Russian mentality

The Russian mentality is the schemes, stereotypes and thought patterns that prevail among Russians. Russians are not necessarily Russians. An individual may be proud to be a «Cossack», «Bashkir» or «Jew» within Russia, but outside of it all Russians (former 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 stereotypes of behavior. The 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 weaknesses. If we want to become better, we must know them. If our people drink to drink in whole villages and the moral state of modern Russian society is assessed as moral degradation, love for Russia will be in seeing all this and setting specific tasks for raising Russian culture.

Today, the morality of Russia is in deep decline, but this is not a characteristic of the Russian mentality in general, but of that particular state where Russia fell in the 90s of the XX century.

A.V. Yurevich writes: «Despite the positive developments of recent years, Russian society is still ‘traumatized by chaos’.» “Without any exaggeration, we can say that our country is now going through one of the most difficult moral periods in its history.”

It is high time to get out of this hole, and just for this, let’s look at ourselves from the outside, namely from the side of strictly scientific research. What do cultural researchers note as specific features of the Russian mentality?

catholicity, the primacy of the common over the personal: “we are all our own”, we have everything in common and “what will people say”. Sobornost turns into the absence of the concept of privacy (privacy) and the possibility of any neighbor’s grandmother to intervene and tell you everything she thinks about your clothes, manners and upbringing of your children. From the same opera, the concepts of «public», «collective» that are absent in the West. “The opinion of the collective”, “not to separate from the collective”, “what will people say?” — conciliarity in its purest form. On the other hand, they will tell you if your tag is sticking out, your drawstring is untied, your pants are splashed, or your grocery bag is torn. And also — flashing headlights on the road to warn about the traffic police and save you from a fine. Here — the rejection of «informers».

For Russian people, personal and friendly relations are more important than laws and rules: we are ready to forgive a friend what we will never forgive an outsider.

Russian people lives by faith, which will someday descend from heaven (or simply from above) to the long-suffering Russian land: «Good will definitely defeat evil, but then, someday.» However, his personal position irresponsible: “Someone will bring us the truth, but not me personally. I can’t do anything myself, and I won’t.» For several centuries now, the main enemy of the Russian people has been considered the state in the form of a serving-punitive class. “The source of good in the Russian mentality is the community, today it is relatives and friends (Gemeinschaft), and evil is projected onto the state in the form of bureaucracy (earlier — a gentleman, a policeman, etc.); the way of action is “everything will work out”, and we think the triumph of good is undoubted, but … in the future (“not we, so our children …”),” sociologists write.

Striving to live by the truth — seems to be a unique feature of the Russian people. Outside of Russian culture, more often people talk about obedience to the law, the rules of decency, or the observance of religious precepts. The Eastern mentality does not speak of the Truth, in China it is important to live according to the precepts left by Confucius. And the Russian people want to live according to the Truth, which must be understood by the heart. Truth is above laws and agreements, it is above ordinary rationality, especially since in the choice between reason and feeling Russians choose feeling: sincerity and sincerity.

In the Russian mentality, expediency is practically a synonym for selfish, selfish behavior and is not in honor, as something “American”. It is difficult for the average Russian layman to imagine that it is possible to act reasonably and consciously not only for oneself, but also for someone else, therefore, selfless actions are identified with actions “from the heart”, based on feelings, without a head.

A typical example: in the article “A Son Is Twelve: Raising Responsibility,” a smart dad wrote how he cultivates in his son the habit of thinking “why” he does this or that. Commentary on this article: “I see an adult young man with a question, why should I take care of my parents, show respect for them, for what purpose? Now I’m independent and I don’t need my parents anymore.»

We responded to this comment with: “Hmm. Do you think that parents can be loved only if for nothing, “without a head”? If parents really brought up children, children have values, and not just needs, and children already know how to take care of worthy people. That is, about the parents — in the first place, and precisely because the parents themselves set an example for them in this.

Russian — not love for discipline and method, life according to the soul and mood, a change of mood from peacefulness, forgiveness and humility to a 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.

Russian negativism is qualified by some of the researchers as a feature of the mentality, someone is more careful as a lack of good breeding, but it is impossible not to note it. Unfortunately, the upbringing of good manners after the revolution of 1917 was not honored, and the consequences of this are still noticeable. For u.e.zhom, if a person on the street accidentally hit another person, the stereotyped reaction of almost anyone: “Sorry”, an apology and a smile. They are so brought up. It is 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 longing is, despite the fact that this word cannot be translated into other European languages. On the streets, it is not customary for us to smile, look into the faces of others, indecently get to know each other and just talk.

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, the priority is the requirement of sincerity. A smile in Russians demonstrates a personal disposition towards another person, which, of course, does not apply to everyone. Therefore, if a person smiles not from the heart, it causes rejection. «Duty smile» has a negative connotation. Researchers call this the “everyday unsmiling phenomenon.” “The smile of service personnel in the line of duty in Russia was always absent — clerks, salesmen, waiters, servants were polite, helpful, but did not smile.” “In Russian, there is a unique saying that is absent in other languages, “Laughter without a reason is a sign of a fool.” The logic of this proverb cannot be understood by Western-minded people.”

You can only ask for help — they will most likely help. It is normal to beg — and a cigarette, and money. — whether sick, or insincere. The one who usually smiles kindly at others is, if not a foreigner, then, of course, a toady. Of course, insincere. Says «Yes», agrees — a hypocrite. Because a sincere Russian person will definitely disagree and object. And in general, the real sincerity is when obscene! That’s when you believe the man!

