Russian National Character
Sociological Analysis of the Russian Character
I recently stumbled upon a survey asking Russians to formulate the Russian national character as they see it themselves.
The positives were: Kindness, mercy, compassion, Openness, friendliness, sociability, Patience, humility, all-forgiveness, Patriotism, Strength of spirit, endurance, resilience, Honesty, decency, fairness, Courage, bravery, valor, Mutual aid, desire to help, Hospitality, warmth/welcoming nature, Simplicity, trustfulness, naivety, Determination, persistence, purposefulness, “We’re all human, people are different, it doesn’t depend on nationality”, Cohesion, unity, Optimism, cheerfulness, faith in the best, Diligence, hard work, Good manners, respectfulness, attentiveness, Calmness, balance, restraint, Selflessness, generosity.
The negatives were: Alcoholism, smoking, drug addiction, Laziness, Excessive trustfulness, simplicity, naivety, Aggressiveness, malice, Excessive kindness, pity/compassion, all-forgiveness, long-suffering, Irresponsibility, Rudeness, boorishness, lack of culture, impudence, Egoism, indifference, Disunity, lack of mutual assistance, Apathy, inertia, passivity.
My own outlook is a little bit different and you’ll soon read it. Ideally, this should turn into a series of exploring the Russian national character, but I don’t know how many of you would actually appreciate this type of content.
The most interesting revelation was how people of a different educational background answered these questions. For example, on the question asking: “What do you think: are Russians more characterized by rationality/reasonableness or by emotionality?”, majority of those without a proper education picked rationality (50 vs 35) whereas those with bachelor degrees or above picked emotionality (50 vs 37).
My own sociological portrait of Russians is that they do tend to be emotional and I am glad that EHC shares my own observation.
Another interesting thing is that those who believe that Russians tend to be more hardworking than lazy grew from 50% in 2013 to 58% in 2025, which has coincided with objective economical developments such as the decline in unemployment.
Another question asking Russians whether Russians as a whole tend to be cautious or trusting Russian EHC confirmed my own observations once again:
LHC: (Trusting: 46%, Cautiousness 47%)
EHC: (Trusting: 60%, Cautiousness 29%)
On the question asking whether Russians tend to be gullible or cunning, just 13% of EHC believe that Russians tend to be cunning while LHC answered 22%.
Finally on the question asking “Do you think Russian people are more inclined to embrace change or to be conservative?” EHC was once again on point.
LHC: (Embracing Change: 51%, Conservative 32%)
EHC: Embracing Change: 26%, Conservative 58%)
TLDR: LHC Russians tend to have a distorted, overly flattering self-perception of their national character, whereas Elite Human Capital observers are generally far more accurate particularly when assessing its negative traits, even though EHC Russians tend to be far more jingoistic and supportive of Pvtin than LHC Russians.
Unfortunately the poll didn’t do a lot of breaking down by levels of education, as well as had a fairly limited number of character traits which were often repeating. As I result I had to dig further:
I asked Advanced Grok AI to give me top 5 best and worst stereotypes about Russians as serotypes tend to be highly accurate:
Negative Stereotypes :
Russians are aggressive, brutal, and violent
Russians are heavy drinkers / alcoholics who drink vodka like water
Russians never smile / are unfriendly, rude, and humorless
Russians are all tied to the mafia / organized crime
Russians are poor, backward, living in gray/squalor with bad quality everything
Positives Stereotypes :
Russians are incredibly resilient, tough, and enduring
Russian women are exceptionally beautiful
Russians are deeply hospitable and generous
Russians have a rich cultural heritage / soulful depth
Russians are highly patriotic and proud
I tend to agree with Grok’s assessment with some caveats: “Russians are all tied to the mafia / organized crime” is clearly ridiculous and unironically a maliciously perpetrated lie by Hollywood while “Russians are heavy drinkers / alcoholics who drink vodka like water” is true of the past but according to recent CIA estimations Russia’s present level of consumption of alcohol is at 7.29 liters of pure alcohol per person, whereas France’s is 11.44 and the United States’ at 8.93.
I would also dispute that “Russians are deeply hospitable and generous” but that’s just me and my own lived experiences, although perhaps, they are in relation to Americans and their gay individualism.
That being said, observations about Russians from the outside tend to be more accurate than from the inside, because those who are living within the culture perceive what is around them as the norm. Only constant comparisons between various groups are able to determine what a norm is,.
Due to psychological self-defense mechanisms few Russians are able to look at themselves through the lens of the other whereas many of those who do, become addicted to seeing the world through the eyes of the other.
As a person who sees Russians through in-group as well as out-group lenses, these are my own observations of the Russian national character and its many traits:
Self-Sacrifice (+)
Unlawful (-)
Toleration (терпимость) of hierarchy (-)
De-politization (-)
Conservative (N)
Atomization (-)
Grandiose (+)
Prideful (N)
Negative Ethnocentrism (N)
Non-ideological (N)
Chaotic (N)
Gullible (N)
Soulful (+)
Resilient and Enduring (+)
Stubborn (-)
Easily Assimilable (N)
Imperial (N)
I counted 4 positive traits, 5 negative ones and 8 neutral ones, although there is some justification to put Prideful and Negatively Ethnocentric into the positive category while gullible, chaotic and non-ideological could go into the negative category (depending on one’s preference, just like me putting toleration of authoritarianism/hierarchy as a negative and grandiose as a positive).
I believe that the Russian national character is more negative than it is positive. In contrast just 2% of Russians share my assessment, while 59% believe that the positives in the Russian character outweigh its negatives. The remaining 37% believe that the Russian character is about equally positive and negative.
In my article analyzing Russian Canadians, I concluded that they would be an ideal population to support and be governed by capitalist-style authoritarians, given their strong non-ideological bent, moderate authoritarian leanings, and combination of social traditionalism with fiscal conservatism which is what the current Russian state happens to be with some minor caveats.
As you can see by looking at the example of Russian Canadians, elevated de-politization persists even in Canada and it cannot solely be explained by appealing to Russia’s broken institutions, political oppression or other typical go-to explanations.
I came up with more traits but I am not as confident in them as I was in the previous list, some of them are even contradictory:
Self-destruction though nihilism
Creative
Cruel/Violent
Punctual (my own observation but may not be true of the general population)
Lazy/Hardworking (contradictory I know)
Autonomous (similar to Atomization)
Traditional gender roles (Russian family unit strongly exhibits traditionally feminine and masculine modes of behavior, however this doesn’t stop them from sleeping around, having illegitimate children and poor marriages)
Cold (not really true once you get to know them, it would be better to just say unfriendly)
Emotional
Mercy
Conspiratorial
Inferiority complex
Unorthodox
I would appreciate some feedback to this, if you can’t comment under this post you can find me at a number of places: Telegram, YouTube and X. There are definitely things that I have missed although I’ve spent quite some time thinking about it.
I’d like to also apologize for not posting for these many days, I am quite busy with work and personal stuff that I can’t comment upon. On the bright side, I made it up by being unusually active on YouTube.
"Elegance is inborn among the men of pure Sclavonic blood. Their character unites a mixture of simplicity, gentleness, and sensibility, which seduces all hearts: it is often combined with a good deal of irony and some little deceitfulness; but, when the heart is naturally amiable, these faults are transformed into a kind of grace. The people further possess the advantage of a countenance, the delicacy in the expression of which is inimitable; it influences, by an unknown charm, by the exhibition of a tender melancholy, a suffering gentleness, which almost always springs from a secret sense of evil, hid by the sufferer from himself, in order the better to disguise it from others. The Russians are, in short, a resigned nation, — this simple description explains everything. The man who is deprived of liberty, — and here the definition of that word extends to natural rights and real wants, — though he may have all other advantages, is like a plant excluded from the air: in vain do you water its roots, the languishing stem produces a few leaves, but will never send forth flowers. The true Russians have something peculiar to themselves, both in their character, their countenance, and their whole bearing. Their carriage is light, and all their movements denote a natural superiority."
— Marquis de Custine, Russia in 1839