Inside Russia’s Mind: What the West Refuses to See

Elvira Bary

Discover why everything you thought about Russia might be wrong—and how to see the real picture  👉 What World Leaders NEED to Know about Russia: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6d9EIByxz1AdkmIOYUlrDd0rmByq5zSN  In this video, we explore the reasons behind the ongoing conflict between the West and Russia. By delving into historical and cultural differences, we examine how centuries of isolation, propaganda, and misinterpretations have shaped the current relationship. We look at how Russia&#039;s complex social structures, historical events, and the curse of ignorance have led to an unclear picture of the nation, both inside and outside its borders. Understanding these dynamics is essential for fostering better diplomatic relations and meaningful cooperation between the two sides.  ➡️ Video Chapters:   00:00 Why the West Misunderstands Its Enemies 00:24 How to Make Friends with Outsiders 04:20 The Closed Country 08:22 The Consequences of Ignorance 11:10 The One-Way Game 13:10 Fake Narratives 15:38 Misinterpretations 19:13 How to Fix the Situation  👉 JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY Sign-up for news about the New Book here:  https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/  MY HISTORICAL FI

Transcript

00:00A question from one of my followers.

00:02Why can't we ever come to an agreement with Russia on terms that work for everyone?

00:08Why can't we understand each other?

00:11My name is Elvira Barry.

00:13I am an author born in the USSR and today we are going to talk about the history of

00:18mutual misunderstanding and the reasons behind it.

00:27To understand how different people can actually interact with one another, we need to look

00:33at some basic patterns of human behavior.

00:36As humans, often without realizing it, we act according to behavioral patterns inherited

00:42from our distant ancestors who lived during the Ice Age.

00:46Back then, our ancestors lived in small groups but frequently met with others for large communal

00:53hunts or exchange of brides.

00:56This pattern continued for tens of thousands of years.

01:00From these times, we inherited the following behaviors.

01:04First, we are loyal to our close ones because we feel that we can't survive without them.

01:11This may no longer be true, but this strategy ensured the survival of our species throughout

01:17its history.

01:19Second, we instinctively don't trust those who don't look like us.

01:23This fear likely originates from the risk of infection brought by different human species

01:29who might have carried diseases our ancestors had no immunity against.

01:33There were many species within their homogenesis in the past, but now only one remains – homo sapiens.

01:40The problem of other species is long gone, yet we still have an instinctive fear of people

01:47who, though they look human, are different from us.

01:51This explains why racism still exists and why it's so difficult to eradicate.

01:56Third, we begin to trust outsiders only in two cases – when we do something together

02:02and when we share stories.

02:04In ancient times, cooperation was essential for large communal hunts, when many groups would

02:10gather in one place to hunt migrating animals.

02:14With only stone tools, it would be impossible to bring down a mammoth or even a bison along.

02:20But with the help of a few dozen hunters, it becomes a different story.

02:26This is why we find activities like volunteering, political demonstrations and religious rituals

02:33so rewarding.

02:34The essence of this is the Olympics, combining the frill of competition, shared enthusiasm

02:41and communal emotions.

02:43But our ancestors met not only for hunts, but also for bright exchanges and military alliances.

02:51All of this was based on trust.

02:53And trust is born when we share stories.

02:56A story turns an outsider into someone familiar.

03:00You understand what they've gone through, how they act in the present and what they strive for.

03:07Our ancestors shared stories around the campfire and from this grew everything – mythology,

03:14religion, science and art.

03:17We still follow this program today.

03:19If we know the stories of a particular people, we don't fear them.

03:25But if we don't know anything, we are terrified.

03:28For example, how scary are Italians to you?

03:32Probably not scary at all.

03:34Because any modern person living in the West carries an immense amount of stories in their memory

03:40about ancient Rome, the Renaissance, Italian cinema and so on.

03:45So, I'm not talking about politics here, but about the instinctual perception of any Italian.

03:51Now, think about it.

03:53How personally scary are Russians to you?

03:56If you feel fear, there's only one reason.

03:59You know stories about Russians told by outsiders.

04:04But you don't know the stories told by the Russians themselves.

04:08Put simply, if you haven't sat by the fire with a Russian and listened to their story,

04:14your subconscious will likely view them as a suspicious outsider.

04:23The West has a poor understanding of Russia, primarily because it knows very little about it.

04:29This has been the case historically.

04:32In ancient and medieval times, Russia was nearly inaccessible to travelers.

04:37While anyone could easily visit Italy or France,

04:41getting to Russia was a much more difficult task.

04:43It's one thing to sail across the warm Mediterranean Sea

04:47or journey along Roman roads in the dry, sunny weather.

04:51And quite another to trek through forest paths full of bandits,

04:57muddy from endless rain or covered in deep snow.

