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On the Russian mindset

The New Neo Posted on by

I found this quite fascinating. I was already familiar with this guy – Konstantin Kisin – from his “Triggernometry” podcasts, but I was previously unaware of much of his personal history as discussed here.

Comments

On the Russian mindset — 44 Comments

  1. Culture is key. It takes certain cultural characteristics to make a well functioning society of rule of law.

    Note that Mexico has the same system as the US, with a constitution, enumerated rights, and a government system with almost identical structure, yet it has never really worked for them. They have bounced back and forth between dictatorship and anarchy.

    Since the elite have decided to destroy our culture we will likely move to a point we can’t sustain well functioning society, either. Once at that point no easy way back.

  3. The problem is they don’t understand how important culture is. They have bought into cultural relativism (a useful tool for an ethnologist, but not an inherent truism), and the idea that cultural diversity is an advantage.

    Cultures are not equal, and society is stronger when there is one culture/tribe rather than multiple internal tribes which result in tribal conflict and resentment.

    The goal with respect to immigration should be assimilation so as to build one well behaved culture, but that is rejected now.

  4. Sowell….. Cultures vary and differences have consequences. See Prager and Telushkin, “Why The Jews?”.

  5. Very interesting interview.

    Soviet culture 1945, if you as a Soviet “citizen” or soldier were unfortunate enough to be captured and taken as a slave to a German concentration camp and against all odds, survived (few did) upon liberation you would be sent to the Gulag. Ten percent mortality per year, not good odds of survival for a Zek facing a 10 – 20 year sentence.

    Cultural consequences.

  6. Don – They have bounced back and forth between dictatorship and anarchy. – you mean like the US kind of doing. Not full dictatorship nor anarchy, but with the press, Gov’t institutions like FBI, NSA and other, plus so many benches, it seems that we are way too close.

  7. Great interview! Thanks Neo. As Andrew Breitbart said, “Politics is downstream of culture.” It was 561 years between the Magna Carta and 1776, as the commentators hinted. Not an easy climb and not done yet. There are many parallels between the antebellum South and the culture of the Spanish empire. Although the Conquistadors were the scum of the earth, they chose not to celebrate that but to reinstate the class system of Europe but with themselves on top this time. To encourage colonization by the wealthier, landed class, the Virginia colony had incentives (from the Crown) to tout “the good life” of free land and slaves if “the right people” came.

  8. Note that Mexico has the same system as the US, with a constitution, enumerated rights, and a government system with almost identical structure, yet it has never really worked for them. They have bounced back and forth between dictatorship and anarchy.

    They haven’t. Mexico has not had any short-term caudillos since Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s last tour in power came to an end in 1855. They had a lengthy dictatorship under Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911). They’ve had three notable periods of intramural warfare since 1855: one during the French occupation (1865-69), one during their civil war (1913-20), and one during the Cristero insurgency (1926-29). The factions which won the civil war set up a political machine which ran the country from 1920 to 2000. It was decidedly not personalistic after 1934 and passably pluralistic after 1940. After 1982, several factors converged to allow the emergence of a competitive system. Mexico has a lot of problems with street crime (mostly in the northern states); it’s not in a state of anarchy.

  9. Great familiarity with and highly articulate insights into the Russian people’s cultural mindset.

  10. I noticed that Konstatin Kisin made no claims to understand Vlad’s inner (mental) motivations.

  11. @Art Deco

    They haven’t. Mexico has not had any short-term caudillos since Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna’s last tour in power came to an end in 1855.

    Jose Victoriano “El Chacal/The Jackal” Huerta (1913-1914), perhaps the most hated internal figure in Mexican history*, begs to differ. As do a host of other Revolutionary era figures.

    They had a lengthy dictatorship under Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911).

    True, though I’d note that when he started wavering and offered some semblance of weakness/reform he began to collapse.

    They’ve had three notable periods of intramural warfare since 1855: one during the French occupation (1865-69), one during their civil war (1913-20), and one during the Cristero insurgency (1926-29).

    I’d add now as a number four, albeit it is an odd kind of unofficial war, about as cutthroat as the Revolutionary Period but with less open jockeying or campaigning for national power.

    The factions which won the civil war set up a political machine which ran the country from 1920 to 2000.

    Agreed.

    It was decidedly not personalistic after 1934 and passably pluralistic after 1940.

    I’m not sure I’d go that far, especially given the long shadow of Cardenas and the influence struggles.

    After 1982, several factors converged to allow the emergence of a competitive system.

    Agreed.

    Mexico has a lot of problems with street crime (mostly in the northern states); it’s not in a state of anarchy.

