“Russia is a country with the friendliest people!” This is what they often say about you and me. But let's go outside and look around. Something doesn't look like it, right?

Russians are truly an unusual nation. It seems that only here can absolute indifference coexist with noble responsiveness, and generosity and hospitality with stone faces a la “what are you staring at?”

Psychologists all over the world have been wondering for decades why we Russians are so strange. They immediately remember serfdom, autocratic tsarist power, famine and other sufferings, which, in their opinion, never existed in Europe. Well, you know, after all, everything there, by definition, has been good and beautiful from time immemorial. This is what we think, this is how Europeans themselves try to maintain their image.

American psychologist Nicholas Bright wrote: “The Russians have experienced a lot in the course of their history. But, thanks to the idea of ​​collective empathy, they were able not only to preserve the unity of the national spirit, but also to multiply it, to create an absolute egregor of sincerity, which often borders on the absurd.” Sounds good, although a little alarming, right? Let's remember the main features of the Russian mentality.

We can easily be called rude. Yes, that’s what it is. It costs us nothing to argue and argue with our superiors, without even thinking about the consequences. We will gladly send away the person who accidentally stepped on our foot. In our linguistic arsenal there will always be sarcastic rhymes for any word, and the floweriness and variety of non-literary Russian is simply amazing. It is normal for us to hear rudeness in response to the most innocent request. It’s not very common for us to look into each other’s eyes, just smile or say “hello/thank you” in the store.

At the same time, Russians, as scientists say, live by the “principle of conciliarity.” Simply put, we are always together and stick with each other. It would seem that we don’t care at all about other people’s opinions. But at the same time, we celebrate all holidays, gathering 20 people, and for any reason, be it Plumber’s Day or Easter, we call all our relatives. We are always aware of the personal life of the neighbor from the fifth floor, the saleswoman from the store around the corner, the janitor and anyone else in general. Foreigners simply cannot understand our habit of having hours-long kitchen conversations or telling our story to a random fellow traveler on the bus.

What are we really like in this national dualism? Sincere. We simply do not hide any feelings and emotions. If we are having fun, then to the fullest, if we are angry, then so that the earth trembles and the whole neighborhood hears. We do not hesitate to be lazy and blame the state, God and magnetic storms for all problems. As children, we are not ready to take responsibility and decide something. Instead, we firmly believe that the kid next door has better toys. We are so sincere that we do not want to support advertising patriotism and believe social advertising. We have been talking for years about how bad it is to live in Russia, but we will stand up for our Motherland if even some foreigner speaks badly about it. By the way, about foreigners.

Thinking about the paradoxes of Russian goodwill, I wanted to directly ask residents of other countries how they see us - to look at Russia through the eyes of foreigners? Oddly enough, not as gloomy and harsh as it might seem. For example, a friend of mine, a forty-year-old English rocker, said that we are funny and know how to joke and have fun. But several Americans argued that Russians are very smart, much smarter than many other nations. Travelers, eager to learn about the peculiarities of the Russian mentality and to get to know the mysterious Russian soul, all say that you won’t be left alone in Russia: they will not only show you the way, but also guide you, chat, invite you to visit, gather a whole company and throw a feast in your honor.

Once I had the opportunity to meet a Frenchman who was hitchhiking all the way to Vladivostok, stopping briefly in large cities because he really wanted to look at our country from the inside. To a banal question: “And how is it?”, he replied: “It turned out that everything that they write about you on the Internet is not true! It’s a pity, I really wanted to see bears and these hats. Seriously, when I arrived in another city, I didn’t have any plan or ready-made route, what to do and where to go. The people who were ready to shelter me and show me the place where they live were there on their own. Having visited a dozen cities, I realized that I didn’t understand anything. Now I know only one thing: Russia is a cool country!”

So, it turns out that we are not such beeches, right? Yes, we really don't smile too often. By the way, some foreigners also note this. Everything is correct, this happens again because we are too sincere: why, in fact, smile if you don’t want to? If I want to, I’ll definitely smile. At the same time, a European puts on his best smile in the morning and seems to be able to keep a happy face even if a comet falls from the sky. Since childhood, he has memorized phrases like “thank you/okay/sorry.” We do not wear the masks of decency, benevolent politeness and courtesy accepted in “civilized countries.” But does this mean that we are not responsive and friendly?

It is precisely thanks to the same principles of conciliarity and former socialism (which, in essence, has been characteristic of the Russian people from time immemorial) that we have exceptional attention to our neighbors. It does not manifest itself outwardly, because Russian people also have one more trait: we look for a catch in everything. We are such honest people that we immediately begin to suspect something is wrong if the person next to us behaves “not in the truth.” Too much help clearly expects something in return; constantly smiles, sucks up or wants to set him up; The hypocrite agrees on everything! It’s also the case with goodness that we show it only when we really want to, and we help either out of great desire or out of extreme inevitability. Otherwise, in our subconscious, the act of automatic goodness is associated with inanimate stereotypes. But if someone on the street suddenly becomes ill, he will not be left alone; there will certainly be those who will help.

When I was in elementary school, I constantly lost change for travel. My conscience (read “cowardice”) did not allow me to ride like a hare on buses, and I openly asked the drivers to give me a ride either for free or for the penny that I had left. And, you know, I never had to walk: in half the cases they agreed to my request, or some passenger was found willing to pay for me.

But when I was 17 years old, I got stuck late one evening in the city center. Public transport is no longer running, there are 30 rubles in your pocket, and according to the law of the genre, your phone is dead. It’s far and scary to walk on foot, there are no friends nearby, there’s nothing to ride or anything to ride on, you’re afraid to catch rides, what to do? Not agreeing with the prospect of spending the night on the street, I began to approach people with an innocent question: “Could you lend me a phone to call?” In three out of three cases I was refused. And then I realized: well, of course, they think that I want to rob them! You can’t approach our people with such a question; we even steal sincerely, looking honestly in the eyes. Then I chose a middle-aged woman and honestly explained the situation to her, adding pleading drama. It worked the first time, she helped me call a taxi. She also waited for the car with me to make sure everything was okay.

