Understanding Russian Mentality

     Six days ago I posted a blog about understanding North Korean mentality.  In it, I talked about the fact that revenge seemed to be a very important factor in anything to do with dealing with North Korean thinking.  Korean mentality, north and south, has strong cultural ties to the business of avenging an affront or wrong doing.  You can see this even in old folk tales.  Just look at today's very popular K-dramas.  Like the folk tales, they too predominantly deal with the subject of revenge.  So, North Koreans are culturally bound to feel a need to "avenge" the wrong, the wrong that was carried out by the United States during the war.  We have to understand that part of the Korean mentality to be able to deal, to negotiate.  Russian mentality is different, it does not have the same need for revenge as Korean mentality.  But, it too has its own peculiarities, its own quirks, that are completely different from other cultures.
     It is easy to see Russia and Russians as just "Eastern Europeans,"  i.e., in the same category as other non-Western Europeans.  That is the way Russians are most commonly perceived by Americans.  Europeans, Western Europeans in particular, may have a different view.  But we, being somewhat removed from Europe, both culturally and physically (separated by the Atlantic Ocean) have somewhat of a simplistic view of Russians.  We see them mostly as blonde, blue-eyed, northern European types, which they are indeed to a large extent.  Just walk the streets of a Russian city and you will note that the majority of the population, particularly in the western part of the country, resemble Nordic types.  Of course there is a reason for that.  Russia was settled by Vikings in the early days, so they are descendants of Vikings as much as other ethnic groups.  But that is where the similarity with Scandinavians or other northern Europeans and Russians stops.
     Russia has been isolated from the rest of Europe by the simple fact of its location.  It is essentially located on the eastern edge of Europe.  Aside from its physical isolation, Russia has had a long history of foreign invasions, invasions that brought about destruction and death at a level experienced by very few countries in the world.  Russia's relations with Western European countries has not been all that good.  Historically, various European countries have tried to invade and conquer Russia repeatedly.  Going back to the days of Mongol invasion and conquest of Russia as well as parts of Europe, Russia was under the Mongol yoke longer than any other country.  The Golden Horde ruled over Russia for a long, long time.  Since shedding the Mongol rule, Russia has experience major invasions by various European countries several times in each century.  If we jump to more "recent" times, we find that just about all of Russia's great rulers had to fight off foreign invasions.  Fredrick the Great of Sweden attempted to conquer Russia and caused great destruction and death before he was defeated.  This was followed by Napoleon in his now infamous attempt to conquer Russia.  Again, great suffering by Russian people, many deaths, etc.  In between those two great invasions, there were numerous smaller invasions by various countries, ranging from Lithuania, Poland, and others.  Russia also fought almost repeatedly with the Ottoman Empire, the Turks. 
     The 20th Century saw Russia engaged in World War One against Kaiser of Germany, but there was no invasion of the Motherland, instead, a revolution broke out causing bloodshed and destruction.  The revolution and the civil war that followed lasted into mid 1920s, and less than two decades later Hitler invaded Russia!  This war, World War Two, was a defining war for Russia in the modern era.  What few Americans really realize or think about is the fact that Russia, or the Soviet Union as it was known then, fought all alone for all practical purposes for about a three year period!  Yes, England was engaged in the war and we stepped-in and started with North Africa and later Italy, before actually opening the second front by making the D-Day landing in Normandy.  But we must remember that 75% of Germany's fighting machine was committed to the Eastern Front, to Russia!  The final result, victory for "allies" and defeat of Germany cost us millions upon millions of dollars in war material and other supplies.  We, as a nation had to tighten our belts, women had to go to work in factories because of shortage of manpower.  Certain food items were rationed, there were shortages, but we managed.  We lost 418,000 men and women in the war.  As a result of the war and its finale, America came of age and emerged as the leading economic and military power in the world.  Our homeland was untouched.  Hawaii, not yet a state, was the only place other than the very isolated Aleutian Islands that experienced any destruction and had direct contact with the war.
     Russia, on the other hand, had suffered tremendous destruction and loss.  Cities were completely destroyed, like Stalingrad, and the population suffered unbelievable hardships.  A total of close to 25 million Russians lost their lives during the war.  More than half of those deaths were civilian!  In Leningrad, today's St. Petersburg, more than a million civilians died of starvation and other causes during almost a three year siege!  No country in the world suffered such losses.  Yes, Germany (over 5 million deaths) suffered tremendously, as did Japan (over 2 million deaths).  Japan even had atomic bombs dropped on its two cities.  But over all, no country went through what Russia had gone through during the war.  During the war, Stalin continuously asked Churchill and Roosevelt, his allies, to open a second front to provide relief for the beleaguered Red Army.  But, the second front was delayed for various reasons, one being that Churchill wanted to sap Russia's strength before stepping-in and opening a second front.  Churchill, incidentally, entertained thoughts of pushing on into Russia after defeating Germany!  Stalin and the Russian leaders were keenly aware of this situation.  To say that they didn't trust the allies, i.e., U.S. and U.K. would be an understatement.  The Cold War had started before World War Two ended!
