Culture and Character

Living in a country that claimed to be socialist, Russians have been assumed by some Westerners to be radicals and challengers of the established order. In reality, they are more likely to be cautious and conservative defenders of the status quo. Their cruel climate, harsh history, and skeptical outlook on life have caused Russians to value stability, security, social order, and predictability, and to avoid risk. The tried and tested is preferred over the new and unknown, and with good reason. Caution and conservatism are legacies of the Russian peasant past. In a traditional agricultural society, stability was valued, and change came slowly. Man-made catastropheshaverepeat­edly victimized millions of Russian commons: wars, revolutions, famines, forced collectivization, Stalin's purges and more.

Americans, a nation of risk takers, are descendants of immigrants who dared to leave the known of the Old World for the unknownof the New. In America risk takers have had the opportunity to succeed or to fail in the attempt. Indeed, risk is the quintessence of a market economy. The circumstances of the New World, its social mobility and stability, have helped Americans to accentuate the positive. For Russians, geography and history have caused them to anticipate the negative. Life has indeed been difficult for Russians. Weather, wars, violence, cataclysmic changes, oppressive rule have made them pessimists. Russian pessimism contrasts with American innocence and optimism. Americans expect things to go well and become upset when they don’t. Russians expect things to go poorly and have learned to live with misfortune. Americans are taught to keep smiling, which to Russians appears naïve, even suspect.

Less in control of their lives thanAmericans, Russians feel caught up inthe big sweeps of history where the individual does not count. The difference is simple and dramatic: in the Soviet Union nearly every life has been touched directly by the great historical spasms of revolution, war and terror. Perestroika was exciting for Americans to follow from a distance. But to Russians, it was yet another historical spasm with attendant uncertainties about the future. In 1990 a poll disclosed that some two-thirds of those polled would be willing to accept painful economic reforms if they led to an improved standard of living. Still, during 1989, crime skyrocketed countrywide, according to official statistics. The largest increases were of violent premeditated crimes, with thefts and robberies involving violence increasing by 170 percent. Assaults and murders rose by 38 percent respectively. Life expectancy after perestroika put the Soviet Union in the thirty-second place among thirty-three developed nations. These low figures are due, in part, to a high infant mortality rate. Many Russians believe that their country today is indeed on the verge of disaster − threatened by energy shortages, political strife, ethnic warfare, and environmental degradation. Some Russians even speak of genetic degradation. The best and brightest have traditionally been banished, and today many of Russia's best are being lost through emigration. Despite their pessimism, there is an admirable durability about Russians, as they have proven their ability to endure severe deprivation and suffer lengthy hardships.

Americans, with their proclivity for rational consistency, seek clear and precise responses. The Anglo-Saxon instinct is to smooth away contradictions, to reconcile opposing elements, take up a middle ground as a basis for life. Russians, by contrast, have a reputation for extremes. When emotions are displayed, they are spontaneous and strong. Rus­sian hospitality can be overwhelming, friendship all encompass­ing, compassion deep, loyalty long-lasting, drinking heavy, celebrations boisterous, obsession with security paranoid, and vio­lence vicious. With Russians, it is often all or nothing.

Human feelings count for much in Russia, and those who do not share the depth of these feelings – Americans among them – will be considered cold and distant. Russians have a rich spirituality that does indeed contrast with American rationalism, materialism, and pragmatism. Rational and pragmaticapproach does not do for Russians. It is personal relations, feelings, and traditional values that determine a course of action. Americans are more likely to depend on the cold facts and to do what works. Belief in village virtues is still strong −self-sacrifice, sense of duty, compassion, the importance of family. Russians maintain their national integrity in a way that conforms to their inner notion ofwhat a human being should be. Above all, they have an appreciation forcomplete commitment and faith and respect it in other people as well. Even inthe postindustrial age, Russians demonstrate that emo­tions and personal feelings still matter.

Some nations are called a fatherland, others a motherland. Russia is clearly a motherland. In this motherland, women are strong, hard-working, nurturing, long-suffering, and the true heroes of Russia. In practice, women are recognized but unrewarded. A state that claimed to have given all power to the people did in fact give power to only a few, and almost all of them have been men. Some 90 percent of Russian womenare in the work force, where they are well represented in different professionsbut are seldom foundin supervisory or management posts. Full gender equality in the work force is found only in the lowest paying jobs, as women work as members of construction crews and farm laborers. However, while few women occupy high government positions, they are 50% of all members of local city councils, performing the day-to-day work of local government. Women − the bulwark of the system and perhaps the reason why it keeps going − actually work two shifts: one at the work­place and the other at home where they put in another forty hours a week at the traditional duties ofwife, mother, and housekeeper. Forty million Soviet men died in the three cataclysmic events of the Soviet era - the collectivization of agriculture, the political purges, and World War II - creating a severe shortage of men for two generations of women. Moreover, the mortality rate for menis three times that of women in all age groups over twenty, largely due to alcoholism and related accidents and illnesses.

Tyutchev saw Western civilization as disintegrating while Russian civilization, morally and spiritually superior, was rising. Messianism is still alive in Russia today, particularly among intellectuals, who share a belief and pride in Russia as a great power with a special mission in the world. Such views are not unknown to Americans, who at times have also believed that they have something special to bring to the less fortunate− Christianity to heathens, democracy to dictatorships, and the free market to state-run economies. Along with messianism, there is also a Russian tendencyto blame others for their misfortunes, and with certain logic. If Russians are indeed the chosen people and have a monopoly on truth, then others must be the cause of their misfortunes.

Practicum 6.4