Why am I saying this? Moreover, we will never leave a person in trouble. But we strive to live in truth, and therefore we must be sure that help is really needed. This is the mentality of the Russian people. We won’t just give out change to everyone who asks left and right, but if we are convinced that the charitable ruble will go to its intended purpose, then please at least two. We can be very polite, courteous and cultured. If the mood is good. And it’s not for us to simply waste time on the rules of decency; the Russian person is too lively and real for that.

Remember the words of the American psychologist? Our sincerity does at times border on absurdity. But even though we are always dissatisfied with everything and everyone, we know how to live: swear, break dishes, start fights in queues and buses, celebrate birthdays a month earlier and celebrate a wedding with the whole yard. We know how to laugh and rejoice, help and do good. Russian people are short-sighted: they don’t like to plan anything, save money, look after their health, “invest in the future”; we live in the moment here and now. And while we are so different from the rest of the world with its culture of behavior, while we behave abroad “like barbarians” and persistently defend the rights of a carpet on the wall and a wardrobe that covers the entire wall, our national spirit, that same unique Russian soul, is preserved and multiplies. Is it worth measuring it by smiles and courtesy?

Mentality is a system of uniqueness of the mental life of people belonging to a particular culture, a qualitative set of features of their perception and assessment of the world around them, which are supra-situational in nature, conditioned by the economic, political, historical circumstances of the development of this particular community and manifested in unusual behavioral activity. “Mentality” means something common that underlies the conscious and unconscious, logical and emotional, a deep, difficult to reflect source of thinking, ideology, faith, feelings and emotions.

2.1 Religiosity

The main, most profound character trait of the Russian people, distinguished by Russian philosophers, is its religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, therefore, such good that is feasible only in the Kingdom of God. Perfect goodness without any admixture of evil and imperfections exists in the Kingdom of God because it consists of individuals who fully implement in their behavior the two commandments of Jesus Christ: love God more than yourself and your neighbor as yourself. Members of the Kingdom of God are completely free from egoism, and therefore they create only absolute values: moral goodness, beauty, knowledge of truth, indivisible and indestructible goods that serve the whole world.

2.2 Superstition

Despite all the religiosity, the Russian people are characterized by such a trait as superstition. A black cat crossing your path cannot be ignored; try not to spill salt or break mirrors; if you are going to an exam, do not forget to put a nickel under your heel... And this is only a small part of all superstitions, and there are a huge number of them.

The latest fashion is eastern calendars. At the beginning of each year, Russians excitedly ask each other whose year it is: the Tiger, the Horse or the Monkey... Even a completely reasonable lady can seriously declare that since she was born in the year of the Rat, she cannot marry this man, because that his year of birth is not compatible with hers.

2.3 Love of freedom

Among the primary properties of the Russian people, along with religiosity, the search for absolute good and willpower, is the love of freedom and its highest expression - freedom of spirit. This property is closely related to the search for absolute good. In fact, perfect good exists only in the Kingdom of God, it is super-earthly, therefore, in our kingdom of egoistic beings only half-good is always realized, a combination of positive values ​​with some imperfections, that is, good in combination with some aspect of evil. When a person determines which of the possible courses of action to take, he does not have mathematically certain knowledge about the best course of action. Therefore, one who has freedom of spirit is inclined to test every value not only in thought, but also in deed.

2.4 Panhumanity

Among the constants of the national mentality, it is necessary to note the “all-humanity” of the Russian soul, its openness to other cultures and influences, which Dostoevsky spoke about. This is manifested, in particular, in a very high level of interethnic tolerance, the ability to adapt to different ethnocultural conditions, and a keen interest in the experience of other countries and peoples, accompanied by a willingness to try and apply it at home. Historically, such traits contributed to the successful creation of a huge multinational empire, the “building blocks” of which were cemented by the Russians’ ability to find a common language with representatives of a wide variety of cultures and religions. The ethnopsychology of Russians has always been characterized by the ability to accept people from any other national groups as “their own,” which gave Russian state expansion a very specific character. In any case, no other empire has ever been built on this.

2.5 Sense of justice

Many Russian thinkers recognized the archetypal feature of the “Russian soul” as the ardent desire to get “to the root”, to find the “real truth”, perceived as a kind of absolute. Moreover, on the way to this absolute, Russians are often ready to mercilessly destroy what until recently seemed sacred, correct, or at least completely acceptable.

2.6 Kindness, responsiveness

Among the primary, fundamental properties of the Russian people is their outstanding kindness. It is supported and deepened by the search for absolute good and the associated religiosity of the people.

3.7 Equalizing aspirations

Over the course of centuries, this tendency has become one of the dominant values ​​in the popular consciousness, actively opposing individual efforts to strengthen private property - enrichment, without at all stimulating distribution according to labor. It is necessary to pay attention to the Russian proverb: “from the labors of the righteous you will not make stone chambers.”

The following can be classified as socially shaped features of the Russian mentality.

1. Collectivism and conciliarity, developed by centuries of life in a rural community. The community did not appear suddenly, but as a historically formed necessity of existence, as a reaction to low soil fertility, low agricultural yields and harsh climatic conditions, in which it was easier to survive in a community and using mutual assistance than alone. Russian history has shown that its course is determined not by socio-economic theories of changing social formations, but by the habit of the Russian population to a certain way of life, especially the habit of the rural population to life in the community. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the stability of socially-formed mentality traits is lower than genetic and nature-formed ones, therefore urbanization and the rapid reduction of the rural population in Russia may in the near future lead to the degradation of the mentioned collectivist tradition and the undermining of one of the main foundations of Russian civilization.

