Regular reader, living in the West for a long time and visiting Russia only on short visits, He writes, that even though Europeans look similar to Russians, however their characters are different, not as, like we have. quote:
A few facts, which to me, to the old fool, living more 20 years in the West, should have become crystal obvious by now, but which my stupid Russian heredity still doesn’t let me understand, which is why I step on the rake again and again:1. Westerners are completely different. I realized this in 1985 year, back in the USSR, but for some reason I still can’t accept and realize this.2 If you open up to a Westerner, as is customary in Russia, then you are a freak for him, freak, potentially dangerous creature, which you need to stay away from.3. Any “heart-to-heart conversations” for a Westerner should be strictly limited to a few socially acceptable topics: sports, recreation, TV and mass media.4. A Westerner will never help you with anything., if it bothers him even a millimeter. All “help” for him is only in the comfort zone, and only to realize your importance.5. Russian, have lived in the West for at least a few years, become just as “bitten”, like the locals. exceptions, like your humble servant, very rare.6. In Russia, everyone always pesters you with all sorts of questions.. It's annoying. Here at first you feel comfortable, because no one touches you at all (excluding neighbors, who can blow their minds over any unexpected nonsense). Then you understand and realize, that no one needs you at all, that is, in general, to nobody, nowhere and never. Russian pro-Western oppositionists, believers, that the state and/or society needs you here - clinical idiots. And all this, that you have everything here in chocolate, great job, great salary, my house, car and the like. But this is how lower class emigrants live here, scary to imagine. On the other hand, if Maslow's pyramid works in their case, can, they have no time to think about it, just to survive.
Personally, I am surprised by such differences. I could still understand, if we were talking about the Japanese or Sudanese. However, Europe is very close to us culturally, we read the same books, we watch the same shows, degrading on the same Internet. We go to them freely, and they come to us. Marriages between Russians and Europeans take place all the time, at the same time they often turn out to be quite stable. Very strange, that a conventionally educated German, with whom we read 500 general books, has a dramatically different attitude towards life.
Oleg Makarenko