    Depends on where you go; there are a bunch of regions in the country like near the Yucatan and in Cartel strongholds like Sinaloa where the writ of the state no longer runs.

    * Seriously, I’m pretty sure Mexicans hate the Habsburg Princeling and Proclaimed Emperor they shot less than they hate Huerta.

  12. Kennan whose grandfather was a russian expert in his own right understood russian expansionist mindset like that finnish officer we linked some time ago vyborg where the nordstream pipeline branches from example used to be swedish territory back in peter the greats era

  13. Santa ana was the loss leader for mexico if there had been another war wed own sonora and nueva leon province

  14. What an impressive young man. He gets it about how the West became free and wealthy. We owe so much to our ancestors and all they bequeathed to us. It can be, and will be, destroyed if we don’t fight to keep it. He understands that. He doesn’t claim to understand Putin, but he recognizes the malign view Putin has toward the West. A very enlightening interview.

  17. They lost a million lives in the mexican revolution (i pretend the series ended with last crusade) mexico was always anticlerical but they went crazy in the cruzeros episode

  18. If you are going to war with an enemy, you better know what they really are no what would wish them to be vietnam afghanistan iraq we lost because we didnt know this

  19. Neo:

    Thank you for posting this interview. A fascinating and insightful interview on so many levels. I think I may want to get his book when it comes out.

    Did you see this article by Kseniya Kirillova? It too goes into the Russian psyche and why they do the things they do.

    https://cepa.org/why-russians-swallow-propaganda/

    I think it’s something we have to understand if we want to predict how this war and its aftermath will unfold.

  20. mkent
    Good article. Seems logical.
    I’m reminded of the reactions of a portion of our population to the ‘rona when the author explains the third reason for swallowing this stuff.

  21. Depends on where you go; there are a bunch of regions in the country like near the Yucatan and in Cartel strongholds like Sinaloa where the writ of the state no longer runs.

    Last I checked the Yucutan had a homicide rate of around 2.2 per 100,000 – the lowest in the country. We have shirt-tails who visited about five years ago who had a lovely time. Had a co-worker who retired there for a time, also spoke well of it.

  22. I’m not sure I’d go that far, especially given the long shadow of Cardenas and the influence struggles.

    Cardenas left office on schedule and turned it over to a man with whom he had important policy disagreements. It was Cardenas who sent Elias Calles into exile. Elias Calles is the last figure in Mexican history you might have called a caudillo.

  23. Jose Victoriano “El Chacal/The Jackal” Huerta (1913-1914), perhaps the most hated internal figure in Mexican history*, begs to differ. As do a host of other Revolutionary era figures.

    No, the era of short-term caudillos ended in 1855. You had a breakdown of central authority and a number of competing power centers in 1913-20.

  24. Now mexico has some liberal small l figures like benito juarez, but they were overwhelmed by caudillos

    Circling back you take the leader of the green men col girkin hes not a communist farthest thing from he admires the white russians who fought lenin,

  26. In recent years there has been an upsurge of favorable opinions expressed concerning Porfirio Diaz and the so-called Porfiriato . . . and rightly so, IMO.

    The best — or, at least, the most interesting — book written about the Mexican Revolution is Annita Brenner’s “The Wind that Swept Mexico.” Again, IMO. It’s not a work of history per se, but rather an impressionistic study.

  27. The earlier link was about a ukrainian blacklist set up by miss zampolits department that become a target list against opposition journalists and political leaders

  29. Excellent interview. Immigrants who grew up under communism appreciate Western civilization and don’t want to see it destroyed. They know what the alternative is.

    Another good piece on the Russian/Soviet mindset is this review of David Satter’s latest book by Gary Saul Morson at Northwestern University:

    https://www.firstthings.com/article/2022/05/hall-of-mirrors

    Relevant excerpt: “When Satter ­addresses more recent events, his writings seem remarkably prescient. He repeatedly warned of the situation we see unfolding in Ukraine today. The main challenge an independent Ukraine poses for Russian leaders, he explains, is not so much the threat of its joining the European Union or even ­NATO, as its contagious example of democratic freedoms. If a people speaking a closely related language and with a very similar culture can sustain democracy, then the whole argument that such forms are unsuitable for Russians disappears. And the more successful Ukrainian democracy becomes, the greater the threat, no matter what its foreign policy may be.”

  31. Hubert: “The main challenge an independent Ukraine poses for Russian leaders, he explains, is not so much the threat of its joining the European Union or even ­NATO, as its contagious example of democratic freedoms. If a people speaking a closely related language and with a very similar culture can sustain democracy, then the whole argument that such forms are unsuitable for Russians disappears.”