2. A heightened sense of injustice among the Russian people, social inequality that infringes on the interests of the poor. This trait can be seen as a manifestation of collectivism. Hence the ancient feeling of social compassion for people who are spiritually and physically damaged: the poor, holy fools, cripples, etc., and the egalitarian tendencies in the Russian understanding of social justice.

3. The religiosity of the Russian people, nurtured by the church and government for almost a thousand years. Religion in Russia has always gone hand in hand with secular power. The Tsar was considered the representative of God's power on earth, and the Russian national idea for several centuries was expressed in the formula “God, Tsar and Fatherland.” The specific form of Russian religiosity was Orthodoxy, introduced into Rus' again by secular authorities in the person of Prince Vladimir. The social essence of Orthodoxy, based on the concepts of social justice, goodness, the primacy of the spirit over the flesh, embodied in the church biographies of Orthodox saints, as well as the forms of Orthodox religious rituals - fasting, religious festivals, etc. turned out to be most consistent with the historically established conditions of existence, way of life and generated them to the mentality of the Russian people. This correspondence explains the stability of the Orthodox faith among the Russian people.

4. Cult of the leader. Deep religiosity, understood as hope for a deliverer from life’s hardships, contributed to the formation of such a socially educated Russian trait as the cult of the leader. The entire Russian history took place under the sign of first the power of the prince, then the tsar, and during the Soviet period under the banner of the personality cult of the leader of the Communist Party. In all cases, it was the sole power of the leader (prince, king, general secretary) and the people blindly relied on him. It can be noted that the cult of the leader is also promoted by collectivism, one of the manifestations of which is the subconscious subordination of the individual to the collective, and in his person to the one who expresses collective interests, that is, the leader, personifying the collective in the mass consciousness. Hence the currently observed lack of initiative of the main part of the population, political infantilism, inability to politically self-organize, and reluctance to take responsibility for socially significant actions.

5. National and religious tolerance. Almost one and a half hundred different peoples have lived peacefully on the territory of Russia for many centuries. In Russia there has never been racial hostility, religious wars, or bans on interethnic marriages. The country, with few exceptions, has historically been formed as a voluntary multinational association. This could not but give rise to such a socially formed Russian trait as national and religious tolerance.

6. Finally, one cannot help but say about Russian patriotism. Patriotism exists in any country, but the basis of patriotism is different in different countries. Russian patriotism is patriotism based on the people's awareness of their community. The rise of the Russian patriotic spirit always arose in years of difficult trials, not for individual people, classes or groups of the population, but for the entire people, when they began to become acutely aware of themselves as a historical community that was in great danger - enslavement or destruction.

The Russian mentality was formed under the influence of the richness of natural landscapes and sharply contrasting climates. Prolonged cold and frosts, lasting almost six months, are replaced by lush flowering of plants and sultry heat. Historian Valery Ilyin believes that in this powerful amplitude of fluctuations in weather conditions during one season - the secret of the Russian character pendulum: decline is replaced by an incredible rise, long depression - by a huge surge of optimism, apathy and lethargy - by a surge of strength and inspiration.

There is also an anatomical feature that affects the Russian mentality: the Slavs have a more developed right hemisphere of the brain, which is responsible for emotions rather than logic, therefore we are often not rational. This feature of the Russian mentality is clearly visible in planning, say, a family budget. If a German meticulously calculates all expenses, including the purchase of napkins, for a month, six months and even a year, then a measured way of life is alien to Russian people.

The Russian mentality is shaped by sharp fluctuations in weather conditions.

We are unable to foresee everything that may happen in the near future. We may get carried away by a project; we can, without preparing in advance, suddenly make a rather expensive purchase; after all, our relative, friend, or even an almost stranger may unexpectedly need help, and we will not hesitate to provide it. After all, when considering the Russian mentality, one cannot help but mention such a feature as sentimentality. Unlike people of other nationalities who know how to keep their distance, we are instantly imbued with the feelings of other people. It is not for nothing that only in the Russian language there are expressions “intimate conversation”, “heart-to-heart conversation”.

We are keenly aware of someone else’s misfortune and joy, and we ourselves are often ready to reveal our innermost feelings to someone almost on the first day of acquaintance. An Italian will never tell a stranger about his family problems, an American will tactfully avoid personal topics - it’s as if you came to visit, and they only let you into the corridor. Russians tend to open all doors wide.

Russians are characterized by sentimentality and compassion.

That is why almost any Russian emigrant who has left for Western Europe, the USA or Canada cannot get used to the fact that the people around him are cold, dry, and “buttoned up.” There, it takes years to establish close relationships, but here contacts between people develop much faster and warmer.
Moreover, we are very compassionate towards our smaller brothers. From time immemorial, Slavs have been willing to have pets and perceive them as full members of the family. And residents of Russian villages who keep cows cannot calmly lead them to the slaughterhouse and often continue to care for them until their death.

Our sensitivity also has a downside. We are quickly captivated by people, but soon we are often disappointed in them. These features of the Russian mentality manifest themselves in a sharp change in relationships– for example, fraternization after a fight and vice versa. And yet, if a quarrel occurs, a Russian person quickly forgets about it. We do not have traditions of “blood feud”, since easygoingness is one of the features of the Russian mentality. We are able not only to forget a momentary conflict, but also to endure serious grievances. Dostoevsky expressed it this way: “... and the entire Russian people are ready to forget whole torments for one kind word.”

Resourcefulness is one of the characteristic features of the Russian mentality

Another one peculiarity of the Russian mentality – social conformism. We like everything to be “like other people”; we care that they don’t think badly of us. Satirist Mikhail Zadornov notes: “Only a Russian woman, when leaving a hotel, cleans the room before the cleaning lady arrives. This would not occur to either a French woman or a German woman - after all, the cleaner is paid for this work!”

And one last thing. Despite creative thinking, the way of acting we can be called conservatives. We perceive innovations with distrust and spend a long time approaching them this way and that before we accept them into our lives. Compare: in the UK, 55% of older people can use a computer, in the USA - 67%, and in Russia - only 24%. And the point here is not only the lack of financial opportunity to purchase equipment, but reluctance to change the usual way of life.

