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Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

blog.properrussian.com

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Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#211

Post by koshak »

salimmadjd wrote: post #164
cema wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mostly agree. Cannot vouch for other Slavic people, but in Russia "чо лыбишься" ( wtf are you smiling at ) almost always greets me, and greeted while I was living there. One of the most fundamental reasons for me to move away to the US was this fundamental difference in the psychological makeup, which is expressed in the Russian proverb, "смех без причины признак дурачины": a smile without a reason means the person…

this thread couldn't come sooner. I'm in Minsk, Belarus (very similar to Russia) from SV for the next month to finish our mobile app. One thing I've noticed is how fucking gloomy everyone looks. If you smile the men look intimidating and want to cut your head off and the women roll their eyes...It's as if everyone is a KGB agent and they are constantly suspecting you.

It's disappointing for me to read such things from "former compatriots".

For all the others. The article is not BS. It's a good attempt to troll on the old myth.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#213

Post by ivan78 »

mephi5t0 wrote: post #95

Russians also don't have a Halloween. On the question "Why don't you have such a holiday?" we (Russian/Ukrainian/Other-Similar-Folks) answer - we don't celebrate a walking dead holiday, because we make sure our dead are really dead and stay dead insert a smile here if we met before

Best comment. :-)

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#214

Post by epsylon »

oblio wrote: post #207
seszett wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, what's surprising is the contrary: that people call communism "socialism". While here in France, our Socialist Party (in power right now) has always been far from communism. It feels strange to me to call social welfare anything other than socialism. Maybe it's just a case of French socialisme and English socialism being false friends.

It's because most communist parties in the Eastern Block were initially (or even always) called socialist parties. And many Eastern Block countries were named "socialist republics". Heck, U S S R.

Well, North Korea (and many other dictatorships) are technically "democratic republics"... Doesn't mean that they are.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#215

Post by fierycatnet »

dschiptsov wrote: post #175

This is easy question. According to Tibetan tradition the hell (in general, not these particular torturing hells) is a cold, dark place inhabited by selfish, aggressive, angry, greedy beings.) The crucial notion is that it is not a place created by some goods to punish beings, but a condition, superimposed on the inhabitants by themselves according to the law of karma. Hell, therefore, is not created, it is emerged (…

You don't know what you are talking about.

>naive and ignorant communist country with uneducated working class

SU was one of the most educated countries in the world at the time.

I have to stop right here. The rest of your comment is just pure ignorance. You come off as very bitter man, Mr. Shiptsov.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#216

Post by oblio »

epsylon wrote: post #214
oblio wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because most communist parties in the Eastern Block were initially (or even always) called socialist parties. And many Eastern Block countries were named "socialist republics". Heck, U S S R.

Well, North Korea (and many other dictatorships) are technically "democratic republics"... Doesn't mean that they are.

True, and so were all the socialist regimes I mentioned. But after tens of years of propaganda by the communists, the name tends to stick. After the fall of communism, it sticks in a bad way: socialism = communism.

I think that the best people to ask are those that lived under "socialist" regimes (I'm one of them). If I ask almost anybody I know that lived under a socialist regime, they'll probably say the same.

Maybe theoretically socialism is a different thing, but practically it really isn't for a lot of people.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#217

Post by kutakbash »

PeterisP wrote: post #187
kutakbash wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So somehow before 1930s people trusted one another better? I believe it seriously lacks evidence. What about people in Western Europe who don't smile all that much really? Is this some knee-jerk reaction or something? Russia-gulag and all? For a foreigner it is permissible, not so much for a Russian. I think we need to overgrow this if nice things are to be had.

What changed in the 1930s? In Russia if you wanted to keep your head, you kept your head down in 1917, you kept your head down in 1905, and you kept your head down in 1800's and earlier - deportation to Siberia for being unpleasant to ruling class was a thing for centuries before Russia became Soviet.

