Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Times
My personal observations.
You can never fully understand them if you dont learn the language and live there.
You can try by reading their history especially from the time and end of the Mongol rule.
They are fatalistic and it seems to come from very tough times endured.
Individual Russians are usually very warm and welcoming persons.
But to be true friends with them is usually not so easy and they have a small but very loyal inner circle.
They really only trust these people.
Its when they are addressed as a nation or a group they are often a pain in the butt.
They have a practical sense about violence and war that conflicts with the western view.
They are often very curious about the outside world and its views towards them.
They are usually very proud of being Russian but still periodically have low esteem about themselfs.
All this combined explains a lot of the fatalistic attitude, dark humor and acceptance for authoritarian rule by small cliques.
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As a Russian myself, I would have to say that's an extremely accurate general description. You definitely have a good understanding of the culture in this regard.
Otherwise as far as former republics, look, it's not the Russians that have to apologize. It's their unelected and oppressive leaders. While I completely understand that the republics and other countries of the "near abroad" have definitely been wronged and were relatively worse off under Soviet pressure/rule than independently, I disagree that they got the short end of the stick. If anyone did, it was almost always the Russians themselves. In fact day-to-day conditions in republics, from what I know, were better than the Russian SSR itself (and I know this from having relatives in Estonia myself) for most of Soviet rule. But again, perhaps Russians just had less to miss as far as freedom and prosperity goes...
That said, I'm personally sorry that it had to be that way. I wish those mistreated by Soviet authorities, however, would stop projecting their anger and disdain onto today's Russians (and at least to some extent today's Russian state, although it does deserve a fair amount of skepticism). Most of those complicit in the injustices of those days are dead or at least retired now. And I really wish that the new generation of Russians grows up without the impression that the rest of the world hates them for wrongs that they as individuals never really had a part in.
And that is a really great animation, by the way. Very original visual style, thoughtful (if indeed very glum) concept.