The historical development of Russia is also unique. It is due to the same factors that led to the formation of the peculiarities of Russian civilization. The features of Russian history are:

1. Frequent, mostly defensive wars (our ancestors fought for about 2/3 of their history). The lack of natural boundaries, openness, and flat nature of the area constantly attracted conquerors. The need for defense dictated the need to centralize all powers in the hands of the head of state. Most of the national income went to the army and weapons production. Accordingly, there was little money left for the development of the economy, culture, and other things.

2. The basis for Russia was the mobilization path of social development. Unlike the countries of Western Europe, which developed evolutionarily, in Russia the state consciously intervened in the mechanism of existence of society to overcome stagnation, crises or to wage war, i.e. systematically resorted to violence. It could not be any other way, since only a strong Russian state could protect peoples from conquest or destruction.

3. Constant expansion of the territory. Until 1991, with rare exceptions, the territory of our country was steadily increasing. Expansion was carried out in three ways:

Colonization – i.e. development of new empty lands. Continuous colonization had a huge impact on the development of the state. The presence of a territory where one can always escape from oppression resulted in a delay in the social development of the state. The extensive path of development meant a low level of technology development and a raw materials-based economy.

Voluntary accession to Russia (Ukraine, Georgia, etc.);

As a result of forced annexation (through wars, or the threat of war - for example, the Kazan, Astrakhan khanates).

4. Discontinuity, i.e. lack of continuity. The development of Russia was often interrupted and essentially started anew (the most striking examples are 1917 and 1991). Very often, domestic rulers broke rather than continued the path of their predecessors.

Mentality - these are features of the perception of the surrounding world that are inherent in any national community and affect the specific behavior of people of this community. Since the main role in the formation of Russian civilization belonged to the Russian people, let us highlight some features of their mentality.

Features of the Russian mentality:

1. Uneven manifestation of one’s feelings, which is expressed in extraordinary passion, temperament and sharp fluctuations in national energy. Hence the uneven distribution of forces (“the Russian takes a long time to harness, but rides quickly”), and the ability to give his best at a critical moment.

2. Striving for spiritual values, not material well-being. The goal of Russian life was not wealth, but spiritual improvement. Therefore, the Russians strove to implement grandiose plans and ideal projects. The endless search for goodness, truth, and justice led to neglect of everyday living conditions and material well-being. It is worth noting the special conscientiousness of Russians.

3. Love of freedom, first of all, freedom of spirit. It is difficult to limit the Russian character by any formal rules, to force him to follow certain laws. History has confirmed many times that Russians are one of the most rebellious peoples in the world.

4. Collectivism (priority of the interests of the team over personal interests). Hence the readiness for self-sacrifice, conciliarity.

5. National resilience, i.e. patience and perseverance in enduring life's hardships and adversities.

6. Universal tolerance, i.e. global responsiveness, the ability to understand representatives of other nations, interact with them, and sacrifice the latter in the name of humanity.

Questions and tasks for self-control

1. What factors determined the uniqueness of Russian civilization, national history, and the mentality of the Russian people?

2. What place does Russia occupy in the world?

3. What are the features of Russian civilization?

4. Describe the features of Russian history.

5. What is mentality?

additional literature

1. Kozhinov, V.V. Victories and troubles of Russia / V.V. Kozhinov. – M.: “Algorithm”, 2000. – 448 p.

2. Milov, L.V. Natural-climatic factor and mentality of the Russian peasantry / L.V. Milov // Social sciences and modernity. – 1995. – No. 1.

3. Russia as civilization and culture // Kozhinov, V.V. Russia as civilization and culture / V.V. Kozhinov. – M.: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2012. – P. 209–319.

4. Russia as a civilization // Kara-Murza, S.G. Crisis social science. Part one. Course of lectures / S.G. Kara-Murza. – M.: Scientific Expert, 2011. – P. 290–326.

5. Panarin, A.S. Orthodox civilization / A.S. Panarin. – M.: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2014. – 1248 p.

6. Trofimov, V.K. The mentality of the Russian nation: textbook. allowance / V.K. Trofimov. – Izhevsk: Publishing house IzhGSHA, 2004. – 271 p.

7. Trofimov, V.K. The soul of Russia: origins, essence and sociocultural significance of the Russian mentality: monograph / V.K. Trofimov. – Izhevsk: Federal State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education Izhevsk State Agricultural Academy, 2010. – 408 p.

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Research work in geography

Mentality of the Russian people

Tynda 2005

• Content
• Introduction
• The riddle and solution to the mysterious “Russian soul”
• Mentality of the Russian people
• About Chinese pragmatism
• China is a land of contrasts
• Poll: Russians about the Chinese
• Misunderstanding of humor in intercultural communication
• Features of the French mentality
• Poll: France is a wonderful country, but the French are unbearable
• Russia and USA
• Russians about their attitude towards Americans and their idea of ​​Americans' attitude towards us
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

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 and representatives of European countries differ from other peoples;

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

what needs to be done so that all 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 issue 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 everyday 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 “in our actions we are three-quarters automata.” R. Chartier, who quoted him, noted that “firstly, there still remains “one quarter” of human actions that are determined by collective determinants. The latter are not necessarily realized by individuals, but, nevertheless, they control 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 intelligence of a nation is not always able to efficiently and timely process these overflowing information flows. The importance of mentality among phenomena of this level is difficult to overestimate. Moreover, without analyzing the deep ethno-mental foundations, it is impossible to understand the uniqueness 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 ideological pluralism.

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

Thirdly, different authors put different content into the same concept of mentality, which greatly complicates comparative analysis. It is generally accepted that mentality is one of those concepts in scientific and everyday language that are difficult to define in any strict way. If you try to somehow explain its various meanings, you will end up with more of an intuitive image than a logically verified category. Different authors at different times understood by mentality the contradictory integrity of the picture of the world, the pre-reflective layer of thinking, the collective unconscious, 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 for systematization of existing definitions of mentality, which would form the basis of mentality as a doctrine of mentality, its nature, content, its specific manifestations, also determine the relevance of the chosen topic. (1)

The riddle and solution to the mysterious “Russian soul”

Each of the readers has probably heard about the “mysterious Russian soul” more than once. And I read it more than once. Nobody knows what it is (that’s why it’s “mysterious”). Most often it is explained that the mystery of the Russian soul lies 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 becomes clear - three things.

First. Extraordinarily great kindness.

Generally speaking, there are good (as well as evil) people among every nation. But there are nations where a kind person is rather the exception, and an evil person, like a hungry wolf, is the rule. There are peoples who have a lot of virtues, for example, hard work, discipline, musicality, etc. and only in last place is not at all amazing kindness. And there are peoples who have a lot of shortcomings, but it is their kindness that amazes the imagination.

These are the Russians.

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

Second. An unusually humane state of mind, when in the first place in a person’s value system is the fate of humanity, far in the background is the fate of one’s own people, very little is the fate of one’s family, and absolutely zero attention is paid to one’s own fate.

It was precisely this mentality that distinguished typically Russian behavior at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 20th centuries. - “intelligentsia” of Russian origin, which has significant differences both from the Western “intellectuals” and from the Eastern “contemplative philosophy”. Today there is little left of the intelligentsia: this breed has been eradicated generation after generation since 1917. However, the tragic fate of Andrei Sakharov, the Russian Robert Oppenheimer, with a remarkably similar life and fate, shows that something of the intelligentsia has survived to this day. What is most striking is that exactly the same mentality is widespread among the common people - down to the last beggar.

There are nations where “everyone for himself - one God for all,” and relations between people are regulated by laws. There are peoples where the feeling of belonging to one’s own people, to one’s own tribe, dominates everything. It turns people into a close-knit pack of animals, and woe to anyone who comes across this pack on the way (there are more than enough examples of how Russians come across different packs on this path). And there are nations where relations between people are regulated not by laws, not even by reason - by the heart. The Russians belong to them.

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

Just one example. Having heard that one of the leaders of the American communists was blind, one Soviet schoolboy offered him his eyes for a transplant: after all, he needed them more for the common struggle against the villainous American imperialists who oppress 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 never tires of being amazed at the viciousness of the service staff, the thievery of almost everyone he comes across, the shameful laziness encountered at every step. The typical Russian tourist who finds himself before your eyes in a country foreign to him is very far from heartfelt kindness, dedication, selflessness. How to combine one with the other? Is this really the mystery of the “mysterious Russian soul”?

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

In this regard, Russia is distinguished by two significant characteristics.

Firstly, the special character of Russian communalism. The Russian village has moved far from that primitive stage of communalism, 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 whole. This condition is still typical for rural communities in developing countries in Asia and Africa (including the Asian republics of the former USSR). It has a number of advantages - mainly in terms of resilience to endure hardships - but is so uncompetitive with respect to the modern urban way of life that everywhere in the world, to one degree or another, it is in a stage of decay, transition to more modern forms of life.

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

But it was precisely the imposition of the 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 burden of the arms race, which was unbearable for other peoples (on equal terms with the much stronger economically United States of America!) and even break out from developing into a number of developed countries peace - albeit mainly through the military-industrial complex and its infrastructure.

This, in our opinion, is the riddle and solution to the imaginary “mystery” of the notorious Russian soul. We are convinced that there is nothing mysterious about it. Many components of this “mystery” are present among many peoples. Collectivism is even stronger among the peoples of developing countries in Asia and Africa. Latin America. Individualism is stronger among the peoples of the developed countries of the world. Many traits 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 or better than the Russian. It’s just that a unique combination of different components, features, and characteristics has created a unique phenomenon that is difficult to study and therefore has acquired an aura of “mystery.”

But no matter how we feel about this phenomenon of the “Russian soul,” it must definitely be taken into account and kept in mind. Otherwise, it is impossible to understand how, in what way Russia endured a Civil War, which was an order of magnitude greater in its hardships, sacrifices and economic devastation than the Civil War of 1861-1965. in USA. How did it endure the complete destruction of agriculture with tens of millions of victims, very similar in its consequences to the most ferocious hurricanes that 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 in the late 80s? early 90s. How did she endure mass terror with tens of millions of victims (affecting almost every third inhabitant of the country in one way or another), very similar to the tragedy of the Jews during Hitler’s Holocaust or the tragedy of Cambodia during the time of Pol Pot. How did she endure the Second World War, when she was caught by surprise, unprepared for war, and had to literally litter the approaches to first Moscow and then 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 what cost, did she endure the almost half-century-long Third World War (the so-called “cold”) war against a much stronger economically and technologically powerful enemy.

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

Mentality of the Russian people

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

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

You can't understand Russia with your mind,

The general arshin cannot be measured.

She will become special -

You can only believe in Russia.

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

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

The severity of our climate also greatly affected the mentality of the Russian people. Living in a territory where winter lasts about six months, Russians have developed enormous willpower, perseverance in the struggle for survival in climate conditions. Low temperatures for much of the year also affected the temperament of the nation. Russians are more melancholic, slow than Western Europeans.

The Northern Eurasian character of our nation has formed a type of national psychology that not only does not correspond to the prevailing world trends. But exactly the opposite of them. Hence, instead of developing a commercial 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 living conditions.

The harsh Russian winters had a strong impact on the traditions of Russian hospitality. To deny a traveler shelter in winter in our conditions means dooming him to a cold death. Therefore, hospitality was perceived by Russian people as nothing other than a self-evident duty. The severity and stinginess of nature taught Russian people to be patient and obedient. But even more important was the persistent, continuous struggle with 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 Great Russians, since the waywardness of the climate sometimes deceives the most modest expectations. And, having become accustomed to these deceptions, our man sometimes prefers to recklessly choose the most hopeless solution, to oppose the whim of nature with the whim of his own courage. This inclination tease happiness, play with luck V. O. Klyuchevsky called it “the Great Russian avos.”

