So far, every single myth/rumor/belief/stereotype/bias that I've come across concerning Russia, Russian people, Russian culture, has pretty much been wrong.

That said, some Russians love to tease and play into these myths, just to upend them on you later =)

As an example.. It's not true that Russians sit around and drink vodka all day (of course!), but I've seen a person suggest such a thing to Russians, and instead of denying it, they played along until they positioned the speaker to become the butt of the joke. Neat trick, that.

When I first took an interest in Russian cuisine, people told me: "Russian food is unhealthy and that's why Russians have short life spans." What a crock that turned out to be.. Russian food, it turns out, is very often WAY more healthy than standard American fare (a lot of the food is farm-provided, from what I've been told, and the incidence of mystery-meat like ground burger and such is far lower).. they eat tons of salads and fresh veggies, and kind of put our subs-and-pizza existence to shame =) ... and I'm not even sure the bit about lifespan is accurate, either.

In general, it's safest to assume all generalizations are wrong, and make your judgments from experience.. When you arsume, you make an arse of u and me =)