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Research work in geography

The mentality of the Russian people

Tynda 2005

• Content
• Introduction
• The mystery and solution of the mysterious "Russian soul"
• The mentality of the Russian people
• On Chinese pragmatism
• China is a land of contrasts
• Poll: Russians about Chinese
• Misunderstanding of humor in intercultural communication
• Features of the French mentality
• Poll: France is a beautiful country, the French are unbearable
• Russia and USA
• Russians about their attitude towards Americans and their idea of ​​the attitude of Americans towards us
• Conclusion
• Bibliographic list

Introduction

In my work, I will try to answer the following questions:

what character traits distinguish the Russian people (according to the authors of literary sources);

how do the Chinese, representatives of European countries, differ from other peoples;

what do the peoples of the world think about each other, what do they think about themselves;

what needs to be done to ensure that all the peoples of the world live in peace and harmony

Basic working methods:

analysis of literary sources (textbooks, media materials)

analysis of Internet materials

conducting a social survey;

I will continue to work on this topic, because. the issues of finding a common language between the peoples of the world remains relevant. The fact that human thinking is largely reactive and situational was noted by ancient philosophers. In their daily behavior, people rarely give an account of why they acted this way and not otherwise. Even Leibniz, long before Freud's theory of the unconscious, wrote that "we are three-quarters automatic in our actions." R. Chartier, who quoted him, noted that “firstly, there still remains “one quarter” of human actions, which are determined by collective determinants. The latter are not necessarily realized by individuals, but, nevertheless, govern and command the actions of people in these cases. As you know, in difficult historical periods, such as the one we are currently experiencing, the volume of significant social information increases many times over. The collective intellect of the nation is not always able to efficiently and timely process these overflowing information flows. The importance of mentality among the phenomena of this level is difficult to overestimate. Moreover, without analyzing the deep ethno-mental foundations, it is impossible to understand the peculiarities of the spiritual life of a particular people, to explain why the development of democratic and market principles in Ukraine collided with the psychological inertia of the masses, with the unpreparedness of a conservatively oriented person for worldview pluralism.

Secondly, the theoretical relevance of mental problems is due to the presence of a long period of latent development, when mentality was described and studied without calling it as such. It is impossible to detect the concepts of the mentality of this period in the philosophical literature by any external signs: the fact that they are talking about the mentality becomes clear only after reading the works.

Thirdly, different authors put different content into the same concept of mentality, which greatly complicates a comparative analysis. It is generally accepted that mentality is one of those concepts of scientific and everyday language that are difficult to define with any strict definition. If you try to somehow explain its various meanings, you will get more of an intuitive image than a logically verified category. Different authors at different times understood mentality as the contradictory integrity of the picture of the world, and the pre-reflective layer of thinking, and the collective unconscious, and the sociocultural automatisms of the consciousness of individuals and groups, and the "global, all-encompassing" ether "of culture", in which "all members of society are immersed" etc. The urgent need to systematize the existing definitions of mentality, which would form the basis of mentology as a doctrine of mentality, its nature, content, its specific manifestations, also determine the relevance of the chosen topic. (1)

The mystery and solution of the mysterious "Russian soul"

About the "mysterious Russian soul" each of the readers has probably heard more than once. And I have read it many times. What it is - no one knows (and therefore "mysterious"). Most often it is explained that the mystery of the Russian soul is in its extraordinary breadth. But what is "breadth"? Not the distance from the equator along the meridian, expressed in degrees! When you understand more thoroughly what exactly is meant by this, it turns out - three things.

First. Extraordinarily great kindness.

Generally speaking, there are good (as well as evil) people among every nation. But there are peoples where a kind person is rather an exception, and an evil one, like a hungry wolf, is the rule. There are peoples who have a lot of virtues, for example, diligence, discipline, musicality, etc. and only in last place is by no means amazing kindness. And there are peoples who have a lot of shortcomings, but it is kindness that strikes the imagination.

This is what the Russians are.

This medal also has a flip side - an amazing tolerance for oppression, endless suffering from the oppressors.

Second. An unusually humane frame of mind, when in the first place in the system of human values ​​- the fate of mankind, far in the background - the fate of one's own people, very little - the fate of one's family and absolutely zero attention - one's own destiny.

It was this mindset that distinguished the typically Russian behavior of the late 18th and early 20th centuries. - "intelligentsia" of Russian origin, which has significant differences whether from the Western "intellectuals" or from the Eastern "contemplative philosophy". Today, little is left of the intelligentsia: this breed has been uprooted generation after generation since 1917. However, the tragic fate of Andrei Sakharov, the Russian Robert Oppenheimer, with a surprisingly similar life and fate, shows that something of the intelligentsia has survived to this day. The most striking thing is that exactly the same mindset is widespread among the common people - to the last beggar, inclusive.

There are peoples where "every man for himself - one God for all", and relations between people are regulated by laws. There are peoples where everything is dominated by the feeling of belonging to one's own people, to one's kind-tribe. It turns people into a close-knit flock of animals, and woe to those who come across this flock on the way (there are more than enough examples of how different flocks of Russians come across on this path). And there are peoples where relations between people are regulated not by laws, not even by reason - by the heart. The Russians belong to them.

Unusually developed sense of asceticism. Not in the sense of complete self-forgetfulness, when, according to the Russian proverb, you have to move a mountain. Russians have no equal when they have to throw themselves into a burning house or into icy water in order to save a person. When you need to put out a fire or dig a blockage. When you need to stand to the death in a besieged fortress or go on a bayonet attack. When you need to lift the unbearable or endure the unbearable. When you need to somehow “dissolve” your life in the life of another person or devote it entirely to the cause you serve. (2)

Just one example. Hearing that one of the leaders of the American Communists went blind, one Soviet schoolboy offered him his eyes for transplantation: after all, he needs them for the common struggle against the villainous American imperialists who are oppressing the unfortunate American people! Someone can say that skillfully staged totalitarian propaganda is capable of bringing not only a Russian boy to such a state. I just want to emphasize that this is typical for Russians.

And at the same time, any tourist who comes to Moscow does not get tired of being amazed at the viciousness of the attendants, the thievery of almost everyone who gets in his way, the shameful laziness that occurs at every step. Very far from cordial kindness, selflessness, selflessness and a typical Russian tourist, who appeared before your eyes in a foreign country for him. How to combine one with the other? Is this really the mystery of the “mysterious Russian soul”?

Let's first remove various husks from this notorious "soul" and take a closer look at its "core".

Russia in this regard is distinguished by two essential characteristics.

First, the special character of the Russian community. The Russian village has gone far from that primitive stage of communality, when a person’s personality literally dissolves in the community, when he turns into a simple detail of the social mechanism of the community, like a warrior of the ancient Greek phalanx, which moved and fought as one. This condition is still characteristic of the rural community in the developing countries of Asia and Africa (including the Asian republics of the former USSR). It has a number of advantages - mainly in terms of resilience to endure hardship - but is so uncompetitive in relation to the modern urban lifestyle that everywhere in the world is in varying degrees of decay, transition to more modern forms of life.

Secondly, those national traits of the Russian character were superimposed on this combination. And it increased tenfold strength. Actually, it was community (collectivism) that helped and helps to endure the hardships of totalitarianism to the Chinese, North Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Iranian, Iraqi, Libyan, Cuban and other peoples of the world who fell into this trouble.

But it was precisely the imposition of unique features of the national Russian character on the community that allowed the Russian people to endure not only the burden of totalitarianism, but also the unbearable burden of the arms race for other peoples (on an equal footing with the much more economically stronger United States of America!) and even break out of developing countries into a number of developed countries. world - albeit mainly through the military-industrial complex and its infrastructure.

Such, in our opinion, is the mystery and solution of the imaginary "mystery" of the notorious Russian soul. In our opinion, there is nothing mysterious in it. Many components of this "mystery" are present in many peoples. Collectivism is even stronger among the peoples of the developing countries of Asia and Africa. Latin America. Individualism is stronger among the peoples of the developed countries of the world. Many features of the national Russian character are also found in the mentality and social psychology of other peoples, who have their own unique character, no worse and no better than the Russian. Just a unique combination of different components, traits, characteristics created a unique phenomenon that is difficult to study and therefore acquired an aura of "mystery".

But no matter how we treat this phenomenon of the “Russian soul”, it must be taken into account and kept in mind. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand how, in what way, Russia endured the Civil War, which by an order of magnitude exceeded the Civil War of 1861-1965 in terms of its hardships, victims and economic devastation. in USA. How did she endure the complete defeat of agriculture with tens of millions of victims, very similar in its consequences to the most ferocious hurricanes ever swept over the territory of the southern states of the United States, or to the tragic events in the African Sahara of the 70s, Somalia of the late 80s - early 90s. How did she endure the mass terror by the sons of tens of millions of victims (in one way or another affecting almost every third inhabitant of the country), very similar to the tragedy of the Jews during the Nazi Holocaust or the tragedy of Cambodia during the time of Pol Pot. How did she endure World War II when she was caught unawares, unprepared for war, and had to literally cover the approaches first to Moscow and then to Berlin with corpses, when ten Russians were forced to give their lives so that the eleventh could kill one German soldier. Finally, how, and at the cost of what sacrifices, did it endure almost half a century of the Third World (the so-called "cold") war against a much stronger economically and technologically adversary.

There can be no doubt that the Russian people would have endured the burden of totalitarianism and the arms race for some more time. He was not defeated in World War III. Totalitarianism itself was defeated, which turned out to be uncompetitive in competition with the “democracy + market” system and began to decline, gradually decay from within. And then all of a sudden it collapsed like a rock and crumbled into sand. (3)

The mentality of the Russian people

The mentality of the people is an integral part of the national culture. The study of the national mentality is necessary to understand the relationship of nature, culture and society in a certain area. Man is part of the geographic environment and depends on it.

S. N. Bulgakov wrote that the continentality of the climate is probably to blame for the fact that the Russian character is such contradictory, thirst for absolute freedom and slave obedience, religiosity and atheism- these properties of the Russian mentality are incomprehensible to the Europeans and therefore create an aura of mystery, mystery, incomprehensibility for Russia. After all, for us, Russia remains an unsolved mystery. F. I. Tyutchev said about Russia:

Russia cannot be understood with the mind,

Do not measure with a common yardstick.

She has a special become -

One can only believe in Russia.

The facts show that the Russian state and the Russian ethnos were historically, geographically and psychologically "programmed" for confrontation from the outside. The Russian ethnos originated in the center of Eurasia, on a plain not protected either from the west or east by seas or mountains and accessible to military incursions, both from East Asia and from Western Europe. The only way to maintain independence under such conditions is to occupy as much territory as possible, in which any enemy armies would be bogged down.

Huge spaces, harsh climate and the need to resist the combined forces of many peoples from the West and from the East at the same time gave rise to the predominant type of subconscious and conscious psychological attitudes.

The severity of our climate also strongly affected the mentality of the Russian people. Living in a territory where winter lasts about six months, the Russians have developed in themselves great willpower, perseverance in the struggle for survival in the climate. The low temperature during most of the year also affected the temperament of the nation. Russians more melancholic, slow than Western Europeans.

The North Eurasian character of our nation has formed a type of national psychology that not only does not correspond to the prevailing world trends. But the exact opposite of them. Hence, instead of developing a commodity economy - psychology of care in subsistence farming(saving during the years of foreign intervention, but unproductive for building an intensive economy), instead of independence - habit of paternalism, instead of high material demands - unpretentiousness to the conditions of life.

The harsh Russian winters had a strong influence on the traditions of the Russian hospitality. Denying shelter to a traveler in winter in our conditions means dooming him to a cold death. Therefore, hospitality was perceived by the Russian people only as a self-evident duty. The severity and stinginess of nature taught the Russian man to be patient and obedient. But even more important was the stubborn, continuous struggle with the harsh nature. Russians have long had to engage in all kinds of crafts along with agriculture. This explains practical orientation of the mind, dexterity and rationality. Rationalism, prudence and a pragmatic approach to life do not always help the Great Russian, since the waywardness of the climate sometimes deceives the most modest expectations. And, having become accustomed to these deceptions, our man sometimes prefers to choose headlong the most hopeless decision, to oppose the whim of nature with the whim of his own courage. This inclination tease happiness, play luck V. O. Klyuchevsky called the "Great Russian Avos".

To live in such unpredictable conditions, when the result depends on the vagaries of nature, is possible only with an inexhaustible optimism. In the rating of national character traits, compiled on the basis of a Reader's Digest magazine survey conducted in 18 European countries in February 2001, this quality among Russians was in first place. 51% of respondents declared themselves optimists (only 3% were pessimists). the rest of Europe won among the qualities constancy, preference for stability.

A Russian person needs to cherish a clear working day. This forces our peasant to hurry, to work hard in order to have time to do a lot in a short time. No people in Europe is capable of such hard work in a short time. Such industriousness is inherent, perhaps, only Russian. This is how the climate influences the Russian mentality in such a multifaceted way. The landscape has no less influence. IN. Klyuchevsky reveals the landscape determinism of the Russian character as follows: “Great Russia of the 13th - 15th centuries, with its forests, marshy swamps, presented the settler with thousands of small dangers at every step, among which one had to be found. With which I had to constantly fight. This taught him to vigilantly follow nature, to look both ways, in his words, to walk, looking around and feeling the soil, not to meddle in the water without looking for a ford, developed in him resourcefulness in minor difficulties and dangers, the habit of patient struggle with adversity and hardship. .

In Europe there is no people less spoiled and pretentious, accustomed to expect less from nature and fate and more enduring. The originality of Russian nature, its whims and unpredictability were reflected in the mindset of Russians, in the manner of their thinking. Life's bumps and accidents taught him to discuss the path traveled more than to think about the future, to look back more than to look ahead. In the fight against unexpected hardships and thaws, with unforeseen August frosts and January slush, he became more circumspect than precautionary, learned to notice the consequences more than set goals, cultivated in himself the ability to sum up the art of making estimates. This skill is what we call hindsight ... Nature and fate led the Great Russian in such a way that they taught him to go to the straight road in a roundabout way. The beautiful Russian nature and the flatness of Russian landscapes taught the people to contemplate. According to V. O. Klyuchevsky, “in contemplation is our life, our art, our faith. But from excessive contemplation, souls become dreamy, lazy, weak-willed, unworking. Caution, observation, thoughtfulness, concentration and contemplation- these are the qualities that were brought up in the Russian soul by Russian landscapes.

In many ways, the specific (and often contradictory) features of the Russian mentality are determined by the vastness of spaces in Russia. A huge sparsely populated territory required for its development a special type of people capable of decisive action, daring and courageous. And everywhere, during their journey, the Russians created a network of settlements - fortresses, which also played the role of economic centers for the development of the territory. Such a population was distinguished by enterprise, extraordinary love of freedom and rebelliousness. A significant part of the inhabitants fled beyond the Urals from the "sovereign's eye", and the authorities themselves preferred to keep such citizens away from the capital.

Russians were formed not in a nationally closed space, but in an open plain - the plain of assimilation. They "boiled" in this boiler. And came out of it with two fundamental feelings - feeling of powerful unity with each other and arising from centuries of experience of life conciliatory attitude towards peoples - neighbors - and to those who had to seize land, and to those who joined based on their own interests; and even more so to those who considered it important for themselves to transfer their knowledge, creative elements of their culture to the Russians.

The spirit of hostility and rivalry was alien to the Russians - precisely because of their obvious predominance, and also because of the powerful folk root they had with its Moscow core. This Russian "root" was so strong that it digested the kings of German blood, and the Baltic officials, and the Tatar Baskaks and Murzas, and their French-speaking nobility, and the Ukrainian version of Orthodoxy.

The vastness and incomprehensibility of the country's spaces could not but affect its perception by its neighbors. Emperor Alexander 3, in parting words, produced shortly before the country entered the 20th century, said: “Remember - Russia has no friends. They are afraid of our hugeness.”

A long period of careful dosing of deliberate distortion of information leaking abroad did not contribute to the formation of an objective image of the country among foreigners. P.A. Vyazemsky, a writer and friend of Pushkin, characterized such opinions as follows: “If you want an intelligent person, a German or a Frenchman, to brecze stupidity, make him express judgments about Russia. This is an object that intoxicates him and immediately darkens his thinking abilities.

“Huge spaces were easy given to the Russian people, but it was not easy for them to organize these spaces into the greatest state in the world, to maintain and protect order in it. The size of the state set the Russian people almost impossible tasks, kept the Russian people in exorbitant tension (N.A. Berdyaev). All this could not but affect the mentality of the Great Russians. The Russian soul turned out to be overwhelmed by the immense Russian fields, the immense Russian snows, it seems to be drowning, dissolving in this immensity. Long and cold winters were reflected in joyless sadness in the soul of the Russian people.

The state mastery of vast spaces was accompanied by terrible centralization, the subordination of all life to the state interest and the suppression of free personal and social forces, the suppression of any initiative that came "from below". Centralization affected the Russian spirit in two ways: firstly, the Great Russian decided that the one who controls such vast expanses, representing Russia and a great people, is almost of supernatural origin. From here - cult of personality, a sense of reverence for« father-tsar» in the soul of the Russian people. Secondly, the feeling that someone is standing above a person and controlling all his actions has resulted in such a quality of the soul as carelessness. ON THE. Berdyaev said: "The Russian soul is bruised by the breadth." The Russian soul is wide, like the Russian land, rivers, fields - everything can be absorbed by the soul of a Russian person, all human feelings of property will fit in it.

The power of breadth over the Russian soul also gives rise to a whole series of Russian “undignities”. Associated with this is the Russian laziness, carelessness, lack of initiative, a poorly developed sense of responsibility.“The expanse of the Russian land and the expanse of the Russian soul crushed Russian energy, opening up the possibility in the direction of extensiveness,” noted N.A. Berdyaev.

Russian laziness (Oblomovism) is common in all strata of the people. We are lazy to do work that is not strictly obligatory. Oblomovism is partly expressed in inaccuracies, delays.

Seeing the infinity of their open spaces, the Russians resign themselves to the idea that it is still impossible to master such a vastness. I. A. Ilyinsky said: "Russia has endowed us with enormous natural wealth - both external and internal." A Russian person considers these riches to be endless and does not protect them. It breeds in our mentality mismanagement. We feel like we have a lot. And further in his work “On Russia”, Ilyin writes “From the feeling that our wealth is plentiful and generous, a kind of spiritual kindness is poured into us, a kind of organic, affectionate good nature, calmness, openness of the soul, sociability ... there will be enough for everyone, and the Lord will send more” . This is the root of the Russian generosity.

“The natural calm, good nature and generosity of Russians surprisingly coincided with the dogmas of Orthodox Christian morality. Humility in the Russian people and from the church. Christian morality, which for centuries held the entire Russian statehood, strongly influenced the national character. Orthodoxy brought up in the Great Russians spirituality, all-forgiving love, responsiveness, sacrifice, spiritual kindness.

The unity of the Church and the state, the feeling of being not only a citizen of the country, but also a part of a huge cultural community, has nurtured among Russians an extraordinary patriotism to the point of sacrificial heroism. A. I. Herzen wrote: “Every Russian is aware of himself as part of the whole state, he is aware of his kinship with the entire population.” The problem of overcoming Russian spaces and distances has always been one of the most important for the Russian people. Even Nicholas 1 said: "Distance is the misfortune of Russia."

The Russian man has perseverance and thoroughness peasant and nomadic blood ( prowess, the desire to withdraw from habitable places in search of something better, horizontal structured space, etc..) Russians do not distinguish between Europe and Asia, balancing between two models of development.

A comprehensive geographical analysis of the ethno-cultural and natural environment today makes it possible to reveal the most important features of the mentality of any nation and trace the stages and factors of its formation. (3)

On Chinese pragmatism

The sage takes care of the stomach, not of the eyes: he takes what is necessary and discards what is superfluous. (Lao Tzu. "Tao Te Ching")

The unifying principle in rethinking and processing the values ​​of various cultures and religions and their development and assimilation in China is pragmatism. It is this dominant feature of the Chinese mentality that determines the amazing adaptability of the Chinese and their ability to survive in the most difficult conditions throughout the most difficult history of the Middle Kingdom. That is why the Chinese civilization, which gave rise to one of the most mystical currents - Taoism, lives very pragmatically, does not talk about profit, but constantly follows it. Just like any Chinese, he strives to extract his interest even from a trifle. Obviously, this circumstance determines the realities faced by a tourist coming to modern China. First of all, the amazing diligence of the Chinese is striking, or rather their work in any area, despite its appearance and level. On the way to Cheng De, we watched the Chinese create earthen terraces in the mountains for agricultural work. Before us, pictures of the distant past literally came to life: a bull, a plow, a basket and a man. We saw how many kilometers of greenhouses for growing the most common vegetables, peas and beans, workers covered with mats from the night cold, and in the morning, at sunrise, they cleaned them, putting them in huge piles - and so every day. Even at a gas station quite remote from the central highway, the toilet is washed and deodorized with incense after each visit.

But if « workaholism» - a well-known feature of the Chinese, their love for trade is amazing. Wherever you are - near the museum, temple, palace, in the parking lot, at the restaurant, theater, hotel, on the observation deck, everywhere there is a huge number of merchants of various souvenir trifles, toys, postcards, handkerchiefs.

More than 500 million "unrecorded" people live in China, those who were born in a family in excess of the established "minimum": one or two children - the second with special permission. They are not registered, they do not have documents. And everyone needs to live!

China is a country of different languages, peoples and cultures. And even in the Chinese language itself, there are four tonic stresses. The slightest change in tone - and the spoken word takes on a completely different meaning. Chinese from different provinces may not understand each other at all. Therefore, in China, video information is preferred. Almost all films, performances and programs of an information and political nature are duplicated by titles - hieroglyphs in all provinces and by everyone are read the same way. But it was the presence of tonic stresses that contributed to the development of a high musical culture.

Pragmatism The Chinese are manifested in everything, in relation to health, first of all. After all, it is health care that underlies Taoism, the flourishing of Chinese and Tibetan medicine, and traditional martial arts. Every morning, passing through any city, you can observe groups of people doing qigong breathing and meditative exercises, taijiquan gymnastics. On weekends, parks and gardens are given into the possession of pensioners for recreation.

China is a land of contrasts

… Existence and non-existence generate each other,

Difficult and easy create each other,

Short and long are measured by each other,

High and low are drawn to each other.

(Lao Tzu. "Tao Te Ching")

However, upon closer examination, classical culture strikes at the same time with a certain stereotype. In China, everything corresponds to the Taoist canon and is therefore stereotyped. In accordance with the principles of Taoism and its symbolism, the odd number “9” will prevail in architecture - it is the most beloved, a little less often “7”, and there will never be an even number, especially “4”, because it is equivalent to the concept of “death”. At the same time, symmetry prevails, as a rule, associated with the principle of the unity of opposite principles - feminine and masculine (Yin and Yang). Therefore, in front of all the palaces there will be figures of two lions: on the one hand, a lion, putting its paw on a ball - a male symbol, denoting power, and on the opposite side, a lion, under whose paw there will be a child - a female symbol, denoting fertility. All buildings, in accordance with the principles of Taoism, will be adjacent to the mountains with a back wall, and with a facade - to go to a river or an artificial reservoir. True, the symbolic elements of the harmony of the Cosmos are intertwined here - earth and water, and in the middle is a person, with purely practical, functional ones - protection from enemies, of which the Chinese have always had a lot.

Chinese gardens - the most harmonious combination of opposites Yin and Yang: nature and architecture, verticals and horizontals, emptiness and fullness. In any garden, three elements are necessarily present so that a person can live in it: water, rocks and plants. The color scheme will always consist of five colors, according to the Taoist ideas about the five elements. In addition, the color scheme also means the characters' characters - both in fine arts and in sculpture. The color scheme is used even in a religious ceremony. And, of course, the use of animal symbols is canonical, in which the first place is occupied by the dragon, personifying water and performing protective functions. Tiger, turtle, horse, unicorn are popular. Among the flowers, preference is given to the lotus - a symbol of purity. Clouds are also a symbol of the sky, the cult of which occupied a paramount place in the life of pre-Confucian China. Hence the ancient name of China - China. Dragons on the roofs perform a protective function, protecting all the living from the power and interference in their lives by evil spirits. The same functions are performed by the famous curved roofs with tightly sealed tubes of tiles, as well as peculiar labyrinths from the gates at the entrance to the dwelling of a medieval Chinese.