Living in such unpredictable conditions, when the outcome depends on the whims of nature, is possible only with inexhaustible optimism. In a ranking of national character traits compiled on the basis of a survey by Reader's Digest magazine conducted in 18 European countries in February 2001, this quality was in first place among Russians. 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 rush, to work hard in order to accomplish a lot in a short time. No people in Europe are capable of such intense work in a short time. Such hard work is perhaps unique to Russians. This is how climate influences the Russian mentality in many ways. 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 and swampy swamps, presented the settler with thousands of small dangers at every step, among which he had to find himself. Which we had to fight every minute. This taught him to vigilantly monitor nature, to look both ways, as he put it, to walk, looking around and feeling the soil, not to venture into the water without looking for a ford, developed in him resourcefulness in small difficulties and dangers, the habit of patiently struggling with adversity and deprivation .

In Europe there is no people less spoiled and pretentious, accustomed to expect less from nature and fate and more resilient. The uniqueness of Russian nature, its whims and unpredictability were reflected in the mindset of Russians, in the manner of their thinking. Everyday irregularities and accidents taught him to discuss the path traveled more than to think about the future, to look back more than to look forward. In the struggle with unexpected hardships and thaws, with unforeseen August frosts and January slush, he became more cautious than precautionary, learned to notice consequences more than set goals, and cultivated 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 take the straight road in a roundabout way.” The beautiful Russian nature and the flatness of Russian landscapes have accustomed the people to contemplation. According to V. O. Klyuchevsky, “in contemplation our life, our art, our faith. But from excessive contemplation, souls become dreamy, lazy, weak-willed, and unhardworking.” Prudence, observation, thoughtfulness, concentration and contemplation- these are the qualities that were nurtured 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 the 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 march, the Russians created a network of settlements - fortresses, which also played the role of economic centers for the development of the territory. This population was distinguished by its entrepreneurial spirit, extraordinary love of freedom and rebellion. A significant part of the residents fled beyond the Urals from the “sovereign 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 - a plain of assimilation. They were “boiled” in this cauldron. And we came out of it with two fundamental feelings - a feeling of powerful unity with each other and arising from centuries of life experience a conciliatory attitude towards neighboring peoples - both to those from whom lands had to be seized, and to those who joined based on their own interests; and even more so to those who considered it important for themselves to pass on their knowledge and 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, as well as because they had a powerful folk root with its Moscow core. This Russian “root” was so strong that it digested the kings of German blood, and the Baltic bureaucracy, and the Tatar Baskaks and Murzas, and its 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 his parting words shortly before the country entered the 20th century, said: “Remember, Russia has no friends. They are afraid of our enormity.”

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 this way: “If you want an intelligent person, a German or a Frenchman, to stop being stupid, force him to express judgments about Russia. This is an object that intoxicates him and immediately darkens his thinking abilities.”

“Vast spaces were easy for the Russian people, but organizing these spaces into the greatest state in the world, maintaining and preserving order in it was not easy for them. The size of the state posed almost impossible tasks for the Russian people and 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 was suppressed by the vast Russian fields, the vast Russian snows, it seemed to be drowning, dissolving in this immensity. Long and cold winters reflected a joyless sadness in the souls of the Russian people.

State mastery of vast spaces was accompanied by terrible centralization, the subordination of all life to state interests and the suppression of free personal and social forces, the suppression of any initiative coming from “from below.” Centralization affected the Russian spirit in two ways: firstly, the Great Russian decided that the one who controls such vast spaces that represent Russia and the great people is almost of supernatural origin. From here - cult of personality, feeling of reverence for« to the Tsar Father» in the soul of the Russian people. Secondly, the feeling that someone stands over a person and controls all his actions resulted in such a quality of the soul as carelessness. ON THE. Berdyaev said: “The Russian soul is bruised by the vastness.” The soul of a Russian is wide, like the Russian land, rivers, fields - the soul of a Russian person can absorb everything, all human feelings and properties will fit in it.

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

Russian laziness (Oblomovism) is widespread among all segments of the people. We are lazy to do work that is not strictly necessary. Oblomovism is partially expressed in inaccuracies, delays.

Seeing the infinity of their expanses, Russians come to terms with 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.” Russian people consider these riches to be endless and do not protect them. This creates in our mentality mismanagement. It seems to us that we have a lot of everything. And further in his work “About Russia” Ilyin writes: “From the feeling that our wealth is abundant and generous, a certain spiritual kindness is poured into us, a certain organic, affectionate good nature, calmness, openness of soul, sociability... there is enough for everyone, and the Lord will send more.” . This is where the roots of Russian lie. generosity.

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

The unity of the Church and the state, the feeling of being not only a subject of the country, but also a part of a huge cultural community, has fostered an extraordinary patriotism reaching the point of sacrificial heroism. A. I. Herzen wrote: “Every Russian recognizes himself as a part of the entire power, 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. Nicholas 1 also said: “Distance is the misfortune of Russia.”

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

A comprehensive geographical analysis of the ethnocultural and natural environment today allows us to reveal the most important features of the mentality of any people and trace the stages and factors of its formation. (3)

About Chinese pragmatism

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

The unifying principle in the rethinking and processing of 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 complex history of the Celestial Empire. That is why Chinese civilization, which gave birth to one of the most mystical movements - Taoism, lives very pragmatically, does not talk about benefits, but constantly follows it. Just like any Chinese, he strives to extract his interest even from small things. Obviously, this circumstance determines the realities that a tourist who comes to modern China faces. First of all, what is striking is the amazing diligence of the Chinese, or rather their work in any area, regardless of its type and level. On the way to Cheng De, we observed how the Chinese create artificial terraces in the mountains for agricultural work. Pictures of the distant past literally came to life before us: an ox, a plow, a basket and a man. We saw how workers covered many kilometers of greenhouses for growing the most common vegetables, peas and beans with mats from the night cold, and in the morning, with sunrise, they removed them, putting them in huge piles - and so on every day. Even at a gas station quite far from the central highway, the toilet is washed and deodorized with incense after each visit by a visitor.

