They weren’t involved in Protec’tzia (i.e., flattering the rich) and trying to get on the good side of important people. תָמִים תִהְיֶּה עִם ה' אֱלֹקֶּיךָ “Have Temimus with Hashem” was a favorite Mussar refrain.
There is a picture of all the Gedolei Novardok together; but R' Gershon Liebman Zatzal, although he was sitting up front, you don’t see his full face; he was facing to the side. Despite the fact that all those giants of his own Shita were posing normally, he made sure to do what he felt was good for him, and he wasn’t impressed. No Hispa'alus in Novardok!
He probably felt that normal posing for a picture is a form of Redifas HaKavod and trying to impress others, and he didn’t care if he would look slightly weird. Those days, the youth of Klal Yisroel were going off the Derech left and right; becoming Communists and Zionists. For example, a mother once gave her son, a Bolshevik, a box of Matzos for Pesach (when he was sitting in a Polish jail for his anti-government activities). Instead of thanking his mother, he kicked the Matzos & broke them, saying: “I don’t need this!”
Yankel from Warsaw was a Jewish Bolshevik, and despite his utmost devotion to the cause, they betrayed him, and he ended up in a Russian “forced labor” camp. A Novardoker met him there and told him: “You deserve what you’re getting.” This was Novardok Hashkafa vis. all those who are involved in Olam HaZeh, with Kin'ah, Ta'ava, and Kavod, etc. “In the end your lifestyle will betray you”. They believed that the only practical option is to become a Novardoker, who always makes fun of Olam HaZeh and its fake lures.
