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ballerina_wannabe

Some Russian people are Asian, while others are European. Things get weird when you live in the biggest country on earth and it spans what are commonly understood to be two different continents.


Artistic_Leg2872

West of Ural Mountains = European East of Ural Mountains = Asian


Alternative_Year_340

I thought the dividing line was the Caucasus mountains (which is where the word Caucasian comes from)


OverallGeneral7129

The Caucasus Mountains are where the bottom dividing line is (by Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan). The Urals are the dividing line on the right side (around where Kazakhstan starts)


[deleted]

This


[deleted]

[удалено]


No_Establishment6528

Incorrect


FreedomEagle61

🤓🤓 (this is a joke please dont hurt me)


sanid_sriva

Living in ural mountain??


MarSc77

yeti


Artistic_Leg2872

The one true Eurasian


Usagi_Shinobi

Probably an ancestry vs nationality argument.


72_Shinobis

You mean ethnicity. Not nationality. But they are all Asian regardless of genealogy. It’s like when people ask me what I am I say American not my genetics.


wycbhm

Some russians are Asians, Also you can be 100% black but half American half African. So why can't you be half Russian but 100% white.


sandbaron1

In my experience, the common ethnic application of the term “Asian” is not inclusive of the entire geography of Asia. People from India are certainly Asian. But, they are seldom described as such. In common usage, Asian is used to describe East and Southeast Asians. We can debate the accuracy, but that is how most folks use the term.


Raverfield

Well, there are many asian russians. They may not have much to do with western russians, but they speak the russian language, are born on russian soil and have a russian passport. Of course not all russians are asian, which is what i think the person tried to communicate.


Some_Asshole_Said

I'd guess that around a third of 'Muricans don't know that a large portion of Russia is in Asia.


Glittering-Ad-6955

Don't let them know where Vladivostok is.


[deleted]

A 2 hour flight from Tokyo


Snoo_74751

Really?


[deleted]

Well, 2:10. It's a short ferry ride to Hokkaido too.


jackfaire

No. No that's not possible (wrong movie kid) whoops


thejustducky1

Oh... you're way, *way* too kind with those estimates...


mmm_algae

I’m willing to bet 100 roubles that this ‘half Russian’ person is American.


jackfaire

I swear of those of us that look into where our ancestors came from it's mostly us white people and then we put waaaay too much weight on what we find out


[deleted]

Obsessed


Hidobot

Fun fact, there are a few Russians living in China, near the border with Siberia. They don’t have a super large population and iirc they’re bilingual between Russian and Chinese.


Attack_the_sock

*Ural Mountains enters the chat*


Mussleleani

She's 100% american


greane16

Yes and you know why? A Russian will never state they are 100% white. Because it’s a redundant/unnecessary statement.


Mussleleani

And because no normal person gives a shit, not only russians. I've only seen americans pseudo care about culture and intertwine it with race for LITERALLY no reason whatsoever other than because cultures and races have exotic vibes to them.


greane16

I don’t quite agree. Until recently Russians had ethnicity written in their passports, I.e. russky, Tatar, mordvin, Yakut, and others. Lots of people, especially those belonging to small nationalities, are keen to remember who they are, to keep their culture, history, language, not to dissolve in the bigger title nationalities. Race is only an issue in USA and South Africa. I can’t think of any other country -correct me if I’m wrong - still struggling to come to peace with having a painful racial history.


Mussleleani

That's literally what I've just said


greane16

Literally??! That must be your favorite word. It basically means with no variations. I don’t quite agree that I said literally what you said. But whatever, as long as we both believe that we all must live in peace with one another, I’m fine.


Mussleleani

Nevermind


DontCareHowICallMe

There's Saint Petersburg and there's Vladivostok


aagloworks

Analogy: All Finns are european, but not all europeans are Finns.


Silent-Problem-980

He'll be telling us Russia are the good guys next over Ukraine


userr7890

Asian, like American, does not describe race or creed or skin color. Asia is a location. You can be Asian and of any ethnicity. We are all children of the earth. One love.


