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All this is special pleading.
Is the current perception of Russians not war propaganda? In times of peace, or even during the Cold War, our high culture was considered continuous with the European one in a manner that high Japanese or Zimbabwean culture obviously wasn't, and the Russian thinking class was deeply integrated into the European network, worked and studied in Europe. I don't feel the need to namedrop. Now, of course, irate Ukrainians get a platform to claim that Pushkin was a mediocre imperialist savage or demand reassignment of historically recognized national identities of scientists. But that's noise. Rhetoric about a small sliver of «basically Aryan» elite and the mass of subhuman orc peasants underneath is likewise motivated and unchanged since Nazi rationalizations of their losses. Sure, Russia is relatively less productive than the highest tier of Western European states, and was later to the party. A difference in degree, not kind.
I believe this is retconning, the cancerous nature of German culture was a legitimate topic of debate. But the point is not so much how they regarded each other at the time as how a modern day enlightened Brit or a French would view a normal 19th century European, with his belligerence and his backwards views on various social matters.
I get that you emigrated around that time and will never refuse to dunk on the Slav goyim. But by this standard, how is the US part of the rational knowledge tradition? 100+ million Evangelicals, megachurches, charismatic pastors, absurd sects, widespread science skepticism and conspiracy theorizing, Psi as a legitimate military research field, open appeals to theology in policymaking. On the other hand, the US happens to have the world's premier scientific institutions and technical companies. Russia can't boast of the same, it merely has better IT sphere than all of Europe and some universities supplying talent to American megacorps. Rationalism has never and nowhere been default mass culture.
There's no Orthodox resurgence as of 2025, Russia is a transparently secular state, despite government's awkward efforts to astroturf belief.
And I'm sure this is poorly thought-out rhetoric because no, neither Kim nor Xi pretend to be elected, as there is no institution of general elections of leaders in those nations. «Representing the people» from @Eetan is absurd goalpost movement – is L'État, c'est moi a claim to have democratic mandate as well?
You're shoehorning it.
Depending on whose perception we're talking about. Some of the media is surely full war propaganda, but I am not talking about this, I am talking about general cultural perception beyond that.
When was it exactly? I am not sure which period you are talking about. Sure, in some periods many Russian aristocrats didn't even speak Russian, preferring French instead (just open War and Peace and see how it starts - hint, it's not in Russian) - but they as well might have been other nation entirely (and to be honest, sometimes that's who they were, though I guess Americans don't have much reason to cast stones here). The problem is, however fascinated Russian aristocracy were with European culture, political ideas of European classical liberalism never taken any root in Russia, outside of a few kitchens and magazines. Even Pushkin, if you mentioned him already, was kinda torn between being attracted to European freedom ideals, and his imperial obligations as Russian national poet, so every side now can find a suitable quote from him. But those ideas were mainly for the elite, and even for them they were rarely more than theoretical talk to be enjoyed between peers.
You must be kidding me. Russian leaders officially participate in religious ceremonies, and the Orthodox Church is pretty much integrated into Vertical of Power. Including performing ceremonies of blessing for space rockets and strategic bombers. Which btw I have no problem with - if they believe it, that's their complete right to pray however they like and worship however they like - but calling this situation "transparently secular" is nonsense. Of course, officially Russia is not a theocracy, but a secular state, but practically, Orthodox Church has a very elevated status and influence. And it continues to spread - for example, since 2026 one of mandatory school subjects will be "Духовно-нравственная культура России" - official indoctrination course, developed jointly by MGU and the Orthodox Church.
If we're talking about private beliefs, Christianity stated to become fashionable among Russia's intelligentsia right about 70s, as I said. Sure, there are still a lot of atheists - Soviets worked on that quite thoroughly and those generations are still alive and largely in power - but I think it is appropriate to call it "resurgence".
This is the second time you use words which make me suspect you have problems with Jews. Is that right? Speak plainly - are you an ideological anti-Semite, or do you think using antisemitic tropes somehow makes you cool kid? I am willing to engage with opposing opinion, but I see no point in engaging with somebody who considers me subhuman on genetic level.
When the only thing you see of religion is the performative sprinkles on top, I would call that "transparently secular", yes. The church leadership being integrated into the bigwig club does not make it integrated into the entire country.
I won't be as uncouth as to count myself among the intelligentsia, but purely anecdotally as a Russian urbanite, among all the people I know, there is one that comes from a religious family that I know of, and none openly religious themselves.
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Still, huh.
Sorry, you don't know shit about "private beliefs" of Russians. Please save these insights for hangouts of retirees in Brighton Beach. Russian state-backed theocracy has about as much penetration as Hungarian traditionalism and pronatalism. (Also "not Western" I guess).
I think that you in particular, JarJarJedi, are a very annoying, very stereotypical Russophobic Soviet Jew emigre, bitter about his treatment back in Russia/USSR or pre-Soviet pogroms or whatever else, who feels entitled to characterize Russians as de facto subhumans and gerrymanders historical Russian cultural achievements so that they're overwhelmingly attributed to "not really Russians" (ie Jews and Western Europeans, or at least "Russians who were effectively not Russians", circularly creating a distinction between Russian and European high culture); you're too weaselly to spell it out like this; and I do not recognize your entitlement to do this or to question me on my prejudices.
