In general, mentality is the prevailing schemes, stereotypes and patterns of thinking. Russians are not necessarily Russians. An individual may be proud of being a “Cossack”, “Bashkir” or “Jew” within Russia, but outside its borders all Russians (past and present) are traditionally called (regardless of origin) Russians. There are reasons for this: as a rule, they all have similarities in their mentality and behavioral patterns.
Russians have something to be proud of, we have a huge and strong country, we have talented people and deep literature, while we ourselves know our own weaknesses. If we want to become better, we must know them.
So, let's look at ourselves from the outside, namely from the outside strictly scientific research. What cultural researchers note as specific features Russian mentality?
1. Sobornost, the primacy of the general over the personal: “we are all our own,” we have everything in common and “what will people say.” Conciliarity results in the absence of the concept of privacy and the opportunity for any neighbor’s grandmother to intervene and tell you everything she thinks about your clothes, manners and the upbringing of your children.
From the same opera, the concepts of “public” and “collective”, which are absent in the West. “The opinion of the collective”, “don’t separate from the team”, “what will people say?” - conciliarity in pure form. On the other hand, they will tell you if your tag is sticking out, your shoelace is untied, your pants are stained, or your grocery bag is torn. And also - they flash their headlights on the road to warn about the traffic police and save you from a fine.
2. The desire to live in truth. The term "pravda", often found in ancient Russian sources, means legal norms, on the basis of which the trial was carried out (hence the expressions “to judge the right” or “to judge in truth”, that is, objectively, fairly). Sources of codification - customary law, princely judicial practice, as well as borrowed norms from authoritative sources - primarily the Holy Scriptures.
Outside Russian culture more often they talk about law-abidingness, rules of decency, or following religious commandments. In the Eastern mentality, Truth is not talked about; in China, it is important to live according to the precepts left by Confucius.
3. When choosing between reason and feeling, Russians choose feeling: sincerity and sincerity. In the Russian mentality, “expediency” is practically synonymous with selfish, selfish behavior and is not held in high esteem, like something “American.” It is difficult for the average Russian citizen to imagine that one can act intelligently and consciously not only for oneself, but also for the sake of someone, therefore selfless actions are identified with actions “from the heart,” based on feelings, without the head.
Russian - dislike of discipline and methodicality, life according to one's soul and mood, change of mood from peacefulness, forgiveness and humility to merciless rebellion to complete destruction - and vice versa. The Russian mentality lives rather according to the female model: feeling, gentleness, forgiveness, reacting with crying and rage to the consequences of such a life strategy.
4. A certain negativism: most Russians more often see flaws in themselves rather than virtues. Abroad, if a person accidentally touches another person on the street, the standard reaction of almost everyone is “Sorry,” an apology and a smile. That's how they were raised. It’s sad that in Russia such patterns are more negative, here you can hear “Well, where are you looking?”, and something more harsh. Russians understand well what melancholy is, despite the fact that this word is untranslatable to others European languages. On the streets, it is not customary for us to smile, look into the faces of others, make indecent acquaintances, or simply start talking.
5. A smile in Russian communication is not a mandatory attribute of politeness. In the West, the more a person smiles, the more polite he is. In traditional Russian communication, priority is given to the requirement of sincerity. A smile among Russians demonstrates a personal affection for another person, which, naturally, does not apply to everyone. Therefore, if a person smiles not from the heart, it causes rejection.
You can ask for help - most likely they will help. It's normal to beg for both a cigarette and money. Man with constantly good mood arouses suspicion - either sick or insincere. Anyone who usually smiles affably at others is, if not a foreigner, then, of course, a sycophant. Of course, insincere. He says “Yes”, agrees - a hypocrite. Because a sincere Russian person will definitely disagree and object. And in general, the truest sincerity is when you swear! Then you trust the person!
6. Love of controversy. In Russian communication it is traditional great place are occupied by disputes. Russian people love to argue on a variety of issues, both private and general. Love for debate on global, philosophical issues is a striking feature of Russian communicative behavior.