With all the originality and specificity of Chinese history and culture, in contrast to the history and culture of our country, one can also see their common features. These include collectivism - or community, benevolence And hospitality, the ability to artificially create difficulties and then overcome them (5) .

Poll: Russians about Chinese

As the survey showed, 42% of Russians, judging by their own words, positive image of China. In groups, the respondents talked a lot about the fact that the Chinese are a hardworking, patient, wise people:

« Well, everyone knows that the Chinese are the most hardworking people in the world. And they proved with their diligence, their work» (DFG, Novosibirsk).

« The country is civilized. And so - this is a country of hard workers ...» (DFG, Novosibirsk).

« Patient people. It seems to me that their whole history<об этом говорит> « (DFG, Moscow).

« Very resilient people» (DFG, Moscow).

« They are very wise people» (DFG, Samara).

« This is an old, wise state ...» (DFG, Novosibirsk).

By the way, respondents aged 50 years and older (48%) speak about a positive image of China much more often than on average. This attitude of representatives of these socio-demographic groups, apparently, is largely due to the perception of this country as one of the last "strongholds" of the communist order. It should be noted that modern television pictures from China - not with pagodas, but with a red banner, a sickle and a hammer - only reinforce this image, fairly seasoned with nostalgic feelings.

Another group more likely than average to say that they have a very positive image of China are people with higher education (53%).

More than a third of Russians (36%) say they have a good neutral the image of the eastern neighbor, and more often than on average, this is how young respondents (48%) and people with secondary general education (41%) define their ideas about this country.

Negative The image of China was formed by 12% of the respondents. It should be noted that residents of the Siberian (17%) and especially the Far Eastern districts (29%) speak about the negative image of this country more often than others. It is there that the problem of illegal immigration of residents of the "under heaven" is extremely acute.

« 25% of Vladivostok are Chinese. Free passage of the border, free sale and purchase, that's all! In the center of Vladivostok - houses, restaurants, everything is Chinese. Likewise in Transbaikalia» (DFG, Novosibirsk)

« We have a lot of unemployed ourselves. Well, why do they come from there, without any visas?» (DFG, Novosibirsk).

Another 10% of the respondents found it difficult to answer the question, what image of China has developed in their minds.

As for experts, two-thirds of them have a positive image of China, a quarter have a neutral one, and only one sixteenth of the experts surveyed speak of a negative image of their eastern neighbor.

The “peaceful expansion” of China in the Far East causes considerable concern among the respondents:

« Everyone knows that they populate Siberia and that's all. They take out everything... They take out both wood and furs, and that's it. They are being introduced, and there is a gradual peaceful seizure of territories» (DFG, Samara).

« They populate our territories ... They slowly occupy our territory» (DFG, Samara).

« In general, if you look at military history, they almost never acted as an attacking side. They acted in a peculiar way: they seemed to let the invader through, and then assimilated. And the fact that there are a lot of Chinese in Russia now is more likely that they will slowly creep in there, creep in ...(DFG, Novosibirsk).

Finally, the traditional fear of the "multitude" of the Chinese, judging by the remarks of the focus group participants, is still present in the mass consciousness:

« And this billion fears me. Causes concern» (DFG, Moscow).

« The fear for the whole world is Chinese expansion. Because it is developing very well, the population is very large, the army is very strong. So in the future there are fears that it will seize territories» (DFG, Samara).(6)

Misunderstanding of humor in intercultural communication

Misunderstanding of humor as a result of insufficient competence in intercultural communication can be divided into several types:

misunderstanding of everyday humor associated with the absence of similar realities in their culture,

misunderstanding of certain accepted etiquette norms,

misunderstanding of the deep values ​​of the corresponding culture.

Misunderstanding of humor, based on ignorance of realities, is easily removed in the presence of comments. The exception is a play on words: a native of another culture understands that, probably, in another language, such a random coincidence of homonymous units may turn out to be funny, but since these words are by no means homonyms in their native language, there is no comic effect. The clarification associated with the form of words, in fact, eliminates the unexpectedness of the semantic clash that underlies humor. Similarly, jokes based on rhymes do not cause laughter. Such jokes are not very characteristic of English culture, and in Russian jokes they are registered in our corpus of examples, mainly in relation to primitive jokes.

Usually, anecdotes associated with various classifications regarding ideas about other peoples cause a smile. Even if the essence of the anecdote is not immediately clear, the bearer of Russian culture can easily guess that the very structure of the anecdote should suggest its climax. For example, the following anecdote translated into Russian does not quite fit into the idea of ​​Russians about Italians, but becomes clear due to the context:

How to convince a skydiver recruit to make the first jump?

The American needs to be told: "If you are a man, you will jump!"

To the Englishman: "Sir, this is a tradition."

Frenchman: "This is a lady's request."

German: "This is an order."

Italian: "Jumping is forbidden!"

The last remark in the joke is built on a contrast, this contrast is based on a typical image-stereotype of an Italian in the eyes of Europeans.

More complicated is the anecdote with a confused classification:

Paradise is a place where the policemen are English, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and the managers are Swiss. Hell is a place where the chefs are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, the police are German and the managers are Italian.

The British treat their policemen with respect, German policemen are known for their harshness, French cuisine is also known for its sophistication, and English food is criticized by the French and other Europeans (note that modern English cuisine is largely international). The Germans are known in Europe for their love of mechanics and precise mechanisms, the stereotype of an Italian is a passionate lover, the Swiss are famous for their discipline and good organizational skills, the idea of ​​reliability is enshrined in the concept of a `Swiss bank'. traveling around the countries of their continent, this confused classification causes a genuine smile: they remember that in France no one could fix their car, in Italy they had to spend a lot of time at the airport due to administrative problems and irresponsibility of staff, etc. In other words , such anecdotes are based largely on personal experience, i.e. on the conscious experience of incomprehensible realities.

Here is another anecdote that plays on the stereotypes of representation of foreign ethnic groups:

German, American and Swedish police are participating in a contest to see who is the best at catching criminals. The task is given: a hare is released into the forest, and it must be caught. The Swedish police set up animal informers throughout the forest, interview all the plant and mineral witnesses, and after three months of intense searching, they come to the conclusion that there are no hares in nature. The Americans break into the forest, roam the forest for two weeks, cannot find anyone, set fire to the forest, killing everyone, including hares, and do not apologize to anyone. The Germans get down to business and two hours later they return with a badly beaten bear, which yells: “Yes, I am a hare, I am a hare! Just don't kick me!"

From the point of view of the British and Americans, the Swedish police are overly scrupulous and liberal. In our opinion, the Swedes were in this series by chance: it was necessary to build a kind of classification of cruelty and show that there is a people whose police are too soft on criminals. The American police are distinguished not by sophisticated cruelty (here the priority belongs to the Germans), but by insufficient competence, which is compensated by the manifestation of brute force. Attention is also drawn to the lack of tact emphasized by Americans (“they don’t apologize to anyone”), the latter sign is painful for those cultures where it is customary to observe the norms of politeness, primarily for English culture. This anecdote is in general terms understandable to the bearers of Russian culture, imagining the behavior of American supermen from films and knowing about the brutality of the Germans during the war. (7)

The British showed a complete lack of understanding of Russian realities associated with proper names in jokes:

Aunt Valya: “Dear guys! Vova Glazunov from Moscow won the first place in our drawing competition on the theme "Vanya and the Bear". He has the most beautiful drawing. True, grandfather Ilya helped him a little ... "

The British may not know that Ilya Glazunov is a famous contemporary Russian artist. Also, the idea of ​​a child submitting to a children's drawing contest a picture he was helped to draw seems strange to the British: the idea violates the British notion of `fair play'. Similarly, the English do not understand the attitude of Russians to prompting during the exam: we have a friend who refused to prompt you during the exam, unequivocally assessed as a traitor, in English culture, refusal to help in such a situation is not perceived so sharply (punishment for cheating, `cheating at the exam" is quite severe).

