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[Lectorog]

US here. My high school had a mandatory World History class; it had a considerable amount about Russian history. IIRC, the teacher did a good job of being neutral in teachings, so it was a pretty wide array of historical information. Started at the "beginning of time," went up until about the 1970s. Good class. So I know all (that I remember) about the Russian revolutions, and similar things presented in the song.

On another note, this song inspired me to play Tetris for a few hours. That free online Tetris, with the bright colors. My eyes were pretty screwed up afterward.

[Duuvian]

That was the first time I saw it and it was absolutely amazing. That was an exceptional work of art and it was absolutely beautiful.

[K41N]

Germany here. They didn't teach us about Russia. Most of the history classes were focused around WWII and the after war era as far as I can remember. Oh yeah, and the French Revolution. Can't remember much, though.

[Duuvian]

In Michigan the teaching style was like a wikipedia article for each historical event, if that makes sense. As far as I can tell, it's been accurate. They even had the grace to not tell me about the Michigan-Ohio war which I didn't learn about until I was older.

[quinnr]

In Michigan the teaching style was like a wikipedia article for each historical event, if that makes sense. As far as I can tell, it's been accurate. They even had the grace to not tell me about the Michigan-Ohio war which I didn't learn about until I was older.

There was a war between Michigan and Ohio? My mother was born and raised in Michigan, and I've never gotten the hate for Ohio. Now I know why the dislike of Ohio was passed down through generations.

[Duuvian]

It was a terrible war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Ohio_War

[RedKing]

I've seen Michigan-Ohio football games that were more violent than that. 

Cold War was still on when I did my public school learning, so yeah....not a lot about Russian history, and most of it was "Russia was just another European kingdom with a royal family and all, until 1917 when Bolshevik terrorists materialized out of thin air, massacred the Czar and his family, and have held the whole country in an iron grip of terror ever since. Also, it's very big and cold, and they all wear funny fur hats and drink vodka all the time. And they wait in line for toilet paper."

When I pointed out that we were on the same side in WWII, the teacher really couldn't give much of an explanation other than "Well, the Nazis were worse than the Commies. But just barely."

I took some heat as early as 1st grade for the fact that half my great-grandparents came from Russia (even though they were ethnic Germans, something I didn't know at the time). I was actually proud of that, and pretty defiant in my mistaken Russian-ness. Although when we were on the playground, it meant I was automatically on the "bad guys" team. I used to daydream of a future where the US and USSR were allies against...I dunno, the Chinese or aliens or something. And I was the linchpin: half-American, half-Russian, half-cyborg and all badass. 

[Duuvian]

Cold War was still on when I did my public school learning, so yeah....not a lot about Russian history, and most of it was "Russia was just another European kingdom with a royal family and all, until 1917 when Bolshevik terrorists materialized out of thin air, massacred the Czar and his family, and have held the whole country in an iron grip of terror ever since. Also, it's very big and cold, and they all wear funny fur hats and drink vodka all the time. And they wait in line for toilet paper."

That's pretty close to what I had read, although being post fall of the Soviets it went from the gulags to the missile crisis and U2 spy stuff up to the fall of the wall and how President Reagan broke it down through what must have been sheer force of will and charisma.

There was probably a paragraph or two about Solidarity in there somewhere, but they mostly pinned it on Reagan if I remember correctly. It was during the Clinton years and we had gotten new Social Studies books that year, which was nice because the old ones were very old and outdated.