Russian people are often interested in argument not as a means of finding the truth, but as a mental exercise, as a form of emotional, sincere communication with each other. This is why in Russian communicative culture those arguing so often lose the thread of the argument and easily deviate from the original topic.
At the same time, it is completely uncharacteristic to seek a compromise or to allow the interlocutor to save face. Uncompromisingness and conflict are manifested very clearly: our person is uncomfortable if he did not finish his argument, could not prove that he was right. “As an English teacher formulated this quality: “A Russian always bets to win.” And vice versa, the characteristic “conflict-free” rather has a disapproving connotation, like “spineless”, “unprincipled”.
7. Russian people live by faith in the good that will one day descend from heaven(or simply from above) to the long-suffering Russian land: “Good will definitely defeat evil, but then, someday.” At the same time, his personal position is irresponsible: “Someone will bring us the truth, but not me personally. I can’t do anything myself and I won’t do anything.” For several centuries now, the main enemy of the Russian people has been the state in the form of a serving-punitive class.
8. The “keep your head down” principle. The Russian mentality has a disdainful attitude towards politics and democracy as a form of political structure in which the people are the source and controller of the activities of power. Characteristic is the conviction that people don’t really decide anything anywhere and democracy is a lie and hypocrisy. At the same time, tolerance and habit of lies and hypocrisy of their authorities due to the conviction that it is impossible otherwise.
9. Habit of theft, bribery and deception. The conviction that everyone steals everywhere, and that it is impossible to earn big money honestly. The principle is “if you don’t steal, you don’t live.” Alexander I: “In Russia there is such theft that I’m afraid to go to the dentist - I’ll sit in a chair and they’ll steal my jaw...” Dahl: “Russian people are not afraid of the cross, but they’re afraid of the pestle.”
At the same time, Russians are characterized by a protest attitude towards punishment: punishing for minor violations is not good, somehow petty, it is necessary to “forgive!” will sigh for a long time until he gets angry and starts a pogrom.
10. Following from the previous paragraph characteristic feature Russian mentality - love for freebies. Movies need to be downloaded via torrent, pay for licensed programs - it’s a waste, the dream is the joy of Leni Golubkov in the MMM pyramid. Our fairy tales depict heroes who lie on the stove and eventually receive a kingdom and a sexy queen. Ivan the Fool is strong not because of his hard work, but because of his intelligence, when Pike, Sivka-Burka, Little Humpbacked Horse and other wolves, fish and firebirds do everything for him.
11. Taking care of health is not a value, sports are strange, getting sick is normal, but it is categorically not allowed to abandon the poor, and it is also considered morally unacceptable to leave those who did not care about their health and, as a result, became essentially helpless and disabled. Women look for the rich and successful, but love the poor and sick. “How can he live without me?” - hence codependency as a norm of life.
12. In us, pity takes the place of humanism. If humanism welcomes care for people, placing them on the pedestal of the free, developed, strong man, then pity directs care to the unfortunate and sick. According to statistics from Mail.ru and VTsIOM, helping adults is in fifth place in popularity after helping children, the elderly, animals and environmental problems. People feel more sorry for dogs than for people, and among people, out of a sense of pity, it is more important to support non-viable children, rather than adults who could still live and work.
In the comments to the article, some agree with such a portrait, others accuse the author of Russophobia. No, the author loves Russia and believes in it, having been engaged in educational and educational activities for your country. There are no enemies here and there is no need to look for them here, our task is different: namely, to think about how we can raise our country and raise children - our new citizens.
About the mysterious Russian mentality A lot of words are said, both flattering and not so flattering. The mysterious Russian soul has pleasant traits, but there are also dark, unkind ones. Upon closer examination, a rather ambiguous picture emerges, but looking at it is still interesting and very informative, at least in terms of understanding yourself and the environment in which you grew up.
One of the main Russian character trait believe the primacy of society over the individual. A Russian person feels himself to be a part of society and does not imagine himself outside of it. He is just a grain of sand, a drop in the endless ocean of his brothers. The concept of community goes far beyond the boundaries of a few neighboring houses; it traditionally embraces the entire village. A Russian person is first of all “Lukoshkinsky”, “Tulupkinsky”, “Medvezhansky”, and only after that he is Vasily Stepanovich, Ignat Petrovich and so on.
