A widely publicized study some years ago about values of the general population in the US ended up dividing the results into three categories. Each category represents what is most important in life to a certain percentage of the population.

1. About 60% of people are materialists. For them money is the most important value in life, and the main purpose of life is to earn as much money as possible.

2. About 25% of people have creative values. They value creativity, community, spirituality, tolerance. For them the purpose in life is to express oneself creatively, to grow as individuals and as community, to care for others and express love and kindness.

3. Another 10 to 15 % are fundamentalists of some religion. They believe in very strict doctrines and rules about how one has to live. For them the main purpose in life is to obey those rules, and to convince others to live by the same rules. They have little tolerance for people who have different beliefs.

While there are millions of people who are not materialists, materialism remains the dominating force in US mainstream culture. I have not seen a similar study about Russia, but I want to share my own impressions.

I visited Russia several times starting in September 2001 (in fact I took the first flight from NY to Moscow after 9/11), including spending the academic year 2005-06 as a Fulbright scholar teaching Psychology at Liberal Arts University in Ekaterinburg. Over time I have seen strong changes in Russia, chief among them a sharp increase in materialism, with money becoming more and more important as a life value. Even among psychologists, when I hear about a strong conflict and ask what the conflict is about, the answer inevitably is "money."

When I first came to Russia about 5 years ago I was totally amazed. I had previously traveled all over Western Europe and North America, but those places were rather similar to each other, at least compared to the difference with Russia.

It was obvious that people in Russia did not have as much money: few had cell phones, even fewer had cars, restaurants were largely empty, and most had never traveled by plane. But to me they seemed much happier than people in the West.

What they cherished the most and indeed had to a much larger extent than Western cultures was community. Including, but certainly not limited to, strong family support. I was amazed how people were able to have fun and enjoy each other much more than my friends in other places. This was usually done by gatherings in someone's simple home, or in a park. There was very little money spent, but the reception was much warmer than it is at fancy dinners in the West that are arranged at huge expense. And people were also much more open and creative in Russia, often singing and dancing.

I remember asking a colleague why things are so different in Russia, and she responded saying that the Russian tradition is to ask "what can I do for this person?" when meeting another human being. This really seemed to be a nice summary of the difference that I was experiencing in Russia. (And incidentally this can also explain why men and women get along much better in Russia, but this is a topic for another paper.)

I realized then that this is the opposite of my socialization in Western countries. We are taught to always ask "what can this person do for me?" This is called networking. And it is the main way to advance in society, to find jobs and opportunities etc. If we meet a person where the answer is "nothing", we are encouraged to consider it a waste of time to associate with them.

Sadly I see now Russia moving in that direction as well, but for now the situation is still better in Russia in this regard. Having lived in both cultures, I am quite aware that my own attitude and behavior changes depending on the society that I find myself in. So my observations should not be understood as accusing individuals, since it is almost impossible to go against the norm.

Some five years after my first visit to Russia, one of the biggest changes I see is that people are now constantly complaining about not having time, just like in Western countries. It is now very difficult (and time-consuming!) to organize any gatherings, whether to do some business or to socialize. And thus the number of people with no time is always increasing. For me the sense of not having time is a huge decrease in quality of life, and in fact my life is negatively affected both by my own not having time, and by other people not having time.

This seems to be related to the increase in materialism, since most of the time people are busy with trying to earn more money. When the first time in Russia, I was very impressed how people seemed to have time to be with each other. Such times are very rare now, and it is possible to see "friends" that you do not work or study with only twice a year, like in the West. Gatherings with community sense still exist, but are much rarer, and often are organized with a lot of effort and cost money.

Most people now have cell phones, many have cars, travel on vacations to Europe, and expensive restaurants are full. So many people obviously have more money, but it is not clear to me exactly how they have it, as salaries for people who actually work for money are still extremely low, especially in education or other professions helping people and not directly related to money.

While people are materially better off, they appear actually less happy than some years ago. One does not need a degree in psychology to realize that the gap between rich and poor leads to envy and cynicism. As in the West, neither the rich nor the poor are very fulfilled in life, though the reasons may be different, with poor people struggling for survival, and rich people feeling it is never enough. And both feeling empty because of a lack of other values.

Now more and more people in Russia express a desire to leave the country (whether their ideas about life being better in the West are correct is another question, but clearly this shows unhappiness with the situation in Russia).

There are of course also many advantages to the capitalist system, but those improvements are coming slowly to Russia. Roads and transport systems are still in very bad conditions. One thing however has improved significantly in recent years: the quality of toilets is now much better in Russia, and in most places up to Western standards (one noticeable exception is the toilets at the Ural State Technical University). This is not a small achievement, considering the dreadful conditions some years ago.

So my personal opinion is that in many ways Russia is going in the wrong direction, losing what I valued so much about Russian culture and community when I first came here. And - unfortunately - I don't know any easy answers to better the situation. Russia is bombarded now with advertising, including even such damaging advertising that would be illegal in the West, for example advertising the benefits of cigarettes.

Every kind of advertising is not only an ad for a product, but also promotes materialism. Advertisings are scientifically designed to influence and manipulate people, so it is likely that this will change society's values over time. So my main advice to you is to not watch commercial television. And to try to preserve the Russian values of human community and the Russian soul! I hope that by raising awareness I can also make a small contribution towards this end.

Eberhard Scheiffele, PhD, TEP, RDT

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