an education and build a life for themselves. Some jobs don't pay well, but some do. And don't forget outside the center of Moscow and St. Petersburg the cost of living drops dramatically, so what constitutes a well paying job changes. More significantly Russia has seen an improvement in quality of life in the past 25 years that's quite substantial. Housing availability has increased dramatically, car ownership has increased quite substantially, and the human development index has also steadily risen since the late '90s. Lastly average salaries in Russia have also increased quite a bit over the same time period, and this is even when accounting for the problems caused by the sanctions after '14. In fact the current war has done less to hit Russian average salaries than the sanctions from '14-'15.
There is a culture of very heavy drinking in Russia. It hails back to the pre-Soviet era, but it grew steadily under the USSR and continues to this day. In my experience it isn't income-dependent. So it's not that people drink because their lives are bad. People whose lives are good also drink. But it's just my subjective view of it, I don't have data to back it up. There is also very lax enforcement of laws controlling age limits on purchasing alcohol. Growing up it wasn't unusual for a kid to get sent to the store to get some beer for an adult, and the store just takes their word for it. Especially if it isn't the big grocery but a smaller shop or even stall. Which of course means plenty of 14-15-16 year olds walking around with beer. When I was 15 the only thing that limited my access to vodka was finances.
I can only say what i saw when i was with my father to a business trip there. It was most depressing place and people i have ever encountered. I was glad that it was only a few days and it was one of those trips where you realize your home is not perfect but sooo much better.
