Russia / Rasha / Россия

Domestic cats and dogs are cats and dogs, which are in almost every family, and they are treated differently: someone pampers them like children, buys premium food and takes them to the veterinarian, and someone keeps them on a chain in a kennel and feeds them leftovers from the table, but in any case, they become full-fledged members of the family, and when the dog meets them from work, and the cat lies on his stomach, this is a small happiness.

Yard tramps are a separate big topic: they live near shops, warm themselves on hatches in winter, they are fed by grandmothers and compassionate schoolchildren, but many hiss at them, poison them or call the trapping service, and this is an eternal dispute - what to do with stray animals, because it is a pity, but also dangerous, especially if the pack is angry. In the cities, there are their own "famous" yard cats, which are known to the whole district, and they are even given nicknames, and in the villages, dogs often run on their own and are considered almost wild.

Wild animals are bears, wolves, moose, wild boars and foxes, which are mostly seen in zoos or on TV, but in some regions they really come out to people: either a bear wanders into the village, or a fox climbs into the trash, or wild boars dig the lawn - and this becomes a local sensation, everyone is discussing and afraid to leave the house. Hamsters, hedgehogs and squirrels, which can be found in the park, are especially awe among teenagers, and for some reason everyone dreams of feeding a squirrel by hand, but it bites. In general, animals in Russia are both a consolation and a headache, and eternal disputes on social networks, but even the most evil yard dog still remains part of the very "Russian yard", without which it would be completely empty.

Murderers are those who are whispered about at school when someone goes missing or finds a corpse in a nearby forest, but for teenagers they are often characters from criminal reports or horror stories about maniacs who are caught on TV, and in real life they are afraid not so much of them as of random drunken uncles at the entrance or aggressive sectarians.

Pedophiles are the main fear of all parents and teenagers, especially girls, and they are openly talked about: "don't get into a stranger's car", "don't go to the basement", "don't walk in the dark", and the Internet is full of stories of adult uncles pretending to be the same age in games and social networks to lure children to a meeting, so now almost everyone knows that you can't send photos and not go anywhere without checking.

There are also rapists and robbers – people who can attack in the alley or in the elevator, and this is a reality even in small towns, but teenagers treat this either with horror or with bravado, like "they won't touch me".

The grumpy grandfather is a classic: he sits on the same bench at the entrance, but is silent, frowns and looks from under his brow, and instead of making remarks, he just grunts and says something like "Eh, young people..." and turns away. He loves to dig in the garage, fix old things that can no longer be repaired, and scold everything new: "There used to be TVs - they worked for 30 years, and these plasmas of yours - they break once a year!" He is always dressed in an old plaid shirt, eternal slippers and pants with suspenders, and his main activities are watching the news on TV, where he talks about politics, playing dominoes with the same grandfathers on the bench and silently drinking tea with bagels.

A good grandfather is the complete opposite: he is smiling, always gives candy or money "for ice cream", tells his grandchildren fairy tales (or stories about the war, but without pathos), and he always has some kind of surprise in his pocket - either a small toy or a chocolate. He loves to tinker in the garden, grow tomatoes and treat all the neighbors, he has hands made of gold - he can fix a bicycle, make a birdhouse or make a toy out of wood, and he never raises his voice, only sighs and says: "Well, grandson, don't worry, everything will get better." Such a grandfather loves fishing, silence and morning coffee on the balcony, and his main wisdom is not to meddle in other people's affairs and live in peace.

Impudent grandmothers are law enforcement officers at the entrance, in line and in public transport. They always sit on a bench with a stick or bag on their knees and make remarks to everyone: "Where are you going!", "Young people are not the same today!", "Put away this smartphone of yours, you will spoil your eyes!". They can elbow you away at the pharmacy to skip the line, loudly discuss all the neighbors, get into personal affairs and demand that you give up your seat, even if you can barely stand yourself. Most of all, they hate teenagers, dogs and those who do not say hello, and at the same time they are terribly touchy - if you do not say hello, they can call all the relatives and say that you are rude.

Good grandmothers are the complete opposite. They always slip you sweets, pies or apples from their garden, even if you are not hungry, and say: "Eat, you are so thin!" They feel sorry for all stray cats, feed pigeons, and if they see a crying child, they run to calm down and scold their parents. They never complain about life, but, on the contrary, tell how it was worse during the war, and thank for every day. Such grandmothers smell of pies, old books and flowers in their apartment, and most importantly, they will always give advice, but not intrusively, but carefully, and will not be offended if you do not listen.

Families in Russia are a huge spectrum, but if we generalize, everything revolves around three main models. The first and most common is a complete family, where there is a mom, dad and two or three children, they live either in their apartment on a mortgage or in a rented one, dad works at a factory, in an office or as a driver, mom either also works or is on maternity leave for years, and their life is an endless life: school, clubs, eternal "there is no money until payday", quarrels over unwashed dishes and rare weekends with barbecue or a trip to the shopping center, And at the same time, they sincerely try to stick together, because "it is necessary". The second model is single-parent families, where most often one mother, who takes care of two or three children herself, works two jobs, is always tired, angry or nervous, and the father is either missing, or lives separately and pays alimony every six months, such families often live more modestly, children learn to cook and do their homework themselves from an early age, and the mother dreams of sleeping at least sometimes. Less common are families where one father is either a widower or a divorcee, and he tries to combine work and upbringing, feeds children with dumplings and pasta, teaches them to hammer nails and not whine, and grandmothers help on weekends. And finally, the third model is large families, where children are from 4 to 8-10, they often live in large houses or cramped apartments, parents no longer go around - they fly in conveyor mode, the older ones babysit the younger ones, money is always scarce, but noisy, fun and cramped, and such families are either very friendly, or everyone runs away to the corners. to take a breath. Regardless of the composition, almost everyone has one thing in common: survival in the rhythm of "school-work-clubs-homework", hope for summer and vacation, love for simple food, TV series in the evenings and the eternal question "when will this life become easier?".

"I'm a mother" is a woman in her 30s who has one or two children, and this phrase has become her battle cry, justification and shield at the same time. She can look different: either tired, in stretched jeans and a bun on her head, with eternal lack of sleep and crumbs on her sweater, or, on the contrary, perfectly packed, with a manicure and styling to show that "motherhood is not the end of life." But the point is not in appearance, but in the fact that now her every thought, action and claim to the world begins with a sacred phrase: she demands a place in transport, because "I'm a mother", she climbs into school chats and quarrels with teachers because of grades, because "I'm a mother and I know better", she comments on other people's posts on social networks with advice on parenting, Even if she was not asked, because "I am a mother, I have experience." In reality, she is torn between work, household chores, child's extracurricular activities, and an endless sense of guilt that she is either too strict or too soft, so she often hangs out on her phone, scrolling through the feed with ideal families, and compares herself to them, which makes her even more anxious. In the company of other mothers, she either unites in flocks and discusses "kindergartens, vaccinations and this terrible math teacher," or she keeps to herself because "for others, everything is somehow easier, but for me it's eternal chaos." For her, her husband is a second child, but already an adult, who sometimes helps, then infuriates, and most importantly - she dreams that everyone will leave her alone at least for an hour, but if someone says that she is a bad mother, she will explode and give such a tirade that it will not seem enough. On social networks, she posts photos of children with captions like "my sunshine" or reposts of articles about parenting, and sometimes breaks down and writes frank posts about how tired she is, but after a minute she deletes it, because "you can't show weakness, I'm a mother." Her life is an eternal compromise between what she would like to do and what she needs to do, and inside her there is always an inner voice: "Am I doing the right thing?"

Games and social networks are the second life of any teenager, often more important than school. As for social networks, Telegram is now the main throne - there is everything: communication with classmates, channels with memes, answers to teachers in general chats and even personal diaries in closed channels, and VK is now more for old photos, music and watching stories of "serious" adults, although fans of groups and publics with quotes are still sitting there. TikTok is a separate universe where they watch short videos for hours, participate in challenges, repeat dances and record their cringe sketches, but delete them after five minutes if there are few likes, and there is also YouTube, but they go there no longer for bloggers, but for gameplays and longs about conspiracy theories. Almost everyone has forgotten about Instagram, except for the girls posting art and photos of food. Of the games, kings are Minecraft, which will never die (there you can build, survive, and play with friends on the server), Roblox for the younger ones and those who like endless mini-games, and from the serious ones — Counter-Strike 2 (formerly CS:GO), where the guys measure skins and rank, and Dota 2, but there are more hardcore ones who are ready to sit for 40 minutes for one rink. Genshin Impact is very popular with art girls and anime, as well as Brawl Stars and Standoff 2 on the phone - this is to play in the lesson under the desk, while the teacher writes on the board. And all this is interconnected: in Discord, they sit in voice channels, play together, scroll TikTok at the same time, send memes to the Cart and discuss streamers, because for them, life without the Internet is like without air, and their whole world fits in a smartphone and laptop.

MBOU Secondary School is a holy and cursed place for every teenager. It stands for "Municipal Budget General Education Institution Secondary School", but in fact it is a gray or beige two- or three-story building with peeling paint, a standard project from the 70s, where it stinks of canteen, chlorine from the toilet and old wood, and at the entrance there is a sign with the school number and a strict guard who checks the shift and is always babbling. Inside there are long corridors with tiles that are never washed properly, bulletin boards with diplomas and lists of Olympiad winners, and classrooms with desks from the last century, where the blackboard is either green or black and chalk, which creaks disgustingly. The main attractions: an assembly hall with shabby chairs, where all the "Conversations about Important" and concerts for May 9 take place, a gym with the smell of sweat and mats, and a dining room where they serve either pasta and cutlet, which are called "navy", or nasty porridge and liquid tea with a bun. Teachers are a separate species: grandmothers with "Malvinas" and strict remarks who demand a checkered notebook and say that "in your time we studied differently", and young teachers who are still trying to flirt with the class and put memes in presentations. Social life is in full swing there: during breaks, everyone is divided into groups - normis stand against the wall with phones, altushkas gather at the radiator, boys play "rock-scissors" for money, food cord players run around yelling, and teachers shout "Recess is over, everyone to class!", but no one goes until the bell rings, which sounds like music from the 90s. where it is forbidden to go, but everyone goes, a biology classroom with a skeleton, which everyone calls "Kostya", and a courtyard with bad asphalt, where every September the school principal stands on the line with a pointer. In general, this is a place of hatred and love at the same time: everyone dreams of running away, but after 10 years they remember the smell of buns, laughter at the end of the corridor and the feeling when the call rings and you are free, at least until the next one

The style is called either capepop (if she is on the anime wave) or simply "girl with a pencil case bag", because her main accessory is a huge bag, most often made of transparent vinyl, canvas or nylon, which is all hung with dozens, or even hundreds of badges, keychains, small plush toys, rings, laces, beads and even bells, and when she walks, it all rings and rattles like a Christmas tree, And each keychain means something: a character from anime, a favorite meme, a heart, a star, or just a cute cactus — this is a whole system that she has been collecting over the years. She always wears an oversized hoodie, jeans with wide legs and bright sneakers, and her hair is most often neon, but it can also be natural, the main thing is that it is comfortable to draw. And yes, she draws – this is her superpower, she always has a notebook or tablet with her, she sketches in class, during breaks and even in the canteen, and on her phone there is a bunch of art that she posts on social networks, most often these are anime girls with huge eyes, cute animals or illustrations to her favorite fandoms. She is quiet, but not downtrodden: if you talk to her about her keychains or drawings, her eyes light up, and she gives a lecture for an hour about where she got a rare toy from Japan, and why this kitten badge is a rarity. In the company, she is most often alone or with a couple of the same "art" friends, she is neutral towards normies, and with a slight mockery of the pickmies, because she believes that being herself is more important than showing off. In general, this is a creative soul who carries her inner world on a bag and is afraid that without all these keychains, no one will recognize her.

Even tomboys are the antipode of all the above: no color, no flares, no arches and piercings, just calm, clean and "right" guys, who can be recognized in any yard and classroom by a "potty" haircut or a neat undercut, always dressed in a base - black or gray hoodies without inscriptions, skinny jeans or cargo, sneakers like "Nike" or "Adidas", and a backpack on your shoulders, fastened with all zippers. They speak evenly, without slang, they can say "hello", and have a heart-to-heart talk with the teacher, and not be rude to their mother - in general, nice guys, from whom you do not expect a catch, but this is only at first glance. In their company, they are really "even" - they do not bullish, do not get into fights, do not drink podiki and do not smoke ashki, and at most they can drink beer in the park on the weekend, but in a dignified manner and without vomiting, because they know the limit. At school, they usually study for threes or fours, do not show off, but do not lag behind, and most importantly, they never gather in a crowd yelling and do not film cringe on TikTok, they just sit on their phone, text, sometimes play Dota or PUBG, but without fanaticism. Girls love them because they are predictable and reliable, and teachers set an example because they always do their homework (even if it is written off) and do not argue. But the funniest thing is that inside this smooth shell, they are the same teenagers with their cockroaches, they just chose the strategy of "not shining and not disgraced", and in 90% of cases, after a couple of years, they turn into the most ordinary adults: work, family, Skoda in the garage and barbecues on weekends, that is, in the same gray, but stable Russia, on which everything rests.

Food corn and food cord makers are a separate biome of shopping centers, and they are easily recognizable by their pack behavior: they hang out exclusively at the food court, but not to eat, but to hang out, film each other on TikTok and make noise for the whole neighborhood, while their main style is flared pants (often plaid or bright colors), wide hoodies, massive sneakers and always colored hair for girls, And guys can be in anything, but with the same ridiculous haircut or bangs. They really almost can't speak clearly — in stories, they hum, swallow endings, start a phrase, get stuck and ask again "what?", and then just laugh out loud, because their brain can't keep up with the language, and instead of a clear plot on the video, it turns out to be just a set of sounds and wild cackling, which, however, seems ultra funny to them. Their favorite move is to approach a random guy or an adult uncle who is calmly eating a burger, shout right in his ear "Hey, boy!", and when he turns around in bewilderment, the whole company is filled with such hysterical laughter that their knees are shaking, and the poor guy himself just sits with a lost face and does not understand what has happened at all. For their entire gang, they take one portion of fries for four and one common glass of soda, which they call a "spawn" - they solemnly pass it to each other, everyone drinks a sip, and the rest of the food they steal from plates at neighboring tables, while no one is looking, or just stand over the trash can and discuss who "dynamized" whom in correspondence. They talk as if Russian is a second language for them after the language of memes and pixel sounds, and their main enemy is a security guard who constantly chases them away, but they come back five minutes later and yell again, because the food court for them is a stage, a dining room, and a place for filming, where it is necessary to film how someone choked on nuggets or how accidentally spilled ketchup on flares, And then post it with the caption "We are wild", although in fact they are just the loudest and most empty creatures in Lyubo

Goths are a separate universe even among nephores, and if punks yell and emos cry, then goths just suffer silently in a beautiful entourage. These are teenagers who wear exclusively black, from lace shirts to long cloaks, and believe that true beauty is in gloom, antiquity and decadence, so they dye their hair crow's wing, whitewash their faces to the state of a marble statue, draw their eyes with a fat black arrow and adore spikes, chains, silver rings and paraphernalia such as crosses and anubis. Instead of punk punk and metal, they listen to gothic rock, darkwave and post-punk, adore bands like The Cure, Bauhaus or our "Agatha Christie" and "Silent Houses", and their main place of power is old cemeteries, abandoned estates, attics and any places with a "hint of eternity", where you can stand with a sad view in the rain and take pictures in the fog. In the party, they drink not cheap podik, but red wine or port wine, because "it's aesthetically pleasing", and they smoke not ashki, but either thin menthol cigarettes, or even pipe tobacco, if they have money, and unlike noisy drunks-nephores, they get drunk quietly and majestically: they can fall asleep right on the cold ground at the monument, clutching a volume of Baudelaire to their chest, and wake up feeling that "that was beautiful." At school, they are considered either crazy or geniuses, they do not get into fights, but just look down on everyone, write poems in black notebooks, paint gloomy landscapes and dream of leaving for Europe or at least to St. Petersburg, where the gray sky and canals suit their mood, and although they are often trolled by normis, goths keep their faces, Because their main principle is style even in suffering, and they sincerely believe that "life is pain, but pain must be beautiful."

Neforshi (girls) are their "dark princesses": black long skirts, corsets, red or blue hair, huge eye arrows, and pale powder that makes them look like vampires. They also smoke ashki, but often also vapes or "one-time" ones with bright flavors, because it is more convenient and stinks less. They are more cunning than guys: they can drink less, but if they do, they fall no less epic - in the same black skirt smeared with mascara, on the lawn near the school or in the shopping center, where they are then rescued by security guards. They love drama: if someone from the company vomits, they shout "Ugh, what a horror!", but at the same time they film it themselves on stories and write "We're hanging out so hard." There is a rigid hierarchy in their world: there are "old" nefors who are already in the 9th grade, and "new" 6th graders who are sent to a round-the-clock stall for ashkas and podiks, and if a newcomer brings the wrong thing, he may not be allowed on the roof.

Nefors (guys) are usually thin, pale, with bangs that cover half their faces, and always wearing headphones playing "Korol i Shut," "Scorpions," or some heavy metal. They smoke a lot, mostly cheap cigarettes or their mainstay—ashkas (aromatic cigarettes, like "Aroma" or similar, which smell like cherry, chocolate, or apple. In reality, they're the cheapest, harshest smoke, the kind that irritates your throat. Nefors consider it stylish, especially if you breathe through your teeth and blow smoke rings). They gather in basements, abandoned buildings, or rooftops, listen to music, discuss the meaning of life, strum three chords on the guitar, and always have a drink—either cheap beer called "podik" (port wine like "777" or cheap tonic, which costs pennies, but at 16, it reeks of smoke from a mile away and leaves your head pounding within half an hour). After a couple of these "podiks" on an empty stomach, the final blow is guaranteed: someone pukes right on the steps of the building, someone falls into the bushes and falls asleep there, clutching their backpack. Their friends either laugh and film it, or try to drag them to a bench to keep warm, but they're already so dazed that they simply collapse nearby, and the whole party turns into a pile of bodies on the pavement under a streetlamp.

They usually have huge bangs that cover their faces, black hair, unwashed, pale, some have tattoos, smoke e-cigarettes, wear black clothes, usually wear high platform shoes and no one sees their faces.

The Pikmy guy is her mirror image, but in a male version. He always complains that "girls only love alphas and idols, and no one needs normal guys", although he himself tries to show that he is "cute and vulnerable", and not "these stupid jocks with hormones". He can deliberately get carried away with all sorts of "non-standard" things: listen to indie rock that no one knows, write poems and post them in stories, or understand movies in order to show off in front of girls on occasion. In the company, he quietly suffers that he is not understood, and tries to start a heart-to-heart conversation with girls, because he is "cramped and stupid" with boys. He often teases other guys: "He's too stupid", "All he can do is go to the gym", "And I read books". At the same time, he absolutely does not mind becoming the very "alpha", he just does not succeed, and he disguises this as intellectual superiority. In the photo, he often makes a sad look at the camera, against the background of sunset or rain, and in the caption he writes something philosophical about loneliness. His main goal is for some girl to feel sorry for him and say: "Oh, you're not like everyone else, you're special," and then he will win.

The Pikmee girl is a classic. She loudly declares that she is "not friends with women, because they are only dramas", and her best friends are exclusively guys, because it is "easier and more fun" with them. She despises cosmetics, says that "natural beauty is better", but at the same time she secretly paints her eyelashes with mascara and wears the most fashionable oversized hoodies to look "one of her own". In the company, she will laugh at stupid jokes louder than anyone else, elbow guys, play console with them and demonstratively understand football or cars, although in fact she is not particularly interested in it. She teases other girls: "She puts on too much makeup", "She's too", "She's all for show". At the same time, she herself constantly begs for compliments, asks to evaluate her new sweater and whines that "all the guys breathe unevenly towards her, and she is so untouchable." In class, she argues loudly with teachers to seem smart, and on social networks she has either a complete zero photo, or a story with the caption "just like that" and a black square. Her main goal is to get one particular guy (or even everyone) to recognize her as unique and choose her, not that "painted doll".

Normis girl is the complete opposite of "alts" and rockers. She wears cozy oversized sweaters, high-waisted jeans, sneakers or ballet flats, and is sure to gather a bun on her head, even if it is sloppy - so fashionable. On her phone, she has a Pinterest board with perfect photos, stories with cats and breakfasts, as well as correspondence in the "Cart" with her friends, where they send each other memes and discuss who likes whom. She studies well, but she is not a crammer, she goes to dances, drawing, or singing, because "it's for the soul." As for music, popular pop or Morgenstern, whichever is hotter. She keeps her distance from guys: she can make fun of them, be nice or ignore them – it depends on her mood. In Russia, she feels comfortable as long as there is a coffee shop nearby, a beautiful park for photos and her company. Her main dramas are a quarrel with her best friend, a pimple in front of a disco, or that her mother forbade dyeing her hair.

A Normis guy (11-16 years old) is someone who lives according to a clear schedule: school, a section (football/hockey/sambo, because "you have to be a man"), then lessons, then stuffy "tanks" or "CS" until the night, and on weekends - barbecue with parents or a trip to the shopping center. He doesn't bother about his appearance - a haircut for an attachment, a hoodie with an incomprehensible print, cargo pants and sneakers that his mother bought on sale. He almost doesn't sit on social networks, well, maybe he'll watch a couple of videos on YouTube about car repairs or gameplay. His conversations are simple: "How is homework?", "Tomorrow is the test?", "Go to Dota?". With girls, he is either shy to the point of red ears, or teases them, because he does not know how to communicate otherwise. The main thing in his life is that he is not touched, given food and not forced to do too much. He usually dreams of a new processor, a big one, or just to grow his hair faster.

Alphas, or iPad kids (born around 2010) are the first generation to be literally born with a tablet in their hands, and their perception of Russia is radically different from anything that has come before. They do not know a world without the Internet, without food delivery and without YouTube bloggers, so for them Russia is not a country on the map, but a place where there is Internet coverage, fast Wi-Fi and a socket to charge the gadget, and everything else is just a background. They grow up in Moscow, Krasnodar, or a hypothetical village, but they live in the same digital universe — in Minecraft, Roblox, or TikTok, where nationality and borders are almost irrelevant, because their idols are Khabib, Milana Khametova, or foreign tiktokers, not classic heroes. In real life, they are quite infantile, they may not be able to tie their shoelaces or hold a spoon because their parents did everything for them, but at the same time they are excellent at handling hundreds of applications at the same time and know how to find any content. They see Russia through the prism of convenience: it's cool if there is Yandex.Food, fast delivery from Ozon, a good toy store nearby, and not very cool if school is boring and requires writing by hand, because they are used to typing. They don't care about politics at all, patriotism for them is boring school assemblies and "Conversations about Important Things" that they sit on their phone under the desk, and their real emotions are not about victories in wars, but about a new skin in the game or the release of a fresh video from their favorite blogger. In winter, they whine that it is cold, in summer that it is hot, and ask to turn on the air conditioner, because comfort is the basis for them, and any "Soviet" reality without gadgets causes them sincere bewilderment, such as "how did you live without the Internet at all?". At the same time, they learn and adapt very quickly, adore everything bright, colorful and interactive, and if Russia can give them a cool digital world where they can realize themselves, they will consider it their own, and if not, they will simply go to the global network, because for them their homeland is where there is a

Moscow is a frantic rhythm, glass skyscrapers, eternal traffic jams and the metro that takes you anywhere, everything is expensive here, everything is fast, everyone is always running somewhere, and this is the main showcase of the country, where money and status decide everything, and St. Petersburg is the complete opposite: cold, damp, windy, but insanely beautiful, old courtyards-wells, canals, drawbridges and gray sky, a city for hiking, books and melancholy, where even the sun seems pale, Krasnodar is a southern party and the capital of the Kuban, heat, parks, fountains, wide streets and the main feature is the huge Galitsky Park, where everyone hangs out, the city is noisy, green, smells of shawarma and lives its active, almost resort life, and Crimea is not a city at all, but a whole mood with the sea and mountains, the main points are Sevastopol (military, strict, on the hills) and Yalta (resort, pretentious, with palm trees), everything is measured there, smells of pine needles and fish, in summer - heat and crowds of tourists, in winter - silence and empty beaches.

Summer is a short, frenzied and very bright flash. From mid-May to the end of August, the sun burns so that the asphalt melts, especially in the south, where +35-40 °C is commonplace, and you walk around like dumplings, dreaming only of air conditioning or kvass from a barrel. But the main buzz is the white nights in St. Petersburg or just long evenings, when it is still light at 10 pm, and the whole party moves to the street: barbecue in the country with smoke, mosquitoes that eat alive, trips to the sea, where the water is like fresh milk, and the smell of strawberries, shawarma and blooming lime trees throughout the city. At the same time, the summer is terribly unpredictable: there is hellish heat and drought for a week, and then a cyclone comes abruptly, it pours like from a bucket, +15 °C, and you take out a down jacket, because it's really cold, and two days later it's +30 again – and so on all the time, but the general atmosphere is relaxed, everyone is in shorts, they walk until the morning, and it seems that life is wonderful.

Winter is a completely different story, it lasts almost six months, from November to April, and its main face is cold, but not just cold, but the very one when your nose stings, eyelashes stick together, and if you go out without a hat, your ears fall off. In Siberia and the Urals, frosts under -40 ° C are the standard, in Moscow it is milder, but still dank and damp, and in the north there is generally a polar night and darkness for 20 hours. But there is a wild thrill in it: you walk on crispy snow that creaks under your feet, huge fluffy flakes fall from the sky, everything around is white and white, and the lanterns shine yellow and are beautifully reflected in the snowdrifts. The main movement is slides, cheesecakes, skis, skates on flooded skating rinks, the smell of tangerines, a Christmas tree and New Year's holidays, when the whole country rests and eats Olivier, and you also don't have to go to school, because acting is when teachers themselves say: "Stay at home." The only downside is that at 4 o'clock in the afternoon it is already dark, gray, and the heating dries the air, and going outside is a whole quest with putting on three layers of clothes and felt boots, but then you run into a warm house, drink hot tea and feel this contrasting happiness - this is what the Russian winter is, harsh.

In the minds of teenagers, Russia exists as if in two parallel universes that almost do not intersect, and the first is the one in the news and among parents, where they talk about politics, sanctions, import substitution and patriotism, and the second is their personal, real one, where the main thing is Wi-Fi, charging on the phone, a lagging server in CS or Minecraft, content in TikTok and tabs with anime, because for them, the country is not the Kremlin and not huge territories, but their district, school, shopping center, park with swings and an entrance where you can hang out. They see Russia as a place where it is hot and mosquitoes in summer, slush or terrible cold in winter, when you are too lazy to even go to school, where the roads are terrible in places, and the courtyards are gray and dull, but at the same time they have Pyaterochka across the street, food delivery in half an hour and marketplaces where you can order fashionable sneakers or gadgets, and this makes life quite comfortable. Many of them no longer remember the USSR and are not particularly proud of the "great power", they are rather interested in how to go abroad - to Europe, Japan or the United States, because, in their opinion, it is better, cleaner, cooler and there are more opportunities for study and hanging out, although those who live in small towns or villages dream of at least moving to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Because "life is in full swing" there, and they have boredom and one cinema for the entire district. At the same time, teenagers are very critical of the authorities and teachers, but their patriotism manifests itself in a strange way: they can laugh at memes about Putin and the "Russian ship", but at the same time at school at "Conversations about Important Things" they sit with stony faces, and at home they half-listen to the news, and for them Russia is more of a given, like the weather that cannot be changed, so they just adapt. find their gangs on social networks, listen to Russian rap like Oximiron or Skryptonite, watch bloggers like Vlad A4 and dream of freedom, but at the same time they sincerely love their native yards, grandmothers who bake pies, kebabs in the country and simple trips to the sea in Anapa or Sochi, because this is their home, even if

Russia is the largest country in the world, which stretches over two continents, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and its main feature is the incredible diversity of nature: there are arctic deserts, taiga, steppes, Caucasus mountains and volcanoes of Kamchatka, and the climate varies from mild in the south to severe Siberian frost in Yakutia, where temperatures drop below minus 50 degrees. It is a country with a rich history, which began with Kievan Rus, went through the Mongol yoke, the Tsarist Empire of the Romanovs, the revolution of 1917, the Soviet era with its cosmic achievements and victory in the Great Patriotic War, and then the collapse of the USSR in 1991, after which Russia became a new federation with a presidential republic and a powerful vertical of power. Moscow is a giant metropolis with the Kremlin, red walls and golden domes, which is a political and economic center, and St. Petersburg is a cultural capital with palaces, canals and white nights, where Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky worked. The Russian language is the state language, but more than 190 peoples live in the country, each with its own religion - Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism peacefully coexist, and the national cuisine is famous for borscht, dumplings, pancakes and black bread, which are usually washed down with kvass or, of course, vodka. Russia is the largest exporter of oil, gas and diamonds, but it is also famous for its science, literature, ballet and hockey, and its soul, according to many, is mysterious and contradictory, combining incredible hospitality, breadth of soul, longing for something high and at the same time a harsh will to survive in harsh conditions.