How we saw Russia after two months of travel

Our trip to the south of Russia, which we carried out within the framework of the project, has not yet ended. «Russia in 365 days», but we returned home for a while. And we are already so full of impressions and reflections that I cannot but share them. Whenever you travel a lot, something is sure to happen to you, you see a lot and understand a lot in life. I will not philosophize, I will just tell you about our general impressions.

We were going to take a ride around Russia in order to collect as objective information as possible about what Russia is, what people, what nature, what kind of life in general. After all, everyone knows that Russia is not only Moscow and other large cities, millions of people live in villages, towns, small towns. And our mood was such that we tried to see only positive in everything, because something, but negative about Russia and so on the Internet in bulk. And we must pay tribute, we have long adhered to this view and wrote articles in this vein. But at the same time, so many diverse emotions have accumulated that they burst from the inside, and it seemed to me that it would be simply dishonest not to write about this either..

There are a lot of good things in Russia, I honestly admit, I did not expect that there will be so many things. Unusual landscapes, the existence of which I did not even know, (who knew that there are places in our country that look like savannahs, prairies, deserts, fabulous forests and generally Martian landscapes. Well, about surprisingly hospitable, active and interesting people, we already have written in previous articles.

But throughout the entire trip, the same tendency was traced: even when we told people that we were trying to look for the positive in everything, and from this point of view, they told us about their activities or what was happening in their region, every time after 30 minutes of conversation, the conversation turned to problems, difficulties, etc..

Maybe, of course, this is due to the fact that the Russian person is so arranged that he is used to always complaining, but what we learned did not make us happy either..

And unwittingly, we ourselves began to accumulate unanswered sad questions.
Why, for example, do we only help those large families who live in the city? Why transportation benefits, free meals, etc. children living in the village are not allowed and they have to pay the full cost for the bus, because transport running between villages is already considered intercity transport. And what about a family with 4 children studying in a nearby town?

Why don't they want to raise the rate for a talented teacher, to whom students are drawn, and whose mountain climbing section is two or three times overcrowded, according to the regulations? And the salary is lower than the cost of a rented apartment. And what should this person do next? Work at a loss for yourself, but at the same time bring such benefits to the younger generation, or give up everything and go stupidly earn money to feed your family? And let the teenagers go to the courtyards to drink beer, they have nothing to do with sports?

Or why the pride of the village and almost the only joy of many residents - racehorses, supported by budget funds, are planned to be taken to another city and sold, because the new head of the administration did not include this article in the budget of the village?

Why on the Black Sea coast continue to grow like mushrooms, someone's palaces, fenced with tall fences with security, and where ordinary people could rest, now someone's private beach and pier, and the passage along the coast is blocked, and you have to make many kilometers hooks to reach the still favorite wild resting place?

Why is everything that was previously done on a volunteer basis by some altruist, and that suddenly began to make a profit, is picked up by someone from above, this person is dismissed, and in his place one is completely uninterested in the prosperity of this business? «mine» representative and just «shears» from now a profitable place undeserved money? There were several such examples during the trip. The former children's camp has been bought out and has now become a recreation center, the entrance to the territory of the archaeological museum-reserve is now paid, and development has almost stopped, all projects for tourist recreation that are put forward by local residents are not allowed in the administrations. And then the same ideas are implemented by someone else and they just make money on this. Any project that starts to bring money is immediately commercialized, squeezed out in full, without new investments, and then rushes to the mercy of fate.

And yet it is gratifying that, despite all these and others, which I did not begin to talk about, difficulties, not all people give up, and more and more new ideas arise, and there are still those who have something tries to make life a little more interesting, more fun and colorful for all of us. And for this, personally from me, many thanks to these People!