To a Western man searching Russia / Ukraine for unspoiled virtue, health, high moral values, sound family background, top model beauty, unconditional love, and proper mothering of his children, - hinterland is the last area to seek a wife. Post-Soviet specifics of economy and mentality contradict American-based reasoning on the percentage of “sound” or “flawed” women in small communities, of “deserving” or “evil” girls who relocate upscale, and of “fine” or “filthy” city-borns.
A keen observer can discern a range of more specific social types. A psychologist would consider the entire combination of individual factors to make a right match. And it takes a native to detect ancestry & upbringing by manners, speech, style, even by facial features. But let’s now clarify the first-approximation guidelines.
How do major factors of origin affect a Russian or Ukrainian woman’s character? What marriage behavior can a stranger forecast by them?
Here are some trends you need to know. Feels bad to spill – and to conceal.
First mention & counter-arguments
One can find these descriptions offensively stereotyping. But let me begin with a mathematical joke. A black box contains a cat, a radioactive particle, a Geiger meter, and a cylinder of poisonous gas. If a particle gets into the meter, the gas is released, and kills the cat. Question: is the cat alive or dead? Answer: in any given moment of observation, the cat is both alive and dead, with 50% probability.
A behavior pattern, as frequent as just 30% of all situations, tends to be perceived as a predictive characteristic of a person – or a society – that displays them. Of negative patterns, even less examples may suffice to form a looming rule, supported by media and memes (self-propagating, catch-recognizable references). Unfortunately, the social circumstances below are like leaking gas in that box. Their impact on certain people in a certain place and moment occurs all the way up above 30%. Therefore exceptions feel even more incredible than they may be.
Now down from the pulpit, into life!
Must-watch: “Glyanets” (“Gloss”), 2007, director Andrei “Andron” Konchalovsky. This satirical drama outlines the path of modern Russian Cinderellas.
The bigger city with the more varied (!) economic profile, – the more options not only for “sinning”, but for perfection. Of more people, more can group by personal standards into each other’s “survivable collective shelters” distanced from the fallout over newly-rich and ever-poor.
(These types can be met countrywide.)
The gap between rural and urban, town an city, production and service, province and capital, is expanding. Money lacks, skill flees, cultivation doesn’t reach. This already disturbs even the national governments (at least in their papers).
Alcoholism in the Russian realm, especially post-Soviet, has been way deeper in the countryside and outskirts than in busier places. This affects not only immediate personal morality, hygiene, longevity, efficiency, reproduction; not only generations of family relations. Most importantly, it has accumulating impact on the genetic pool, including constitutional health, brain functions, immunity to infection…
…and, yes, beauty across the population. Parroty attire, full makeup, and fast-spent credit of youth is not all. One may think he’s found a diamond in the dirt, while she’s just a strass (that this