Culture Snippets: Russia

‘Culture snippets’ is our way of sharing snippets of insights into different countries. If you want to chat about how you can use these insights to inform your product and business decisions, feel free to get in touch.

#culturesnippets #Russia The world largest country, a mix of Europe & Asia.

There is no word for personal privacy in Russian. You can say 'Leave me alone' but no translation for 'Give me some privacy'. No word to denote that physical space around you should be private to you. Communal living, especially outside the big cities, plays a role here. 

The extreme conditions where Russian culture spread shape how Russians live, think and their mindsets (e.g. the spirit of improvisation to find a solution under tough circumstances). Russians usually say what they think, get straight to the point to avoid misunderstandings. They look for details and facts.

Piracy is entrenched in Russia's culture. After the fall of the Soviet Union, many western goods were either unavailable or at prices most couldn’t afford. Subsequently, many forms of unauthorised copying that were common in the Soviet era grew. After more than 6 years, many Russians were still unaware of the anti-piracy law, although content piracy in Russia has now shown a decline for the first time in many years.

Russians are used to situations where everything is unpredictable and unstable. They adapt to new rules quickly. It is one of the few countries where mentalities & attitudes could change drastically in a short time. This was also what we observed when conducting research here for a client - with only 7 months apart, some initially observed mentalities were flipped & the high willingness to switch from what they attached to for more than a decade to new (paid) services.

Photos: Taken when we were on the ground helping our clients to understand more about their customers and markets in this country.