Thread: So what are you Russians really like??

Originally Posted by Curious Cat

He told me a lot about Russia, really nice guy. He said that Russians have a tendency to be really violent (haha) That fighting is like a national past time.All Russian males get drunk and pick fights every weekend. I thought that was pretty funny.

I'd say that either your acquaintance was simply inventing stories or he'd been living in a very peculiar neighborhood and society.

Originally Posted by Curious Cat

But recently I heard that there is a lot of racism in Russia and white-supremacist groups are targeting foreign students. Is there any truth to this or its just anti-Russian propaganda?

Well, this happens in big cities now and then (probably once in six month or so according to my observations) but every single incident gets blown out of proportions by media. Russia is a multi-national country and of course some bickering take place. The antagonism towards some ethnic groups from Caucasus and Middle Asia (also citizens of Russia) is much stronger though than it is to black people or any other foreigner. I think, neo-nazis can be found in any country if you look hard, every nation has some trash in it, I suppose.

Originally Posted by Curious Cat

The other problem is that the Western media is pretty anti-Russia. (It's pretty much anti-everything that isn't Western). But that's expected. So I can't really rely on the news to know more about Russia. Since I dont know Russian, I cant read Russian papers either. (any good Russian-English papers?)

I cannot recommend any TV-channel to you (probably RT as it's been said) since I don't watch TV, but you can even read left newspapers (try The Guardian). They, more or less unbiased, but that, I think, happens not out of any great Pro-Russian sentiments, but simply to irritate their government.

Originally Posted by Curious Cat

So what I really want to know is what is Russian culture really like?

Now, that's a major question! An impossible one to answer, too. Try to be more specific with it.

Originally Posted by Curious Cat

And is it very different from the culture that one finds described in novels like War and Peace, Brothers K., Notes, Dead Souls, The Idiot? They were pre-revolutionary. Has Russian culture changed a lot since then? Obviously it has changed, but how?

I don't know wher're you from, but take any writer that lived 150-200 years ago and compare the things he wrote about with the present times? Do you see any differences at all? Of course, everything's different now. The revolution of course took part in it, three generations had been born and brought up to share the communist ideals and the culture reflected that. Now, the new times turned everything upside down and swapped vices and virtues again. Your question is meaningless unless you tell us more about what you are particularly interected in because it will take us several years if we try to describe everything that has changed during the past two hundred years.