Culture of Russia

Russian culture has a long history. Russia can claim a long tradition of dividend in many aspects of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet,architecture and painting, cinema and animation, which all had considerable influence on world culture. The country also has a flavorful material culture and a tradition in technology.

Russian culture grew from that of the East Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of life in the wooded areas of Eastern Europe. Early Russian culture was much influenced by neighbouring Finno-Ugric tribes and by the nomadic peoples of the Pontic steppe (mainly of Kipchak and Iranic origin). In the late 1st millennium AD the Varangians (supposedly Scandinavian Vikings), also took part in the forming of Russian identity and the Kievan Rus' state. Orthodox Christian missionaries began arriving from the Eastern Roman Empire in the 9th century, and Kievan Rus' converted to Orthodox Christianity in 988. This largely defined the Russian culture of the next millennium as the synthesis of Slavic and Byzantine cultures. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the world and claimed succession to the Byzantine legacy in the form of the Third Rome idea. At different points in its history, the country was also strongly influenced by the culture of Western Europe. Since the reforms of Peter the Great, for two centuries Russian culture largely developed in the general context of European culture rather than pursuing its own unique ways. The situation changed in the 20th century, when the Communist ideology became a major factor in the culture of the Soviet Union, where Russia, in the form of the Russian SFSR, was the largest and leading part.

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