Positive moment in this approach it is manifested in the ability to very quickly cooperate against a common one, to present a united front against the enemy. Negative is the erasure of one’s own personality, the constant desire to transfer one’s own responsibility to the collective, to the “optery.”
Russian world quite polar, in the consciousness of a Russian person there is “truth” and there is “falsehood”, and there are no half-tones between them. Even the processes of modern globalization still cannot level this line, smooth it out by mixing cultures; our people still try to see the world like a chessboard: there are black ones, there are white ones, and all the fields are clear and square.
Of course, everyone worthy member of society strives to live “in truth”, this term is reflected even in legal documents. One of the first legal documents Kievan Rus it is called “Russian Truth”, it regulated trade relations, inheritance rules, norms of criminal and procedural legislation. He explained how to live in truth.
While with Germans traditionally associated with pedantry, strict adherence to rules, discipline, all this is deeply alien to the Russian person. He is rather inclined to the absence of any discipline, he is more attracted to free spirits, sincerity, he prefers deep feeling to reason. This also sometimes leads to troubles, disorder in everyday life and life in general, but in other cases it can become truly strong point. And certainly living with emotions gives a Russian person much more happiness than blindly following instructions written by someone for him.
Generally written by other people instructions by Russian people are greatly despised. Traditionally, such a feature of mentality has been developed as opposition between oneself and society - the state and governing bodies. The state is perceived as an inevitable evil, as a kind of apparatus of oppression. And man, society, survives and adapts under the conditions of the state. That is why a Russian is not as offended by someone who has directly insulted him as by someone who has entered into a conflict with the state. These have always been called different equivalents modern word“informers” and were considered outright scoundrels, traitors to the people, sellers of Christ.
Okay, I'm sure Russian man, achievable, it exists. Somewhere there, far away, but it is there, and one day it will definitely come. Maybe not in this life, but someday it will happen, appear, come good life. Faith in this warms the Russian people in the darkest times, in war, in famine, in times of revolutions and rebellions. There will definitely be good. And the Russian himself always strives to be a kind person.
On the negative side faith into some higher good that will come one day on its own - personal irresponsibility. The Russian person himself does not consider himself at least to some extent strong enough to bring closer this moment of the descent of good from the heights of heaven, so there is no point in trying. The Russian not only does not take an active part in approaching the hour of victory of good, but does not even think about how to do this.
Love of controversy- another characteristic touch to a person’s portrait. In this, the Russian character echoes the Roman one, in whose culture there was also a sincere popular love for discussions. And in both cultures, an argument is perceived rather not as a way to show off or convince the interlocutor that one is right, but as an intellectual exercise, exercise for the mind and a form of table entertainment. Contrary to popular belief, it is not at all customary to move from words to fists; on the contrary, Russian people are usually quite tolerant of the opinions of others if they do not see in them direct aggression towards themselves.
Attitude to your own health A Russian person definitely doesn’t give a damn. To receive treatment or take care of the condition of your body, to exercise physical culture, is seen by the Russian mentality as a kind of effeminacy and spoiling.
Well, we can’t help but mention extraordinary loyalty of the Russian man to theft and bribery. As already mentioned, opposing oneself to the state, treating it as an enemy, develops a similar attitude towards bribes and theft. From historical information we can conclude that this has been the case at all times.
It is no secret, however, that with time even the mentality of peoples may be changed significantly. After all, it comes not only from geographical location places of residence of the people, but also on many other factors that determine their consciousness. All this gives hope for a brighter future, for eradicating or mitigating the shortcomings of our mentality and manifold strengthening of its advantages.
“Russia is a country with the friendliest people!” This is what they often say about you and me. But let's go outside and look around. Something doesn't look like it, right?
Russians are truly an unusual nation. It seems that only here can absolute indifference coexist with noble responsiveness, and generosity and hospitality with stone faces a la “what are you staring at?”