Russian people value honesty. Honesty is valued as respect for the fulfillment of agreements, but the other side of honesty is even more valued by a Russian person, namely, the readiness to repent in a controversial situation, admit one’s guilt — and at the same time just as directly, impartially blame another. The negativism of the Russian mentality is also manifested in the tendency to criticize and see the bad both in others and in oneself. Most Russians more often see themselves as flaws rather than virtues. It is natural and habitual to engage in self-discipline, and the one who talks about his merits is boasting, it is stupid and ugly.

In coaching practice: quickly name your 50 shortcomings — most people cope with this task without difficulty. But quickly and convincingly listing 50 of your virtues, telling why a person loves and respects himself is somehow much more difficult. It’s embarrassing for people to talk about it, it’s unusual to think about it.

Love for controversy. “In Russian communication (source: The book “Russians: Peculiarities of National Communication”. Authors Yu.E. Prokhorov, I.A. Sternin), disputes traditionally occupy a large place. A Russian person loves to argue on a variety of issues, both private and general. Love for disputes on global, philosophical issues is a striking feature of Russian communicative behavior. “A Russian person is often interested in a dispute not as a means of finding the truth, but as a mental exercise, as a form of emotional, sincere communication with each other. That is why, in Russian communicative culture, those who argue so often lose the thread of the dispute, easily deviate from the original topic. At the same time, the desire for compromise or for allowing the interlocutor to save face is completely uncharacteristic. Uncompromisingness, conflict manifests itself very clearly: our person is uncomfortable if he did not argue, could not prove his case. “As an English teacher formulated this quality: “A Russian always argues to win.” And vice versa, the characteristic «conflict-free», rather, has a disapproving connotation, like «spineless», «unprincipled».

The principle of «keep your head down». In the Russian mentality, there is a disdainful attitude towards politics and democracy as a form of political system, in which the people act as the source and controller of the activities of power. Characteristic is the conviction that people really do not decide anything anywhere and democracy is a lie and hypocrisy. At the same time, tolerance and the habit of lying and hypocrisy of one’s power because of the conviction that it is impossible otherwise.

The habit of stealing, bribery and deceit. The conviction that they steal everywhere and everything, and it is impossible to earn big money in an honest way. The principle is “if you don’t steal, you won’t live.” Alexander I: “There is such theft in Russia that I’m afraid to go to the dentist — I’ll sit in a chair and steal my jaw …” Dal: “A Russian person is not afraid of the cross, but is afraid of the pestle.” At the same time, it is typical for Russians. A characteristic feature of the Russian mentality is the love of freebies. Movies need to be downloaded via torrent, paying for licensed programs is 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 in hard work, but in quick wit, when Pike, Sivki-Burki, Humpbacked Skates and other wolves, fish and firebirds will do everything for him.

An interesting study “What does a fairy tale teach.docx” (about the Russian mentality), author N.V. Latova, postgraduate student of IS RAS.

Care for health is not a value, sport is strange, getting sick is normal, but categorically it is not allowed to throw the poor, including it is considered morally unacceptable to leave those who did not care about their health and as a result became, in fact, a helpless invalid. . «How is he without me?» — hence codependence as the norm of life.

The place of humanism is occupied by pity. If humanism welcomes concern for a person, placing a free, developed, strong person on a pedestal, then pity directs care to the unfortunate and sick. According to Mail.ru and VTsIOM statistics, helping adults is in fifth place in popularity after helping children, the elderly, animals, and helping environmental problems. People feel more sorry for dogs than people, and out of a sense of pity, it is more important to support unviable children, rather than adults who could still live and work. The Russians, if they really want to give money, then only for one patient, well, that is, for one child, and preferably the patient, the patient himself, preferably mortally incurable. And if the child does not die, then no one wants to give money for the rehabilitation of the child after an illness. The feeling of pity no longer works, and there is no understanding of charity in the Russian mentality today. We are now in 123rd place in the world out of 135 countries studied in the ranking of philanthropy, and none of the countries of the former Soviet Union is lower than us in this ranking. 76% of the population of our country have never donated to anyone and never even thought about it. The social responsibility of the company, that is, whether a particular company does charity work or not, is not important for Russians, and those who do charity work are viewed with distrust: 40% are convinced that charity is done for the sake of advertising, they condemn those who talk about their charitable activities and insist that charitable activities should only take place in secret. On the other hand, in recent years, donations to charity have been growing significantly (up to 50% per year), but mainly at the expense of medium-sized businesses.

The total negativism of Russians, their mutual distrust and habit of “living with feelings” seem to be one of the most problematic features of the Russian mentality. But the fact that in modern Russia (unlike the latest trends in Western societies) they have a negative attitude towards gays and lesbians hardly needs to be assessed as the backwardness of Russians, perhaps this is precisely our strength and our potential for spiritual health.

In the comments to the article, someone agrees with such a portrait, someone accuses the author of Russophobia. No, the author loves Russia and believes in it, having been engaged in enlightenment and educational activities for his country for a decade, including by his own efforts creating a completely non-profit portal Psychologos — the most popular psychological portal in Russia. There are no enemies on Psychologos and there is no need to look for them here, our task is different: namely, to think about how we can raise our country. How can we change the position of the Victim to the position of the Author, so that, without referring to the circumstances, everyone takes responsibility for their life; how to teach yourself order and discipline, respect for property and just someone else’s opinion, how to stop drinking and start taking care of your health, how to change inner longing for an inner Sun and a sincere smile … Can we do it, friends?

1. Russians: communicative behavior. Yu.E. Prokhorov, I.A. Sternin. Moscow, Flinta Publishing House, Nauka Publishing House, 2006
2. The moral state of modern Russian society. Corresponding member RAS A.V. Yurevich. Download full article.
3. Yurevich A.V., Ushakov D.V. Morality in modern Russia [Electronic resource] // Psychological research: electron. scientific magazine 2009. No. 1(3). URL: http://psystudy.ru (accessed: hh.mm.yyyy).