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[quote=Anonymous]I am Russian, and have lived there for 30+ years before moving to the US (I am 40+).
While unfortunately I can not recommend a particular book, here are my random thoughts:
- most people and books tend to either romanticize or overly criticize Russians and Russia, and it is hard to find a middle ground;
- the most vocal opinions come from people who have very marginal relationship with Russia (unfortunately these opinions also lack in depth). They might be spending considerable time trying to understand it, yet only scratch the surface and do not realize that due to thinking they are in some unique position to offer their opinion (may have lived there for a bit or their parents are from there etc).
- Russia is neither unique nor mysterious (see point one). It has its fair share of the good and the bad just like all countries.
- it is much more useful to study the country from a practical point of view, e.g. that smiling less does not mean people are less friendly; that people are usually more direct than in the US (“less polite”); that there is a degree of admiration towards white foreigners  and really ugly racism toward non-white ones.

In general, it is best to stay very very concrete when trying TK understand the Russians’ behavior, and avoid looking for “deep” historical causation. 
Just my take on it, of course I might be missing an important outside perspective...[/quote]

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