Who is more Western looking, Poles or Russians?

[sevruk]

Another thing came into my mind. Why do Russians give pictures from Vologda every time someone asks for pictures of rural Russians? I have seen these same people maybe ten times during years I have been on anthro forums.

maybe because Vologda has highest percentage of ethnic Russians

[Lemminkäinen]

maybe because Vologda has highest percentage of ethnic Russians

Sorry, I thought that they are most Finnic Russians.

[Lemminkäinen]

I must disagree, smiling is important:

This made me laugh.

"Russians are suspicious of people who appear to be smiling for no reason, and at worst are probably thinking that perhaps there is some intellectual deficits, or maybe even mental illness behind this seemingly unnecessary expression of positive emotionality," Gartstein said.

https://www.capeandislands.org/show/...than-americans

I also recalled now how our boss teached us in one of my first works. He said "it is not important how professional you are, but it is important to smile when you come in the morning to your posts". Lol, it was in the middle 70's and were teached to act like Americans, because we worked at the importer of Burroughs computers.

[Peterski]

This made me laugh.

That scene is from "Merry Christmas and a Happy New York" movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szcz%C...o_Nowego_Jorku

[Roy]

There is an old Polish saying: "Na wschód od Konina Azja się zaczyna".
I think there is a significant difference in phenotypes between Lower Silesia and Eastern Poland.

Yeah, but it is not like there is any part of Poland where people suddenly are suddenly identical to Russians for example.

[Lucas]

Russian anthropologists didn't make Russians West Euro like, but similar to Poles (or vice versa). They were certainly more legit than random forum users
Central-East-European race according to Alekseev (1974) stretches from Poland to Volga.

But yes northern Russian are similar to Finns (or vice versa).

[Xizor]

Russians because there are simply more of them so a higher percentage of those who look similar to western Euros. But still, Poles and Russians in western clothing are hard to tell apart usually.

[Roy]

Russians because there are simply more of them so a higher percentage of those who look similar to western Euros. But still, Poles and Russians in western clothing are hard to tell apart usually.

Not saying there are no some Western-ish looking Russians but 30% of Russians look to eastern to fit well as Poles (or are unpassable) so your statement makes little sense to me. And I do not count those who strike me as chinky as I assume they are mixed. Sure certain things are subjective but still it is fundamentally illogical.

[Jaromir]

Russians of course

[PanCytryna]

Russians seem to be obvious answer. Not only geographically they are located more to the east, but also many of them have Ugro-Finnic admixture, which is at least very rare, if not absent in Poland. Also, they were historically more exposed to Mongol/Tatar influence, while in Poland it was much less - two Mongol raids, one country-wide, other limited to southwest, and some Tatar settling, like near Płock, where they assimilated but left a trace in phenotype, and in Podlasie, where they're still present as a ethnic and religious minority. Still, it's not enough to make generic Polish phenotype look as eastern as Russian.