• Lorindól@sopuli.xyz
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    1 month ago

    Russian population never experienced the age of Enlightenment. For centuries they were serfs to the Czar, then suddenly they were serfs to the Communist party.

    After the Soviet Union fell, they had about a decade of semi-freedom, during which the oligarchs rose and consolidated their power - resulting in the reign of Putin, the Weasel of the East.

    The Russian people have been subservient for generations, so much that has become ingrained in their culture. “We can withstand more suffering more than any other nation” is something they are actually proud of. Now there’s nothing wrong being resillient, but unnecessary suffering just so that the elite can live in extreme opulence is not acceptable.

    The Russian culture allows shitty governing, since majority of the people do not think it is possible or even reasonable to try to change things. They have never had the opportunity to “mature” as a people, and this has served the corrupt leaders well. And for the last 25 years Kremlin has slowly but steadily tightened the leash so that the young generation won’t get any ideas of democracy and freedom. And a large part of the older people renember the Soviet era as the “good old days”.

    It will a long road for their people to walk before they have a free and effective civil society.

    EDIT: Sent before it was finished.

    • squaresinger@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You could have written something very similar about the USA, just that their oligarchy started a few centuries earlier.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, you don’t need to write a big longnwinded racist comment about Russian people. I have a few Russian friends. They are nothing like what you describe.

      • Lorindól@sopuli.xyz
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        1 month ago

        No racism was intended. Perhaps I expressed myself poorly.

        I do not consider the Russian people be any dumber or inferior than any other nation. I meant that their civil society has not had the opportunity to grow and develop into a strong democracy like many European countries.

        I too have many Russian friends and most of what I wrote I have learned from discussions with them. And more than a half of my father’s ancestors are Russian.