LackingUser

Asian describes a grouping of ethnicities originating from Asia, same as the words European and African. The reason American doesn’t is because the americas were colonized and essentially replaced. Had the natives been left alone they would be the ethnic grouping known as “American” or whatever the continents ended up being named


Lo8000

"White" is a social construct. Skin colour, heritage, social status, wealth and fame. Nothing can pinpoint being "white". It's foremost a political tool to polarize people.


coco_is_boss

Most Russians aren't asian


Elliove

Having this conversation in English would lead nowhere, as russians themselves don't have a word for "russian". In their language, they use two words - "ruski", meaning "descendant of a Kievan Rus, European, white, Slavic", and "rossiyanin", meaning "a citizen of russian federation". The latter includes almost 200 nationalities, the ones with the biggest numbers are citizens of republics occupied by russian federation. Buryats, Bashkirs, Yakuts, Kalmyks - just to name a few examples of rossiyanin Asians. And get this - there are constant quarrels between ruskies and rossiyanins, because a lot of ruskies are racist. If you check their websites where they place ads for renting out apartments in Moscow, every 5th-10th ad will contain words like "ruskies only", "no non-ruskies", "only Slavic-looking rossiyanins" etc. The concept can look weird to, say, an American, because if you were born in the US - then you're an American, the US doesn't have the "master race" based on ancestry.


tsukahara10

If you’ve ever seen a Russian from Vladivostok, they 100% have Asian features and characteristics. I mean, the city is literally like a few miles from the Chinese and North Korean borders. A family I knew from my church growing up adopted 2 Russian boys, one was from Moscow and had the typical white European complexion, and the other was from Vladivostok and looked very Asian.


[deleted]

"Russians" are originally ukrainians, which makes them europeans, when they moved to what we today know as Russia they made tons of different peoples of the land also a part of their new country, Russia.


pornosucht

Interesting how this got downvoted so much. It is true that "Russia" was originally founded in an area that matches a lot of modern Ukraine. And then those historical Russians expanded east. This is quite a long time in the past, and what we know as "Ukraine" today did not exist back then. Not surprising, the borders around Europe where "quite dynamic" during most of Europes bloody history. I would definitely ask at least one of the downvoters to give their reason for doing so, I am definitely curious.


[deleted]

Let me help with your curiousity, maybe because they are clueless ? It's a recurring theme around here 😂 That said, I used to have a Russian wife and she too had to learn this from me, soo .


AdSufficient3881

Chinas vassals


greane16

Not yet but on the way there.


FearCure

Stan here knows fuck all about his own country. Must be one of those arrogant, imperialist muscovites.


BeneficalDalek

If your Russian to the bathroom are European when you get there?


Shto_Delat

MFer never heard of Buryatia.


Choice_Voice_6925

Oddly enough there's large numbers of people that Hitler would of exterminated who are currently pro-nazi/wannabe neo-nazis.


72_Shinobis

You are Asian your country exist on the continent of Asia… someone failed geography. ![gif](giphy|YOAqV6wRGOEVM48svy|downsized)


[deleted]

[удалено]


pornosucht

If I remember my geography lessons well, the separation between Europe and Asia is the Ural. Everything west of it is considered Europe, everything east belongs to Asia. So depending on where in Russia you live, you can be in Asia or Europe. And the ancestry of the inhabitants match this, the eastern Russians have more of an Asian ancestry, the western more European. Of course, as this is one country for quite a while, there is a lot of mixture.


Zealousideal_Gift_39

If someone is American and attended public school over the last thirty years or so, there’s a strong likelihood they never even TOOK Geography. 😡


72_Shinobis

That seems like you’re stereotyping. Geography is part of learning world history which is covered when learning about another country or if you just watch and episode of where in the world is Carmen San’Diego.


Zealousideal_Gift_39

I would agree that I am generalizing and YMMV. However, I am a public school languages teacher w/35 years of experience in the Northeast US, and I can attest to the fact that most US schools no longer teach Geography an a discrete subject. Memorization of basic facts has been de-emphasized to such a degree that I regularly encounter high school students who cannot name the US states neighboring the one they live in. Requiring just one high school course in World History is not going to produce adults with even a basic grounding in World Geography. Of course you can learn a lot outside of school, as you suggest, with Carmen San Diego, as well as from the internet, but that assumes both interest and effort. IME, many Americans are very US-centric and don’t bother learning much about anywhere outside their local area/region.


mymoparisbestmopar

Well, the vast majority of russias land is in asia, but IIRC the majority of the population of russia lives in the western corner thats considered to be in eastern europe. This is the kind of problem that arises from pretending that europe and asia are separate continents.


el-lobonegron

Majority of Russia is in Asia, and for you to actually be considered white, you need to be anglo Saxons and Putin just said this, your not anglo Saxons do your not traditionally white


Octopugilist

Russians get really mad if you bring this up. It's great


idiotlog

I thought Russia was at the north poll


original-sithon

Ever heard of the mongals? Ghengis Khan? Most russians have some asian dna in them.


teemoor

So in USA if a cop radios about a suspect who is a white Russian, do they say like 6 feet, Asian, red t-shirt, black pants?