That stereotype is WAY older than the 90s. Russians were perceived as stoic going back to the 19th century (with a good bit of the ol' racism involved), because in many cases they were seen as too brutish to feel cold and privation. The Cossacks were both feared and romanticized in Western Europe, as both "savage hordes" and "the last free men".
As to why? Russia has always been seen as a half wild land, caught between "the civilized West and the savage Orient". This is mostly due to simple geographic isolation - Moscow is way further from any other European capitol, and even St Petersburg was far away as well. So Western Europeans exoticized them (not sharing a common language, script, or religion definitely helped that).
True, I'm not familiar enough with how granular was the Western European understanding of Cossacks as semi-independent bandits versus believing them to be under the control of the Russian state.
A while back I read something that speculated Russia's cultural apathy and learned helplessness came from living under autocratic rule for so long. Tsars considered themselves "the little father" of the masses, thus the masses are their helpless children. That's bound to have an effect after living under tsardom for so long
The brutality of the 1990s had engrained a stoicism in the population that had mostly died down after WWII. It's something that generally happens in any society that is relentlessly harsh. You get the combination of cynicism and stoicism because you just come to expect bad shit to happen to you.
I think part of it is a difference in culture. Like the idea that Russians are always grim is bullshit, but like.. there is a difference in whether the polite thing to do when you encounter a stranger is to smile at them or to look away and give each other space. When I was in St Petersburg for a summer programme, the other girls teased me for laughing too much lmao. Then again last time I was in the US it freaked me out that everyone smiled so much.
But I think some of it is historical, yeah - a region and people that have faced difficult times for a long time and are used to it. And some of it is more general stereotypes that people have about cold-weather countries. Depressed, solemn, dour - I think a lot of people would describe the Nordic countries (esp Finnish people) that way.
As a Ukrainian who did her undergrad in the UK - no way lmao. British people don't look each other in the eye cuz they're all awkward af. Russians are more "what is this fake pleasantries, fake smiling, you liar".
I'm pretty sure looking away from people in public is common courtesy most cold places.
My brief exposure to Dostoyevsky and Chekov convinced me that all Russians are manic depressive, so idk.
General fatalism (re:apathetic and depressed) has been part of russia for probably centuries. I think it’s related to peasant population, your harvest is largely outside of your control, so whatever happens - happens. Because majorly peasant population is relatively recent, the remnants are still resonating through the people.
Fist fights - tales of mass fist fights on top of the frozen moskva-river in moscow go to at least Ivan the terrible, so. Bear handling is also close to the real stories from at least 1500s, because they’re smart as fuck, but useless, so people did it out of compassion to orphaned cubs. And also folk tales, bear is frequently the reasonable animal in them tbh.
machismo though, I think is the recent echo of the 90s, due to братки shenanigans.