Your DARVO is also not appreciated. You're not as clever as you think.
Sorry, you are not a foremost expert of what do I know. I actually know personally quite a few Russians and talk to them regularly (at least once a week, often more). And of course, I read a lot of what was written about Soviet intelligentsia in 70s-90s, that I could not witness by myself - it's not exactly dark ages. But if you think that personal attacks in the style of early post-soviet Usenet (oh those were the days!) is a convincing argument, you may not "know shit" about what proper argument actually is. That is why you may be confusing one with ad-hominem attacks.
I never did that. Russians, of course, are very human, as much human as any human. They have different traditions and cultural values than some other people, but that's a common human trait - Japanese culture is very different from Arabic or Bolivian culture, and that doesn't make any of those subhuman. I am just commenting on the various aspects of Russian/Soviet culture I had an opportunity to observe and am still observing.
I don't think me annoying you is a negative quality, I can not be judge about how stereotypical I am, and I am a Jew who have emigrated, there's no denying that. I however object to being characterized as "Russophobic" - and extremely object to being described as "Soviet".
Wha? I never even discussed Russian achievements and didn't attribute them to anybody. I don't know who hurt you, but it wasn't me. Just to remove the doubt, sure, Russians had a lot of cultural achievements. I love Pushkin (though still not entirely getting Tolstoy, to be honest). OK, Pushkin is actually not that good an example, to think about it... How about Tutchev then? He's good too. Speaking seriously though, you are maliciously misinterpreting my words - which had nothing to do with attributing Russian cultural achievements at all. Looks like you're in active search of offense to fit me into a stereotype you have in your head. I imagine it's simpler that way.
I think if you have to take the fifth on the question of whether you're an antisemite, that's answer enough, thank you. You may notice I can answer questions on my presumed prejudices directly and resolutely, while you can not. And I think we both know why.
Maybe I am not very clever. But if you consider yourself a "victim" of me, justifying your use of antisemitic tropes, I would like to know how exactly did I victimize and offend you. What triggered you the most?
Sorry, all this snark is uninteresting. If that's the impression you're getting from your contacts, you are in a bubble, like many emigres. We're not in the 70s nor the 90s. As of 2020s, roughly 1% of the Russian population is Christian enough to bother taking part in the Christmas service, vs 47% of Americans. Churches in Russia are empty and subsist on government dime. American Christians also have coherent beliefs about, say, the Third Temple — a condition which would be unimaginable in Russia (outside professional Antisemitic circles) where nobody reads the Bible and Christianity is a vague, ethnically coded token of being based and patriotic, more like Chinese ancestor worship. There aren't even any "cultural Christian values" like charity. The State's preference to persist in this Orthodox advocacy is not indicative of the popular demand for irrationalism; quite the opposite, it's another grift vector and a top-down attempt at social engineering like the insane WWII sacralization (Immortal Regiment) that the people passively accept (which is actually a massive mark against Russian culture, just a different one).
Russia is an irredeemably jaded, atheistic country with performative orthotrad LARP (which liberals despise and so discuss a lot) at the top; the United States is a nominally secular polytheocracy and wholly indifferent to the ostensible Western tradition of rational thought or whatever. Weirder things had happened in history.
Your assorted defenses are even less interesting. The archetypal "Russian great" who can stand on the international stage, among Westerners you've listed, is not some cute Tyutchev. That's Dostoyevsky and Chekhov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, Mendeleev and Lobachevsky, Suvorov and Zhukov, Serov, Vasnetsov and Vrubel, Pavlov and Vavilov, Pontryagin and Kolmogorov, Tsiolkovsky and Sikorsky, Korolev and Sakharov, Cherenkov and Glushko, and so on and so forth (seeing your snide remarks on Pushkin, motivated by his fairly minor African ancestry, I exclude clearly ethnically alien individuals like Levitan and Aivazovsky; but as they are recognized to be "spiritually Russian", they demonstrate the assimilative capacity of the Russian egregore, if anything). Those are obviously normal European elite human capital, whether from noble and admixed families or from the depths of Eastern European serf/Cossack/military/clergy genetic pool, with more or less intense educational and professional engagement with the West proper. There is no comparison to be made to the Japanese or Bolivians or Arabs, whether in achievement or, more to the point, in the degree of relatedness to the European cultural tradition; and your framing is simply a rationalization of the personal sense of distance from Ruskies and Soviets. This isn't so much Usenet or, rather, FidoNet as Tiphareth discourse straight from 2003 AD. It's all so tiresome.
I do not recognize your "answers" as honest, because your entire line of argumentation – in essence, going back to the top, that «Russians are just Europeans from 200 years ago» thesis understates their moral and philosophical distance from the West, and why they're therefore more deserving to be considered vermin by modern Europeans – is deeply biased, whether you can recognize this or not. I've had enough of this sophistry with the likes of Verbitsky, long ago, so here my explanations end.
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No, it is exactly opposite. It does not mean "I am humble servant of the people" but "The people must serve the state, this means me".
Kings of ancient regime derived their legitimacy from divine will, royal blood and tradition, and if anyone hadn't like it, too bad for the rebel scum.
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