Not a tourist but I have some Russian coworkers who left (or fled depending on how you wanna see it) Russia as the war started.
Unsurprisingly, they are just… Well, people. Sure they have a certain culture or mannerisms but not much different from my other eastern european coworkers.
But obviously the ones that would leave Russia might not be quite the same as the ones that are still there today.
An interesting thing I’ve noticed with Russian and Chinese co workers is their attitude towards propeganda. If you start the sentence:
“All governments are lying to you, so:”
A typical western completion might be “so I need to validate what I’m hearing against what I’m actually seeing”
I’ve met Russian and Chinese people who would finish it “so none of it matters, the real truth is unknowable, and so I’ll choose to believe the truth that facilitates the path of least resistance for me and my family”
I hear the same from many of my eastern european colleagues. It’s an attitude you pick up when living under corrupt governments. It’s sad, it makes people feel like they can’t do anything to make things better.
I think that it’s one of the goals of propaganda in such places. Drown everyone in conflicting information and let them abandon any agency.
I also heard that this may pose a problem for the Russian govt as this makes people passive and totalitarian turn Russia undergoes requires people to be active but brainwashed.
I’ve had a Russian co-worker too, and the thing that stood out about him to me is how much he hated the cold. He came from a city that can get six feet of snow on the ground overnight. Here he would bundle up in a coat, hat, scarf and gloves on a day when I would just roll my shirt sleeves down.
Coming from another place that regularly gets 6 feet of snow and where it is cold as fuck. I perfectly understand him, the cold suckes. I strongly dislike anything below 10C.
Coming from a place that regularly got triple digit temperatures I’m not a fan of hot. I think when you move to a more temperate climate you realize what you were missing and don’t want to be tortured further :)
I’m Dutch, we have 50 words for rain, and 49 start with some version of “fucking”.
You arrive as a tourist and deploy to the front line as a conscript
On a apecial tourism operation
deleted by creator
Similar experiences when I visited Moscow a bunch of years ago. Some were very vocal Putin fans. All seemed friendly enough.
I’m an American that visited Russia for ~3 weeks in the mid 90s as a budding teenager. I visited Moscow and Dubna, but mostly Dubna. My experience was that Russians don’t really engage with strangers on the street. They may also be a bit scornful. For example, I have this story.
I saw snow for the first time in my life on this trip. As such, I was having a blast with it. One time, I made a snowball and threw it at an insignificant street sign on an insignificant street. Some lady walking by yells at me something to the effect of, “Why are you doing that, you little brat‽” My Russian uncle, who was present and translated the lady’s comment, behaved as if that was the most normal event ever. If that happened in the US, people would think the lady is a jerk and someone might even tell her off.
Another thing that stuck out to me is that I went ice skating outside at a park. Not one other kid even made an attempt to be my friend. I skated alone the whole time. That would be nearly unheard of in the US too.
However, to not speak only poorly of Russians, as I’m aware that I’m sharing my perspective and they probably have cultural critiques of my behaviors as well (eg the lady that scolded me), I would like to note a positive thing I noticed. If you’re friends with a Russian, that person is your legitimate friend. They are loyal and authentic af with each other. Behind closed doors, Russians that have familial or friendly relationships are completely different than what they are like outside. To really get to know Russians and their culture, you have to become a close friend with them. Only then, will you see who each one truly is. I saw that many times. Outside, they where a mask. Inside their homes, they are quite warm, caring, engaged, and emotional. To get an idea, read the letters between Rodya, his sister, and his mom in Crime and Punishment. That’s a good example of what they are like with each other.
Pre-Invasion, I worked closely with a number of Russians.
One of them came over here (US) for a few weeks to get a better handle on the software we were developing, and he was a stand-up guy. IF I had run into him in a bar without context, I’d have made a friend. The invasion shot that all to shit, of course. Helluva guy, and a helluva developer. Ticking those two boxes was all I expected.
