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I recommend visiting the Kremlin (churches, square, museum in the armory and diamond fund) and St. Basil's (and even the smaller Russian history museum and the archeological one outside the main gate) in Red Square before the cemetery. The cemetery is interesting but if you are short on time you can see and learn a whole more in the same time period staying in the Red Square area. Just check hours and tickets information on the Kremlin museum website first. If you still have time after that cross the bridge behind St Basils to the Zamosvoreche area, home of the excellent Treyakov Museum (Russian art arranged by historical/cultural lesson eras).

You are right to learn Cyrillic, especially if you plan of checking out the metro - there will not be many English speakers out on the streets and knowing that much will be really helpful. If you plan to venture outside of tourist areas on your own it may be helpful to make cards in advance with common phrases and things that you may want to buy.

I noticed that your selected reading was mostly language-focused. If you want to know more about the history/culture I recommend Natasha's Dance. This is only assuming that your flight isn't tomorrow, however - Natasha's Dance is a long book!

If you are looking for events, Element Magazine has some listed in English, as do the Moscow News, Moscow Times and the upcoming Golden Mask

Have Fun!

> this subreddit does seem to be very anti-west though

I think (just a guess) it's because a lot of people feel antagonized.

>i wouldn't say most people in the west hate russia,

Yeah, for sure. It varies.

>i'm one of these people

No dude, you're not. I think it's pretty clear you don't hate Russia or Russians. You are totally welcome here. I'm talking about disingenuous people with a sincere hate for Russia.

>Thanks

Nothing will give you a completer picture, and you're free to make up your own mind why Soviets liked the Soviet Union. If you're really interested about the subject, read about it. If you're bored on a train or plane or talking to a boring person there's really nothing better than a good book.

Personally I like this book The Road to Stalingrad. Check it out at the library or something. There's a lot of interesting events in Russian history. The contrast between the right-wing anti-Semitic 90% illiterate hardcore Christian Russian Empire and the atheist USSR is pretty funny, imo.

Well of course the first place to start would be Wikipedia. You could look up:

1936 Soviet Constitution, Gosplan, five year plans, collectivization, kolkhoz, Gulags, the Virgin Lands campaign, TASS, Izvestia, Pravda, Elektronika, their incredible space program, etc. And of course the leaders. And the various republics (SSRs) would be good to know. In fact the country itself was CCCP = SSSR.

Read about all the post-collapse conflicts: Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Chechnya, Transnistria, Russia-Georgia war, Ukraine Crisis. And about how turbulent the 90s were.

There are personal accounts of the gigantic conflict with the Germans, like those of Vasili Grossman and Marshal Zhukov. There are transcripts of interviews with Khrushchev and the books that Gorbachev wrote on Glasnost and Perestroika. Historian David M. Glantz writes almost exclusively about the Soviet military. There are the accounts of dissidents like Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Andrei Sakharov.

There are some classic pieces of literature like Master and Margarita and Dr. Zhivago. And music on YouTube by people like Shostakovich.

There are surplus stores like Soviet-Power.com that sell helmets, medals, coins, busts, and the like if that is what you are into. And blogs like English Russia.

r/history here on reddit probably has some articles to peruse. r/HistoryPorn often has old Russian photos.

And of course I've talked to several people on this forum who lived during Soviet times. I'm sure some here or elsewhere on reddit would be happy to tell you.

There was a workbook called Сила that I used to get off the ground, but I can't find it anywhere on line. I used it in conjunction with

http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Penguin-Russian-Course/dp/0140120416

I'll tell you what you don't want to do though. Don't get a book that has a bunch of phrases that you need to memorize. Get a book that focuses on grammar principles and vocab.

EDIT: Join us in /r/russian as well! There is most likely more beginners there as well.

I'd suggest reading Penguin's Complete Russian Course for Beginners and then moving on to Modern Russian. But really, books can only help you understand concepts of the language on not to listen and speak the language conversationally. I'm an American, but I lived in Russia for a couple of years in my late teens to early twenties. I'd study Penguin's Complete Russian Course (and later Modern Russian) for an hour every morning and make mental notes of phrases I wanted to use and how to construct sentences and then I'd go out and talk with people. I'd be listening for what I was learning. It's so important to listen natives speak the language and you have to try to speak and make mistakes and have them correct you. I'd listen to native Russian podcast type programs as well and watch Russian movies. I started to be able to understand almost everything within the six to nine months. After a year, I could speak quite freely and then by 18 months I could understand the nuances of the language, make jokes, and almost always get my point across. So if you have the chance to speak with Russians, do so as often as possible. And make mistakes. Then learn from them. Study everyday. Practice everyday.

This article's title is bullshit. Its not like everyone in Russia before Yeltsin just walked around sad all the time. I mean they did, but that more a factor of Russian fatalism and ennui than politics. That hasn't changed and never will.

If you want to see some really beautiful photos from the Soviet Era, check out A Day in the Life of the Soviet Union. Great pictures.

http://www.amazon.com/A-Day-Life-Soviet-Union/dp/0002179695

Two things: For history and high culture, you want "Natasha's Dance" http://www.amazon.com/Natashas-Dance-Cultural-History-Russia/dp/0312421958/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420918749&sr=1-1&keywords=Natasha%27s+dance


For a detailed look at basically every aspect of Russian everyday life and worldview (everything from historic army uniforms to the culture of medicine to folk tales and superstitions), "The Russian's World" is where it's at. http://www.amazon.com/The-Russians-World-Language-Edition/dp/0893573809 The 2nd or 3rd edition will be much cheaper, but the information I got from my older edition (published 2000) about basic daily life was pretty outdated when I was in Russia (2012).

