Russian Bread versus typical American Bread - In general, Russian Bread tends to be rather European bakery style, crusty, chewy, unsliced ... purchased in a whole loaf of white or dark bread. There are many styles of it, of course .. and you can buy small loaves of sliced bread as well. American bread tends to be pre-sliced and softer stuff (even the whole wheat and organic whole grained breads here tend to be softer). I think the American bread is softer partially because much of it is made by machines and the softer dough is necessary. But also, I think Americans just like their bread to not be too resilient or chewy (for some reason).

Now, you can find bread in Russia that is similar to what is typical in the US ... and you can fined bread in the US that is just as crusty and chewy as anyting in Russia. But in general, the majority of the breads sold in each country fall into the categories that I spelled out above. I've had some Russian friends come to the US who had difficulty at first finding bread that they liked ... but it is here, usually in deli sections, where stores might bake their own loaves of bread.