
Understanding Moscow: The Mysteries of the Russian Mindset - Tomte
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/understanding-moscow-the-mysteries-of-the-russian-mindset-a-1162072.html
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zaro
> Putin is making Russia a dissident from the world order ...

I don't think he is making it, rather there is growing trend against this
world order in most countries. And righfully so as this world order tends to
care only about wealthy people and nations ...

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elipsey
I’m not sure whether this is a good description of Russian culture in general
nor how to objectively evaluate such a thing, but as an American I found it
very entertaining to hear a German author make the attempt at comparative
cultural evaluation.

It rather reminded me of conversations with my Dutch or German friends, with
whom I agreed that their cultures were more cooperative/communalistic in
character. These friends would often say things like: “In Germany, a
grandmother would swat you with a rolled up newspaper for taking up two seats
on the bus that way.” or “Americans insist on having too many choices, one
flavor of yogurt should be enough for anyone!”, and so on.

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baybal2
Can't think of an explanation more true and concise that is not a cultural
studies PhD work than this article

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trextrex
I wonder how much of the citizens' indifference to and mistrust of the
government and politics is a product of living for decades in a communist
authoritarian state, as opposed to a fundamental nature of the people there.
Seems like a classic case of fundamental attribution error.

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woodandsteel
>I wonder how much of the citizens' indifference to and mistrust of the
government and politics is a product of living for decades in a communist
authoritarian state, as opposed to a fundamental nature of the people there.

Communism was preceded by many centuries of feudalistic, authoritarian
monarchy. The communists inherited a people who already had a passive peasant
mindset, and they just exploited it, as Putin is doing now.

