If you open YouTube in Incognito mode from Russia, with most watched stuff, you'll see no Tarkovsky, Dostoyevksy or other gloomy movies. Instead, half of the preview images are comedy movies and shows, and other half is boxing, cars, history.

It would be really hard to find the psyche you're talking about in everyday artistic content.

As for high art, like Tarkovksy, I saw the same tragic content in arthouse movies from Westrn Europe.

A lot of the western idea of Russian seriousness is probably from the difference in cultural attitudes toward smiling.

Westerners look at pictures of non-smiling Russians and think they are angry or serious or sad.

There is a picture floating around with three astronauts, an American, a Russian, and an Italian: Big Smile, Soul Piercing Death Stare, Big Smile.

If you are in any way familiar with russians, you understand why, but a lot of westerners just aren't, and completely misread it.

Believe it or not there have been quite a few threads about this:

Why Russians do not smile (2002) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27317859 - May 2021 (481 comments)

What a Russian Smile Means - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17445108 - July 2018 (67 comments)

What a Russian Smile Means - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17381975 - June 2018 (1 comment)

What a Russian Smile Means - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17376212 - June 2018 (1 comment)

Do Russians smile at each other? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7491944 - March 2014 (1 comment)

Why do Russians smile so little (and Americans so much?) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2375633 - March 2011 (105 comments)

we don't smile because we are banned a lot

HN, happily, has many Russian users who follow the site guidelines and therefore are not banned.

It could be norms are different but people aren't. Clearly it is an American norm to smile, but a lot of Americans complain about it. Sometime pressure to smile is interpreted as racism or sexism.

I was recently told that I only smile when I'm talking to a particular person at work. It wasn't hostile, but it did imply that I don't smile "enough" and that I haven't noticed other people smiling more.

>"Westerners look at pictures of non-smiling Russians and think they are angry or serious or sad."

Please stop. If you ever bothered to look at regular people walking on the street you would find exactly the same proportion of smiling or neutral (mostly neutral) faces. When I first came to Toronto I actually paid attention just to that expecting to see this myth - bunch of people walking on the street and smiling. Did not happen. And if you ever bothered to punch "Russian astronauts group" into Google search you will find plenty of smiling faces except when those were taken during some highly official situation.

So yes I am "in any way familiar with Russians" and from that perspective you are at least simply misinformed or a victim of how Western (totally unbiased and objective of course) media represents Russian.

Hey, can you please follow the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)? I appreciate your points and the perspective you're representing. But we need you to do it without name-calling and personal attacks.

I know that can be tough when sensitive places are being prodded, but I don't think anyone is being nasty here. Also, as a bonus, it will make your comments more persuasive.

(One irony, btw, of threads where people argue about national characteristics is that often the arguments turn out to be between people of that background themselves, typically without realizing it. Of course that doesn't give anyone a pass to break the rules, but it does change the frame.)

>"But we need you to do it without name-calling and personal attacks."

I do not think I've made any personal attacks here. As for name calling - the post I responded to is way more fitting.

>"Also, as a bonus, it will make your comments more persuasive"

Maybe. I just said what I think about the statement. I do not really care if my opinion persuades anyone.

I was reacting to "If you ever bothered to look at regular people" and your other use of "if you ever bothered". That was uncalled for.

Please follow the rules if you want to post here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

This is not just speculation but personal observation. I am in the position of knowing several russians and americans (while living in nether country), and I do think this is a pretty pronounced difference.

It's not people in the street perhaps that is the big contrast, but in social interaction.

The americans pretty much always smile when they greet you regardless of whether you've met, and do the whole fake "how are you" routine. I've never encountered russians doing that. It's not that they never smile, but that the reasons for smiling aren't quite the same.

It may be a generational thing as well. Russia is a lot less isolated from the west today, so these cultural clashes may be fading away.

The number of Italians emphatically gesticulating with their hands is very likely 0 if you take a snapshot of people walking on the streets of some big city in an average morning. Yet, that stereotype is not entirely devoid of information.

That's rather correct, I'd say.

The thing is, if I remember correctly, the habit of smiling in the photos appeared in the 20th century in the US. So it's still not here.

As for public interactions, among Russians the difference is that you have to look at the eyebrows and the forehead, which indicate the person being attentive and welcoming, or relaxed, or tense.

When Russians see Americans have smile with lips and cheeks, but forehead and eyebrows relaxed or tense, they probably can't realize it, but perceive this as "fake".

The funny thing is, in Scandinavia, especially Iceland people tend to show even less signs of being "open" in public interaction. At least, I felt unease at first.