Social Norms Of Russia Essay

A lot of Russia’s culture, like most, comes from it’s long history. Russians, just like many others, enjoy having a good time; yet they are known as stoic people, who rarely smile. Not smiling to strangers is a cultural norm that seems strange to Westerners. In Russia, smiles are not linked to politeness, and the smiling out of politeness that is so common in the West is seen as insincere, and indicators of ones’ secrecy and unwillingness to show their true feelings. The countries long history of many wars, invasions, and repressions by leaders (both tsars and the Soviet leaders) could have influenced this social norm. As stated above, Russia has a history of many wars. This could be one of the reasons for it’s rather steadily imbalanced sex ratio. Women outnumber men in terms of population, and this could be related to men traditionally being the ones fighting in wars, and subsequently being killed during times of conflict. We can see this most recently in the data of World War II, as the population has been predominately female since then. This history of an unbalanced sex ratio in women’s favor is a

For example, rugs are often used to decorate walls in a Russians’ home. This could have originated from poorly insulated homes and rash winters, though today it is used as more of an aesthetically pleasing decoration. Another example comes from Russians being a very superstitious bunch. There are many cultural norms that have come from these superstitions of bad and good luck; such norms include never giving an unmarried woman the corner seat, sitting before traveling, and not putting keys or change on the table. These are all things done in hope of not receiving bad luck. Much of Russian’s culture come from a history of beliefs, events, and influences that have affected how they live