Wasn't this true even before the 1917 revolution though? One certainly gets that impression from reading, say, Dostoevesky and the characters he portrays. The russian people (I hate the word "masses", reminds me of that glutinous macaroni and cheese they served in elementary school) throughout history appear to be rather philosophical.
^^^^^
CB: You might be right. There is this idea that they have to be philosophical to get through all the shit they have faced. --------------------------- The pre-1917 Russian population was something like 80% illiterate. Which doesn't preclude them being "philosophical" in a broad and vagurly defined sense, but I'm sure they weren't out there reading Frege.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal