RAJI: On Location in Rostov, Russia (Year 4)

We laid it all out on the table, from the Russian students’ preconceived notions about Americans (superficiality, seeing the world in black and white, lacking a system of values) and our notions of them (cold, distant, low standard of living). Right away, we recognized some of the sources that influence these stereotypes - for the Russians, particularly, it’s our Hollywood movies, MTV, etc. For us, it’s also Hollywood representations of life in Russia, as well as the particular sorts of stories that are emphasized in our news sources.

As we worked our way around these stereotypes, the Russians made a couple of observations about themselves that I found particularly interesting:

First, there is still a sense that they don’t feel comfortable organizing in groups to focus and vocalize political messages. It’s not that people lack strong opinions about the direction of the country, social policy and local politics, but rather that they prefer discussing these issues in what one student called “kitchen debates,” outside of the public sphere.

Second, we seemed to agree that one of the strongest differences between the American character and the Russian character is a sense of entitlement vs. a willingness to be submissive. One Russian student said that she believes Russians live with the “philosophy of a slave,” i.e. that Russians take life’s hard knocks (and there may be many) with the philosophy that they can’t change anything themselves and that, basically, they just have to suck it up. Yet for Americans, there is a sense of entitlement that we deserve better and that we can change things in our own lives, with only a little willpower.

We also spent some time talking about that elusive subject, the Russian soul. When I was in St. Petersburg 5 years ago, many people tried to describe to me the nature of this particular sense of national character. I asked about it here and the students described a certain generosity and a sense of spiritual connection to the earth and to other people that make the Russians a special people. (If you are as fascinated by this notion of a particular “Russian soul” as I am, you can read more about it from a psychological perspective in this Psychology Today article from 1993, from an economic perspective in this 2003 Russia in Global Affairs article, and you can even take a quiz to see if you have a Big Russian Soul.)

As for the bears in the streets, well, for some reason the Russians think that Americans imagine that bears walk the streets in Russia. I’ve never heard of this…have any of you?

And, finally, my favorite comment of the entire discussion was from a Russian girl who tried to explain to us why so many Russian women wear impossibly high heels on a daily basis: It’s a sign of optimism about the quality of the streets.