Plain Sense

 There's a certain irony that Russia, and in some respects Ukraine, is known for being cold, inland, and full of plains territory, is considered so foreign as to not truly be Western in the way European countries often are, has a topography not unlike the Rust Belt, which is often considered as American as American. This especially rings true in the New Middle Ages, with the frontier of the so-called "civilized world" falling back.

So it looks to wisdom to consider life in much of Medieval America just as similar to the that of Medieval Russia, as the countries like England or German which influenced the populace on a more cultural level. Harsher winter probably create a harsher people, but it's also quite possible folks in the Great Lakes bathe much more than many other denizens in the continent, due to the access to timber. 

In some respects, that denizens of the area come from generations that often experienced the hardest economic depressions created a frugal, cynical people, and the reversion to medievalism did not help matters. Russians in olden times often believed in something a zero sum game to a downright mystical level, and that probably hangs over the denizens of Michigan, West Virginia, and Upstate New York. 

Also, while the Orthodox faith has not as huge a impact as other denominations, the Non-Denominational Church very likely looked to to its structure for emulation, as opposed to the top-down Papacies, or the decentralized Protestant faiths.

That the Mississippi and Ohio and Great Lakes probably resemble the Russia of the Middle Ages more than the English Channel or Mediterranean also  means there's a good chance some of some inevitable parallels.

For the latter half of the 20th Century, the Unites States of the Soviet Union represented opposing poles on the political access, each trying to define itself what the other isn't. But there is no capitalism or communism in a pre-Industrial world, and in this new world, they might not be so different. Who knows how much closer America may come if having to start over from the same place as its rival.