The British had difficulty understanding very specific Russian jokes about the KGB:

A man calls the KGB on a pay phone: “Hello, KGB? You're doing a bad job!" I ran to another pay phone: “Hello, KGB? You're doing a bad job!" He ran to the third one: “Hello, KGB? You're doing a bad job!" He feels a hand on his shoulder: “As we can, we work.”

The specificity of these jokes is that state security is endowed with supernatural abilities and is evaluated positively. Such an attitude to power is contrary to the norms of carnival culture, the reversal of values ​​and the nature of the anecdote. It is no coincidence that there is an opinion that jokes of this kind were specially invented in the analytical departments of the KGB in order to create appropriate stereotypes among the population. By the way, the abbreviation “State Security Committee” itself was also jokingly deciphered with a positive connotation “office of deep drilling”. ):

NASA is wondering why the left SHUTTLE solid-propellant booster exploded, and in the KGB why the right one didn’t explode ...

Even without taking into account the fact that in this text the functions of foreign intelligence are attributed to the KGB, the bearers of Russian culture emphasize the ability of our special services to carry out the most fantastic operations. The British perceive such a text as pretentious and partly national-chauvinistic.

Frank apologetics of the authorities is no exception in Russian jokes dedicated to the meetings of top leaders. Here is a children's anecdote from the Brezhnev era:

Brezhnev arrives in America. American President Reagan says: "Press that button!" Brezhnev pressed, and found himself under a cold shower. After some time, Reagan arrives in Moscow. Brezhnev tells him: "Press this button!" Reagan pressed, nothing happened. Pressed again, nothing happened either. He says, “What is this? Here we are, in America ... "And Brezhnev told him:" Your America is no more.

The British did not find this anecdote funny, the reaction was a polite smile, in some cases a shrug. It cannot be said that the respondents (and these were citizens of the United Kingdom) felt solidarity towards the United States, but frank praise of the power of the USSR in the genre of anecdote seemed strange to them. It is interesting that at the same time jokes were circulating in which Brezhnev was shown as a very weak person, these jokes did not cause misunderstanding among the English respondents.

Speaking about the realities of our culture, incomprehensible to the English respondents, we note that anecdotes about the police are very specific to Russian culture. The attitude towards law enforcement officers among the bearers of Russian culture is sharply negative. The police in the mirror of the anecdote is distinguished by corruption and narrow-mindedness. For example:

A traffic policeman comes home, angry and frozen - he earned little while standing on the highway. A schoolboy son opens the door for him. The traffic cop shouts: “Give me the diary, if I got a deuce, I’ll whip it!” The boy runs to his mother in tears: “Today they just gave me a deuce!” “Okay, don’t be afraid,” the mother says, and puts fifty rubles in her son’s diary on the page with the deuce. The boy with horror gives the diary to his father. He, frowning, flips through, reaches the page with a banknote, puts it in his pocket, sighs with relief and says: “It’s good that at least everything is in order at home!”

This text seemed difficult for the British, they understood that it was about the inadequate behavior of a policeman, but the whole system of Russian realities turned out to be closed to them. They had to tell them that the police on the roads, the service of the state traffic inspectorate, now, by the way, renamed the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate (GIBDD), is almost always perceived in the minds of the bearers of Russian culture as extortionists, unfairly fining drivers for minor traffic violations. It is clear that the tellers of jokes are the victims of the unfair control of the state over people. The carriers of modern Russian culture also know the procedure for presenting a driver's license to a policeman, usually a banknote is invested in the license. The humor of the cited text is that instead of a driver's license, a student's diary appears - another reality that is absent in English culture. English schoolchildren do not have diaries, which are a rigid form of control over children.(8)

The British could only superficially appreciate the following joke:

At the exhibition of fire departments:

- Uncle, why do you need a helmet and a belt?

- Yes, baby, when I climb into a burning house, but if something falls on my head, then the helmet will save me.

- Ugh, I thought that the muzzle would not crack.

A superficial understanding of this text is a boy's mockery of a fat fireman. In this sense, we have before us an anecdote-trap. But in this text, the British do not understand the linguocultural presupposition: a firefighter is a person who sleeps all the time in the service, so he has a swollen face that needs to be bandaged with a strap so that it does not crack. The boy in many Russian jokes is a trickster provocateur who inevitably confuses an adult. In the most prominent form, this function is expressed in a series of jokes about Vovochka (many of these jokes are rude).

The results of our experimental analysis of the perception of anecdotes showed that the sign "rudeness" did not appear in the answers of the respondents, both from the English side and from the Russian side (however, we did not consider frankly obscene anecdotes, although they should also be accepted in a special work to conduct an objective study A number of English jokes were perceived by the Russian respondents as extremely insipid. The British have the same reaction to the refined jokes of the countries of Southeast Asia:

The monkey king ordered to get him the moon from the sky. The courtiers jumped from a high cliff, crashed, and, finally, the most dexterous of them managed to jump to the moon and brought it to their master. Passing the moon to the king, the courtier asked: “O great king, I dare to ask, why do you need the moon?” The king thought: “Really, why?…”

Such anecdotes are philosophical in nature, make you think about life, perhaps with a smile, but they can hardly be attributed to spontaneous jokes.

The English respondents were at a loss when trying to understand the anecdote, which includes a value that is very specific to the Russian linguistic consciousness:

Announcement in a Ukrainian newspaper: I am changing a 3x4 m carpet for a piece of lard of the same size.

In the minds of Russians, salo is the favorite food of Ukrainians, the anecdote contains obvious hyperbole. At the same time, the carpet acts as a measure of value, which in our apartments was often hung on the wall as a decoration and which was considered as a valuable investment. In English, there is no one-word and unambiguous translation of the Russian reality `fat', there are words meaning fat, melted fat, the British do not understand the hyperbole in the size of an immense piece of bacon, finally, they perceive carpets only as a comfortable floor covering, and not at all as an object of art or a demonstration The British also cannot understand the specific banter of Russians over Ukrainians and vice versa, although similar relations take place between the British and the Scots, the British and the Irish, etc. The elements of mutual misunderstanding in intercultural contact, presented in a caricatured anecdotal form, are, in apparently, an ethnocultural universal, but the qualities of another nation to be ridiculed are specific.Note that the British could not understand a very typical anecdote for intercultural misunderstanding between Russians and Ukrainians:

Wife: Why did you hit me, I didn't do anything!

Husband: It would be for that, I would have killed in general.

The presupposition that a husband has the right to hit his wife seems strange to the British, although in a large number of jokes about mother-in-law such a presupposition does not raise questions. The British, in principle, do not understand an unmotivated action: faced with a world in which, in principle, there are no causal relationships and which Russians perceive as cheerful for this very reason, the British experience a kind of cognitive discomfort. This leads to the conclusion about the orderliness of the world as a value in the English-speaking mind.(9)

These kinds of jokes stand in stark contrast to jokes that exaggerate and caricature certain human qualities. Our corpus of examples includes a humorous miniature on the subject of "radio interception":

Actual radio conversation released by the Chief of Naval Operations (so it says)

Hail: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.

Reply: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

Hail: This is the Captain of a U.S. navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

Reply: No, I say again, you divert YOUR course.

Hail: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER ENTERPRISE. WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE U.S. NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!

Reply: This is the lighthouse...your call.

Radio recording from a Navy report.

Request: Please change your course 15 degrees north to avoid collision.

Answer: I recommend that you change your course 15 degrees to the south in order to avoid a collision.

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In general, the mentality is the prevailing schemes, stereotypes and thought patterns. Russians are not necessarily Russians. An individual may be proud to be a "Cossack", "Bashkir" or "Jew" within Russia, but outside of it all Russians (former and present) are traditionally called (regardless of origin) Russians. There are good reasons for this: as a rule, they all have similarities in their mentality and stereotypes of behavior.

The Russians have something to be proud of, we have a huge and strong country, we have talented people and deep literature, while we ourselves know our weaknesses. If we want to become better, we must know them.

So, let's look at ourselves from the side, namely from the side of strictly scientific research. What do cultural researchers note as specific features of the Russian mentality?

1. Conciliarity, the primacy of the common over the personal: "we are all our own", we have everything in common and "what will people say." Sobornost turns into a lack of privacy and the opportunity for any neighbor grandmother to intervene and tell you everything she thinks about your clothes, manners and upbringing of your children.

From the same opera, the concepts of "public", "collective" that are absent in the West. “The opinion of the collective”, “not to separate from the collective”, “what will people say?” - conciliarity in its purest form. On the other hand, they will tell you if your tag is sticking out, your drawstring is untied, your pants are splashed, or your grocery bag is torn. And also - flashing headlights on the road to warn about the traffic police and save from a fine.

2. The desire to live in truth. The term "pravda", often found in ancient Russian sources, means legal regulations, on the basis of which the court was decided (hence the expressions “to judge the right” or “to judge in truth”, that is, objectively, fairly). The sources of codification are the norms of customary law, princely judicial practice, as well as borrowed norms from authoritative sources - primarily the Holy Scriptures.

Outside of Russian culture, there is more talk of obedience to the law, the rules of decency, or the observance of religious precepts. The Eastern mentality does not speak of the Truth, in China it is important to live according to the precepts left by Confucius.

3. In the choice between reason and feeling, Russians choose feeling: sincerity and sincerity. In the Russian mentality, “expediency” is practically a synonym for selfish, selfish behavior and is not honored, like something “American”. It is difficult for the average Russian layman to imagine that it is possible to act reasonably and consciously not only for oneself, but also for someone else, therefore, selfless actions are identified with actions “from the heart”, based on feelings, without a head.

Russian - dislike for discipline and method, life according to the soul and mood, change of mood from peacefulness, forgiveness and humility to a merciless rebellion to complete annihilation - and vice versa. The Russian mentality lives more like a female model: feeling, gentleness, forgiveness, reacting with crying and rage to the consequences of such a life strategy.

4. A certain amount of negativism: most Russians tend to see themselves as shortcomings rather than virtues. Abroad, if a person on the street accidentally touches another person, the stereotyped reaction of almost anyone is: “Sorry”, an apology and a smile. They are so brought up. It is sad that in Russia such patterns are more negative, here you can hear “Well, where are you looking?”, And something more harsh. The Russians understand well what longing is, despite the fact that this word is untranslatable into other European languages. On the streets, it is not customary for us to smile, look into the faces of others, indecently get to know each other and just talk.

5. A smile in Russian communication is not a mandatory attribute of politeness. In the West, the more a person smiles, the more polite he is. In traditional Russian communication, the priority is the requirement of sincerity. A smile in Russians demonstrates a personal disposition towards another person, which, of course, does not apply to everyone. Therefore, if a person smiles not from the heart, it causes rejection.

You can ask for help - most likely they will help. It is normal to beg - and a cigarette, and money. A person with a constantly good mood arouses suspicion - whether sick, or insincere. The one who usually smiles kindly at others - if not a foreigner, then, of course, a toady. Of course, insincere. Says "Yes", agrees - a hypocrite. Because a sincere Russian person will definitely disagree and object. And in general, the real sincerity is when obscene! That's when you believe the man!

6. Love for disputes. In Russian communication, disputes traditionally occupy a large place. A Russian person loves to argue on a variety of issues, both private and general. Love for disputes on global, philosophical issues is a striking feature of Russian communicative behavior.

A Russian person is often interested in a dispute not as a means of finding the truth, but as a mental exercise, as a form of emotional, sincere communication with each other. That is why, in Russian communicative culture, those who argue so often lose the thread of the dispute, easily deviate from the original topic.

At the same time, the desire for compromise or for allowing the interlocutor to save face is completely uncharacteristic. Uncompromisingness, conflict manifests itself very clearly: our person is uncomfortable if he did not argue, could not prove his case. “As the English teacher formulated this quality: "The Russian always argues to win." And vice versa, the characteristic "conflict-free", rather, has a disapproving connotation, like "spineless", "unprincipled".

7. A Russian person lives by faith in the good that will one day descend from heaven.(or simply from above) to the long-suffering Russian land: "Good will definitely defeat evil, but then, someday." At the same time, his personal position is irresponsible: “Someone will bring us the truth, but not me personally. I can't do anything myself, and I won't." For several centuries now, the main enemy of the Russian people has been considered the state in the form of a serving-punitive class.

8. The principle of "keep your head down." In the Russian mentality, there is a disdainful attitude towards politics and democracy as a form of political structure, in which the people act as the source and controller of the activities of power. Characteristic is the conviction that in reality people do not decide anything anywhere and democracy is a lie and hypocrisy. At the same time, tolerance and the habit of lying and hypocrisy of one's power because of the conviction that it is impossible otherwise.

9. The habit of theft, bribery and deceit. The conviction that they steal everywhere and everything, and it is impossible to earn big money in an honest way. The principle is “if you don’t steal, you won’t live”. Alexander I: “There is such theft in Russia that I’m afraid to go to the dentist - I’ll sit in a chair and steal my jaw ...” Dahl: “A Russian person is not afraid of the cross, but is afraid of the pestle.”

At the same time, Russians are characterized by a protest attitude towards punishments: punishing minor violations is not good, somehow petty, you need to “forgive!”, And when against this background people get used to disrespect laws and move from minor violations to major ones - here is a Russian person will sigh for a long time until he gets angry and arranges a pogrom.

10. A characteristic feature of the Russian mentality arising from the previous paragraph is love for freebies. Movies need to be downloaded via torrent, pay for licensed programs - zapadlo, the dream is the joy of Leni Golubkov in the MMM pyramid. Our fairy tales depict heroes who lie on the stove and eventually receive a kingdom and a sexy queen. Ivan the Fool is strong not in hard work, but in quick wit, when Pike, Sivki-Burki, Humpbacked Skates and other wolves, fish and firebirds will do everything for him.

11. Taking care of health is not a value, sports are strange, getting sick is normal, but it is categorically not allowed to leave the poor, including it is considered morally unacceptable to leave those who did not care about their health and as a result became, in fact, a helpless invalid. Women are looking for the rich and successful, but they love the poor and sick. "How is he without me?" - hence codependency as a norm of life.

12. The place of humanism with us is occupied by pity. If humanism welcomes concern for a person, placing a free, developed, strong person on a pedestal, then pity directs care to the unfortunate and sick. According to Mail.ru and VTsIOM statistics, helping adults is in fifth place in popularity after helping children, the elderly, animals, and helping environmental problems. People feel more sorry for dogs than people, and out of a sense of pity, it is more important to support unviable children, rather than adults who could still live and work.

In the comments to the article, someone agrees with such a portrait, someone accuses the author of Russophobia. No, the author loves Russia and believes in it, having been engaged in enlightenment and educational activities for his country for a decade. There are no enemies here and there is no need to look for them here, our task is different: namely, to think about how we can raise our country and raise children - our new citizens.

Western social studies show that the mentality of the Russians is similar to the North Europeans. However, during the years of Putin's rule, most of them fell back into "traditionalism". The differences in the culture of Russians and Europeans are still significant ...

What is the Russian mentality is shown in the book “The Impact of Western Socio-Cultural Models on Social Practices in Russia” (Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2009, Circulation 500 copies). Its definition is described by several experiments.

For several centuries now, the main enemy of the Russian people has been considered the state in the form of a serving-punitive class. “The source of good in the Russian mentality is the community, today it is relatives and friends (Gemeinshaft), and evil is projected onto the state in the form of bureaucracy (previously - a gentleman, a policeman, etc.); the way of action is “everything will work out”, and we think the triumph of good is undeniable, but ... in the future (“not we, so our children ...”),” sociologists write.

The Russian mentality is characterized by extremes and contradictions. Russians are characterized by extreme coldness and warmth, laziness and bursts of energy. The geographical location combines the features of Europe and Asia in Russians: despotism - anarchism; cruelty - compassion; collectivism - individualism; religiosity - godlessness; blind obedience is rebellion.

A distinctive feature of the Russians has always been the predominance of intuition over logic (“maybe”).

