Post #3. A place special for me.

It might be very strange and weird, but a place that is special for me is Moscow Metro. I would like firstly to explain such a unusual choice and then write more description of it.

Since I was 13 I have used Moscow subway almost everyday in the means of transport. Every time I went for a walk with my friends or to some event I used the subway, it connected my school, my home and university. Also, last year I was spending two hours every Friday on the station finishing my homework for Social studies teacher, as it was too cold outside. Separately, I was always interested in any transport systems so I have spent many hours learning how does subway work.

Let me describe Moscow subway a bit. It is very huge system, with many different objects as stations, tunnels, collectors, crossovers and so on. Metro have been built since 1935 so the style and technology of constructing varied. For instance, the first stations(13 stations, from Culture Park to Sokolnyky on red line, and from Smolenskaya to Alexander's Garden on light blue line) were built not so deep, they have quite simple style. The stations built from 1940 to 1960 are the most impressive. They are just gorgeous, with mosaics, paintings and sculptures. Located quite deep underground, these stations have high halls and wide platforms. Now there are mainly located on circle line. The next "generation" of stations was opened in period from 1962 to 1980. In my point of view, these are the ugliest. Completely no design, dirty walls, thick columns, unnoticeable exits to the ground. Actually, I do not know why designers failed to create nice stations in this period. The next period was from 1980 to 1990-s. It is mainly stations of grey line and some from others. They are the most comfortable and appeal for me: simple but strict design, soft lighting, reasonable size, well-located exits, clean platforms. Maybe I like them the most because I live near one of these stations. And the most interesting stations are contemporary one's. Designers today managed to combine modern elements with old style design methods. For instance, station Slovenian Boulevard, opened in mid-2000's has many beautiful sculptures and decorative elements, however it also has modern lights and other elements. I would shortly describe modern stations as a great example of contemporary art.

Subway also sounds uniquely. It's always full of noise generated by people and trains. Moscow Metro is known as the loudest in the world. But with time, you get used to this noise and do not pay attention to it.

Also, subway has a very special smell. It is so special, that I can not even describe it, like you can not describe the smell of mint, for example. That smell became just essential to me, it is neither pleasant nor unpleasant smell - just smell of the subway. 

Post #2. A piece of thoughts about some senseless politics

Hello everybody,

Firstly, I would like to point out that I have started numbering my posts as it would be easier to navigate throug them in the future. Hope it will really help.

This week I would like to talk about politics a bit. If you do not know already, "The March of Millions" was held 15th September in Moscow. It was organised by Russian off-system opposition forces, which was lead by the organisation known as CVK or CCO(Coordinational Council of Opposition) and also by the official opposition(such policital parties as CPRF, LDPR and FR). However, there is a very strange observation I made: there is no single list of things which people prosesting want to change except one: they want United Russia and current goverment to leave the chambers of Kremlin and State Duma(Parliament).

Every single group create their own lobby, which want its own ways of solving problems to be applied. For instance, Communist Party's goal is nationalizing heavy, oil and gas industries, to establish higher control rules over market-based economy, though some liberal guys like Navaliny want to deny any pressure on markets at all.

So, we are facing a paradox. How could such a different people unite together? Remember Russian Empire just before its fall. In 1916-1917 there was a wide spectrum of policital forces, from radical left to right, and they had never got united together. In February 1917, the Revolution was made only by worker class with support of liberals. In oppose, in October that year, Great October Revolution was made only by communists, and, much more, it was against liberals.

Thus there should be another factor which unites different oppositional forces today. I have some thoughts about it too. I decide that there is some lobby standing behind all that. We do not know those people, but they are definitely very powerful and wealthy. Of course, all oppositional movements were planned long before took place in real life. I remember one thing that could be an argument for that. Let me take oppositional movement "White Curve" which *unites* pepole, who do not suppot current government(read:opposition). That movement appeared in February 2012, however, the domain name for movement's website was registered in early 2011 by unknown registrator from offshore country(I do not remember exactly, something like Micronesia Islands in Pacific). So it was planned, months before, and idea did not appeared occasionally inside opposition groups.

In conclusion, I would say that I do not support both sides, neither the system, nor opposition. I just want a brighter future for Russia and am going to help my country live better.

Again, I will be very grateful if you write your opinion on this.

Hello, World!

Hello all,
I am happy to introduce all my future blog readers here. I suppose I will make about 2-3 posts on different topics and issues pro week.

Firstly, I suppose I need to tell you some things about myself. Let me give a short biography. So, my name is Alexander, and at the moment I am sixteen years old. I was born in Moscow and have lived here since the present moment. At 6 years, I have gone to school, which profile is foreign languages. So I am quite good at English and know some German. I started thinking about future economic education a few years ago, because I realized that those things are really interesting for me. To enroll to HSE-NES programm I had to work hard in the last academic year. Hopefully, I passed all the state exams with good grades and applied here.

My scope of intrests is very wide and includes not only economical and financial issues. When a few years ago I should had whether choose economical or other profile, I was seriously thinking of becoming a specialist in Comuter Sciences. Now computers and other technical things are my main hobby. Also, I am interested in such things as polictics, international relations, contemporary history, transport systems, psychology and so on. I think I will write about all the scopes of interests in future posts.

I just want to tell about music separately here. I am very fond of good music, especially of rock and sub-metal genres. In the result of it, I even bought the guitar a couple of months ago and started learning to play it by myself. There are some progress in it, as my playing friends say.

I am glad that I was given a chance to attend English Academic Writing course. Writing critical and other narratives in English is a weak point of mine. In school, we spent a lot of time on reading, listening and vocabulary and less on writing and speaking. Personally, I would like to notice that I also sometimes have a psyhological barrier that makes it hard for me to speak. I hope that in class we will spend a great deal of time on speaking too. Of course, writings are not less important. However, I am very sure that everything will be good as I already have a great teacher, David Atterberry, and very nice group. For me, it is real pleasure to attend lessons and to work there.

So, I hope you have enjoyed reading my first post. It will be awesome, if you give some feedback in the comments.