Alexander Kuprin made this sketch of a “true Russian face” during his trip to Finland in the early 20th century. When he stopped for a bite to eat at a railway station, he found himself at a buffet, which was a novelty in those days.
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Post Editor: Mark Beygelzimer, PhD, systems analyst, head of the Trust but Verify project.
Reference: Alexander Kuprin (August 26, 1870 - August 25, 1938) was a famous Russian writer and translator
An excerpt from the story “A Little Bit of Finland”
(printed from the edition: A. Kuprin. Collected Works in 6 volumes. Volume 6. - Moscow: GIHL, 1958. P.622-623)
I remember about five years ago I had to come to Imatra for a day with the writers Bunin and Fedorov. We were returning late at night. At about eleven o'clock the train stopped at Antrea station, and we went out for refreshments.
The long table was laden with hot dishes and cold appetizers. There was fresh salmon, fried trout, cold roast beef, some game, small, very tasty bits, and the like. It was all unusually clean, appetizing, and dressed up. And there were small plates in heaps at the edges of the table, piles of knives and forks, and baskets of bread.
Everyone came up, chose what he liked, ate as much as he liked, then went to the buffet and of his own free will paid exactly one mark (thirty-seven kopecks) for dinner. No supervision, no distrust.
Our Russian hearts, so deeply accustomed to the passport, the precinct, the compulsory care of the chief janitor, to universal fraud and suspicion, were utterly overwhelmed by this wide mutual faith.
But when we returned to the carriage, we were met with a charming picture in the true Russian genre. The fact was that two stone contractors were traveling with us.
Everyone knows this type of kulak from Meshchovsky district of Kaluga province: a broad, glossy, bony red face, red hair curling from under a cartouche, a sparse beard, a devious look, piety for five-altons, fervent patriotism and contempt for everything non-Russian - in a word, a familiar true Russian face. I should have listened to how they mocked the poor Finns.
- What a bunch of fools. They're such fools, damn it! I ate three rubles to seven hryvnias from them, the scoundrels... Oh, you bastard! They don't beat them enough, you sons of bitches! One word - Chukhonians.
And the other picked up on it, choking with laughter:
- And I... purposely cocked the glass, and then took in the fish and spit.
- Serves them right, you bastards! They're anathema! We must keep them in line!
А. Kuprin, 1908.
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Editor's Comment
I am far from thinking that the qualities described by Kuprin refer exclusively to the “true Russian face”. Surely one can give plenty of examples of such boorish behavior of representatives of other nations in everyday life. But I don't know of a case where a high-ranking official from any Western country would send his children to live and study in Russia, while slurring the local order.
Cover photo from Helsingborgs Dagblad
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