The careless attitude of citizens towards their own lives is largely explained by the traditions of the Russian state, in which for centuries people were considered expendable

The New Year holidays swept by like a snowy whirlwind, fireworks died down, glasses clanked, firecracker shells and broken bottles were scattered in the parks, and lonely, bald Christmas trees were placed near houses. Russia is slowly coming to her senses after a two-week spree, shaking her head and washing herself with snow. The Russian holiday is akin to that very rebellion, senseless and merciless; in its unbridled joy it turns into an orgy of self-destruction.

Its apotheosis is unbridled drunkenness, for which the country is preparing methodically and in advance, purchasing alcohol in industrial quantities, preparing venues and hangover recipes, sharing the names of hepatoprotectors - drugs to protect the liver.

Almost all accidents that occur during the holidays in Russia are in one way or another related to alcohol - on the May holidays, drunk people drown in reservoirs, and on New Year's they freeze in snowdrifts, die on the roads, and crash on snowmobiles. It’s like a monstrous hecatomb is happening in Russia during the holidays, a human sacrifice to the gods of the carnival.

But even against the backdrop of these traditional New Year's reports, the news from the Italian resort of Alpe Cermis in the Dolomites sounded outrageously absurd, where eight people, including seven Russians from Krasnodar, having had dinner at a mountain hotel, loaded into a snowmobile with a trailer at night and went down the black ski slope track. The snowmobile fell into the abyss from a hundred-meter height, six died.

This tragedy is terrible - and at the same time completely recognizable. We are talking not only about the criminal negligence of the snowmobile driver, but about the fact that Russian people on vacation, in principle, neglect all conceivable safety rules.

This is becoming the signature chic of the Russian tourist: relaxing noisily, energetically, with adrenaline.

The holiday begins at Duty Free on departure, where whiskey is purchased. He will be drunk in the cabin, despite the protests of the flight attendants. The Russians will be the last to turn off their mobile phones and the first to get up after landing, although the plane is still rolling along the tarmac. The banquet continues at the alpine resort: many go up the mountain with a hangover, so a trip with compatriots to the top in a gondola turns into an alcoholic trip. On the slope, they will ski more riskily than anyone else and, without looking, will climb the black slopes, although the average level of skiing for Russian tourists is very low. I remember how in Sölden, standing on the slope, I heard from above “boys, watch out!” A portly woman rushed past me at great speed on straight skis and disappeared behind the bend of the slope. At the same time, helmets are not held in high esteem by our compatriots, but Bogner suits with embroidery and fur trim on the hood are respected.

The Russians' disdain for safety is especially noticeable at a ski resort, where the sport involves risk and others may suffer from your carelessness. But the problem is much broader:

Self-destruction in Russia is generally a national sport. There is not only alcoholism, but also chaos on the roads, drunk driving, and contempt for seat belts in cars and helmets when riding a bicycle or rollerblading. Moreover, this stupidity, as usual with us, is mythologized, elevated to valor, turned into hussarism, recklessness, recklessness, which we love to brag about to foreigners. "He is Russian. This explains a lot".

Where, from what expanses of the steppes, from what Dostoevsky depths, does this Russian craving for self-destruction, for senseless risks, for breaking rules and crossing borders come from? One can refer to the metaphysics of Russian space, which itself does not recognize any rules or boundaries, where a person is insignificant and lost, torn off from the earth, and the wind carries him like a tumbleweed. But it would be more accurate to remember the physics of Russian power, an authoritarian state for which for centuries the value of human life was insignificant, which viewed people as a resource, a terracotta army, dead souls.

We adopted this contempt for human life from the state, projected it onto our own bodies and justified it with the mythology of Russian prowess. The sea is knee-deep for us and the devil himself, what Russian doesn’t like driving fast, the brakes were invented by cowards.

In the famous joke about how to make a person jump from a bridge, an American jumps for money, a Frenchman for a woman, a Pole for pride, and a Russian is simply told “it’s forbidden to jump from this bridge,” and he shouts “I don’t care.” !” jumps.

However, except in cases of mass heroism, this daring is aimless and meaningless. Finding no use for itself, it turns inside a person and society, leading to their self-destruction. Hence the recklessness on the roads and slopes, the unfamiliarity with helmets and seat belts, hence the neglect of one’s own health, lack of preventive measures, late visits to doctors, reluctance to insure health and life... All this is very dashing and very Russian, but at the heart of it is historical the lack of freedom of Russia, the slave’s disrespect for his body, which does not belong to him and which therefore can be risked, which is not a pity to ruin for the sake of a beautiful gesture: in the world even death is red!

Russian prowess is not the freedom of an ancient citizen or a medieval burgher, but the will of a runaway slave beyond the Don, a steppe fate, a stray bullet.

And therefore, an important step towards freedom should be respect for one’s body as the main property of an individual: habeas corpus, “you have a body,” as one of the ancient principles of English law, on which the Magna Carta and all modern justice stands, says. Owning your own body, the body of a citizen, and not a slave, also means taking responsibility for it: regularly brushing your teeth and getting checked by the dentist, getting life insurance and undergoing cancer screenings, wearing a seat belt while driving and wearing a helmet on a bicycle... All this is the ABC of individual and social hygiene , attributes of a boring and measured Western civilization, but these are also signs of a free person.

Country of reckless drivers: the myth of Russian prowess