man from Russia

[RussianNeofit]

Hello, brothers and sisters! I’m a young man from Russia, and I’ve recently become very interested in the restored gospel and the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Could you please help me learn more and share your insights? I’d really love to understand your faith better. 

[Calm]

Welcome to the board.

Where in Russia?  I visited for a few months decades ago and then lived there for half a year a couple of years later, so I vaguely know Moscow and a few cities along the Volga.

Actually, I am okay with you not sharing any personal details if you prefer.  It is just an automatic reaction.   

What would you like to know?  How did you find us?

Edited Sunday at 12:21 AM by Calm

[longview]

22 hours ago, Calm said:

 . . . so I vaguely know Moscow and a few cities along the Volga.

did you make a stop at Potemkin village?

[Calm]

4 hours ago, longview said:

did you make a stop at Potemkin village?

Are you being snide?  Or do you know of a real place with that name?  (Admit to not knowing the reference to begin with).  Russia was broke at the time, the Moscow zoo a few years later was still missing many displays due to animals starving or being stolen.  Museums were not in great shape.  The tourist trade was just really getting going when we first went from what I saw.  Some Russians were delightful, but we got spat on and other fun stuff as well.  Iow, I don’t think the government was into carting the little nobody tourists around at the time.  

I was quite amused when the roads in Moscow got their lines painted on them shortly before the American president was expected when we lived there.  Iirc the mayor passed a law that cars had to be washed as well and some professors who weren’t getting paid took to washing cars along the river instead.  Rough times for Russians.  We rented an apartment where the owners needed to buy out the exhusband and so moved out to their dacha in the country for the winter…which I thought was nice (Moscow was not attractive in winter then) until I saw how some were more like sheds patched with cardboard and scrap wood when we got out to the country ourselves.  I hope they had one in better shape.  Didn’t mind the ridiculous rent (or so I thought) after that.  

There was an old, small village I have no clue what the name was where we stopped that might have been preserved for tourists, but could have been just a functioning old village that we lucked out that was kept in good shape.  The port wasn’t very big and the gift shop was tiny.  Doubt if it was a government show place.  Didn’t have any officials showing us around.    It was my favorite place in Russia.  

We were in Moscow when we lived there and only got out into the country once.  What gorgeous forests. I don’t like crowded cities very often, parts of Moscow were beautiful, but it was nerve wracking to get around in.

We came across the village on a Volga cruise my first trip there.  My brother in law ran a cruise/business education/networking tour (they did work with the tourism bureau to set it up, but no chaperones on the trip that I was aware of, no indoctrination speeches either) and my business prof husband taught entrepreneurship on it one or two summer for a month or so several times.  Took our son once and me his next trip.   They were just starting out, so paid him in free tickets. 

Second time he got paid well for teaching at a university.  Took the whole family with him   Too bad my daughter was too young to remember much.  Son was 12, so has some memories.

We met LDS missionaries at the village (rather shocking at the time given it was ‘93 iirc) and saw them get attacked by geese.  Lovely old homes and met a couple of charming young ladies as well.  Wouldn’t have minded staying there longer and skipping the tour of war memorials later (I don’t like those anywhere, too mournful).

Edited Monday at 01:52 AM by Calm

[manol]

On 10/24/2026 at 4:57 PM, RussianNeofit said:

Hello, brothers and sisters! I’m a young man from Russia, and I’ve recently become very interested in the restored gospel and the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Could you please help me learn more and share your insights? I’d really love to understand your faith better. 

Welcome!

Are there particular teachings of the LDS Church that you are drawn to?  There are people here with many decades of experience in or with the LDS Church and we still find various topics to be quite interesting. 

Edited Monday at 01:00 AM by manol

[longview]

17 hours ago, Calm said:

Are you being snide?

Just teasing.

17 hours ago, Calm said:

Or do you know of a real place with that name?

There is an interesting piece of history (from the wiki) - - -

Quote

A Potemkin village^[a] (Russian: [pɐˈtʲɵmkʲɪn]) is a construction, literal or figurative, that provides a façade to a situation, to make people believe that the situation is better than it actually is.

The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built by Grigory Potemkin, a field marshal and former lover of Catherine the Great, to impress the Empress during her visit to Crimea in 1787.^[1] Modern historians agree that accounts of this portable village are exaggerated. The original story was that Potemkin erected phony portable settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the Russian Empress and foreign guests. The structures would be disassembled after she passed, and re-assembled farther along her route to be seen again.

Because of a newly painted façade, the whole building looks as if it has been reconstructed, although the rest is still in decay (castle brewery in Kolín, Czech Republic).