05:00Traveling within Russia was also difficult,

05:04both due to its climate and local laws,

05:07which restricted movement for anyone deemed unnecessary.

05:10As a poor country with a highly inefficient system of governance,

05:15Russia did its best to hide the true state of affairs from outsiders.

05:19After all, if you know your enemy's weaknesses, you can exploit them.

05:25Mutual misunderstanding was further fueled by the fact that

05:28intellectuals in Western and Central Europe communicated in Latin,

05:33while Russians spoke Greek, the language of Byzantium.

05:37Add to this their religious difference.

05:40Before the Reformation, the West was Catholic, while Russia was Orthodox.

05:46Both sides considered each other heretics.

05:48In the 18th century, a flood of foreigners came to Russia,

05:53English and Danish merchants, German engineers and doctors,

05:58Italian artists, actors and architects,

06:00and later refugees from France fleeing the Great French Revolution.

06:04But all these people settled in Moscow and St. Petersburg,

06:09lived in tight-kneed communities,

06:11interacted only with aristocrats, servants and shopkeepers,

06:16and essentially knew nothing about how 99% of Russia's population actually lived.

06:22This continued until the 1917 revolution,

06:26after which Russia shut itself off from the outside world behind the Iron Curtain.

06:32This didn't happen after World War II, as many believe,

06:35but in the 1920s.

06:37For foreigners, entering the USSR was extremely difficult.

06:42Exceptions were made for socialist movement figures,

06:45foreign engineers hired to help build Soviet industry,

06:49and tourists who paid huge fees to see the Kremlin and their imperial palaces.

06:55But these tourists were not allowed and could not move freely throughout the country.

07:02Do you know what this led to?

07:04Primarily, it led to Russian stories disappearing from the Western literary scene.

07:11There was a brief period in the late 19th century

07:14when Russian writers Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky were actively translated and read.

07:20But Soviet rules stifled the free development of literature,

07:25only releasing works that had the party's blessing.

07:28If the party didn't approve of you, you couldn't be a writer.

07:33You simply wouldn't get published.

07:35And if that's the case, how could you possibly make it to the West?

07:40Who would even know about you, no matter how much of a genius you were?

07:45As a result, Western intellectuals and readers got used to living without us.

07:52And returning to the literary fold is nearly impossible.

07:57People simply don't trust you because you are from Russia.

08:00They don't give you a chance because they don't expect you to be capable of writing well

08:05or making money for publishers and agents.

08:08The English, yes.

08:10The Swedes, yes.

08:12The French, yes.

08:13But the Russians, no.

08:16After all, if we don't know your stories, they must not be interesting.

08:26The West's poor understanding of how Russia is structured internally

08:30has always played into the hands of Russian rulers.

08:34Due to its isolation, the USSR instilled such fear in the United States

08:39that it sparked the Cold War.

08:41From the outside, the USSR seemed much more powerful and frightening than it actually was.

08:49Throughout the Soviet years, the country was poor,

08:53mired in corruption and suffering from extreme inefficiency.

08:57People would think one thing, say another and do a third

09:02just to survive in the circumstances they found themselves in.

09:07My great-grandmother considered a piece of sugar a treat.

09:11My grandmother couldn't even cook at first because there was nothing to cook with.

09:16In the 1930s and 1940s, a normal meal was simply a piece of bread.

09:23I grew up in the 1980s, but in my childhood, there were no toasters,

09:29no mixers and no blenders.

09:31We did not even know what they were.

09:34Do you know how many TV channels there were in the early 1990s?

09:38Two and a half.

09:40Two federal channels and half the day was filled with local TV.

09:44You couldn't just travel to another city and stay in a hotel.

09:47It was too expensive.

09:49And who would even let you stay in a hotel

09:51if you weren't traveling for work or part of an official tourist group?

09:56We didn't even dream of owing a car.

09:59It was out of reach.

10:01Whenever we went to restaurants.

10:03The first time I went to a restaurant was when I was 18 or 19,

10:07and that happened after the collapse of the USSR.

10:11And, by the way, I am the daughter of highly professional engineers.

10:17If I had been born in the USA, I would definitely belong to the upper middle class.

10:24Well, that was the upper middle class we had in the USSR.

10:28But who among those making decisions in Washington or London

10:33knew how things really were in the USSR?

10:37They relied on what experts and spies told them.

10:42And where did the experts get their information?

10:45They had either state-sponsored media, which pushed propaganda narratives,

10:50or their accounts of immigrants, who were few and far between.

10:55And spies always have their own interests.

10:58If you present the USSR as a terrifying threat to the entire world,

11:02you'll get a lot of money.

11:04But if you write the truth, your work loses its value.

11:13After the collapse of the USSR,

11:15Western scholars who were fluent in Russian

11:17and skilled at working with historical documents

11:20started coming to Russia.

11:22But these were academics,

11:23whose work was read only by specialists

11:26and a few fans of Russian history.

11:29There was no cultural bridge between Russia and the West.

11:33The exchange went in only one direction.

11:37Starting in the 1990s,

11:39a flood of Western films, books,

11:41and later Internet content flooded into Russia.

11:45Everything cool and fashionable came from the West,

11:48and the population eagerly consumed it.

11:50But in the opposite direction,

11:53there was no exchange.

11:55Only festival films,

11:57which no one in Russia had ever heard of,

11:59and reports about oligarchs,

12:01Olympic champions,

12:03beautiful spies,

12:04and hired killers reached the West.

12:06That was it.

12:07Nothing more.

12:09Before the war in Ukraine,

12:11the media would only cover Russia

12:14if Putin attacked some other

12:15brotherly republic

12:17or if there was a major disaster.

12:19Even then,

12:21these reports were fleeting.

12:23I tracked this intentionally.

12:25My friends living in Russia

12:27listened to propaganda

12:28and genuinely feared

12:30that the West wanted to invade Russia.

12:32I specifically took screenshots

12:34from CNN,

12:36Fox News,

12:36and the BBC

12:38to prove to them

12:39that no one in the West

12:41was even thinking

12:42about attacking Russia.

12:43The West wasn't thinking

12:45about Russia at all.

12:47And it's understandable.

12:49When the military threat

12:51from the USSR disappeared,

12:53everyone just caught on

12:55with their own affairs.

12:57And then,

12:58it turned out

12:58that in Eastern Europe,

13:00a festering boil was growing,

13:02one no one had noticed,

13:05because everyone was looking

13:06the other way.

13:12In the USSR,

13:13only two fields of art

13:15reached unprecedented heights.

13:17Ballet,

13:18because there was

13:19no need to speak,

13:20and propaganda art,

13:22because it spoke

13:23to what was beneficial

13:25to the current leadership.

13:26During the Soviet era,

13:28Moscow actively supported

13:30left-wing movements

13:31of all kinds,

13:33skillfully pulling them

13:34to its side.

13:36Often,

13:36this wasn't about money.

13:39For instance,

13:39an offer could be bribed

13:41by a huge circulation

13:43of their books

13:44or by lavish receptions

13:46with crowds

13:47of adoring fans.

13:49It was about creating awe,

13:51confusion,

13:52and even fear.

13:54There were many ways

13:55to achieve this.

13:57But the best method

13:58was simple.

13:59Logical persuasion.

14:01You focus only

14:02on the facts

14:03that benefit you,

14:04dismiss the ones

14:05that don't,

14:06and build logical chain,

14:08repeating it

14:09multiple times

14:10from various sources.

14:12This creates

14:13the illusion

14:14of everyone's

14:16talking about it.

14:17And, well,

14:18it's obvious.

14:19If you plant

14:20the right narrative

14:21in someone's mind,

14:22they'll do exactly

14:23what you want them to.

14:25The key is

14:26to make them believe

14:27they're fighting

14:28for all that's good

14:30against all that's evil.

14:32Get them

14:33emotionally invest

14:34in something.

14:35And they'll defend

14:37your viewpoint

14:38because they don't

14:40want to look foolish.

14:41They'll fight

14:42for their own righteousness,

14:45pouring all their energy

14:46into it.

14:47I've seen many times

14:49when worse than press

14:50and politicians

14:51repeat Moscow's

14:52propaganda narratives.

14:54Some of them

14:55are fully aware

14:56of what's going on

14:57and go along with it

14:59because it personally

15:00benefits them.

15:01But there are plenty

15:02who simply don't realize

15:04they are being manipulated

15:06and that they've been

15:08fed a distorted narrative.

15:11They then run

15:12to social media

15:13and spread it further

15:15like a virus.

15:17How to spot

15:18a fake narrative

15:19from the truth?

15:21There is only one way.

15:23Comprehensive knowledge

15:24of the subject.

15:25If you know a lot,

15:27you'll notice

15:28when a fake narrative

15:29contradicts your knowledge.

15:31But if you don't

15:32know anything,

15:33you'll swallow

15:34whatever is fed to you.

15:41Another major issue

15:42is the incorrect

15:43interpretations

15:44by Western historians,

15:46political scientists

15:47and commentators.

15:49There are excellent

15:50specialists on Russia,

15:51but their voices

15:52are usually drowned out

15:54by the loud chorus

15:56of those

15:56who judge Russia

15:58either based

15:59on themselves

15:59or some fantasy-based

16:02notions

16:02from who knows where.

