Page 48 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

common historical experiences, memories and live by and large on the same territory should be recognised as “culture” or “sub-culture”. Indifferent if they are settled on the territory of a nation state (country) or scattered across the borders of two or more nation states (countries) we still identify the “groups” mentioned as “cultures” with their significant attitudes, norms and behaviours.
2.3.2 Contrasts in National Cultures: Russian and Western perspectives
Russia opened its economy after the implosion of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the communist ideological system in the 1990’s and has attracted the interest of Western (and global) Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), since then. The country has a vast territory with a population of approximately 145 million inhabitants and an overwhelming reserve of natural resources. At the same time, it is confronted with a weak legal system (Lyubimov 2016), a not-diversified, volatile economy and after some experiments with democracy and a liberal and free-market economy in the nineteen- nineties. From 2000, it has been ruled by an authoritarian government emphasising “vertical power” aimed at improving and maintaining the large State’s influence in the domestic economy. Corruption is well spread and elaborated in all levels of the public administration and their institutions.
Frequently observed and noted contrasts are remarkable and highlight the substantial differences between Western and Russian cultures, making the latter difficult to understand by Westerners. Russians and Westerners differ greatly. Merely not only in their NCs, but also in the backgrounds they are coming from, stemming from the ideological, religious, economic, political attitudes to the inherited social systems (Michailova, 2000). For understanding Russia from the Western perspective, it is necessary to dig in Russian history, to the era of the earlier Tzars, when a grass root movement was developed from the mediaeval period as a typical Russian communitarian phenomenon.
The Russian Communitarian Value System (RCVS) is a socio-cultural system, which can be seen as establishment of the communitarian system in Russia. The collective is characterised by the emphasis on the importance of the group rather than the individual and is still the organisational form in which RVCS is embodied. Collectives (Obshchina) are rooted culturally and stemming from the period of the Kievan Princedom of Vladimir (10th century A.C.) in Russia. They constantly served as an indispensable vehicle in survival’s struggle and a modus in the communitarian decision-making process (Dewey & Kleimola, 1984). The communitarianism assumed
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