Friendship is more than a pleasant company or closeness of interests. Friendship is a deep, sincere relationship that includes a whole range of emotions. Friendship is characterized by deep mutual understanding of people. This means the ability to communicate with each other almost without words, using gestures and facial expressions, to perceive and accurately understand each other on the basis of subtle movements and intonations, understandable only to friends and not perceived by others. Longtime friends can predict each other’s reactions and behavior in different situations in advance, including identifying thoughts that will occur to each other at one time or another.
However, friendship is also a socio-psychological phenomenon in the context of philosophy and social psychology. Philosophical concepts reveal the features of understanding friendship in different eras, its place in the system of interpersonal and social relations. It may sound inappropriate, but Russians do have level of friendship. Many aspects affect this “classification”, clearly.
Friend-grouping in numbers
The All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), in a new study, found out how many Russians have friends of the opposite sex, another generation, income level, other nationality and religion. Details are in the material of the correspondent of the portal of the Union State. The survey involved Russians over the age of 18 years. The survey method is a telephone interview on a stratified two-base random sample of landline and mobile numbers of 1600 respondents.
According to the Russians, the age difference doesn’t matter in friendship in any way. This opinion is shared by 84% of people. Friendship between a man and a woman is also quite common: 82% of respondents report that among them there are people of the opposite sex. Most often this is reported by 92% of Russians among 25-34-years old, 90% people with higher education, and 89% of the residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Two-thirds of Russians – 69% – admitted that among their friends there are people with a different income level than theirs. Friendship between people of different nationalities is somewhat less common – 64%, and among 18-24-years old this share is 76%.
The rarest phenomenon is friendship between people of different faiths, which is 52%.
Friendship between men and women
Friendship between a man and a woman can arise in front of their relationship. Then this is a normal set of circumstances, such relations get a logical development. If men and women remain at the same stage of friendship, sooner or later there will be a change in relations anyway, or there will come an understanding that this is not such friendship at all.
Another important aspect is that only single men and women can “be friends” with the opposite sex. Because if someone has a soul mate, they are unlikely to appreciate and approve such friends of their partner. After all, this inevitably leads to jealousy and distrust.
Friendship among different faiths
The General Assembly proclaimed the first week of February of each year as the World Week for Harmonious Interfaith Relations between all religions, beliefs and faiths. They called on all states to voluntarily support throughout the week the dissemination of the ideas of interfaith harmony and goodwill in churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and other prayer houses around the world based on love for the Almighty and love for one’s neighbor or reverence for kindness and love for one’s neighbor, depending on their own religious traditions or beliefs.
Russia is also annually included in the World Week of Harmonious Interfaith Relations. According to experts, the level of inter-religious cooperation in Russia is one of the highest in the world. In the country, more than 30 thousand various religious organizations are registered. So in 1998, the Interreligious Council of Russia was formed, which included representatives of the Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist religious communities of the country. Its Honorary Chairman is currently Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. Within the framework of the Interreligious Council of Russia, representatives of different faiths jointly resolve issues related to relations with the state, problems of legislation, the fight against pseudo-religious structures, and also participate in resolving interethnic conflicts.
Friendship at work
It is not surprising that working relationships often turn not only into official novels, but also add up to friendly stories. Personnel officers warn: work is not a place for friendship, but psychologists insist that fruitful work requires an atmosphere of complete trust and mutual interest in the experiences and affairs of a comrade-colleague. Which side is the truth on?
The Russians believe that the advantages of friendship at work are obvious: the friendly spirit helps to interact with colleagues, trust each other and look for ways to solve problems. They are not afraid to openly express their opinion, but also to discuss any issue, and it is easy to turn a working day from a daily routine into a fruitful and entertaining action. People who are attached to friends at work tend to put up with a small salary, high stress and imperfect job descriptions. It’s such a structure of man that the troubles and imperfections of the scenario of fate are much easier for them to carry in the company of friends and associates.
The main problem of friendship at work is the inability of people to set boundaries and clearly understand when one should be professional and when friendliness can be of help.
Russians are known to be really careful with whom they can give their trusts to, so friendship is one of the most sensitive things for them. Only around close friends, Russians can break the wall and be open about themselves. You will notice how different they can be with strangers and with people they know well. All the stereotypes about rough and mean Russian will fall once you see them with close friends and colleagues.