Psychologists all over the world have been wondering for decades why we Russians are so strange. They immediately remember serfdom, autocratic tsarist power, famine and other sufferings, which, in their opinion, never existed in Europe. Well, you know, after all, everything there, by definition, has been good and beautiful from time immemorial. This is what we think, this is how Europeans themselves try to maintain their image.
American psychologist Nicholas Bright wrote: “The Russians have experienced a lot in the course of their history. But, thanks to the idea of collective empathy, they were able not only to preserve the unity of the national spirit, but also to multiply it, to create an absolute egregor of sincerity, which often borders on the absurd.” Sounds good, although a little alarming, right? Let's remember the main features of the Russian mentality.
We can easily be called rude. Yes, that’s what it is. It costs us nothing to argue and argue with our superiors, without even thinking about the consequences. We will gladly send away the person who accidentally stepped on our foot. In our linguistic arsenal there will always be sarcastic rhymes for any word, and the floweriness and variety of non-literary Russian is simply amazing. It is normal for us to hear rudeness in response to the most innocent request. It’s not very common for us to look into each other’s eyes, just smile or say “hello/thank you” in the store.
At the same time, Russians, as scientists say, live by the “principle of conciliarity.” Simply put, we are always together and stick with each other. It would seem that we don’t care at all about other people’s opinions. But at the same time, we celebrate all holidays, gathering 20 people, and for any reason, be it Plumber’s Day or Easter, we call all our relatives. We are always aware of the personal life of the neighbor from the fifth floor, the saleswoman from the store around the corner, the janitor and anyone else in general. Foreigners simply cannot understand our habit of having hours-long kitchen conversations or telling our story to a random fellow traveler on the bus.
What are we really like in this national dualism? Sincere. We simply do not hide any feelings and emotions. If we are having fun, then to the fullest, if we are angry, then so that the earth trembles and the whole neighborhood hears. We do not hesitate to be lazy and blame the state, God and magnetic storms for all problems. As children, we are not ready to take responsibility and decide something. Instead, we firmly believe that the kid next door has better toys. We are so sincere that we do not want to support advertising patriotism and believe social advertising. We have been talking for years about how bad it is to live in Russia, but we will stand up for our Motherland if even some foreigner speaks badly about it. By the way, about foreigners.
Thinking about the paradoxes of Russian goodwill, I wanted to directly ask residents of other countries how they see us - to look at Russia through the eyes of foreigners? Oddly enough, not as gloomy and harsh as it might seem. For example, a friend of mine, a forty-year-old English rocker, said that we are funny and know how to joke and have fun. But several Americans argued that Russians are very smart, much smarter than many other nations. Travelers, eager to learn about the peculiarities of the Russian mentality and to get to know the mysterious Russian soul, all say that you won’t be left alone in Russia: they will not only show you the way, but also guide you, chat, invite you to visit, gather a whole company and throw a feast in your honor.
Once I had the opportunity to meet a Frenchman who was hitchhiking all the way to Vladivostok, stopping briefly in major cities he really wanted to look at our country from the inside. To a banal question: “And how is it?”, he replied: “It turned out that everything that they write about you on the Internet is not true! It’s a pity, I really wanted to see bears and these hats. Seriously, when I arrived in another city, I didn’t have any plan or ready-made route, what to do and where to go. The people who were ready to shelter me and show me the place where they live were there on their own. Having visited a dozen cities, I realized that I didn’t understand anything. Now I know only one thing: Russia is a cool country!”
So, it turns out that we are not such beeches, right? Yes, we really don't smile too often. By the way, some foreigners also note this. Everything is correct, this happens again because we are too sincere: why, in fact, smile if you don’t want to? If I want to, I’ll definitely smile. At the same time, a European puts on his best smile in the morning and seems to be able to keep a happy face even if a comet falls from the sky. Since childhood, he has memorized phrases like “thank you/okay/sorry.” We do not wear the masks of decency, benevolent politeness and courtesy accepted in “civilized countries.” But does this mean that we are not responsive and friendly?
It is precisely thanks to the same principles of conciliarity and former socialism (which, in essence, has been characteristic of the Russian people from time immemorial) that we have exceptional attention to our neighbors. It does not manifest itself outwardly, because Russian people also have one more trait: we look for a catch in everything. We are so honest people that we immediately begin to suspect something is wrong if the person next to us behaves “untruthfully.” Too much help clearly expects something in return; constantly smiles, sucks up or wants to set him up; The hypocrite agrees on everything! It’s also the case with goodness that we show it only when we really want to, and we help either out of great desire or out of extreme inevitability. Otherwise, in our subconscious, the act of automatic goodness is associated with inanimate stereotypes. But if someone on the street suddenly becomes ill, he will not be left alone; there will certainly be those who will help.
When I was studying at elementary school, I was constantly losing change for travel. My conscience (read “cowardice”) did not allow me to ride like a hare on buses, and I openly asked the drivers to give me a ride either for free or for the penny that I had left. And, you know, I never had to walk: in half the cases they agreed to my request, or some passenger was found willing to pay for me.
But when I was 17 years old, I got stuck late one evening in the city center. Public transport no longer walks, there are 30 rubles in my pocket, the phone, according to the law of the genre, is discharged. It’s far and scary to walk on foot, there are no friends nearby, there’s nothing to ride or anything to ride on, you’re afraid to catch rides, what to do? Not agreeing with the prospect of spending the night on the street, I began to approach people with an innocent question: “Could you lend me a phone to call?” In three out of three cases I was refused. And then I realized: well, of course, they think that I want to rob them! You can’t approach our people with such a question; we even steal sincerely, looking honestly in the eyes. Then I chose a middle-aged woman and honestly explained the situation to her, adding pleading drama. It worked the first time, she helped me call a taxi. She also waited for the car with me to make sure everything was okay.
Why am I saying this? Moreover, we will never leave a person in trouble. But we strive to live in truth, and therefore we must be sure that help is really needed. This is the mentality of the Russian people. We won’t just hand out small change to everyone asking left and right, but if we are convinced that the charitable ruble will be used for its intended purpose, then please at least two. We can be very polite, courteous and cultured. If the mood is good. And it’s not for us to simply waste time on the rules of decency; the Russian person is too lively and real for that.
Remember the words of the American psychologist? Our sincerity does at times border on absurdity. But even though we are always dissatisfied with everything and everyone, we know how to live: swear, break dishes, start fights in queues and buses, celebrate birthdays a month earlier and celebrate a wedding with the whole yard. We know how to laugh and rejoice, help and do good. Russian people are short-sighted: they don’t like to plan anything, save money, look after their health, “invest in the future”; we live in the here and now. And while we are so different from the rest of the world with its culture of behavior, while we behave abroad “like barbarians” and stubbornly defend the rights of a carpet on the wall and a wardrobe that covers the entire wall, our national spirit, that same unique Russian soul, is preserved and multiplies. Is it worth measuring it by smiles and courtesy?
Features of the Russian soul and Russian mentality was last modified: June 11th, 2017 by Jasna
Russian people believe in their mystical luck. Many things (and sometimes even the most incredible inventions) are achieved precisely because someone believed in a miracle and took risks that would have been unacceptable with a more rational approach. Purely Russian concept“maybe”, that is, “what if it works out?!” – very clearly illustrates this opinion. Cold-blooded planning and calculations are not for the Russian nation; it is pushed forward by brilliant insights and out-of-the-box thinking. At the same time, hard work is also valued - but not diligence in expectation of profit, but sincere love for one’s work.
Russians are people of the “general”, which prevails over the particular. It is very important to them how they look from the outside, that everything is no worse (but not better!) for them than for others. It’s not easy for upstarts, because they instinctively try to “crush” them not only because of their success, but also because of their simple difference from others. And vice versa: the Russian people have always been compassionate towards the orphaned and wretched, and they invariably give alms to the poor. And Russian hospitality has already become the talk of the town: even if the guest is not very welcome, a rich table will certainly be set for his arrival. What can we say about welcome guests?