Is There Anything Good About Russian Men?

So, after writing all those posts dedicated to Russian men, the only question remains: is there anything good about Russian men? The obvious answer is "no". The actual answer is more complicated than that. 

To answer this question we need to examine, what exactly happened to Russian men and is there any hope for them in the future. 

As a hint, we would like to say this: while there's life, there is hope. Or, as they say in Russia, "hope dies last".

More after the break.                                                                      

  

To conclude our five-part series on "Russian men" we would like to answer this simple yet meaningful question, "Is there anything good about Russian men?" 

To answer this question jokingly we can say that, yes, there is something good about Russian men - they die early. This is partially true because life expectancy for males is only 65 years. In the U.S. life expectancy for males is about 74.4, a whole decade longer.

Some readers would contradict by listing all the good things about Russian men: their untamed nature, unpredictability, and manliness.

Some girls would admire Russian guy's courtship behavior since a man in Russia is expected to pay for his female counterpart's meal as well as carry her bag. This behavior, however, is another side of sexism since women are regarded as "weaker" sex that needs help and protection from stronger and more powerful males. 

Here is one account from Diana Bruk that depicts typical courtship behavior: Source

However, to answer this question properly, we need to introduce the concept of negative selection. When farmers want to breed an animal or even propagate a vegetable, they often use the same process nature uses: selection. The only difference is that evolution involves natural selection and farmers participate in the artificial selection, also called "selective breeding". What farmers usually do is they pick the best animals: the biggest, the healthiest, the most appealing. Then they mate those animals to the healthiest females. As a result, they get the healthiest offsprings that, in turn, can be used as breeding material in the future.

Source

What would happen if we used the same process, but in reverse? If we picked the worst animals - the sickly looking, the least intelligent, but most aggressive? And if we continued to choose the worst of the worst animals for several generations? If you are interested, look into Dr. Pottenger's experiments with cats, because he did just that by depriving cats of essential nutrients. There is also a very interesting video to watch about his experiment, available on Youtube. 

The process when all the superior specimens are weeded out and only the weakest ones are selected for further breeding is called negative selection. Negative selection basically causes deleterious impacts on the fitness of the host.  

If we look at Russian history, there was never a time when the negative selection was non-existent. The cream of the crop of the Russian nation was always prosecuted, either sent to Siberia or killed off during serfdom and absolute monarchy. The remainder was wiped out during all the wars or fled the country in 1917, after the revolution. Whatever was left out of good genetic material was further destroyed during Stalin's purges (around 30,000,000 people) and then the WWII (around 20,000,000). 

The term negative selection can also be applied to politics. It is a political process that happens in rigid hierarchies, where  the person on the top of the hierarchy, wishing to remain in power forever, chooses his associates with the prime criterion of incompetence – they must not be competent enough to remove him from power. Since subordinates often mimic their leader, these associates do the same with those below them in the hierarchy, and the hierarchy is progressively filled with more and more incompetent people. Source

Unfortunately, this is what happened in Russian political system. It most likely started all the way from the czarist times and is still going on now. 

Russian Social Pyramid circa 1900 (Source)

Does the negative selection continue in this day and age? Although Stalin's purges are long gone and people are not sent to GULAG, some negative selection still takes place. Many young, aspiring professionals continue to leave Russia in record numbers. This is the fourth wave of emigration. 

Is it possible to reverse negative selection? Definitely. In fact, the whole evolutionary process is designed in a way that the society constantly renews itself. In our understanding, the following conditions are required for Russian people to reverse natural selection:

1. A fully democratic society, i.e. free press, independent judges, fair voting procedures.
2. A long period of peace.
3. Low corruption.
4. Meritocracy. 
5. Reduced drinking.

Many countries have succeeded using this simple formula. Some succeeded with only three criteria out of five. Countries as poor as South Korea and Singapore were able to establish flourishing and fully competitive societies. We are aware that Singapore is not exactly a democracy. However, it is not a very big country, and in the future Singaporeans will be forced to democratize their society to sustain or advance their progress.  

There is another important biological term that we would like to introduce: a phenocopy.  A phenocopy is a variation in phenotype which is caused by environmental conditions. The difference between a phenocopy and a mutation is that a phenocopy features characteristic of a genotype other than his own, but produced environmentally, not genetically.

Knowing that Russian people lived under debilitating political, economic, and social conditions for most of their history, we can safely assume that negative selection took place and the genetic pool was greatly reduced. This is, in addition, the fact that many Russians are phenocopies in some way. As we know, nature is always more harsh on males than females in term of genetic predisposition due to biological differences.

We need to consider the fact that there are currently 67 778 207 males living in Russia. Source Just by sheer probability, not all of them can be genetically inferior or written off as phenocopies. There is definitely hope that there are some good Russian men out there, maybe not in large numbers, but they must exist.  

We cannot confirm this statement firsthand since we have never met any, but we still believe they exist because of sheer probability. Good Russian men are almost like unicorns, you have never seen one, but you will know when you meet one. They just have to be out there somewhere.

So, what constitutes a "good guy"? This is, of course, a very subjective definition that gives plenty of room for generalization. However, it would be logical to assume that for most people a "good guy" would be somebody who:

1. rarely drinks (in Russian terms, not more than one glass of dry red wine every week or so and no vodka)

2. is not a male chauvinist and not sexist in any way

3. is tolerant to LGBT community

4. is tolerant to ALL races, ethnic backgrounds, religious and political preferences

5. does not have a slave mentality, including Stockholm syndrome, learned helplessness and so on; does not suffer from any form of emotional bonding to Russian authority

6. is not behind times socially, politically, or economically

If you meet any good (and he has to be real!) Russian guy that fits the description, please let us know. We will publish his full name, the exact address, his phone number with an area code and his picture. As a courtesy to him we will also delete all the posts dedicated to Russian men. (Just kidding! But we will acknowledge that guys like these do exist in Russia). 

In case you don't find any, here is a picture of an imaginary Russian guy (this one is for you, ladies!). The head was cut off to protect his privacy and to save him from all those single Russian women. All the important parts were left intact.