• That’s not Russian mentality at all. It’s more that people don’t believe that they can change things anyway - but Russians are in general not to much into their government, I would say quite the opposite of ultimate subjects.

        • Thats text book russian mentality: part of why nothing changes over there is because the people are willing to endure terrible living conditions, governments sending them into the meat grinder, corruption, virtually anything wrong, out of a weird mix of stubborn pride and stoic resignation. Perfect subjects: hardy, accepting, nationalistic.

          • Have you ever been to russia? The mentality is more of a general not giving a shit and nothing really matters. People don’t like or trust the state in general (some love it in stockholm syndrome kind of way) and laws are more like an inconvenience. The corruption is deep ingrained into society and does not just come from the government. Funny thing if, you read Leskov it appears it’s been like this since before the revolution almost 200 years ago.

            • It’s what Timothy Snyder called “the politics of inevitability” in his excellent 2017 book, “The Road to Unfreedom.” I highly recommend said book to anyone who wants to understand Putin’s larger project. It’s almost like Snyder had a crystal ball that he could see into the future with.

    • Loads of people are dying because of political decisions in other countries too and you rarely see uprisings, only difference is that in Russia the cause of the deaths is more obvious