Russian culture may be hard to understand because it often contradicts itself. Russian ladies wouldn’t disclose personal details to strangers, but at the same time they wouldn’t have a problem entering each others rooms without knocking or opening their spouses mail (‘You are my husband, you shouldn’t have secrets from me”.  Russians are very emotional, but because they often hide their emotions they are often perceived as cold and impersonal.

To truly understand the culture you should live in Russia or among Russians for awhile, although even then some things still may be difficult to comprehend.

Everyone has their pet peeves and you can be sure that your Russian wife is not an exception. Here five sure ways to irritate and annoy your Russian bride.

• Make sure not to care about your looks and dress as unattractively as you can. We all know that Russian women take a great care of themselves and love to dress up. Russian males are not as obsessed with their looks, and generally Russian women are not terribly picky when it comes to men’s appearances. However, even though a Russian wife is not expecting her man to be physically gorgeous, she does expect him to follow some kind of dress code. So if you want to irritate your Russian wife, wear over-sized t-shirts with oil stains on them, dirty sneakers which you bought in the 80s and ugly jeans which don’t fit you. Better yet, dress up this way on your anniversary, birthday or when you go out to eat.

If you are in a relationship or married to a Russian woman you will most likely run into the situation of work. Will your Russian bueaty work or remain at home to take care of the household duties and children.

The issue about Russian women and work pops up quite frequently. Many Western men express concern that since in Russian culture men are supposed to provide for the family, their Russian wives may not be willing to work.

When talking about Russian culture we can’t forget to give special attention to food etiquette. Russian food etiquette differs from American and therefore should be known in order to avoid misunderstandings and possible conflict.

It is important to know that for the majority of Russians food is just food and an everyday meal is just the way to satisfy hunger and not a social event.

When I was studying in college in the United States I noticed that besides the language, American students differed from Russian in one thing: they didn’t let each other copy papers and they didn’t do each other’s assignments. My Russian mentality couldn’t grasp why.

When I was at school in Russia it was “natural” for students to whisper test answers to each other and pass the cheat sheets along. I could not imagine my friend not helping me with my physics tests. He was good at it, I was terrible and since we were friends it was not even discussed that he should help me. I, on the other hand, was better in languages, so I wrote a number of compositions and checked quite a few papers for him.

It was a quite a while ago, but I still remember the first time I ever met my wife. It brings back memories of my own Marriage Visa experience. It was summer time and I was looking for somewhere to spend my last few weeks of vacation. I wanted to go somewhere I have never been before. A friend of mine was also thinking of doing the same thing. So together we picked an exotic country. We had worked with a lot of Ukrainian and Russian girls, so we figured it would be a good place to experience century old history and meet some nice women.

Even if you haven’t traveled to Russia or Eastern Europe you probably know that Russian people, specifically Russian women, dress differently.

One of the most popular comments which I hear from Western guys who travel to Russia, Ukraine or Belarus is that they have never seen so many beautiful women concentrated in one place. While Eastern Europeans/Russians have certain facial features which some men find attractive, the belief that all Russian women are hot is widespread mostly because those women know how to present themselves and they always dress well.

If you thought that trying to find consensus on children’s names with an Eastern European woman was your only worry, you are mistaken. Most countries of the Former Soviet Union are famous for their bureaucracy, so be prepared to deal with it when you and your Russian or Eastern European woman have a child.

If your wife is from Belarus and has Belarusian citizenship (even if she already has permanent residence in the US or even if she is a US citizen), your child, no matter what nationality you are and where the child was born, gets Belarusian citizenship. Belarus is not against your child having another citizenship along with Belarusian, but their laws make it very clear that they want to increase the population of their country.

One of the biggest concerns that Western men have is the language barrier. Communication between two genders is not always easy in the first place. Add the language barrier to it and you are in trouble. I wrote this post just to give you a heads up on where your Russian wife can learn English after she arrives.

Before you start getting concerned, I have to tell you that no matter what your wife’s level of English is, with enough determination and with your help, she should be able to speak English comfortably after a year living in this country. Assuming of course, that she does try to learn English and not spend all her day talking to her Russian friends and watching Russian channels on TV.

Eastern European and Russian mothers are known for their attentiveness, affection and dedication. The Russian culture teaches women that motherhood along with being a wife, is their highest priority and they do find a great joy in it.

The main difference between the majority of Western and Russian mothers is that Russians are obsessed with watching over and controlling their children. There is a Russian saying that you should protect your children as well as you protect the apple of your eye and most Russian mothers take this very seriously. While I personally think that it is not a bad thing, it can lead to some extremes.