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Some people find it surprising to learn that I am Russian. \u201cYou just don\u2019t look like somebody from Russia\u201d \u2013 they say. It doesn’t offend me but it does make me want to say something like: \u201cWhat do you know about Russians?\u201d\u00a0I don\u2019t ever say that, instead I usually mumble something along the lines of: \u201cOh, I um\u2026um\u2026OK.\u201d So, this post is my official opportunity to explain what a Russian person might look like.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a> First of all, the term\u00a0Russian<\/i> <\/b>in itself is misleading to a lot of foreigners. What somebody from the former USSR associates with the term\u00a0Russian<\/i>\u00a0and what somebody from\u00a0the\u00a0USA associates with the term Russian <\/i>are two different things. People who were raised in and around\u00a0the\u00a0former USSR understand all the subtleties and complexities of the term\u00a0Russian<\/i>. I will try to address some of these subtleties and complexities in this post.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/a><\/a> Let\u2019s take the term\u00a0American\u00a0<\/i>as an analogy. The term in its current interpretation implies someone who is either a Native American or is a citizen of the USA, whose roots can go back to anywhere in the world: Ireland, Germany, Mexico, Portugal, etc. The term Russian<\/i> in its current interpretation is somewhat similar: it means that someone is either of Russian origin (their ancestors were Russian, at least to some degree) or that they\u00a0are a Russian citizen\u00a0whose origin can go back to any one of the former Soviet Republics or to one of the many lands that are or were owned by Russia. I would dare say that pure Russians would be extremely hard to find these days due to the sheer number of peoples that coexisted on Russian lands for many years. Despite the fact that some of them desperately try to preserve the purity of their people, migrations and mixed marriages did and do exist, perpetuating further mixing of the bloods. Each and every one of the former Soviet Republics represents a people with distinct physical features and cultural heritage. For example, peoples from the Caucasus<\/a> region, such as Armenians and Georgians, typically have dark curly or wavy hair, dark brown eyes, olive skin, and more prominent noses; on the other hand, the Byelorussian people<\/a> tend to have light hair, blue eyes, fair skin; the people of Udmurt Republic<\/a> (which is a part of Russia) typically have red hair, a lot of freckles, and wider shoulders. I can go on and on about other peoples and nationalities that are or were a part of Russia at one time or another but my point is that all these people were and still are shaping the way an average Russian looks today. Let\u2019s briefly look at my family tree. My grandparents on my mother’s side\u00a0are from Zaporozhia<\/a> (currently Ukraine, part of former USSR), they moved to Orenburg<\/a>, Russia when they were young; they have dark hair and brown eyes. My grandmother on my father’s side was born in Russia from a German family who were a part of the German settlement; she had blond hair and blue eyes; my\u00a0dad\u2019s dad\u00a0originates from a family of Don Cossacks<\/a>; he has dark hair and brown eyes, they both met in Orenburg when they were young. \u2026Eventually my mom and dad (who both have dark hair, light green eyes, and pale skin) had me. I have dark hair, brown eyes, and olive skin. Orenburg has a fair amount of Asian people from Kazakhstan<\/a> because it is right on the border. Had my mom married a person from Kazakhstan, I would have been half-Asian, but\u2026 still Russian.<\/p>\n The bottom line here is this:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n -Russia is still a very big country that houses more than one people<\/p>\n -In\u00a0the\u00a0not so distant past Russia was an even bigger country that housed even more peoples who migrated and mixed all the time<\/p>\n -You can become Russian in 2 ways: by being born in Russia or by moving to Russia and acquiring Russian citizenship.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/a> -After the collapse of the USSR, some people chose\u00a0to emphasize their origin (they say they are Armenian because they are of Armenian descent, even if their passport says Russian), while\u00a0other people chose to emphasize their citizenship (they say they are Russian because that is what their passport says even if they are of Kazakh or Turkmen <\/a>descend, which means they belong to the Asian race).<\/p>\n <\/a><\/a> Now, with all of this in mind, what do you think a Russian person might look like?<\/p>\n \u0412\u0441\u0435\u0433\u043e \u0445\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0448\u0435\u0433\u043e!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n