Again: as Goethe found in Naples a deeply different attitude to life to that of Weimar and German-speaking lands, so I found a completely different mentality (then) in Russia to that I had experienced from San Francisco to the Berlin Wall. Goethe recognized (22 May 1787, 28 May 1787) a lightness of being in Naples, I left the lightness of being in Santa Cruz, California for the earnestness of Moscow, Russia.
From my first encounter with Russia in 1986, till my departure from there in 2015, I noted some six phases of society and mentality. I suppose by now there have been a total of eight or nine distinguishable phases of main social mentality in Russia.
Often those from German-speaking lands north of the Alps, praised the climate and blue sky of Italy, for example, Naples. I myself after a number of years felt the sunny blue sky of California was a kind of glaring mockery of my life.
Stephen Lapeyrouse . . . Notes Dropped Along the Way 