Orthodoxy - Russians have always had one faith, pluralism of opinions is unusual for them. In Germany, there is such an opinion about Russians: they say that your problems are in the orthodoxy of your Orthodox Church. For us, it’s as if the earthly things are unimportant, we don’t have a home, give us the Universe. Take Russian philosophy. There is only about the life of the Spirit. The flesh is completely humiliated, everything material is humiliated. Human life immediately depreciates. And a Russian person says: "If I live there, then everything here is quite inexpensive for me."

The refusal to actively transform the surrounding world, patience for the sake of reward in the afterlife, accepted in Orthodox ethics, is fundamentally different from the norms of Western Protestant ethics.

The question is natural: what are the pros and cons of the Russian mentality in the implementation of "pro-Western" reforms? Sociologists answer this question: “A German does not rely on “maybe it will cost”, an Englishman or an American seeks justice in the courts that protect human rights, which are fixed in the Constitution on the basis of a “sacred” contract between citizens and their elected authorities. As for the victory of good over evil, in Western culture it depends on the activities of the parties, their ideas about what is good and what is evil, and, most importantly, on the personal efforts of each citizen.

The core of the German mentality is the concept of professional duty. The main norm of Protestantism is rational management, focused on increasing productivity and multiplying capital. America's ideal: "a creditworthy good man whose duty it is to regard the increase of his capital as an end in itself."

The Protestant norm “earning money is my duty, this is my virtue and the source of my pride and respect from my fellow citizens” differs from the norm “I will earn money, and it doesn’t matter what others think about it.” This is a calling “from God”, and the most diligent fulfillment of this role is a sacred duty.

In Germany, as indeed in other Western European countries, the rational organization of one's own business is the salvation of one's own soul. Therefore, in Germany it is customary to count money, save and increase it. A German, English or American capitalist is pleasing to God not because he is rich and can rest, taste worldly fruits. He is pleasing because he cannot afford it, tk. performs the sacred duty of increasing capital, denying himself everything.

A characteristic feature of Protestant morality, which M. Weber called worldly asceticism, is the impossibility of rest, the high intensity of the fulfillment of labor duty due to the rejection of earthly joys.

Well, then sociologists move from theory to practice. Statistical data are available using psychological tests in cross-cultural studies. K. Kasyanova applied the MMPI test on Russian students and a control group of pilots, comparing her data with the results obtained by other psychologists from many countries. She found that the Russians go off scale in "cycloid". This concept from the language of psychoanalysts means that Russians are not inclined to systematically performed activities that do not depend on mood, unlike, for example, punctual Germans.

The most interesting results of intercultural studies were obtained by E. Danilova, E. Dubitskaya and M. Tararukhina. They used the psychological test of the Dutch sociopsychologist Gerd Hofstaed, developed by him in the 60s and actively used to this day. The test is designed to measure the parameters of organizational culture. Hofstede revealed the ethno-national features of labor relations and refuted the belief in their universal rationality. It turned out that the Germans and, for example, the Japanese act rationally in the same way, but they evaluate the balance of the resources expended and the results achieved differently.

According to the Hofstede test, 70 peoples were studied. In recent years, mass testing of Russians has been carried out: 1,700 respondents from among employees of energy companies in 23 regions of Russia and 518 employees of large machine-building enterprises in Moscow, the Volga region, and the Vladimir region. Power engineers are distinguished by the fact that managers and specialists of the new formation are sufficiently represented in their composition, and the latter (machine builders) are 90% ordinary Russian workers.

The authors have come to the following conclusions. According to the index "personal achievement - solidarity" Swedes, Dutch, Danes, Norwegians and Finns form one cluster. Dubitskaya and Tararukhina called it the "Northern European Solidarity Syndrome". The British, Americans, Irish, as well as Germans, Austrians, Italians and Swiss formed another statistical cluster, which was called the "Romano-Germanic achievement syndrome".

Russia, on the other hand, fell into the group of North Europeans (by the way, based on these results, it is clear what could take root in Russia as a political and economic formation - liberalism of the Anglo-Saxon type, South European paternalism or Scandinavian socialism).

The researchers defined another scale in the vocabulary of management as "loyalty to the company in exchange for guarantees", and in a broad sense, this is the mentality of dependence on the external environment or, on the contrary, tuned to the social subject's own resource. In the logic of management, the first is the mentality of the employee, and the second is the partner. According to this index, Russians are among those who value the guarantees from the organization more.

In general, they conclude that the Russian cultural matrix (let us recall, the matrix of labor relations) is far from the Romano-Germanic one, and again closer to the mentality of employees in the Nordic countries. The organizational culture of Russia is built on two pillars: solidarity between employees and subordination to the organization. In Hofstede's scales, this refers to the culture of "femininity" on test items: caring for each other, intuition, the value of free time. The opposite pole of "masculinity" is assertiveness, rationalism, perseverance in achieving goals, money.

“The subordination of the organization in the culture of labor relations is associated with a well-known feature of the Russian mentality - etatism, the attitude towards the state in the role of its subjects, not free citizens. In practice, this means loyalty to the existing order in exchange for guarantees from the state,” the sociologists conclude.

The system of values ​​in Russia, in comparison with the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, is quite close to the Western European one, "but more conservative, traditional, more prone to order, hierarchy, and less - to the rights and freedoms of the individual." In general, Western and Russian sociologists have not made any discoveries here. Another thing is more interesting: has there been a transformation of values ​​in Russia in the last 20 years? There are also studies on this topic.

In the 1990s, there was a marked shift towards the values ​​of the "modern personality" (intellectual autonomy, the value of mastery), especially among young people. However, in the period 2000-2005. an increase in hedonism was recorded instead of the values ​​of the development of creative abilities. In the most important areas, there has been a rollback ... the cultural preconditions for modernization have deteriorated. According to monitoring surveys carried out in 1998, 2004 and 2007. employees of the Institute of Sociology, in the period from 2004 to 2007. the share of the so-called modernists decreased from 26% to 20%, and the share of traditionalists increased from 41% to 47%, while maintaining the share of "intermediate" (33%).

The authors considered the acceptance of the values ​​of individual freedom as signs of modernity, which is “completely unacceptable” for traditionalists and intermediates in this matter (80% of the sample!). “For them,” writes M.K. Gorshkov, “the optimal model of development, traditional for Russia, is based on the omnipotence of the state, which, in the ideal of this model, serves as the spokesman for the interests of society as a whole and ensures the security of both each individual citizen and the community. Moreover, such a model is perceived more as a chaotic community, where everyone performs their own function, than as a community of free individuals who consciously build a variety of life strategies, guided by human rights, recognized as basic by both the state and society.

So, the above evidence suggests that the value system of Russians is “quite close” to the North European one, but is more inclined towards order, hierarchy, and less towards the rights and freedoms of the individual. In addition, in recent years, the proportion of traditionalists has increased.

However, the "cultural component" of the Russian mentality is still far from the European one.

The cultural parameters of the attitude towards exclusion in modern Russia are considered in the works of S.S. Yaroshenko (attitude towards the poor) and I.N. Tartakovskaya (gender stereotypes and lifestyles). The study by T.A. Dobrovolskaya and N.B. Shabalina noted the intolerance of Russian respondents in relation to the very idea of ​​coexistence with atypical people. Respondents expressed a negative attitude to the fact that a disabled person was their relative (39%), flatmate (37%), boss (29%), representative of authorities (27%), subordinate (22%), teacher of the child (20% ).

Other studies show that patience as a component of mercy and humanism is less and less valued in post-Soviet Russia. Thus, the studies of N.I. Lapin demonstrate changes in the structure of the basic values ​​of Russians over the period from 1990 to 2006: if in 1990 the traditional value of self-sacrifice was in 8th place among the fourteen basic values, then in 1994 it dropped to 11th place, and by 2006 she had fallen even lower in this list, more and more yielding to such modernist values ​​as independence and initiative.

The situation is different in European countries. A survey was conducted of 135 Russian and 98 foreign (USA, Canada, Austria, Germany) respondents - students, teachers and university staff.

An intercultural study by S.A. Zavrazhin showed that only half of the Russian respondents spoke in favor of providing assistance to mentally handicapped people (44% believe that such people should be isolated, 2% should be liquidated, 2% should be ignored), while among foreign respondents no one supported the idea of ​​eliminating, isolating or ignoring people with disabilities, and 98% were in favor of helping them. Let's pay attention - this is a survey among the intelligentsia, and what can we say about the common people ...