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

In China there live more than 500 million “unregistered” people, those who were born into a family in excess of the established “minimum”: one or two children - the second with a special permit. They are not registered and have no documents. But 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 informational and political nature are dubbed with captions - hieroglyphs are read the same way in all provinces and by everyone. But it was the presence of tonic stresses that contributed to the development of high musical culture.

Pragmatism of the Chinese is 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, driving through any city, you can observe groups of people doing qigong breathing and meditative exercises and taijiquan gymnastics. On weekends, parks and gardens are given over to pensioners for recreation.

China is a land of contrasts

... Existence and non-existence give rise to each other,

Difficult and easy create each other,

The short and the 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 is striking at the same time with a certain stereotyping. In China, everything corresponds to the Taoist canon and is therefore stereotypical. In accordance with the principles of Taoism and its symbolism, the odd number “9” will prevail in architecture - it is the most beloved, slightly 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, usually 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 one side, a lion with its paw on the 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 have a rear wall adjacent to the mountains, and a façade facing a river or artificial reservoir. True, the symbolic elements of the harmony of the Cosmos are intertwined here - earth and water, and in the middle is man, with purely practical, functional ones - protection from enemies, of which the Chinese have always had many.

Chinese gardens - the most harmonious combination of opposites Yin and Yang: nature and architecture, vertical and horizontal, emptiness and fullness. In any garden, three elements must be present in order for a person to live in it: water, rocks and plants. The color scheme will always consist of five colors, according to Taoist ideas about the five elements. In addition, the color scheme also signifies the characters' personalities - both in fine art and in sculpture. The color scheme is even used in religious rituals. And, of course, the use of animal symbolism is canonical, in which the first place is occupied by the dragon, personifying water and performing protective functions. Popular ones are tiger, turtle, horse, unicorn. Among 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 - the Celestial Empire. Dragons on the roofs perform a protective function, protecting all living things from the power and interference of evil spirits in their lives. The same functions are performed by the famous curved roofs with tightly sealed tubes of tiles, as well as the peculiar labyrinths of gates at the entrance to the dwelling of the 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, goodwill And hospitality, ability artificially create difficulties and then overcome them (5) .

Poll: Russians about the Chinese

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

« Well, everyone knows that the Chinese are the most hardworking people in the world. And they proved with their hard work, 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 story<об этом говорит> « (DFG, Moscow).

« Very hardy people» (DFG, Moscow).

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

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

By the way, respondents aged 50 and older speak about a positive image of China much more often than average (48%). 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. Note that modern television pictures from China - not with pagodas, but with a red banner, hammer and sickle - only reinforce such an image, heavily seasoned with nostalgic feelings.

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

More than a third of Russians (36%) say that they have developed neutral image of an eastern neighbor, and more often than 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 respondents. It is worth noting that residents of the Siberian (17%) and especially the Far Eastern districts (29%) speak more often than others about the negative image of this country. It is there that the problem of illegal immigration of residents of the “Heavenly Empire” is extremely acute.

« 25% of Vladivostok are Chinese. Free passage of the border, free purchase and sale, well, everything! In the center of Vladivostok there are houses, restaurants, everything Chinese. It’s the same in Transbaikalia» (DFG, Novosibirsk)

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

Another 10% of respondents found it difficult to answer the question of what image of China they had in their minds.

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

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

« Everyone knows that they inhabit Siberia and that’s it. They export everything... They export timber, furs, and everything. They are introduced, and there is a gradual peaceful seizure of territories» (DFG, Samara).

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

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

Finally, the traditional fear of the “large numbers” of the Chinese, judging by the remarks of the focus group participants, is still present in the mass consciousness:

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

« The fear for the whole world is Chinese expansion. Because it is developing very well, the population is very huge, 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 consequence of insufficient competence in intercultural communication can be divided into several types:

misunderstanding of everyday humor, associated with the lack of similar realities in one’s culture,

misunderstanding of certain accepted etiquette standards,

lack of understanding of the deep values ​​of the corresponding culture.

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

Anecdotes associated with various classifications concerning ideas about other peoples usually make us smile. Even if the essence of the joke is not immediately clear, the bearer of Russian culture can easily guess that the very structure of the joke should suggest its climax. For example, the following anecdote, translated into Russian, does not quite fit into the Russian idea of ​​Italians, but becomes understandable thanks to the context:

How to convince a new skydiver to make his first jump?

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

To the Englishman: “Sir, this is tradition.”

To the Frenchman: “This is the lady’s request.”

To the German: “This is an order.”

To the Italian: “Jumping is prohibited!”

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

More complex is an anecdote with a mixed-up classification:

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

The British respect their police officers, the German police are known for their severity, it is also known that French cuisine is famous for its sophistication, and English cuisine 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 the 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.” This anecdote becomes clear to Russian listeners after the commentary, but among Europeans, often traveling to 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 the staff, etc. In other words , this kind of 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 representing foreign ethnic groups:

German, American and Swedish police are participating in a competition to see who is the best at catching criminals. A task is given: a hare is released into the forest, and it must be caught. Swedish police officers place animal informants throughout the forest, interview all plant and mineral witnesses and, after three months of intense search, come to the conclusion that there are no hares in nature. The Americans break into the forest, scour the forest for two weeks, cannot find anyone, set the forest on fire, killing everyone, including the hares, and do not apologize to anyone. The Germans get down to business and two hours later return with a badly beaten bear, who screams: “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 ended up in this row by accident: it was necessary to construct a unique classification of cruelty and show that there is a people whose police are too lenient towards criminals. The American police are distinguished not by sophisticated brutality (here the priority belongs to the Germans), but by insufficient competence, which is compensated by the manifestation of brute force. Also noteworthy is the lack of tact emphasized by Americans (“they don’t apologize to anyone”), the latter symptom is painful for those cultures where it is customary to observe politeness standards, primarily for English culture. This anecdote is generally understandable to speakers of Russian culture, those who imagine the behavior of American supermen from films and know about the cruelty of the Germans during the war.(7)

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

Aunt Valya: “Dear guys! First place in our drawing competition on the theme “Vanya and the Bear” was taken by Vova Glazunov from Moscow. 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. In addition, the idea of ​​a child submitting a picture that they helped him draw to a children's drawing competition seems strange to the British: this idea violates the British idea of ​​\u200b\u200bfair play. Similarly, the English do not understand the attitude of Russians towards giving a hint during an exam: in our country, a friend who refused to give you a hint during an exam is clearly 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 harsh).

