There's no reason for any version of Russia to dominate discourse. Part of the beauty of Russia (and Russians) is that it is entirely possible to hold two mutually exclusive beliefs and fervently believe in both at the same time. Until this irrational (and usually, highly emotional) foundation is grasped, appreciated and internalized, the outsider can never really begin to understand anything about Russia.

Once you get it, just go with the flow of where you see the conversation or stream of thought heading and take hold of it completely. Russians never do anything halfway - there is an expression that says, essentially, if you're going to love, love! If you're going to shoot someone, shoot them! Don't hesitate, don't mediate, devote yourself completely to whatever it is that your soul is telling you to do. Once the mood leaves you, you can drop any associated ideas until they're useful again. There are a few things you can't do, though. If you've decided to love, you can only keep loving or start hating - you can't ever go back to "indifference". You can, however, go from love to hate and then back to love, and so forth, for the rest of your life. If you shoot someone, you can alternate only between "the bastard deserved to die" and "I'm a miserable person for having done that and the guilt will follow me, persecuted and oppressed and unhappy me, until the day I die...now I'm going to have another bottle of vodka to try to forget this".