Russian gangsta rap?
Me: Sorta. They use instruments though. :) And its not so much violence that's the theme as drugs, vodka and hookers. What really offends people is that they use Russian obscenities, which is very very offensive to the Russian ear. Cursing in Russia is really looked down on, so a lot of people have taken to using English obscenities. "Motherfucker" sounds like a cute foreign expression, not like "Yob tvoyu mat'." The Russian slang word for "penis" didn't appear in print until the 1989 translation of Ulysses. It's a very conservative culture. Actually, few Russians will even write "Yob tyoyu mat'." ("Tvoyu mat'" means "your mother"; you can figure out the rest.)
Justin: Btw, the 100,000 a year figure for Russians who froze to death while drunk isn't that crazy if you extrapoloate from your 500 a year in Moscow alone. You are right about not trying top keep up with a Russian drinking. Don't even try, Do they still sell vodka in bottles with tear off (not scew-on) caps?
Me: Not bottles. You can buy shots with tear-off lids at grocery stores, as well as a huge variety of gin and tonic, vodka & OJ and so forth in aluminum cans. People drink 'em on the street. I spent a sunday a couple of weeks ago drinking vodka in Gorky Park.
The problem with the drinking with Russians thing is that it's considered almost rude if you don't match shot for shot (this resulted in a lot of Yeltsin's cabinet getting inadvertently bombed from time to time trying to keep up with him).
Justin: Apropos your standard of living figures, $1,500/a month in DC is poverty. My standard of laving in Chicago is affluent. I'm a lawyer, remember? So I'm not a good comparison with any normal people. Yes, '93 was the last time I was in Moscow/St. Petersburg. Actually I was surprised by how poor it was not, but there was real desolation in the towns between. Looked sorta like Kalamazoo, Mich., Akron, Oh., or Highland Park, (near Detriot), maybe worse.
Me again: Hey, that's what I earned in DC! But I was a graduate student and lived in a house with crack dealers on the corner.
You're right -- there is no comparing Moscow/St. Pete and the rest of Russia. Moscow gets literally half of the country's investment. When the train stops between Moscow and some other city, in rural areas, children come to the platform to beg from the passengers. Moscow is poor by no stretch of the imagination.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal