Russia, a country of contrasts

March 11, 2008

To say that the Russian Federation is a country of contrasts is quite an obvious statement, since: it’s the world’s largest country, its population exceeds 140 million, it has tens of ethnic groups, more than 100 languages are spoken in it, it includes 11 time zones, it has moved from communism to the wildest capitalism in just a few years, and so on.

Although all these features predispose to the most diverse and amazing situations, las week we were able to see some images that may even defy the spacetime continuum. I refer to the fact of seeing a cosmonaut on board the International Space Station, the ultimate example of human technological development at the dawn of 21st century, and Nenets indigenous, who live in the Arctic Circle like their ancestors did, doing something in common. Probably the following pictures will show better such contrast:

As you probably have guessed, what brought together the cosmonaut and the Nenets was the last Russian presidential election. While the flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko casted his vote from the ISS thanks to a radio contact with the Star City (Russian mission control center), the Nenets saw how several helicopters chartered by the territorial election commission brought the polls to their isolated latitude. I was specially captivated by these Nenets children, whose eyes timidly appear in-between the thick furs that keep them warm (click to enlarge):

In the future we will have the chance to speak about topics related to Space and cosmonaut Malenchenko (first person ever to get married in outer space and who even fixed himself a shot of vodka while in orbit), as well as about the Nenets and other indigenous groups who have suffered great hardships to survive and recover their traditional way of life.

This just has been a little dose of Soviet Russia to keep arousing your curiosity while I polish up my upcoming posts. Stay tuned