#transrussian

if you are thinking about reading some russian literature, don't confine yourself to like dostoevsky and/or other classics

if you like young adult queer novels - there are some

if you like smut fanfiction - there is some

if you like poetry - there is some

if you like children's books - there are some

ect

soooo it's not holiday season yet, but one transrussian tip I can give you is celebrating new year more than christams. and in general, new year is the biggest holiday in russia!

also: santa isn't really a symbol of new years in russia. instead we have дед мороз (ded moroz, grandpa-frost) who is a santa-like creature but also appears in fairytales as a winter spirit, and he's granddaughter снегурочка (snegurochka, snowy girl or smth), who helps him with the presents thing, and also appears in some fairytales doing her own thing (my fav example is an opera about her where she tragically falls in love with a humans and then dies by melting)

go on a really long train ride, drink some hot tea, listen to music, look out of the window.

russian railroad system is somehow super shitty AND the best railroad system in the world, lmao.

to go from one end russia to another it takes a week in the train, but I never traveled that far on a train. my maximum was somewhere around 2-3 days probably

if you're taking a long train ride usually there is a restaurant part of the train. also there is hot water available in every wagon, and some overpriced food and merch. during long stops there are people trying to sell you food/drinks and some other stuff

photos aren't mine, sorry

in general railroads greatly affected russia for a lot of reasons

for example there are a lot of small villages and towns that rely on trains to go to bigger cities.

don't fall for russian state propaganda

people in russia did not elect putin for 25 years in a row

Ukraine isn't a nazi-ridden state in need of salvation and "denazification"

the war isn't going well for russia, russia isn't "winning it", it barely moves all while constantly killing and killing people, burning money and political resources

ussr wasn't an actual communist society

ussr wasn't a feminist and/or leftist utopia

if you think russia is a very white, christian and traditional country - you are also wrong

nato isn't honing evil plans to destroy russia

there is no such thing as rusophibia

the ruling political party isn't actually a party that people like. the elections are not just rigged a little, they are fabricated.

racism also exists in russia

and so so so much more.

i would love to tell you more about russian food, but so much of what is usually called russian food (both by people in and out of russia) isn't actually russian and is instead adopted/coopted from other cultures.

i think one of the clearest examples is борщ (borscht or whatever. there is no good way to write it in latin alfabet). it is a very common soup in russia, it is often called a russian dish, but actually it is ukranian.

or shawarma. i don't think many people actually think this dish was created by russian people, but it is a VERY popular dish in russia, it is one of the most or even THE most popular street-food dish in russia, it certainly is a part of russian experience. you often see multiple different shawarma kiosks next to each other near a bus stop and in other places. im not sure a part of what cuisine shawarma is, there is a lot of conflicting information, but it's certainly did NOT come from russian people. come on.

and in general when you are walking around in a city you see much more cafe's that serve either something vaguely european/american (pizza, pasta, meat and potatoes, burgers, whatever else), something from one of the ethnicities present in russia (uzbeck, buryat, kazakh, georgian ect) or from other cultures like vietnamese, mexican and others.

of course there is russian cuisine. i checked and the wikipedia page about it is pretty good. but similarly to my post about how to look more russian, there is no one distinct russian food culture, and it has waaaay more different ethnic and cultural influences than some might imagine there would be.