What conclusions can be drawn from this study? On the whole, under a “favorable environment” (democratic rule, respect for individual rights, integration into the Western world), Russians are potentially ready to become “Northern Europeans” (at the level of the same Finns, who a hundred years ago were the same Russians, and who made the transformation into Europeans). in a very short period of time by the standards of world history).

But for now, it's all pie in the sky. And the "tit in the hands", the realities of today's life are shattered by the tactics of survival in an environment hostile to the average Russian - where only the highest power with its exclusive right to the "only European" acts as the only savior.

based on materials ttolk.ru

mentality mentality Russian people

The characterization of Russian culture in terms of its place in the dichotomy "East - West" is a rather difficult task, since, firstly, it occupies a middle position in relation to the geopolitical factor (which is taken into account by representatives of the so-called "geographical" or "climatic" determinism) ; secondly, the study of Russian civilization is just beginning (it is generally possible in relation to the national-cultural integrity that has already become, and in Russia self-identity and national self-consciousness are formed rather late in comparison with European cultures); thirdly, Russian culture is initially super-polyethnic in its composition (Slavic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric with a noticeable participation of Germanic, Turkic, North Caucasian ethnic substrates took part in its formation).

Russian culture began to stand out as a special type within the framework of Christian civilization in the 9th-11th centuries, during the formation of the state among the Eastern Slavs and their introduction to Orthodoxy. From the very beginning, Russian culture is formed on the basis of such cultural features as:

• Autocratic form of state power (“patrimonial state”);
• · Collective mentality;
• Subordination of society to the state;
• · Little economic freedom.

One of the most significant factors in the formation of Russian culture was Orthodoxy as a religious and moral landmark of spiritual culture. The Old Russian state was a confederation of independent states. Orthodoxy set a normative-value order common to Rus', the only symbolic form of expression of which was the Old Russian language. It "captured" all strata of society, but not the whole person. The result of this is a very superficial (formally-ceremonial) level of Christianization of the "silent majority", its ignorance in religious matters and a naive social-utilitarian interpretation of the foundations of dogma. Therefore, we can talk about a special type of Russian mass Orthodoxy - formal, closely "fused" with pagan mysticism and practice, which allowed N. A. Berdyaev to call it "Orthodoxy without Christianity."

Middleness in relation to the Western and Eastern types of cultures is perhaps one of the leading characteristics of Russian culture, since the "Western" and "Eastern" features in the Russian mentality do not strictly contradict each other, but rather combine and complement each other. So, for example, Christian values ​​are borrowed by Russia as a value system of the culture of the West, but in the “eastern” version they are inherited from Byzantium, and the Russian Church has been dependent on the Patriarch of Constantinople since the 15th century. Also in the types of socio-political structure: Rus' "tried on" both the eastern and western models, and the centers of the Ancient

If we try to formulate exactly which features of the Russian mentality can be characterized as clearly Western, and which as Eastern, then we can represent them as follows:

Western features:

• · Christian values;
• the urban character of culture, which determines the whole society;
• · military-democratic genesis of state power;
• · the absence of the syndrome of total slavery in relations of the "individual-state" type.

Eastern features:

• · lack of private property in the European sense;
• · the dominance of the principle, in which power gives rise to property;
• autonomy of communities in relation to the state;
• The evolutionary nature of development.

As for the so-called "paths" of Russian culture, its cultural history has a completely unique specificity. Our history is not as “eternally lasting”, rather aimed at stagnation, any maintenance of stability, balance and, if possible, immutability, as in the East, turned into eternity, and, at the same time, not as gradually progressive as in the West, going along the path of qualitative and extensive development. It is as if we are playing, shuffling Eastern and Western types of structuring historical time in our history. Russian culture then falls into a kind of hibernation, in which it even “misses” the most important moments of the European history of the spirit (this is how we did not survive Antiquity, which gave European and Eastern cultures such a powerful cultural innovation (which K. Jaspers called the “axis” of world history) as a transition from the mythological type of thinking to the rational development of the world, to the emergence of philosophy - we began to form our ethnocultural "self" immediately in the Middle Ages; the Renaissance type of personality did not take shape in Russian culture, since we also "stepped over" through the Renaissance, stepping immediately into good and strong Enlightenment), then it concentrates and, drawing strength from nowhere, joins in some kind of “explosion”, no matter whether it is an external war, an internal revolution, or something like “perestroika” or other reforms. This is another specific feature of the Russian mentality - polarity. Therefore, life in ordinary language is a zebra, therefore “either pan - or disappeared”, “who is not with us is against us”, “from rags to riches” ... That is, a Russian person does not tolerate intermediate states, loves to “walk along blade of a knife and cut your bare soul into blood. Therefore, he feels great and adapts in crisis, milestone, turning points at the collective and even the state level. This affects our ways of waging wars and our ability to resist an external enemy. So at the individual level, no one, probably like a Russian person, knows how to put up with life circumstances, with fate (or even fate), and if fate itself does not present any tricks and trials, then a Russian person “helps” it, provokes it. It is no coincidence that all over the world the game with death, when a person himself “pulls her by the mustache”, is called “Russian roulette”. This is one of the heterostereotypes of a Russian person in many foreign cultures.

One can also note the accentuated binarity as a characteristic feature of Russian culture, where, in a completely unique and paradoxical way, such oppositions as “collectivism - personality” “coexist”; "activity - passivity"; "borrowing - originality"; "development - stability"; "deconstruction - construction"; uniqueism is universalism.

The results of modern ethnopsychological research record a clash in the minds of Russian people of conflicting attitudes and behavioral stereotypes. So there are five main behavioral orientations:

• Collectivism (hospitality, mutual assistance, generosity, gullibility, etc.);
• · on spiritual values ​​(justice, conscientiousness, wisdom, talent, etc.);
• · on power (respect for rank, creation of idols, controllability, etc.);
• · for a better future (hope for "maybe", irresponsibility, carelessness, impracticality, self-doubt, etc.);
• · to quickly solve life's problems (the habit of rush work, daring; heroism, high working capacity, etc.).

One of the central features of the Russian mentality is the ideal of obedience and repentance in Christianity (rather than physical labor as a prerequisite for "smart work", similar to the Western Christian commandment "pray and work", which, according to M. Weber, was one of the essential prerequisites formation of capitalism in Western Europe after the Reformation). Hence, Russians have such a heightened sense of guilt and conscience as the ability of a person to exercise moral self-control. It is savored by Russian literature with a special masochistic taste and is also one of the most common stereotypes.

Russian culture is characterized by a special ethnocentrism and messianism, which are an important part of the Russian way of thinking. This sensitively captures and expresses the language, ironically and exaggerating these properties of our mentality (“Russia is the birthplace of elephants”; or in one of the modern commercials: “It was a long time ago, when everyone was still Jews, and only the Romans were Russian”) . We are also largely inclined towards traditionalism, which justifies attempts to attribute Russian culture to the East. This is an all-encompassing traditionalism of thinking - a force realized by members of society, which does not consist in the individual and its intrinsic value, as in the culture of the West, but in the crowd, in the mass. Hence our desire for collective forms - catholicity in Orthodoxy, “hey, pile on, men”, “with the whole world, with all the people”, “Get up, huge country”, this is a rush, collective creativity in any spheres of cultural life. Traditionalism is expressed in “decency and orderliness”, in the everyday and personal life of a Russian person, in the presence of rigid canons in literature and art, as well as in a special relationship to time - in an appeal to the past or the very distant future (A.P. Chekhov: “ A Russian person loves to remember, but not to live. One of the sides of our traditionalism is monumentalism - a penchant for grandiose forms of self-expression and self-affirmation. Despite its openness to any intercultural contacts and borrowings, Russian culture is largely introvertive. Open to external influences, it is not susceptible to them due to the cultural immunity developed over the centuries and the “suspicious” attitude towards other, alien cultures. This is well illustrated by our particular way of reforming. For example, Peter's "Westernization" in terms of goals and form became the deepest "anti-Westernization" in essence, and the "revolutionary" and Westernizer Peter I turned out to be a guardian and traditionalist.