16:05To understand

16:06what's going on,

16:08we must consider

16:09the following.

16:10The majority

16:10of Russian rules

16:11belong to the generation

16:13born in the 1950s.

16:15They studied

16:16at Soviet universities

16:17in the 1970s

16:18when all social sciences

16:20were extremely

16:21ideologized,

16:23more like church dogmas

16:25than actual academic

16:26disciplines.

16:27In fact,

16:29some fields

16:29like political science

16:31didn't even exist.

16:33So,

16:34the narratives

16:35in the minds

16:36of Russian rulers

16:37don't correspond

16:38to their narratives

16:39many Western commentators

16:41have about them.

16:42For example,

16:44some people claim

16:45that Russia's main

16:46foreign policy goal

16:47is to close strategic

16:48gaps along its borders.

16:50They say Russia

16:52needs to reach

16:53the Carpathians

16:54to prevent

16:54a potential invasion

16:56from the West.

16:57What invasion

16:58from the West?

16:59What are you

17:00talking about?

17:02Russian rulers

17:03consider Europe

17:04to be weak,

17:06fragmented,

17:07and ineffective.

17:08They are well aware

17:09that Europe

17:10has neither

17:11a capable army

17:12nor a developed

17:13military-industrial complex,

17:15nor solidarity.

17:16In fact,

17:17Europe has not been

17:18helping Ukraine much

17:20because it simply

17:21doesn't have

17:21the resources

17:22to do so.

17:23As one Russian official said,

17:27Europe has money

17:29and that's it.

17:30What are they going to use

17:32to defend themselves

17:34from us?

17:35Words of money?

17:37There is no need

17:38to invent things.

17:40And there is no need

17:41to project your beliefs

17:43and knowledge

17:43onto people

17:44who live

17:45in entirely different conditions

17:47and think about

17:48different things.

17:49Look at official documents

17:51with real consequences

17:53and track

17:54where real money flows.

17:56Before the war,

17:57every high-ranking official

17:59had property in the West

18:00and many still do.

18:02Plus,

18:03often their children

18:04and grandchildren

18:05live in the West

18:06and have no intention

18:08to return to Russia.

18:09The war in Ukraine

18:11started for only one reason.

18:13Mr. Putin began

18:14to lose popularity,

18:16which was already apparent

18:17from sociological data.

18:19And he believed

18:20that a quick,

18:21bloodless conquest

18:22of Ukraine

18:23would rally public support,

18:25just like it did

18:26in 2014

18:27with the annexation

18:29of Crimea.

18:30Do you think

18:31he only gets

18:32buttocks in his face?

18:33No.

18:34His power also needed

18:36beauty injections.

18:38But something went wrong.

18:40The great leader

18:42simply made a mistake,

18:44overestimating his strength

18:46and underestimating

18:48the Ukrainians.

18:49And while the bureaucratic apparatus

18:52and ordinary people

18:53initially panicked,

18:54they eventually fell in line

18:56because Vladimir Putin

18:58figured out

18:59how to win them over.

19:00He promised that

19:01those who supported him

19:03would profit from the war

19:04and those who opposed him

19:06would end up behind bars.

19:09See, it's simple.

19:15Russia isn't going anywhere

19:17on the map of Europe.

19:18It's unlikely to collapse

19:20because economically

19:21and politically

19:22that would be

19:23highly detrimental.

19:25The West,

19:26one way or another,

19:28will have to establish

19:29relations with Russia.

19:31And if it wants

19:32a relatively stable peace

19:34and mutual beneficial agreements,

19:36it must address

19:38the root cause

19:39of the mutual misunderstanding,

19:41the curse of ignorance.

19:43It's important

19:44not only to study

19:45the rulers,

19:46but also all

19:47the social strata.

19:49Otherwise,

19:50nothing will be clear.

19:51In fact,

19:52I run this channel

19:53and write books

19:54about the blind spots

19:55in Russian history

19:56for exactly this reason.

19:58Modern Russian history

20:00begins with

20:01the Bolshevik Revolution.

20:02This event

20:03reshaped the world,

20:04but for many years

20:06it was perceived

20:08in a distorted way

20:09both in Russia

20:10and in the West

20:11to understand

20:12who we are

20:13and why we are

20:14the way we are.

20:15Read my novel

20:17Russian Treasures.

20:18It will serve

20:19as a foundation,

20:20providing a solid base

20:22for everything else.

20:23Additionally,

20:24lovers of Russian literature

20:26will enjoy it immensely.

20:28After all,

20:29what could be better

20:30than the pure

20:31ecstatic pleasure

20:32of a book

20:32while also

20:33gaining the joy

20:34of understanding

20:35how the world works?

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