> Generally the farther east you go in the countries of the former Soviet block, the less trust there is. Poland has low trust, but it's a lot lower in Russia a

> Generally the farther east you go in the countries of the former Soviet block, the less trust there is. Poland has low trust, but it's a lot lower in Russia and if you smile to strangers you may get sullen glances or insults. This has absolutely not been my experience living for the past 1.5 years in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and most recently Russia (but Siberia). Almost everyone I meet is still friendly once speaking, although I think in Russia the willingness to talk to strangers is much less than the other countries. I'm guessing most of the experiences you're actually noticing that trust is lower in cities than in rural areas: the two major "European" Russian cities are both over 5 times larger than Poland's largest city.