How I started loving Russia... (part 1)

The plane crash in Russia, wiping out nearly the entire ice hockey team of Yaroslavl, leaves the country saddened. President Medvedev ordered a major and urgent overhaul of domestic airlines in response to Wednesday's events. The airliners of Russia (with names such as 'Ilyushin', 'Antonov', 'Yakovlev' and 'Tupolev') essentially do what our planes do: they fly, they have wings, they have cockpits, they have engines and they carry passengers or cargo. But while the essentials might be similar to our Western-type planes (most notably Boeing and Airbus) there are some distinct differences. This is where the love for Russia originated from for this Belgian blogger.

Early roots...

Of course I had heard from Russia before, when I was just a small child. Although I cannot be sure, Russia must first have come to my active knowledge when studying a map of the world. There the country was described as the biggest. As a child, certainly for me, it was no surprise I liked the biggest things out there: everything jumbo fascinated me. So naturally I kept the notion of Russia alive. But I didn't do a lot with it. 

In secondary school I had geography tasks, describing the country whichever I wanted. It wasn't Russia but Japan. A similar assignement for my English class directed me to Monaco instead of Russia. So to say I was in love with this country at the time of secondary school was a long shot.

In history classes of the last year of secondary school (2005-2006) I did learn about people like Stalin, processes such as the New Economic Policy of Lenin, the five-year-plan of Stalin, collectivisation etc. But the major attention for me was always nazi-Germany. As someone taking an interest in World War II I always found it interesting to find things out about our neighbouring country. My interest very much went to Hitler, to the allied invasion of Western Europe and to all sorts of Allied (excluding Soviet-Union) - Axis relationships.

Mind you, the educational system did put the emphasis on exactly that. The system of the Soviet-Union was perceived as a sort of necessary evil to teach us. A sort of alternative, but by no means truely important.

Early university years and heading to the West

When I started university in 2006 as a lawstudent my attention shifted towards the United States of America. This interest slowly grew in my final year of secondary school and lasted till around my final bachelor year (2008-9). In January 2010 I visited New York city. An 8 hour plane trip that headed me to the land of dreams for many. It was a nice holiday in that I had never been further away from home than before and that it was a welcome relief from tiring exams. But in essence what I saw was a big busy city, like we may have Brussels here in Belgium, with tall buildings everywhere and the mentality being very similar to ours. It was a fun experience to be in America and the January month was very mild for us. It was nice to see iconic scenes from the movies with my own eyes and to think of everything that happened there. Some of the highlights were certainly the NHL game -which my brother gave to me as a delayed Christmas present- and the visit to the Intrepid -a flightcarrier with all sorts of fighter jets on it-. 

After the trip ended both my brother and I felt as if we had seen NYC. It is often said though that NYC is not the USA, a quote I'm certainly willing to accept. The USA has a lot of beautiful things to offer (thinking mainly of natural reserves), but for now we had seen it. I needed a different sort of thing.