About life in Russia

[Rustam]

Here are some notes about my daily life with photos. Firstly, I live in a region named North Ossetia. Yes, the red point at the south-west border of the map is my home.  



The city where I live is very small, only 40 thousand inhabitants.
Our region is very warm compared to other regions of Russia. If to compare with the USA, the climate of North Ossetia will be similar to the climate of Kentucky, maybe? In mid-April, we have the first flowers on the trees. Click on pics to full-size it.



Here is the street where I live (and my dog at the middle). In Russia, there is no division into districts and multi-storey apartment houses neighbor with cottages. By the way, I live in cottage, which I think is good.



Between the houses are small shops. This is very convenient, because you can go to the store every morning and buy exactly as much as you need. You do not need to get into the car, wind it up and go to the store for a few miles.
And here is the dogs, that are drowsy in the sun. There are many homeless dogs in our city. They do not starve, the indifferent people feed them.



This is the place named "The Palace of Nature". In my childhood I went there to read a "Red Data List" and take part in quizzes about nature.



Now the first floor of this building is re-equipped in a cafe of restaurant, not sure.
You will be surprised, but in the photo below is the student hostel. In Russia, many things can look creepy. And I like it!

[Rustam]

Probably, the most famous building of our city is the former central cinema.



Previously, the films were shown here, then there was a small club with the game consoles, but from the year 2000 the cinema gradually declined, as the sessions stopped visiting. The building of the cinema has been abandoned for the last ten years. To close the collapsing facade, it was veiled with the pride of our city - the emblem with the image of saffron. According to legend, once upon a time in the place of our city there was a great trade route through which the most expensive spice in the world was transported - an impoverished saffron. This influenced the choice of the emblem.
And this is a monument of the Second World War - an airplane. In my childhood I thought it was real. They took an old unnecessary plane and welded it to a concrete pedestal - that what I think.



The city is in blossom. Around the greens, spring and life.



One of the few banners that survived in our city from the 70's and 80's. The inscription says: The friendship of nations is indestructible!



And this is I with one of the homeless dogs.



I hope you liked my notes.  

Рассказывать американцам о жизни в России - моя давняя забава.

[Nick22]

thank you for the info rustam. are there efforts to adopt those stray dogs?. I remember reading that during the Sochi Olympics a good number of American athletes adopted dogs they found during the games and brought them home, and that there was attention placed on dogs who had figured out how to use the subway and ride it into town looking for food.

[Rustam]

I trying to take care of all the dogs I meet.

[ADFan185]

Ah that's awesome that you're doing that

[Kor]

Thanks for the information and pictures, very interesting.

[Flathead770]

Really cool to see images of your home town Rustam. I haven't done very much traveling so it's interesting to see and to learn some history of where you live.

[rhombus]

Thank you very much for sharing details of your life and region with us.  One of the great things about the Internet is that it is now easier for all of us to get to know each other, whereas a mere 25 years ago many of us would have had little chance of getting to know one another.

Just out of curiosity, are there any old Young Pioneer Palaces or similar structures in your area?  I remember reading up on the Pioneer Movement back in High School and being interested about the similarities and differences with the American scouting movement.  One of the great tragedies of the transition away from communism was that, in the process of the overly-rapid change of economic systems, the cultural subsidies to these youth cultural centers ended, and many of these cultural centers were turned into vacant buildings instead of being repurposed for non-ideological cultural purposes.

[Rustam]

Palaces of the Pioneers? The first time I've heard about this.  :unsure: Perhaps, such institutions were in large cities, but we did not have them. As far as I know. I did not have time to live during the Soviet Union and my childhood passed after USSR collapse. About the pioneers, I only read books and saw movies, but I did not see them personally.
But in my childhood there were Yunnats (Юннаты). It's like pioneers, only without a communist background.    The Yunnats were doing what they cared about living nature. But I managed to stay in their ranks for a very short time.   It seemed to me boring to clean tree branches, and in my spare time to sit among plants and do nothing.

[ADFan185]

The pictures are good and very awesome I enjoyed looking at them

[Rustam]

View from the fifth floor of one of the houses. As I said, I live in a small town, so we have a building height of not more than five floors. In other cities there are nine-storey houses, and houses are even higher.



Some residents have cars, which they park right in front of the entrances to the house. This parking is a real problem, because cars take up too much space and interfere with the passage. On the photo, a good example, where car owners have a lot of space, but usually there is not much space.
And here is a night photo of the house.



In this house I once lived. Then our family moved to the cottage. The apartments have poor sound insulation and little space compared to cottages. Apartments are one-room, two-room and three-room, and under the number of rooms are meant only living rooms, not rooms in general. Our family lived in a three-room apartment. One room was a guest room, the other a bedroom of parents, and in the third I lived myself.
Now I live in a cottage and that's how part of my room looks.



I have always been a fan of minimalism and tried to get by with the necessary minimum of things. Here are my clothes (from the bottom of the table), and on the top shelf I keep books that are dear to me with memories.  

[Ducky123]

Cool idea to share this with us, Rustam. The area you live in looks pretty neat

[ADFan185]

They'd a pretty nice computer you have there

[Rustam]

My PC is quite old, I've been using it for 9 years. It's time for me to buy new one.

[ADFan185]

Ah okay it's still better than the one I got

[Coyote_A]

Boy, oh boy... Another Russian member on GoF? What, did someone sprinkled the place with vodka again while I wasn't looking? *sniff, sniff*  

[ADFan185]

Yep it's awesome to see that we have a few Russians here

[Sneak]

It seems you like EVERYTHING, ADFan. :
Except that poor director guy and stuff related to him, even if this stuff would be perfect good.   :

[ADFan185]

If he didn't make so many horrible movies I wouldn't pick on him

[Coyote_A]

If he didn't make so many horrible movies I wouldn't pick on him

Case in point. On the subject of life in the largest part of what used to be the USSR... I have several albums with thousands of photos taken in Moscow and its suburbs if anyone's interested. Although it is as they say: the capital and the rest of Russia are two different countries.