Damn! I used to love маковый рулет! Wonder is you can order some off Amazon?

Edit: Answering own question —> https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07DWF7LSN/

Honestly DuoLingo is a meme. If you're serious about learning Russian (or any language) doing flashcards isn't going to get the job done. What you need to do is pick up The New Penguin Russian Course and read about the structure and theory of the language. Read Russian news/articles and literature/poetry. Look up all the words you can't understand (there will be plenty) and keep a journal of new words and phrases that are important to your goals. Then you can use DuoLingo to help supplement your vocabulary if you need to.

I found DuoLingo to be insulting and overpriced for its zero dollar price tag.

You may be interested in this book

http://www.amazon.com/Russias-Sputnik-Generation-Indiana-Michigan-European/dp/025321842X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414439236&sr=8-1&keywords=sputnik+generation

It's on amazon too. https://www.amazon.com/Messing-Enemy-Surviving-Terrorists-Russians/dp/0062795988 (note the wording in the link).

https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416

Full beginner starter guide which includes grammar.

I think I found just what I've been looking for:
https://www.amazon.com/Natashas-Dance-Cultural-History-Russia/dp/0312421958

try this book. a good introduction to the script

Ah, this is the book - https://www.amazon.com/Second-World-War-Antony-Beevor/dp/0316023752

https://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Russian-Everyday-Slang/dp/1569757062

It's 10 bucks on Amazon...

The source is cited right there you fucking idiot. Such a tool that you'll believe whatever you want without even looking into it. You got a source that discredits it or anything intelligent whatsoever, put it forward. Otherwise, fuck off

What seems a long time ago, I read this book:

Secrecy: The American Experience

by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

The entire area has extremely weak legislative underpinnings, too much overlap, and powerplayer battles involving too much internal strife.

In other words, it's a mess.

Remember the Tsarnaev Bros and the Boston Marathon?

Incompetents!

> That's not what I said at all. My post points out your racist attitude towards Mexicans is ironic as you're directing it at a people who were brutalized by the Nazis.

Not really ironic at all, since the allies have their own history of racial consciousness. Here is a screencap of this book citing a poll taken in 1944, that 90% of Americans would rather have lost WWII than integrate with blacks.

> Your remaining posts are all straw men where you pretend I said and believe that the Americans fought alongside the Nazis in WWII/the Patriotic War. Again, go find a single post where I said that. You can't, of course.

Lol, then why'd you even bring the Nazis up?? The Nazis weren't even pro-European, outside of them and their allies. Or do you just accuse everyone of being whoever they fought a war against? If I told you I was Italian, would you have called me a Carthaginian?

> I realize you're inventing arguments to save face since you look like a fool right now but it's not necessary. You can show yourself out of r/Russia and not come back. You don't need to put on a show for us.

Your history is all Canada posting. Are you even Russian?

Putin is far from perfect but killing democracy in Russia is not a crime he is guilty of.

Actually democracy never existed.
Yeah, that pretty much contradict "naive" view of most western media but if you try some more unbiased sources or just plain history textbook you will just see it:

• It was a vote whether USSR should be disbanded or not and 77 percent of the people said it should be preserved. This was ignored by Gorbashev and his company.
  
  
• In 1993 Eltsyn moved tanks on the streets and shoot the White House where Russian parliament resided then then tension between them arose. Some people who protected White House was murdered.
  
  
• Later Eltsyn and his company, (so called Family) probably forged results of the presidential elections in 1996. The crimes of Eltsyn and his "Family" are numerous and you could read about them in the book of "Godfather of the Kremlin: Boris Berezovsky and the looting of Russia" http://www.amazon.com/Godfather-Kremlin-Berezovsky-Looting-Russia/dp/product-description/0156013304
  by Russian Forbes editor Paul Khlebnikov.
  
  
• During Eltsyn era opposition was under much more serious pressure, for example, son of one of the opposition leaders got his fingers cut in the middle of the day. That was son of Yavlinsky leader of the Yabloko party. btw, his son was a promising young pianist.
  
  I've just briefly outlined some interesting parts of modern Russian history to give you some perspective.
  
  
  
  So why the difference? Why media praises Eltsyn and Gorbashev and bashes Putin? The two major sins Putin is really guilty of in eyes of the some western politicians and journalists are ambition and ability. Those qualities both of them lacked miserably.
  
  Yep, Putin is not saint and I personally will not vote him, through in my eyes he is not
  and evil monster some media pictures him nor an evils dictator or neo-hitler. From my point of view he is just a man with his positive and negative sides, a politician I will not vote for.

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924

Seems like you were asking more for contemporary history, but A People's Tragedy is a really good history of Russia immediately prior to the revolution, the revolution itself, the Transitional Government and the Civil War period. The general historical text is interspersed with the histories of players large and small, providing a personal lens for the turmoil and upheavals that Russia went through. The book shows how social forces and failure to reform by the monarchy made revolution an inevitability.

>Not really ironic at all, since the allies have their own history of racial consciousness. Here is a screencap of this book citing a poll taken in 1944, that 90% of Americans would rather have lost WWII than integrate with blacks.

...and yet you sill don't get why your racism is ironic when presented here to Russians. No one here cares how racist Americans were after the war. Don't expect sympathy. Frankly your country's troubles with racism are one of the things often used to discredit America in Russian media.

>Lol, then why'd you even bring the Nazis up?? The Nazis weren't even pro-European, outside of them and their allies. Or do you just accuse everyone of being whoever they fought a war against? If I told you I was Italian, would you have called me a Carthaginian?

I explained above why the Nazis were introduced to the conversation, if it's over your head I can't help you with that. Like most American racists I'm not surprised you struggle to follow simple ideas.