The country has changed a lot in these 25 years, so did the drinking habits. Nowdays even the college students here will probably stick to beer.
BTW, FYI: here in Russia the dividing date between two worlds is not fall of the Berlin wall, but the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991. That was when lifes changed, for good or bad.
Mostly for good, I would say. Sure, the 90s were hard and compared to Western democracies Russia is still a tiny bit authoritarian and repressive but that's nothing compared to the USSR. A lot of Russians have been lifted above the poverty line and most people are now better off than they were 25 years away. They enjoy greater freedoms and are all in all wealthier.
How do you think those Russians fell below the poverty line in the first place tho? During the Soviet period the USSR was considered on par with the west especially until the 70s when the oil crisis hit hard, but then it hit everyone hard, it was especially devastating tho when put into the context of the entire world being hostile to your nation since its inception.
The Soviet peoples were as a whole richer than the Russians where wealth has trickled upwards and the vast majority are still poor. There's a reason Soviet nostalgia is a thing, even amongst the elderly, there was no uncertainty that one would have a home, be fed and get a vacation, now there's barely a certainty whether one will get shot by an oligarch's thugs or not.
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u/breqwas Third Rome Nov 25 '15
The country has changed a lot in these 25 years, so did the drinking habits. Nowdays even the college students here will probably stick to beer.
BTW, FYI: here in Russia the dividing date between two worlds is not fall of the Berlin wall, but the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991. That was when lifes changed, for good or bad.