Speaking of a nation's national character' can be a rather dicey
             prospect, from the point of view of political correctness as in light of a
             responsible academic's fear of making hasty or uniformed sociological
             generalizations about a people or a country. However, the marked and noted
             differences between Russian and American methods of raising children and
             socializing individuals into Russian and American society have created
             different, observable developmental patterns for those individuals reared
             in these societies. A sociologist cannot ignore these patterns in the name
             of open-mindedness. To acknowledge them is not to say that one methodology
             of upbringing is better or worse, but simply to state that there are
             manifest and observable differences.
             In his observations of the then-Soviet Union, the reporter Robert
             Kaiser noted in the 1970's that "the theme of Russian parenthood" is "don't
             let go." Although in "public" a Russian child's behavior was sternly
             regulated, Russian parents and grandparents indulged their children, as
             best they could, in material terms. (29) Children were not expected to
             perform many household chores. Rather, they were to focus on their
             studies, with the hopes of getting into a top university. In exchange for
             this freedom from onerous household tasks, however, children were also
             supposed to recompense their parents with hard work and obedience. Kaiser
             was struck how even older children constantly informed their parents of
             their various doings, sometimes well past mature adolescence, a phenomenon
             perhaps underscored by the fact that poverty and housing shortages forced
             individuals to live with their parents for a long time. The rigidity of
             behavior in the school system, generally de-emphasizing creativity and
             emphasizing rote learning, only reinforced the idea that there was a
             correct mode of public behavior and an incorrect mode of public ...