Your mind is too made up to explain anything to. A Russian believes he is top of the Slavic totem pole and Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Slovakians, Slovenians, Lithuanians, Latvians et al. are underneath. They believe they were born to push other Slavs around and the poor Ukrainian has been pushed around so long he also believes it.
“In Russia, everything you notice, and everything that happens around you, has a terrifying uniformity; and the first thought that comes into the traveler's mind, as he contemplates this symmetry, is that such entire consistency and regularity, so contrary to the natural inclination of mankind, cannot have been achieved and could not survive without violence."
"The nature of its Government is interference, negligence and corruption. You rebel against the notion that you could become accustomed to all this, yet you do become accustomed to it. In that country, a sincere man would be taken for an idiot."
"A wealth of unnecessary and petty precautions here engenders a whole army of clerks, each of whom carries out his task with a degree of pedantry and inflexibility, and a self-important air solely designed to add significance to the least significant employment."
"The profession of misleading foreigners is one known only in Russia....everyone disguises what is bad and shows what is good before the master's eyes."
Marquis de Custine
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