How does Russian mentality differ from European mentality?

Elena Miro
4 min readFeb 16, 2020

Traveling around Europe and living there made me realize the differences between Russian and European mentality. Russians have a special mentality that makes them be recognized everywhere in the world.

So what differs Russian mentality

1) Cult of beauty. Everyone heard about beautiful Russian women. Some may say they have a special gene of beauty. Others say that Russian women never leave their homes without makeup. That is all true. Russians do have a cult of women’s beauty. Huh.. only women, by the way.. for men it is enough just to be a man. Typical Russian women will not live happily with grey hair, without manicure, pedicure, makeup, and fitness. Russian women take care a lot of their beauty and spend a lot of effort, time and money on their beauty routine. European women seem do not care about this so much. I would say it’s even the opposite in Europe. I saw a lot of handsome men, but European women, let’s say, could work better on emphasizing their beauty. Feminism played a bad joke in Europe. That is the reason that Russian women are so wanted in Europe.

2) Money power. The attitude to money is different in Europe and Russia or Ukraine. In European countries, there is an expanded middle class. In Russia it is a very thin layer of people, the majority live in a very economy mode, but at the same time, less than 5% of Russians are extremely rich. Especially in the big cities, you can see luxury everywhere, posh cars, VIP sports clubs and “high society”. Russians like to demonstrate if they have money, even if its money from the bank. Russians like to provoke envy and overtop others. In Russia showing off is important. I would say its special showing off culture: poker face, latest gadgets, brand clothes, jewelry, and cars… Russians can look posh while they have only potatoes for dinner. In Europe to demonstrate your money is a bad manner. European people order cars without backside brandings like engine capacity or things like that. Russians will buy a good car mostly to demonstrate engine capacity. That is a big difference. Russians are very materialistic and they spend a lot of money on the “image”, while European people smartly invest them.

3) Core values. So number 2 difference in mentality logically leads to different values that Europeans and Russians have. European happy life is calm, wealthy and family-oriented. Russian happy life will be mostly around materialistic things. I guess it's not because all Russians are materialistic and Europeans are more natural and less demanding in their happiness. In Europe, people have a high level of social insurance. In Russia and Ukraine social insurance just will not let you die. Russians are used to living in stress, Europeans are used to comfort. In EU people feel safe and protected from the side of government. Meanwhile, Russians have learned to survive. This made them stronger and more goal-oriented. Europeans spend their lives inside the home and family, they live “inside”, Russians tend to live “outside”. While typical European families will be unified for dinner table and enjoying the atmosphere, Russians will go with their numerous friends for the BBQ, as at home they can’t make a renovation for years. Russians will be shouting and laughing loudly with a big amount of alcohol, while calm Europeans will be sleeping in order to wake up in the morning and go for a walk or sport, or just spend time with the family. On the weekend morning Russians will stay at home, as they will have hangovers.

4) Family. Russian and European families are different, as they have different shares of responsibilities. In EU men and women are partners, they work hard together and bring up their kids together. The European family is 50/50. Russian mean a different thing when they say about family. In the Russian family, as many like to say “Papa is working, mama is beautiful”. There is no partnership in a Russian family. A man has his own responsibilities like to provide finances and security for the family , while a woman takes care of home and kids. Russian family is very traditional, it’s a kind of old-fashion family that Europe has already forgotten.

5) Society. Russian society is full of stereotypes, traditions, and judging. “What will people think ?” — main question Russians ask themselves unconsciously every day. “What will people say?” they are asking looking at the mirror, getting married or going for a vacation. While Europeans are open-minded and do not care even if you are dark-skinned gay who dreams to have kids with a partner. In Russia, this situation will be discussed everywhere and even shown in the news. Russian society is not ready for total liberalism, acceptance and freedom. As Russians live “outside“, they care about others judging more than about their own happiness. That is something Europeans made me to learn, to be simple and happy as you are, live your own life in your own way…

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Elena Miro
Elena Miro

Written by Elena Miro

Certified Psychotherapist, Relationship coach and Author. Ukrainian

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