    Bingo! It’s like the experiment with the two monkeys.
    “While receiving the same reward, both monkeys were content to finish the job. However, when the second monkey received a superior reward, a grape, the first monkey stopped working. Having recognized inequity in reward distribution, the monkey modified his behavior to suit the prize.”

    Tyrannies cannot afford to have neighbors with freer, more prosperous examples. It’s why China suppressed freedom in Hong Kong. It’s why they want to impose their rule on Taiwan. It makes sense that Putin fears a free, prosperous Ukraine.

  32. JJ and Hubert:

    That is the actual existential threat to Vlad’s regieme, not something dropping in after 13 minutes of flight time.

  35. om,
    “New York to Moscow is 7500km, at 6.5km/s is ~20 minutes. Add in the acceleration time and you’re looking at about 30 minutes total.

    London to Moscow is 2500km; most of the flight time there would be accelerating on ascent and decelerating in re-entry rather than coasting; 15 minutes is about right for that.”

    So, moving a missile to Kiev does not offer that much time advantage. If there are ICBMs in Europe, (and there
    are) Moscow is within 15 minutes or less. Kinda puts the thirteen-minute argument to bed. Sorry, Geffrey B.

  38. Who’s mindset are we talking about here? If Vlad says something and the Russian people buy it…or don’t…what’s the diff?

    I recall a sci fi story in which Hemingway did not Epstein. He continued writing stories more and more macho which influenced a weak US president into starting a nuclear war.

    Ed. Note. My father had a college friend wounded in North Africa whose fallback job was censoring correspondents’ reports. Guy said Hemingway’s big failure was discovering he was HEMINGWAY. I have no idea what Hemingway’s output would have been, it was a premise in the story.
    But the point is…it’s up to Vlad, not to the Russian psyche. And what his connection to the Russian psyche is or was is unknown. Not many Russians make a successful career of the KGB.

  39. Thank you, Neo, for bringing this to our attention. I was riveted, and am looking forward to reading his forthcoming book.

  42. Guy said Hemingway’s big failure was discovering he was HEMINGWAY.

    Richard Aubrey:

    That’s my impression as a reader of Hemingway and a couple of his bios.

    However, he had also so damaged his mind and body with drink and an ungodly number of physical injuries, that his suicide was somewhat understandable.

    Then there’s the remarkable number of suicides among his close relations.

    I think fame is especially tricky for writers who build the knowledge of the world they write about from observation, but that becomes harder when they become a center of attention and can no longer observe without affecting what they observe.

  43. Heres’s a good rundown on Hemingway’s health problems:
    ____________________________________

    What we do know is that at the end of his life, Ernest Hemingway was suffering in mind, and likely in body as well. Over the course of his life he had weathered malaria, dysentery, skin cancer, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, and these maladies had taken their toll. Additionally, he had suffered six serious, essentially untreated concussions (two within back-to-back years), which left him with headaches, mental fogginess, ringing in his ears, and very likely a traumatic brain injury.

    Several years before his suicide, he was almost killed in two separate plane crashes, in two days, which ruptured his liver, spleen, and kidneys, sprained several limbs, dislocated his shoulder, crushed vertebra, left first degrees burns over much of his body, and cracked his skull, giving him one of the aforementioned concussions (this one so severe that cerebral fluid seeped out of his ear). He was in constant pain for a long time afterwards, which he dealt with by drinking even more heavily than he usually did.

    https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/knowledge-of-men/why-ernest-hemingway-committed-suicide/

  44. Good long-form interview by Australian journalist Josh Szeps with former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves:

    https://pca.st/2nkmsuzx

    The interview with Ilves begins around the 5:50 mark. Ilves was born in Stockholm to Estonian emigre parents, raised in New Jersey, and worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in the 1980s before moving to Estonia in the early 1990s and getting into politics. He has interesting things to say about Russia’s behavior towards its neighbors–and the West’s response–and he says them in a blunt and funny way. Sample: “Russia is basically a country that makes itself important by being a pain in the ass.” Can’t argue with that. Ilves also has no use for people (like me) who think that we muffed a chance to recalibrate security arrangements in Europe and our relationship with Russia in the 1990s. He refuses to speculate about Russian psychology, focusing instead on Russian history, Russian behavior, and Russian statements. Finally, Ilves points out that NATO didn’t “expand” on its own initiative. Rather, it acceded to entreaties from countries in that part of the world to join. It’s not often you get to hear a former head of state talk like this, so it’s well worth listening to. Caveat: I disagree with his take on Obama, Trump, and U.S. politics in general.

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