Why Russians Are Not Smiling

A German friend once asked me,”Why are Russian people so gloomy? Nobody smiles here”. I looked around and noticed that indeed, almost nobody in the Moscow subway was smiling. I said, “Why should they?” My friend raised his eyebrow in astonishment and changed the subject.



Russians don’t use a smile to cheer up anybody. When visiting somebody, who is experiencing hard times or deep sorrow from a loss, Russians don’t smile. A smile would be considered offensive. If you smile, you show that you don’t respect the person, you don’t care about his or her feelings, and that you find the situation funny.

Quite often, Russians smile not “at”, but “about” something. For example, if I walk down the street and notice that people start smiling when looking at me, I’d think that there is something wrong with my appearance, then stop and check whether everything is fine with my clothes.

Russians need a particular reason to smile. You’ve heard good news and you smile to show that you consider this news as good. You feel really great and you wear a big smile, so everybody understands you have something really good happening in your life. You have to have a special reason for laughter too. There is a popular Russian saying, A laughter without a reason is a sign of stupidity, meaning that you might be very stupid or crazy if you laugh at nothing.

Photo by benjaminasmith