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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Russians are Europeans in many ways, except for its lack of respect for the individual and totalitarian history. The ultimate power is the power of the state and a dictator, which is true today. Just like in Europe, there no 1st or 2nd amendment and a lot of corruption. Many elderly people dumpster dive to get by because the government pension is tiny. Only in Moscow and St Petersburg people have a decent standard of living.[/quote]

What history books have you been reading?  Pretty much every modern European country evolved from agrarian oligarchy.  Even when individual rights may have been achieved in country, many European nations have a shameful colonial histories and experience with totalitarian leaders.

Also, Russia has many non-Europeans—Turkic, Uralic, Indo-European, Caucasian.
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Any history book would tell you as much. Russians historically comprised close to 80% of the population. Other minorities were non-European and on par with their non-European counterparts in mentality, religion and culture. I don’t think that the OP is interested in Chechens, Tatars, Bashkirs, Yakuts, Buryats, and other forty or so ethnic minorities. Some of these minorities also participated in the wider Russian culture and politics. The Jewish minorities actively contributed to Russian culture and science, for instance, and many were persecuted and discriminated against, which made them change their names and hide their identity.

Europe was more prosperous and educated than Russia. And the countries that were colonized by Europeans had roads, hospitals, schools and now enjoy a richer life and better opportunities than the equivalent never colonized countries. Look up the statistics, and former colonies would have much better living standards. But then again, we need to compare how the governments of Europe and Russia in the same historic period treat their own people, not people on the other side of the world. Russia has been notorious for disregarding and disrespecting its own people. They would say “so what? Women can just give birth to more”.

Russian agrarian resources and the quality of arable land was not on par with European lands. However, Russian landowners looked at European aristocracy and wanted to ape their lifestyles, even though it would deprive their serfs of 30% of necessary daily calories. European peasants did not starve and die at the same rates. European peasants were not prohibited from attending universities, unlike Russian peasants. You can look and compare European and Russian literacy rates, class structure, the numbers of artists, artisans, merchants, writers, philosophers, engineers, doctors, teachers, scientists, composers, inventors, innkeepers, manufacturers per 100,000 in the 19th century. That should tell you all you need to know.[/quote]

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