that is just external shell that came with oil money. Try to fit the "Great Russia chauvinism" into what you said. You wouldn't be able to. That chauvinism is the basis of Russian mentality and has been well alive and kicking, and the last few days it has been taking a trip to Ukraine.
>General population of Russia can't even imagine the possibility that we invade other country.
convenient self-delusion. Afghanistan is a glaring example. Of course it was sold as "brotherly help" by propaganda just like the Ukraine war right now. Well, easy falling for the same propaganda again and again - that is the convenient self-delusion. That delusion naturally feeds into and is reinforced by the "Big Brother" self-perception which is one of the facets of the "Great Russia chauvinism".
Both sides of the table are guilty of doing this, but the West is way more influential and hence much effective at propaganda.
Playbook as old as humans themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide#Ten_sta...
Some of my Russian friends (most of whom work in IT) are leaving the country already, others are looking for the best way to go about it.
Children in kindergartens have been building toy tanks and missiles for the past few years, the remains of the free press have written about this extensively. "Patriotic education" in schools is growing and is pushing the worldview of the madman on top into the growing kids' conscience.
I think the country is fucked, honestly. There's no decent way to say it.
That said, history is real. It has real effects on people, both through what stories they tell about themselves as a people and through the social superstructure that builds up over time.
And boy does Russia have a bleak history. What you call a 'Russian soul' is more like the internalized cultural wear-and-tear of a rough few hundred years. The good news is that it can be changed with long term concerted effort.
It is true that the idea of suffering have been engraved into the Russian culture, for centuries. It is the ever-present fear of what could happen next, based on what has happened in the past. The fear of things getting even worse, despite everything being bad already. The longing for a chance to have even a short period of normal life, before everything inevitably falls apart (because it always does, roughly twice per century). The idea of accepting the current reality as something immutable and just trying to live with it. The idea of personal (rather than collective) survival. Of course in these circumstances you rarely have the luxury to think about what is right.
Now, that is exactly what state media has learned to exploit. They were selling the idea that nothing _too_ bad will happen if everyone just stays away from politics. Well, now the worst happened. It has been only a few days, and not many people have realized what is coming next. A collapse of economy at this scale will inevitably lead to a massive increase of hunger, crime and death. And — I am not even sure it can change those people's collective behavior.
Personally, I am trying to do my part, but I do not believe my work is going to be of any significance. Maybe it's the "soul".
There is: https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%.... That you don't understand it does not make it less real.
As I understand it (I'm from Poland, not exactly Russia, but we share enough culture and history) it's a way of describing something between culture and attitude to life. It's not limited to a phenomenon of extreme political apathy combined with distrust of anyone unknown (this is called homo sovieticus), but also a way of coping with learned helplessness, mostly by expression in family and close relatives.
Not for Russia(ns), maybe; only for everyone around them.
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[1] Heh... Should that have been "Trumped-up"?
In history, regime changes have illustrated over and over that the actual support for such a government is way, way lower than as it may seem when you ask around on the streets or in staged elections. Once there is a change and a chance for freedom, support drops from 99% in the fake election to 5% or so. Also, this is not a hundred years ago, people know very well what's going on via the net. Given all that, I doubt that Putin's government has any support at all, maybe from 10% of the elite in Moscow and in the security apparatus and that's it. But what are the rest gonna do? It's a classical collective action problem.
Oh yes they do! With a bottle of wine in their hand, and wearing a striped long-sleeved t-shirt[1], pencil moustache, and a beret. Everyone knows that! Sheesh...
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[1]: Come to think of it, rather like a telnyashka.
That's racist thinking, as bad as Putin's assertion that russia deserves some kind of tribute by the international community by force. The world advances as a Markov process, the past is not an indicator for the future.
It doesn't _determine_ the future, but it sure sets the direction. Probabilities of all future possible states are not equal. The chances of the next president of the US being a Republican or Democrat are much higher than them being a card-carrying Communist.
btw, russians are officially considered colored in US as I understand.
“Colored” is not something one is “officially considered” in the US on the basis of national origin, so you are wrong not only in detail but even on broad outline.
As far as I'm aware, Russians were never subject to Jim Crowe laws.
There was, however, a significant surge in discrimination against Slavic (mainly Polish) immigrants in the early 20th century. See "The Polish Peasant in Europe & America" by Thomas & Znaniecki, which is considered to be one of the foundational texts in modern sociology.
That, however, more or less went away in the mid-late 20th century.