Welcome to Unsmiling Russia (Mother Russia Part VII)

I think there's a little mental preparation one needs to undergo before heading off to Russia. I didn't know before I left but then I had the insight of someone who had been living there to straighten me out. It has to be said, Russians need a little getting used to.

At the immigration counter, as I was entering the country, I handed my passport to the unsmiling immigration officer. No big deal, immigration officers throughout the world seem to have the same disposition. I was however surprised that after I got out of the airport, I found that the general population carried the same unsmiling face, the taxi driver, the babushka museum usher, the militsia (police) and generally anyone you meet on the street, no one smiles. Not even people posing for a wedding picture. Good thing my traveling partner more than made up for that.

So what's the big deal, they don't smile, who cares. Well, if you are a tourist trying to find your way around, trying to ask for directions is just a little bit harder when faced with cold unsmiling faces. It's even harder when you come from a country known for its smiles . . . . or is that Thailand?

It was later explained to me that Russians deem smiling as a sign of weakness, something that must be very hard for a country known as the other superpower to stomach. And I wouldn't have it any other way, all those Rambo movies wouldn't have made any sense with smiling Spetznas in them. Also, Ivan Drago just wouldn't look right smiling.

The other explanation is that Russians think you're a little bit "off the rocker" if you keep smiling at everything.

Okay, before I paint a picture of a very drab and sad country, this is just not the case. Moscow seems to run fine without any smiling. People still interact, go about their business, mothers take their kids to the park, go shopping and meet each other but there was definitely a shortage of smiles in the country. Probably the only ones I saw smiling were the kids.





Once you get over this little quirk though, Russia and Russians are easy to like. You even start putting on a bit of a bit of a scowl when you walk around, just so that you start fitting in with the locals. The upside to this whole not smiling thing though is that when you do catch someone smiling, even though it's a hint of a smile, it just brightens your day.