[bleh123]

Personally, i found the series on HBO to have been poorly researched and even more poorly delivered in execution.

A whole part of dealing with Russians as well as a large part of how their policies are shaped can be understood through culture. The characteristic bent in mannerisms that value "honor", "masculinity", less emphasis on the exact and more on "estimates" while working through problems etc. Most people who've dealt with the Russians will agree, that this series came across as British propaganda, badly inserting their societal structures to communicate the events flowing in another, completely different structure. The main character looked like a poor Austin Powers impersonator playing a Russian.

As an example, the Female Scientist, Ulana . . i have no problem with the producers exercising creative freedom to designate her character as the substitute for the hundreds of other scientists who worked on the project, but in doing so, wildly misrepresented the role of women in Russian society during those times.

The choice of English as a language itself . . fine. What the producers can't seem to grasp is the delivery of Russian is aggressive. You don't make statements in tense situations with the British smooth tongue. That does not serve the understanding of the situations during those times very well.

I could go on about the sheer lack of patriotism displayed by any of the main characters to the point where it felt as though it was forbidden when in reality, anyone who's lived through those times and interacted informally with these people knows the opposite is true, but i repeat myself.

[stargazer-3]

>> wildly misrepresented the role of women in Russian society during those times

Women were better represented in USSR's STEM fields that in the US. For example, Between 1962 and 1964, women were awarded 40 percent of the chemistry PhD, while in the US that number was five percent [1].

I recently went to see my grandmother, and she showed me her Physics collage graduation pics - there was only one man in their class of ten students. And no, it was not due to WWII raising women/men ratio - born in the 30-ies her generation was too young to be drafted.

[1]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/soviet-russia-had-...

[notdang]

You keep repeating "Russian". It happened in USSR. Chernobyl is in Ukraine. USSR was not only Russia, but 14 more republics that are more or less independent countries now.

[hartator]

Specially when the comment main point is historical accuracy, but can’t remember the name of country at that time.

[Mikeb85]

Ukrainian culture and Russian culture are mostly the same (at least anywhere east of Galicia and west of Siberia), so it's not as if his points are suddenly moot.

This is splitting hairs, especially considering Ukraine still wasn't a country yet.

[ceejayoz]

> This is splitting hairs, especially considering Ukraine still wasn't a country yet.

Sure it was.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Soviet_Socialist_Rep...

> The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was a Founding Member of the UN. On 24 August 1991, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic informed the UN that it had changed its name to Ukraine; see the Historical Information from the UN Treaty Collection.

https://www.un.org/depts/dhl/unms/ukraine.shtml

[mantas]

Do you need a country to be a different culture? I guess Tibet has no different culture than Han Chinese since they don't have their own country, eh?

[Mikeb85]

Except the cultures are almost identical. Same religion, same food, same social norms and customs, same naming conventions, the two languages are mutually intelligible, most Ukrainians also speak Russian, hell even genetically they're almost the same (like I said, east of Galicia and west of Siberia).

I grew up in a Ukrainian-Canadian family, there was no animosity towards Russians whatsoever until the Orange Revolution and the fallout from that... They literally went to the same churches, did all the same things, it was objectively speaking the same culture.

[notfromhere]

Pretty sure chernobyl is a great example of why machismo culture in decision structures lead to dumb decision-making all the way down.

But you're really wrong about the representation of women; sure the social norms were very conservative towards women, but they were very well represented in male-dominated fields.

As one of those Slavs, it's not some inherent cultural strain, it's just the result of hardheaded authoritarianism and the rigidity of authoritarian systems when faced with the reality that they are wrong.

[vl]

My exact sentiment about The Game of Thrones.