1% Russian, 99% Tobacco

Next to the alcoholism and Bears, Russia's next greatest killer is the cigarette or “sigareta” as most Russians call it.  The Russian Society is known for their over smoking and lack of respect for their own health.

Now this is not saying that all Russians believe in this lifestyle but most of the population does. You cannot walk the streets without seeing an ex-soviet with a cigarette in their mouth and a bottle of vodka in another.

If Americans believed that they had problems with smoking then they would surely think again once they see the statistics of Russians who smoke.

Even the CATS SMOKE IN RUSSIA! Yes folks you heard me right. A feline in Russian has been taught to smoke and drink. “Those dang Crazy Ruskies” is what you might be saying now. Now the life of cat should include sleeping by the fire and long lazy days of licking its fur and hacking up fur balls. Not being the next Lindsey Lohan.

But in Russia as they say “Everything is backwards and corrupt”. That must mean why the Russian population have over 400,000 Russians die each year from smoking related diseases.

Even with this knowledge however those crazy Russians keep puffing on their death sticks and just smile and move along. As you know those Russians are the type to see a burning building with people inside and instead of calling the fire department they take a big swig of their vodka and puff down a whole cig and go rushing inside to save them. Why? Because Russians do not care about their own well being.

The Stereotype that we are going to discuss today is not how Russians are crazy and I am not going to retouch the vodka lovers subject we talked about in the previous. No if you haven’t yet figured it out we are going to talk about Russia’s smoking problem.

But even though it’s a huge problem the Russian government somehow someway is trying to take control the situation that is that is Cigarettes. Putin is trying his best to take control of this situation and lower the smoking rate for the next five years. Meetings have been held but none of the superiors are all that motivated to ban the smoking since its an easy sell to many young and old Russians.

But with new anti-tobacco laws still emerging despite the unwanted help from many already smoking Russians, many young Russians are being turned to new the activists who go around and verbally ask Russians to throw out their cigs. But even with these activists trying to dispose of the nasty habit many Russians still refuse to quit.

I also had my own personal experiences with the smoking habits of Russians. My father started smoking at the age of 7. He continued this habit until around his late 40s. Why did he quit you ask? Why because of me of course! I simply came back from school with a pamphlet in hand and asking him to please quit because I was afraid that he wouldn’t be around to see me grow up.

My father ended up quitting his addiction with no patches and no other treatments. He quit with just his mental attitude. Now if my father is able to kick the habit why is it so hard for other Russians?

Well I remember my trip to Russia a few years back and I was surprised to see how many people smoked. I would walk into a club and see countless of men and women smoke. But the weird thing about these people however was that many of them were very good looking and attractive.

I was even asked by one fellow Russian to go buy them cigs as many Russian vendors do not stress the required age and the price of cigs were very cheap, almost 2 American dollars per pack.

The stereotype of Russians is that all of them smoke and to my surprise many of them did. I was hoping that this stereotype was much like the one about Vodka where it was just a misconception but in reality RUSSIANS DO INDEED SMOKE ALL OF THE TIME!

Next time on The Stereotypical Russian we will discuss one of the most interesting Stereotypes evolving around Russians being superstitious about EVERYTHING!