О русском пьянстве лени и жестокости

People tend to think of themselves as good. Usually even better than they really are. This is true for entire nations, always trying to form the most positive opinion about themselves. But not for the Russians, with their astonishing masochism, cultivating the most negative stereotypes about themselves, referring to the classics: everyone, they say, "drinks," "steals" (Karamzin), are "lazy and uncurious" (Pushkin), want everything to be "according to the will of the pike"...