Russian culture

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The Russian culture is rooted in the early East Slavic culture.

Culture of Ancient Rus involved the conversion to Orthodox Christianity and the acceptance of Byzantine art and architecture. The acceptance of Byzantine culture included the adoption of icon painting. The Church had resources to commission great works of art, as well as the will and means to preserve them.

Around 1890 a new form of art the Russian avant-garde took development. The Russian avant-garde is a form of modern art however it developed into Soviet art when the government elected to control all art forms.

One of Faberge Easter eggs (1906).

Contents

History of Russian culture

Art

Icon painting

A piece of Russian Icon art known as Rublev's Trinity

Russian icon painting was inherited from the art of the Byzantine churches, and it soon became an offshooot version of the mosaic andfresco traditions. Icon paintings in Russia attempted to help people with their prayers without idolizing the figure in the painting. The most comprehensive collection of Icon art is found at the Tretyakov Gallery.[link]

Rather than being a mere imitation, Russian icons had a peculiar style and masters such as Andrei Rublev took the icon to new heights.

Russian avant-garde

An example of Russian avant-garde art by El Lissitzky in 1919

The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modernist art that flourished in Russia from approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as late as 1960. The term covers many separate, but inextricably related, art movements that occurred at the time; namely neo-primitivism, suprematism,constructivism, and futurism. Notable artists from this era include El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko, and Marc Chagall amongst others. The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between the Russian Revolution of 1917 and 1932, at which point the ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emerged state-sponsored direction of Socialist Realism.

Soviet Art

During the Russian Revolution a movement was initiated to put all arts to service of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The instrument for this was created just days before the October Revolution, known as Proletkult, an abbreviation for "Proletarskie kulturno-prosvetitelnye organizatsii" (Proletarian Cultural and Enlightenment Organizations). A prominent theorist of this movement was Alexander Bogdanov. Initially Narkompros (ministry of education), which was also in charge of the arts, supported Proletkult. However the latter sought too much independence from the ruling Communist Party of Bolsheviks, gained negative attitude of Vladimir Lenin, by 1922 declined considerably, and was eventually disbanded in 1932. After Stalin died Soviet Art went into decline as gradually Russians artists became more independent of the state and in the 1980s the government ruled that it could not restrict what Russians artists could paint.

Architecture

:Main article: Russian architecture

St. Basils cathedral

Russian architecture had been influenced predominantly by the Byzantine architecture until the Fall of Constantinople. At the turn of the 15th and 16th century Aristotle Fioravanti and other Italian architects introduced Renaissance trends. The reigns of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov saw the development of tent-like churches culminating in Saint Basil's Cathedral (illustrated, to the right). In the 17th century, the "fiery style" of ornamentation flourished in Moscow and Yaroslavl, gradually paving the way for the Naryshkin baroque of the 1690s.

The 18th-century taste for rococo architecture led to the splendid works of Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his followers. During the reign of Catherine the Great and her grandson Alexander I the city of Saint Petersburg was transformed into an outdoor museum of Neoclassical architecture. The 19th century was dominated by the Byzantine and Russian Revival. The prevalent styles of the 20th century were the Art Nouveau (Fyodor Shekhtel), Constructivism (Aleksey Shchusev, Konstantin Melnikov), and the Stalinist Empire style (Boris Iofan).

Some notable Russian buildings include:

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod | Golden Gate (Vladimir) | Cathedral of Christ the Saviour | Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir | Cathedral of the Annunciation | Cathedral of the Archangel | Cathedral of the Dormition | Church of the Savior on Blood | Saint Basil's Cathedral | Kazan Kremlin | Saint Isaac's Cathedral | Kazan Cathedral | Peter and Paul Cathedral | Sukharev Tower | Menshikov Tower | Moscow Manege | Narva Triumphal Gate | Kolomenskoye | Peterhof | Gatchina | Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra | Solovetsky Monastery | Kunstkamera | Russian Museum | Catherine Palace | Grand Kremlin Palace | Winter Palace | Simonov Monastery | Novodevichy Convent | Lenin's Mausoleum | Tatlin's Tower | Palace of the Soviets | Seven Sisters (Moscow) | All-Soviet Exhibition Centre | Ostankino Tower | Triumph-Palace | White House of Russia

Cinema

While Russia was involved in filmmaking as early as most of the other nations in the West, it only came into prominence during the 1920s when it explored editing as the primary mode of cinematic expression. Because of the depletion of resources due to World War I, Russian film schools would take copies of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance and re-cut it as an exercise in creating meaning.

Maya Plisetskaya in the 1964 production of Don Quixote by Bolshoi Theatre.

"Soviet Cinema" should not be used as a synonym for "Russian Cinema". Although Russian language films predominated, several republics developed lively and unique cinemas, while others did not. Most notable for their republican cinema were Armenia, Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine, and, to a lesser degree, Belarus and Moldova.

Since the dissolution of The Soviet Union, Russian cinema has greatly transformed. Although still largely funded by the state, the topics and dynamic have been updated. Duing the '90s, Russian filmmaking decreased sharply, going from hundreds per year to the double-digits. However, recent years have brought increased viewership and subsequent prosperity to the industry through exploration of contemporary subjects like sexuality in the 2004 film You, I Love. The future of Russian cinema is promising.

