>>7056624There's not really many castles in Russia, plenty of fortresses, monasteries, and old mansions. I am on my 2nd year of studying Russian in college, and my teacher (who is from Vladivostok) said that during the USSR days much of the aristocracy lost their possessions and had them transferred to the state, where they mostly fell into either disuse or disrepair, or used by the Communist leadership.
She talks a lot about the crazy stuff back in the Soviet days, she was given 6 weeks training with an AK-74 in high school in the 80s, as well as nuclear war scenario drills. She had also never tasted a chocolate chip cookie that had sugar until she was in her 20s due to strict rationing, farming rules, and extremely strict import laws in her region, they wouldn't even let some stuff from China thru the border back then. Russians are strong people though, especially those from Soviet days, resilient, they can survive on grass and tree bark in the freezing taiga if they needed to.
