>I wonder how much of the citizens' indifference to and mistrust of the government and politics is a product of living for decades in a communist authoritarian

>I wonder how much of the citizens' indifference to and mistrust of the government and politics is a product of living for decades in a communist authoritarian state, as opposed to a fundamental nature of the people there. Communism was preceded by many centuries of feudalistic, authoritarian monarchy. The communists inherited a people who already had a passive peasant mindset, and they just exploited it, as Putin is doing now.