BTW, I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit, and there are a lot of brilliant engineers there.
US was, and still is much more free country than Russia.
>BTW, I think modern day Russia is pretty epic to visit, and there are a lot of brilliant engineers there.
Unfortunately most of the engineers emigrated to US or other European countries after break up of Soviet Union. Right now, science in Russia is only remnants of the past glory. Russia has declined a lot since the break up of Soviet Union. During Soviet Union, life sucked but there was huge amounts of research, and Russian engineering, chess and mathematics were as good as US counterparts.
During Revolution, most Russian intelligentsia either escaped to the west or got shot. By providing free education, Soviet Union steadily re-build the class. But when Soviet Union fell apart there was a huge brain drain. All the good scientists moved to the West. In Russia, it is much more profitable to be a criminal and steal from the people instead of contributing anything something.
Before, Russia was a country run by crazy, paranoid government, and now it is a country run by criminals.
I recently went to an ACM ICPC practice week in Zurich. The teams present were mostly evenly matched, except for the Russians. They kicked ass completely. They won every single day by a long way.
Incidentally, he was on the team finishing in 2nd place in 1998 ACM finals.
It is, but as an old joke goes - just make sure to not confuse tourism for immigration.