Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

a thing about Russia and Russians that people do not understand is the impact of communism on a society. when everything is scarce... when you can't just go out a buy clothes you want, but furniture, good food etc etc etc you have to hustle to get what you need as a basic fact of survival. additionally, people steal. everyone stole from the State which was largely viewed to be exploiting them and people largely had a very adversarial relationship with the government and authority in general since both were more often the source of oppression rather than the protector of your rights or provider. stealing throughout the history of the Soviet Union was just normal. you weren't stealing from companies or real people that actually got hurt.. you were stealing from the State. the same State that was failing to provide to begin with so it became a normal thing culturally to steal.

A lot of behaviors are going away very fast as Russia moves into a more westernized society. but people fail to understand the hardships that came with the fall of Communism and the struggle that people were forced to endure and where many are still forced to fight to survive today. People outside of Russia just don't understand what it meant to suddenly have your job and any work prospect evaporate... to have your pension evaporate and to have prices all around you sky rocket for every conceivable thing... and all at the same time. its hard to think about the future, plan for the future or think about working for the future when you didn't really know what that future was going to be. if you had the chance to steal 10,000 or have a job for 1,000 a month, stealing the 10,000 makes more sense when you are watching companies come and go, not pay employees after months of promises and so on.

the situation there and culture there is very complicated. it can't be explained to someone in the west, because they can never see the situation through anything but the western prism.

but saying they don't steal or scam etc is hardly correct. lying and stealing is very much a normal thing there. ripping off the place you work for is very much a normal thing there. fucking over any one that isn't family is very much a normal thing there. saying EVERYONE behaves the same way isn't fair... saying its common and might typify the vast majority of people isn't unfair at all.