     Throughout its history, Russia saw Western Europe betray or go against Russia's wishes or wants.  The Crimean War (1853-56) was fought between Russia and England.  The Russo-Japanese War (1905) ended in a stalemate but the subsequent peace treaty brokered by the U.S. (Teddy Roosevelt) forced Russia into making many concessions, giving up its rights in Manchuria and Korea.  Roosevelt did not want the Russian Empire to expand and used the opportunity to lessen Russia's influence in the Far East.  During Russian Civil War both U.S. and U.K. sent expeditionary forces to Russia, to European Russia (Archangelsk) known as the Polar Bear Expedition and to Far Eastern Russia, Vladivostok.  Russian lives were lost at the hands of British and American troops.  There were countless other incidents and conflicts in which Russia was cast as an opponent by Western European countries.  Great Britain and the British Empire was the dominant power in the 19th Century while the 20th Century belonged to the United States.  Russia, has seen both Great Britain and the United States as its greatest adversaries for its own advancement and a rightful place in the world.
     When Gorbachev lost control of his government and Soviet Union fell apart, many Russians thought that this would be the time when America would step-in with help for Russia to establish a new democratic system.  But what happened instead was that only capitalists with business interests showed up to try to take advantage of the chaos and gain concessions.  As far as help to establish a new system, it didn't materialize.  Also, rather than welcoming the fact that communism had collapsed and had been ousted, there was still a show of strong mistrust on the U.S. and U.K. side, alienating Russia by not allowing it to become a partner in NATO.  Although NATO was originally established to fight the Soviet Bloc, since the Soviet Union was no more, many Russians naively thought that they could now be a part of the rest of Europe and not worry about any kind of a military alliance.  Instead, what we did was allow many of the former Soviet Bloc countries to become a part of NATO, building even a bigger bloc of countries that would now be part of an alliance against Russia!  Whether correctly or not, Russians see this as an act of adding insult to injury.  Russia's mistrust of the West has been around for a long time, and what we did after the collapse of the Soviet Union simply validated their belief that the West, the U.S. and U.K. in particular, was not to be trusted. 
     Most Western Europeans have never seen Russians as fellow Europeans.  Russians were always thought of as Eurasians or something of that nature.  They were not true Europeans.  They were crude, unlike the rest of the Western Europeans, therefore, Russia was not Europe, never was, never will be.  Russians are keenly aware of this attitude found in Europe.  They also believe that the British and Americans feel the same way.  During the height of the Soviet power, Russians were proud because they felt that the rest of the world had to contend with them.  Today, they feel as if no one really has any respect for Russia.  Putin, with his tough talk and military build-up has managed to regain some of that old "respect", or at least that is what some Russians believe.  That is why he can still stay in power.  If you ask an average Russian on the street what they think about Putin, that is what they will say.  They may not like him, but they will say that he has managed to gain Russia some respect in the world.
     What Putin has done and is doing is essentially taking Russia into the "empire mode."  What he is saying to the world is that, since you won't show us respect and accept us (admittance into NATO, etc.), we will take what we want.  Thus, he took Crimea and eastern part of Ukraine.  We Americans may not realize it or see it that way, but Russians seem to feel that we look down upon them.  They often say that it is an Anglo-Saxon trait to look down upon everyone, something that Great Britain was known for during its British Empire days.  America being an Anglo-Saxon nation, both the U.K. and the U.S. is seen by the Russians as being literally the same when it comes to attitude and mentality.  It is a simplistic view, but that is how the average Russian sees us.  Unfortunately, there is some truth in this.  Many of our so-called "experts" on Russia, the ones who advised the President, were also Russian haters!  Zbigniew Brzezinski was considered a Soviet expert and he openly hated Russians.  Condoleeza Rice may be a Soviet expert, put she clearly showed her dislike for Russians.
     If we are to successfully deal with Russians, we need to get off the high horse and try to deal with Russia earnestly.  I may personally dislike Tillerson, but if there is one man that seems to be able to get through to Russians it is our current Secretary of State.  Tillerson may have learned to deal with Russians and understands their mentality because of his experience in business dealings in Russia.  He apparently was highly successful as a businessman in Russia, so, it wouldn't be a stretch to think that he understands Russian mentality.  To deal successfully with Russians, like with anyone else, you have to win their trust first.  To win their trust, we have to show them by making concessions in certain areas that many may consider to be too much!  But having had the history that we have with Russia, the only way that we can deal with them is first win their trust!