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.
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.