You were telling about cultures worth preserving - and by your definition, most of the cultures you list were not worth preserving and should have become extinct. Good thing that they were preserved even through the worst of times.
Allero
About half of these countries were militaristic authoritarianist shitholes, some even not that long ago by historical measures. All of them had some shameful moments in history.
Yet, all these cultures have proliferated, and you consider them worthy of studying. Same idea here. Give it time.
True lol
But figuring out just how much "u" you need to write, or how many are there, is a bit tedious without the language experience.
Name me one major culture that was not poisoned by dictatorship, misinformation, and hate.
They all are. Our duty is to take the best of each.
You need to Polish your joke a little
A casual reminder that Slavs are a diverse group of people not united by the same ideas and political agenda.
If your worry is association with Russia specifically, several Slavic countries are actively anti-Russia and are parts of NATO.
Ukraine is Slavic, too.
I mean, actual Russians are native Russian speakers and majority sees through Chekist bullshit, so this checks out!
Shout out to Interslavic! This is a language that is comprised of common words and roots from all Slavic languages, all united under consistent rules.
Learning it will enable you to understand all Slavs to a good degree, and they will in turn understand you very well.
Knowing 2 Slavic languages (3 if we count basic Czech), I can confirm it works.
Russian culture spans way beyond whatever Putin's currently doing, and has given the world an immense cultural, scientific, historic heritage.
Trying to cancel and destroy Russian culture is akin to destroying German culture and heritage just because one German dude with a weird moustache decided to start Holocaust.
Would be a tragedy to lose either.
As a Russian myself, it depends.
Do you want to explore classic Russian literature without translation losses? Explore the cultural ties of Russians and how language and culture affects history and politics? Figure out what Russian politicians are saying? Hang out with Russians somewhere? Are a proud pirate looking for Russian resources? Finally figure out how to write the word "лишишься" in cursive?
If at least one answer is "yes", go ahead! It's not easy, but quite rewarding. If you just want to dip your toes a little, however, and feel like you grasp something, there are better options.
Loss meme reference
The classic ones are "шиншилла" and "лишишься", although the latter could be extended to "лишившийся". 11 of the same strokes for the latter, if my calcultations are correct.