The Sense of Self-reliance that Makes the Russian

In the Kitay-Gorod (literally "China Town" in Russian) Mall in the northeast suburbs of Vladivostok, there are several shops selling nothing but parts for home improvements.  From bolts and nails to wallpapers and plastic railings the shop has everything a person would need to make the interior of a house more homey.  The only necessity is for the buyers of the parts to put in the efforts to put those parts in place.  That is easier said than done.  Customers are assumed to be professionals, and none of the parts come with instructions on how to properly use them.

Eyeing his busy shop, the gentle mid-aged Chinese proprietor casually remarks that his business just would not fly back home in China.  The reason is simple, in China no one he knows would actually go through the effort of picking out home furnishing parts and install them in the house.  All the dirty work of home improvement is left to specialist contractors, who would come survey the house, draw up a plan, and draw up a price for the entirety of the work.  Once the customer agrees to the plan and price, the contractor would be the one sourcing all the parts.

Things are different in Russia.  Home improvement, for many individuals with little professional experience in it but a bit of free time, is a work for the enthusiastic amateur.  That is why the home improvement store in Russia, like much bigger counterparts like Home Depot in the US, works.  Contractors, with their strong personal connections and large enough orders for multiple clients, can go directly to factories and wholesalers to get the best prices.  Individual home improvers still need the resellers like these Chinese shops in the mall to provide more accessible quantities. 

Home improvement is not the only field where Russian independence shines.  Medical treatment can also be a home-based practice for many.  Instead of heading to hospitals for every little illness, people are passed down knowledge of what medicines work for what symptoms and just go directly to the local pharmacy for purchase without consulting a doctors.  Sometimes, not only oral medication is self-administered, but also injections.  Some speak of experience with a syringe and a needle to the butt, not only for others but also for self. 

The list of other things Russians do for themselves go on and on.  Home cooking is unquestioned, as are sewing, fixing furniture, cutting hair, and other small improvements in general welfare of one's daily lives.  When things get too complicated, the instinct is not to find the nearest professional with a shop, but calling a close family member or friend to ask for recommendations.  Those contacted can recommend a friend or friend of friend who is particularly good with a necessary task.  Price is then negotiated for the help. 

For conversations, it can be deduced that Russian independence come from both traditional habits and institutional constraints.  On the traditional side, the hardy pioneer legacy of Russians who head across the country's expansive and sparsely populated territories remain strong.  For much of Russians territorial expansions, pioneers preceded business and the state, heading to the wilderness by themselves with little support from others.  As such, they had to rely on their on ingenuity and deft with daily chores just to survive.

That strong sense of pioneering tradition, in Russia, is then complemented by an almost institutional distrust of supposed professionals.  Spottiness in professional training mean that even skills of critical personnel such as doctors can vary hugely from person to person, place to place.  Without recommendations from knowledgeable friends and/or family, the chance at facing a completely useless "professional" out to charge the largest amount of money for the most unsuitable service is just too great.  If medicine is like that, the risk of other, less critical services are even higher. 

Whether due to tradition or institution, the resulting Independence of Russians make them uniquely suited to live in a society where infrastructure can often be described as truly subpar.  Instead of complaining about how others (whether government, investors, or even donors) ought to improve services, they quickly find personal workaround options to make their own lives as comfortable as possible without relying on those spotty institutions.  Such mentality, in an Asia so used to having "specialists" for everything, is just hard to find.