Russians seem to live permanently in a state where their world may turn ugly in an instant, where economic demise and any type of potential disaster – natural or otherwise – is always just around the corner.
Maybe it’s the result of atrocities inflicted on them by foreign adversaries. Seventy years of communism, where their own leaders turned on them too, undoubtedly also plays a major role. Russians may have taken down most of their Joseph Stalin statues, but the memory that life can always be much worse is powerful and ever present.
Russia’s hesitancy to impose any kind of Covid restrictions on businesses hints at their tolerance for absorbing body blows of bad news. It’s as if they would rather accept mass sickness and death than give up their chance to live in the moment.
They’re also deeply skeptical of government and its ability to make their lives better. Russia developed what most Western scientists now say appears to be a credible, effective – maybe even better than good – vaccine against COVID-19. It’s been dubbed Sputnik V (for victory, maybe?) to give Russians and the world the impression that just like the space program 70 years ago, Russian ingenuity is world class. Only Russians are so deeply mistrustful of their leaders that strikingly few people are getting vaccinated. They would rather just roll the dice with the virus. Strangely, I know many foreigners who have taken “the jab,” but Russians appear to require much more convincing.
It’s the same, ‘fatalistic’ attitude that probably explains why Russians spend so much of their pay cheques on stuff – clothes, makeup, restaurants. In general, Russians don’t have savings – one bank estimates 60 per cent spend their cash as soon as they get it – because who knows what will happen tomorrow?
