ELI5: How did in Russia, in the collapse of the Soviet Union, Racism, Xenophobia, Nationalism, and Neo-Nazism rampaged like fire in so little time?, did people hid their hatred for all that time in the communist era?

Racism:

Racism dies slowly. An individual stops being racist less often than a tiger changes his stripes. Racism declines by racist people dieing and young people being raised non-racist. That's why Racism is still such a huge problem in America - a lot of the people running the country today grew up before or during the civil rights movement. Russia is no different, with the idea that the races are equal being relatively novel there, as everywhere. There is likely to still be racism for another 80 years, but less and less as more old racists die and fewer kids can be brought up racist. Sure, the communists didn't think white people should be paid more, but you aren't going to see a lot of non-white cosmonauts.

Neo-Naziism

There is no neo-nazi movement in Russia with any kind of authority, they're about as popular as they are in America. Russians still celebrate their victory over the Nazis to drum up nationalism.

Nationalism:

This is where it gets interesting.

Nationalism is the result of government propaganda designed to make people think of themselves as a member of a nation. Russia didn't invent it (France did), but they sure invented criticism of it: Tolstoy wrote that nationalism is slavery, a means to coerce people into volunteering services without pay.

So how did Russians become nationalist again after the crippling blow to their national self esteem? The Russian people believe that they are under attack. As far as they were concerned, when the cold war ended Russia wasn't defeated, but became co-equal friends with America who would share the world.

This is very different from the American view. America acts like it's the only super power and as though it and it alone decides what is right and what is wrong on the international stage. Russian propaganda paints the country in opposition to American imperialism and hypocrisy, trying to maintain a multi-polar world in which America does not always get it's way, and where it is a three-way vote between America, Russia, and China.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread