Can't remember which interview it was in those links, but she said something like - People don't understand Russian people and culture. They are shocked when they behave the way they do, because physically they look like us and it's shocking when people who look like us step out of bounds. If they were purple skinned covered in dots, people could easily understand why they think and act differently than us and it would make sense. Instead, they have many physical features that we have, so it makes it harder to understand why they are the way they are.
I'm paraphrasing what she said, but that always stuck with me. Makes sense given that for the most part, most Westerns simply don't understand most aspects of russian culture or mentality so it makes it extra shocking when they do the things they do. Lots of "aren't all 'white' people supposed to think like us?".
She really is a great source of information and a valuable resource. Her interviews are very interesting and worth watching if you want to really understand russian psyche and why their has been such failure over the years trying to integrate them into our "world". Because simply, we don't understand how they think and keep trying to relate them to our own world view.
|