That's so very simplistic though. You by no means kept your head low in 1905, and 1917 since those were years of revolutions, the later two pretty successful, which brought freedoms unmatched in that time. In what other army was an order compared to Order #1 of 1917 in act? What other nation decriminalized homosexuality in 1917? There were select few to allow women to vote as early as 1917 and none at all to admit women to general workforce as equals. In what other nation had organs directly elected by workers and soldiers (eg peasants) ruled the country at least for one day? Of course it was all very short-lived (not without involvement of armies of certain 'freedom loving' nations), but this one event so utterly debunks this theory of 'keeping your head low'. And even then, 'in 1800's and earlier' were very different times, when people 'kept their head low' pretty much anywhere in the world.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#218

Post by PeterisP »

kutakbash wrote: post #217
PeterisP wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What changed in the 1930s? In Russia if you wanted to keep your head, you kept your head down in 1917, you kept your head down in 1905, and you kept your head down in 1800's and earlier - deportation to Siberia for being unpleasant to ruling class was a thing for centuries before Russia became Soviet.

That's so very simplistic though. You by no means kept your head low in 1905, and 1917 since those were years of revolutions, the later two pretty successful, which brought freedoms unmatched in that time. In what other army was an order compared to Order #1 of 1917 in act? What other nation decriminalized homosexuality in 1917? There were select few to allow women to vote as early as 1917 and none at all to admit wo…

How many unrelated people were executed or imprisoned during and right after 1917 and 1905? How many of the revolutionaries were 'removed' by their own for sticking out?

During the civil war and afterwards, how much the fate and life of common people depended on the whim and 'perception of loyalty to X' ? In order to prosper (or even survive) your allegiance would have to be flexible enough to adapt quickly, or you'd get eliminated. As the saying goes, 'the tall poppies get cut first' - no matter if you were for or against the revolution.

1917 was a result of picking a fight with authority, but the aftermath of 1917 was to eliminate anyone else who'd pick a fight with authority - both outside and within the revolution.

This is what I mean by 'keep your head down'. There's a curse "may you live in interesting times". Living in such times teaches you and the whole society to be mindful about what you say, careful if your beliefs are perceived as proper, and not to pick a fight with authority.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#219

Post by kutakbash »

PeterisP wrote: post #218
kutakbash wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's so very simplistic though. You by no means kept your head low in 1905, and 1917 since those were years of revolutions, the later two pretty successful, which brought freedoms unmatched in that time. In what other army was an order compared to Order #1 of 1917 in act? What other nation decriminalized homosexuality in 1917? There were select few to allow women to vote as early as 1917 and none at all to admit wo…

How many unrelated people were executed or imprisoned during and right after 1917 and 1905? How many of the revolutionaries were 'removed' by their own for sticking out? During the civil war and afterwards, how much the fate and life of common people depended on the whim and 'perception of loyalty to X' ? In order to prosper (or even survive) your allegiance would have to be flexible enough to adapt quickly, or you'd…

Probably no unrelated people at all were executed or imprisoned in 1917 or 1905. Even for the most frantic career revolutionaries it wasn't uncommon to flee from the deportation and live illegally in Russia or to emigrate.

I don't think what you are describing is in any way specific to Russian Revolution and Civil War. If reasoning like that is justified, you can 'prove' the same thing about any society that lived through a social calamity.

Re: Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011)

#220

Post by elementai »

da02 wrote: post #144
mrjj wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry no, i leave sociology long ago and making software as most of HN visitors. Very few of humanitarian science publications is translating from Russian, on the other hand things that opinion journalism is revealing often weird and politicized. If you want some kind of overview of Russian specific, writers done this work better than scientists through generalized characters and situations. Reading cultural research…

Thank you very much for the links and the information. I've already started reading it and it is very enlightening and enjoyable.

Or, you know you can watch "12 chairs" on youtube with subtitles, for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNZkUt0ePas . Dunno if it works in all coutries, though.
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