Dance

Main articles: - Ballets Russes - Barynya - Kamarinskaya

Music of Russia

Russia is a large and culturally diverse country with dozens of ethnic groups; each with their own forms of folk music. During the period of Soviet domination, music was highly scrutinized and kept within certain boundaries of content and innovation. After the fall of the USSR in the early 1990s, western-style rock and pop music became the most popular musical forms in Russia. With the rise of western music, some native artists became quite popular.

Opera

Tsar Dadon meets the Shemakha queen in The Golden Cockerel

The first known opera made in Russia was A Life for the Tsar by Mikhail Glinka in 1836. This was followed by several operas like Ruslan and Lyudmila in 1842. Russian opera was originally a combination of Russian folk music and Italian opera. After the October revolution many opera composers left Russia. Russia's most popular operas include:

Matryoshka doll and other handicraft

A Matryoshka doll (Cyrillic матрёшка or матрешка) is a Russian nesting doll. A set of

The most common type of matryoshka dolls

Matryoshka dolls consists of a wooden figure which can be pulled apart to reveal another figure of the same sort inside. It has in turn another figure inside, and so on. The number of nested figures is usually six or more. The shape is mostly cylindrical, rounded at the top for the head and tapered towards the bottom, but little else; the dolls have no hands (except those that are painted). The artistry is in the painting of each doll, which can be extremely elaborate. The theme is usually peasant girls in traditional dress, but can be almost anything, for instance fairy tales or Soviet leaders.

Other forms of Russian handicraft inlcude:

Other art related subjects of interest

Language

The Ostromir Gospel of 1056 is one of many medieval illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Russian National Library.

Russian is the common official language throughout the Russian Federation understood by 99% of its current inhabitants and widespread in many adjacent areas of Asia and Eastern Europe. National subdivisions of Russia have additional official languages. For more information on individual languages and Russian dialects see:

[Languages of Russia]

Literature

Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union. With the break up of the USSR, different countries and cultures may lay claim to various ex-Soviet writers who wrote in Russian on the basis of birth or of ethnic or cultural associations.

Formalism

Russian Formalism refers to a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars (Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur) who revolutionised literary criticism between 1914 and the 1930s by establishing the specificity and autonomy of poetic language and literature. Russian Formalism exerted a major influence on thinkers such as Mikhail Bakhtin and Yuri Lotman, and on structuralism as a whole. The movement's members are widely considered as the founders of modern literary criticism.

Poetry

Ivan Bilibin's illustration to Tsar Saltan

Acmeist poetry-Bogatyr-Bylina-Onegin stanza

Famous poems:

Cuisine

A Soviet poster advertising Russian food, pelmeni.

Russia has a rich culinary history and offers a wide variety of soups, dishes made from fish, cereal based products and drinks. In addition to meat culinary, vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, berries and herbs also play a major part in the Russian diet. Primordial Russian products such as caviar, smetana, buckwheat, rye flour, etc. have had a great influence on world-wide cuisine.

Martial Arts

Russia has an extensive history of martial arts. Some of its most well known forms include the Kadochnikov's Systema, Retuinskih's System ROSS, Ryabko's Systema, Sambo, and Systema.

Media

Serge Sudeikin's poster for the Chauve-Souris Theatre 1922.

Russian media began largely under the Soviet Union. However during this period all media were controlled by the government and many of the freedoms Western newspapers are used to were denied. At this time Russia's most famous newspaper was Pravda. It was an official publication of the Communist Party between 1918 and 1991. The paper is still in operation in Russia, but it is most famous in Western countries for its pronouncements during the period of the Cold War. A number of other, less famous, newspapers were (and are) also called Pravda.

Russian media have grown extensively since their suppression during the Communist period, although the independence of media outlets such as NTV Russia has been curtailed in recent years.[link] The largest newspaper in Russia currently is Trud, followed by the Russian Pravda. The first English language newspaper in Russia was the Moscow News. (See also .)

Religion

Ethnic Russians have predominantly followed the Russian Orthodox church. However, during the Soviet era, Atheism was favored by the government which led to a significant decline in the church. Other minority ethnic groups of Russia often hold to Islam or Animism. Judaism also has a large presence along with Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism.

Tourism

Russia's climate is generally moderate with the exception of the mountain areas or Eastern Russia in Siberia. The coasts of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea offer a climate much like the Mediterranean. A good spot for vacations on the beach is Sochi.

Humor

Russia gains much of its wit from the great flexibility and richness of the Russian language, allowing for plays on words and unexpected associations. Like with any other nation, its vast scope ranges from lewd jokes and silly wordplay to political satire.

Anecdote

Russian jokes, the most popular form of Russian humour, are short fictional stories or dialogues with a punch line. Russian joke culture features a series of categories with fixed and highly familiar settings and characters. Surprising effects are achieved by an endless variety of plots. Russians love jokes on topics found everywhere in the world, be it sex, politics, spouse relations or mothers-in-law.

Chastushka

Chastushka (частушка), a type of traditional Russian poetry, is a single quatrain in trochaic tetrameter with an "abab" or "abcb" rhyme scheme. Usually humorous, satirical, or ironic in nature, chastushkas are often put to music as well, usually with balalaika or accordion accompaniment. The rigid, short structure (and to a lesser degree, the type of humor these use) parallels limericks in British culture. The name originates from the Russian word части́ть, meaning "to speak fast."