About Russian Theft, Soul, and Patience

№1. A national Russian trait for a long time — not even since the times of Karamzin and his 'They steal...' but even earlier, since the era of feeding — is the widespread theft and bribery. Any surge of crime and corruption is merely a continuation of our ancient national tradition.
№2. Why does the government tolerate this? Because it actively participates in it. And most importantly, because the people tolerate it. The Russian people are patient and 'will endure everything.' Patience and reliance on authority is an inherently Russian trait. 'Here, the gentleman will arrive, the gentleman will judge us...'
№3. All this, taken together, distinguishes us from both the West and the East. The West is the West, the East is the East, — Kipling used to say, and we would add: Russia is Russia. You cannot understand us with the mind. Measuring is also a futile endeavor. Such are the peculiarities of our national hunting, fishing, etc. — in general, our national character. This is our mysterious Russian soul.
№4. And lastly. With our contemplative Orthodox spirituality, layered onto the ancient Russian laziness and slackness, throughout our history, we have been unable to create anything normal in scientific and technical terms. We stole — that’s what we did (that’s just how we are). There we will steal designs for atomic bombs from the Americans, here we will redraw the plane of the Wright brothers. We can still shoe a flea, true, in a drunken state...
But we are fundamentally unfit for effective organized labor. And the separate attempts of the authorities to develop science, nanotechnology, communications, computers, machine engineering are empty projections and a reason for budget embezzlement. Or just PR. We have no historical prerequisites for breakthroughs in science or for high technologies.
Here are four theses with which we will argue in this book. The author will prove that if this is partly the case now, it does not mean that it has always been this way or that it cannot be otherwise.
Read, think, argue.