Is it about having enough nukes to ruin the world? Or taking up a lot of territory? Or do they just never question the assumption that they are a superpower?
I suppose the Russian answer would be something like: we had the first man in space (and the first woman in space), we have nukes, look at these beautiful photos of Moscow, have you ever heard about Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Mendeleev, Kolmogorov… (continues for 10 minutes)
Neither can I, but it is hard to distinguish whether this is a fact about Russia or about my knowledge. I mostly know the famous people from textbooks, and it takes some time to get into a textbook, and I am no longer a student so I probably wouldn’t know anyway.
Russian military might. They have been hearing it all their lives: learning about historical victories, watching movies about it on the TV, seeing the victory parade every 8th of May...
And they can point to the map, and show that Russia being the largest country by territory is proof enough. Hell, even most of the world believed it until March.
Oh, I just realized I was answering a different question: why might someone with my knowledge consider Russia a superpower. But the question was about why Russians would...
That makes it much easier. I assume that an average Russian does not know many things. Such as, what is it like to live in EU or USA. Or the fact that Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany in WW2 only because it received a lot of help from the West. (Quite likely, they never heard about Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.)
I tried to find information how many Russians speak English (as a proxy for “can talk to foreigners online”) but everyone gives a different number. I assume that most of them get some introductory lesson at school, but only a few achieve fluency. Notice how Russia has their own search engine (Yandex), and social network (VKontakte). I suspect that communication with foreigners is probably quite rare for most Russians.
So, I guess, if you spend all your life in Russia, and if your information about Russia and its relative position in the world mostly comes from government-approved TV channels and news… then it is quite easy to assume that Russia is a superpower in all possible dimensions! Only its military is merely the second strongest in the world, otherwise you couldn’t explain why you still haven’t defeated USA.
I think this is false. It’s more likely that average arguing-in-Internet Russian tells you that Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was lesser evil after Munich Agreement.
I assume that most of them get some introductory lesson at school, but only a few achieve fluency.
English is a mandatory subject for all 11 years in all schools, but yes, fluency is uncommon.
I suspect that communication with foreigners is probably quite rare for most Russians.
True.
So, I guess, if you spend all your life in Russia, and if your information about Russia and its relative position in the world mostly comes from government-approved TV channels and news… then it is quite easy to assume that Russia is a superpower in all possible dimensions! Only its military is merely the second strongest in the world, otherwise you couldn’t explain why you still haven’t defeated USA.
Does the version taught at schools say that Soviet Union came to help Poland after it was attacked by the Nazis? If I remember correctly, that used to be the official version during communism.
(Like “yes, we had the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means; we never intended to attack anyone together, we just tried to dissuade Hitler from attacking us”.)
Does the version taught at schools say that Soviet Union came to help Poland after it was attacked by the Nazis?
No.
we never intended to attack anyone together, we just tried to dissuade Hitler from attacking us
Sort of? It’s like “Stalin knew that there will be war against Germany, so he had to choose either an earlier war with an initial front further east or a later war with an initial front further west”.
Is it some mix of the size of the economy and the population size? Is that a good proxy for military strength? It’s not quite solely about economy yet.
I just realized that I have never taken the expression “superpower” literally, to only be about military strength. I have always just assumed the it also involve cultural and technological influence, and in general “how much do you contribute to the world”. This is probably because I started from the assumption that the US was the only superpower, and then I extrapolated from that.
If you take superpower to just mean the amount of military pressure you can put on other countries, it does make a bit more sense.
What do Russians think it takes to be a superpower?!
Their economy is below South Korea and Italy and is not even in the world top 10. https://www.worlddata.info/largest-economies.php
Their best university is number 78 on a world ranking. Their second best is 242. In comparison, the US have 5 universities on top 10. https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2022
Is it about having enough nukes to ruin the world? Or taking up a lot of territory? Or do they just never question the assumption that they are a superpower?
Edit: Added later: Their population size is only the 9th largest, below e.g. Bangladesh and Nigeria. https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries
I suppose the Russian answer would be something like: we had the first man in space (and the first woman in space), we have nukes, look at these beautiful photos of Moscow, have you ever heard about Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky, Mendeleev, Kolmogorov… (continues for 10 minutes)
Sure, Russia used to be technological and cultural superpower. I just can’t think of any similar examples from Putin’s time.
Neither can I, but it is hard to distinguish whether this is a fact about Russia or about my knowledge. I mostly know the famous people from textbooks, and it takes some time to get into a textbook, and I am no longer a student so I probably wouldn’t know anyway.
If “Putin’s time” means “after 2000″, according to Wikipedia this gives us: superconducting nanowire single-photon detector, moscovium, Nginx web server, graphene, orbitrap, oganesson, discovery of Denisovans, Chatroulette, tennessine—for science. (Evaluating culture would be more subjective.) Trying to guess what will feel important a few decades later, probably the graphene and Denisovans.
Russian military might. They have been hearing it all their lives:
learning about historical victories, watching movies about it on the TV, seeing the victory parade every 8th of May...
And they can point to the map, and show that Russia being the largest country by territory is proof enough.
Hell, even most of the world believed it until March.
Oh, I just realized I was answering a different question: why might someone with my knowledge consider Russia a superpower. But the question was about why Russians would...
That makes it much easier. I assume that an average Russian does not know many things. Such as, what is it like to live in EU or USA. Or the fact that Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany in WW2 only because it received a lot of help from the West. (Quite likely, they never heard about Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.)
I tried to find information how many Russians speak English (as a proxy for “can talk to foreigners online”) but everyone gives a different number. I assume that most of them get some introductory lesson at school, but only a few achieve fluency. Notice how Russia has their own search engine (Yandex), and social network (VKontakte). I suspect that communication with foreigners is probably quite rare for most Russians.
So, I guess, if you spend all your life in Russia, and if your information about Russia and its relative position in the world mostly comes from government-approved TV channels and news… then it is quite easy to assume that Russia is a superpower in all possible dimensions! Only its military is merely the second strongest in the world, otherwise you couldn’t explain why you still haven’t defeated USA.
(I’m Russian)
I think this is false. It’s more likely that average arguing-in-Internet Russian tells you that Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was lesser evil after Munich Agreement.
English is a mandatory subject for all 11 years in all schools, but yes, fluency is uncommon.
True.
Mostly true, I think.
Does the version taught at schools say that Soviet Union came to help Poland after it was attacked by the Nazis? If I remember correctly, that used to be the official version during communism.
(Like “yes, we had the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but it doesn’t mean what you think it means; we never intended to attack anyone together, we just tried to dissuade Hitler from attacking us”.)
(Just checked)
No.
Sort of? It’s like “Stalin knew that there will be war against Germany, so he had to choose either an earlier war with an initial front further east or a later war with an initial front further west”.
Is it some mix of the size of the economy and the population size? Is that a good proxy for military strength? It’s not quite solely about economy yet.
I just realized that I have never taken the expression “superpower” literally, to only be about military strength. I have always just assumed the it also involve cultural and technological influence, and in general “how much do you contribute to the world”. This is probably because I started from the assumption that the US was the only superpower, and then I extrapolated from that.
If you take superpower to just mean the amount of military pressure you can put on other countries, it does make a bit more sense.