Russians

Russians should realize that they are Orthodox in the first place; Russians in the second place; and only in the third place, people. ~ Aleksandr Dugin

Russians (Russian: русские, russkiye) are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe; they are the most numerous ethnic group in Europe. The majority of ethnic Russians live in Russia.

Quotes

• The Russians are fascinating, ingenious, creative, sentimental, warm-hearted, generous, obstinately courageous, endlessly tough, often devious, brutal and ruthless. Ordinary Russians firmly believe that they are warmer-hearted than others, more loyal to their friends, more willing to sacrifice themselves for the common good, more devoted to the fundamental truths of life. They give the credit to the Russian soul, as broad and all-embracing as the Russian land itself. Their passionate sense of Russia’s greatness is paradoxically undermined by an underlying and corrosive pessimism. And it is tempered by resentment that their country is insufficiently understood and respected by foreigners.
  • Rodric Braithwaite, Russia: Myths and Realities (2022)

• [T]hrough the Russian people will be realized the last thought of God, the thought of the End of the World.
  • Aleksandr Dugin, as quoted in "Dugin’s Evil Theology" (18 June 2014), by Robert Zubrin, National Review

• Russians should realize that they are Orthodox in the first place; Russians in the second place; and only in the third place, people.
  • Aleksandr Dugin, The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia (1997), Russia: Arktogeja, p. 255, as quoted in "Aleksandr Dugin's Foundations of Geopolitics" (31 January 2004), by John B. Dunlop, Demokratizatsiya, Chapter: The Gorbachev Debacle

• You ain't from Russia, so bitch why you Russian?
  • Nelly, "Pimp Juice", Nellyville (2002), California: Universal Records

• The Russians are serious people. One of the reasons Khrushchev was put on the shelf back in 1964 is that the proud Russians became ashamed of his crude antics at the U.N. and in other international forums.
  • Richard Nixon, as quoted in "Declassified Richard Nixon letter to President Clinton proves prophetic on Russia" (2023), by Chris Pandolfo, Fox News

• The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and is an all out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.
  • George S. Patton, as quoted in Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life (2002), by Carlo D'Este, New York City: Henry Holt and Company, p. 739

• Russians have always been suckers for greatness. They would sell their last shirt for its elusive promise.
  • Sergey Radchenko, "Why Russia needs to be humiliated in Ukraine: Too little was learnt from the collapse of the Soviet Union" (15 May 2022), The Spectator

• Imagine that one not very fine day two or three of your states in the Southwest, in the space of 24 hours, declare themselves independent of the U.S. They declare themselves a fully sovereign nation, decreeing that Spanish will be the only language. All English-speaking residents, even if their ancestors have lived there for 200 years, have to take a test in the Spanish language within one or two years and swear allegiance to the new nation. Otherwise they will not receive citizenship and be deprived of civic, property and employment rights. What would be the reaction of the United States? I have no doubt that it would be immediate military intervention. But today Russia faces precisely this scenario. In 24 hours she lost eight to 10 purely Russian provinces, 25 million ethnic Russians who have ended up in this very way--as "undesirable aliens." In places where their fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers have lived since way back--even from the 17th century--they face persecution in their jobs and the suppression of their culture, education and language. Meanwhile, in Central Asia, those wishing to leave are not permitted to take even their personal property. The authorities tell them, "There is no such concept as 'personal property'!"
  • Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Interview With Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on the New Russia and Ukraine (May 1994)
• A Russian is self-assured just because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known.
  • Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, Book IX, Chapter Ten, p. 898, as quoted in "Russia’s Paranoid Foreign Policy" (28 November 2018), by Zachery Tyson Brown, RealClearDefense

• [to drivers] not forget that the health and lives of other people depend on you… comply with the established rules of behaviour on the road
  • ‘Emergency Situations Ministry, as quoted in "Bus carrying children overturns in Babyninsky" (6 February 2019), Wikinews

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Russians on Wikipedia