The thing is, Russia has always been a basket case. Primarily because it is to large and too small (too large in size and too small in population to manage it). Thus, it has been managed — or, more properly MISmanaged — by a long series of tyrants who treated their people worse than just subjects, but more as nameless and faceless scut workers who would do what they were told or pay dearly for failing to do so. The Russian people have been held down and oppressed by their own leaders for hundreds of years. So much, that they have become fatalists, lacking ambition or drive. There are a handful of exceptions, of course (there always are), such as some composers (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff) and some writers (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky). But, when it comes right down to it, the only thing that really describes the Russian people is what (was it Pasternak in “Doctor Zhivago?) said about them: Russians endure.
Forgive - I have to get off for the evening. sigh Up the Republic! 😇