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!” He ran to another pay phone: “Hello, KGB? You’re doing a bad job!” He ran back to the third: “Hello, KGB? You’re doing a bad job!” He feels a hand on his shoulder: “We work as best we can.”

The specificity of these jokes is that state security is endowed with supernatural abilities and is assessed positively. This attitude towards power contradicts the norms of carnival culture, the inversion of values ​​and the nature of the joke. It is no coincidence that there is an opinion that this kind of jokes were specially invented in the analytical departments of the KGB to create appropriate stereotypes among the population. By the way, the very abbreviation “State Security Committee” was also deciphered humorously with a positive connotation of “deep drilling office.” The idea of ​​the omnipresence of our intelligence services is expressed in the following anecdote, which is not entirely clear to the British (they understand the intent of this text, but do not internally agree with the pathos of the anecdote ):

NASA is wondering why the left SHUTTLE solid fuel accelerator exploded, and the KGB is wondering why the right one did not explode...

Even without taking into account the fact that the KGB is attributed in this text with the functions of foreign intelligence, 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 for power is no exception in Russian jokes about meetings of senior leaders. Here is a children's joke from the time of Brezhnev:

Brezhnev arrives in America. American President Reagan says: “Press this 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. I pressed it again, nothing happened either. He says: “What is this? Here, in America...” And Brezhnev told him: “Your America no longer exists.”

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

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

A policeman/traffic cop comes home, angry and frozen - he earned little while standing on the highway. His schoolboy son opens the door for him. The traffic cop shouts: “Give me the diary, if you get a bad mark, I’ll flog you!” The boy runs to his mother in tears: “I just got a bad mark today!” “Okay, don’t be afraid,” says the mother and puts fifty rubles in her son’s diary on the page with a deuce. The boy gives the diary to his father with horror. He, frowning, flips through the pages, reaches the page with the 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 we were talking about the inappropriate behavior of a policeman, but the entire system of Russian realities turned out to be closed to them. They had to tell them that the police on the roads, the state traffic police service, now, by the way, renamed the State Road Safety Inspectorate (STSI), are almost always perceived in the minds of bearers of Russian culture as extortionists, unfairly fining drivers for minor traffic violations. It is clear that the tellers of the jokes are victims of the state's unjust control over people. Bearers of modern Russian culture are also familiar with the procedure for presenting a driver’s license to a police officer; usually, a banknote is inserted into the license. The humor of the above text lies in the fact 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 strict 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?

- Well, kid, when I climb into a burning house, and if something falls on my head, the helmet will save me.

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

A superficial understanding of this text is the boy’s mockery of the fat fireman. In this sense, we have before us a trap joke. But in this text, the English do not understand the linguocultural presupposition: a fireman is a man who sleeps all the time on duty, 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 baffles an adult. This function is expressed in the most vivid form in a series of jokes about Vovochka (many of these jokes are rude).

The results of our experimental analysis of the perception of jokes showed that the sign of “rudeness” did not appear in the answers of respondents, both from the English side and from the Russian side (however, we did not consider openly obscene jokes, although for carrying out an objective study in special work they should also be accepted take into account). A number of English jokes were perceived by Russian respondents as extremely bland. The British have the same reaction to sophisticated jokes from Southeast Asian countries:

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 his master. Handing the moon to the king, the courtier asked: “Oh, great king, I dare to ask, why do you need the moon?” The king thought: “Really, why?...”

Such jokes are philosophical in nature and make you think about life, perhaps with a smile, but they can hardly be classified as spontaneous jokes.

English respondents found themselves in difficulty when trying to understand an anecdote that featured a value very specific to Russian linguistic consciousness:

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

In the minds of Russians, lard is the favorite food of Ukrainians; the anecdote contains an obvious hyperbole. In this case, the measure of value is the carpet, which in our apartments was often hung on the wall as decoration and was considered as a valuable investment. In English there is no one-word and unambiguous translation of the Russian reality "lard", there are words meaning fat, rendered fat, the British do not understand the hyperbole in the size of an immense piece of lard, and finally, they perceive carpets only as a comfortable floor covering, and not at all as an object of art or demonstration welfare. The British also cannot understand the specific teasing of Russians over Ukrainians and vice versa, although similar relations take place between the English and the Scots, the English and the Irish, etc. Elements of mutual misunderstanding in intercultural contact, presented in a caricatured anecdotal form, are, apparently, an ethnocultural universal, but the qualities of another people that are subject to ridicule are specific. Let us note that the British could not understand a very characteristic anecdote for intercultural misunderstanding between Russians and Ukrainians:

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

Husband: If there was a reason, I would have killed him.

The presupposition about the right of a husband 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 unmotivated action: when faced with a world in which, in principle, there are no cause-and-effect relationships and which Russians perceive for this very reason as cheerful, 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 consciousness.(9)

These kinds of jokes stand in stark contrast to jokes that exaggerate and caricature certain human qualities. In our corpus of examples there is a humorous miniature on the topic 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 Navy report.

Request: I request you to change your course 15 degrees north to avoid collision.

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

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