REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

290 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

and limitations. In unguarded moments, Russian emotions are displayed

fl agrantly. There is a cyclothymic quality to their management of

emotions, a continuous oscillation between unbridled optimism and

crushing pessimism (Whybrow, 1997 ; Kets de Vries, 1999 ).

Russia is a nation of stoics, as we saw earlier, but Russians are also

romantics and often extremely sentimental. In their best moments,

Russians are the warmest, most cheerful, most generous people one

could hope to encounter. At those moments, there is a spiritual immod-

eration to their behavior. Their body language is very telling: they like

to touch, to embrace. There is an intensity of physical contact, of close-

ness, that is foreign to many Western cultures.

Russians can have great moments of illumination, but they often

give in to impulsiveness, even when it leads to self - destruction. Further-

more, they can be extremely emotionally self - indulgent. Not great

believers in moderation or frugality, they live for the moment. Although

they can be extremely stoic when necessary, they an also be very hedon-

istic, devoting themselves to pleasures such as eating, drinking, and

bathing. Writers such as Ivan Goncharov, Nikolay Gogol, and Mikhail

Saltykov wrote unsurpassed satirical portraits of idleness, uselessness, and

drunkenness. In particular, the novelist Goncharov, in his famous novel

Oblomov , painted a devastating pattern of passivity and futility.

Oblomovism

Oblomov , written and set in the mid - nineteenth century, emanates doom

and futility. Its eponymous hero, Oblomov, is unable to understand

the realities of life. In this tale of passivity and apathy — a tale that

epitomizes the backwardness, inertia, and futility of nineteenth - century

Russian society — daydreaming, fantasy, and escapism are substitutes

for action. From the story of Oblomov is derived the Russian word

oblomovshchina , a term encompassing behavior patterns such as inertia

and laziness.

Although this novel caricatures a bygone epoch, it does speak to

contemporary Russia as well. Even today, an element of phlegmatic

fatalism, a sense of impotence regarding the powers that be, colors the

behavior of many Russians. Many take a reactive stand toward life,

giving a low priority to personal drive, ambition, and achievement. Years

of serfdom and communism did little to transform the Oblomovian

outlook. Nor did Russia ’ s history of great suffering, some self - infl icted,

some imposed — its terrible losses in war, its grievous struggles with

nature, its incredible suffering in the gulags. The consequence of the