Culture Defined By The World Book Encyclopedia Essay

Mankind has always aspired to be the largest, biggest, strongest, highest, essentially the best in everything. This is not untrue for the Russians who have had the largest country in the world for quite some time now. Russia covers one-sixth of the entire world’s land mass and has had a significant part in modern history. However, in order to understand why a country has become what it is now, one must look at its culture. A country’s culture not only reflects its citizens now but also its history and future.

Russia has many cultural characteristics that have shaped the country we know today. A nation 's culture can define its actions and make them more predictable as a state on the international level. Understanding a nation’s culture gives great insight into the motives and reasoning behind their aggression or acts of force. Factors such as geography, weather, political landscape, military, and key infrastructure provide a clear understanding of Russian culture and how it has shaped the nation over the past century.

There are many stereotypes in the American society that bestows an idea of the depiction of Russians. From past Olympics, we see that the Russians excel in sports and are powerful individuals. We also see the power and intelligence which come from this

A culture is the characteristics that relate and reflect on a particular group of people. This may include language, religion, music/arts, beliefs, values, and, overall, their way of life.

Culture includes everything that a society is made of. There are many things that make up culture to include the economy, history, language, government and religion of a country. Those are some of the basics of defining characteristics of culture. For example the children of North Korea are trained from an early age to hate Americans. This kind of culture is

The article Russian/American Cultural Contrasts has given me a better understanding of the Russians. But the most important is their loyalty to “Mother Russia” through the preservation of the Russian language and culture, which I find to be fascinating. They take great pride in their cultural heritage and expect the Americans to admire it and not view them as different or judge them. As Dr. Willand mentioned in class Russians are very proud of their country, and accepts the fact that their lives are difficult and pride themselves of being able to flourish in harsh conditions that most of us could not. This article has given me a better sense of who the Russians are and why they do things and thinks in the way in which they do. One thing is

Russia’s size and location have played a major role in its strategic outlook since the Middle Ages. Russia has no major natural landforms marking its borders, but it relies solely on its relatively inhospitable climate and its forests for defense,as a result, Russian history is a chronicle of periods of expansion and collapse. Traditionally these invasions have come from the steppes and beyond and from the North European Plain.

“Russia is a land of extreme geography, and has the world’s deepest lake and Europe’s highest mountain and longest river” (Curtis 125). Because Russian geography was so diverse and unlike that of any other country, Russia developed a culture that was unique and different from others. Throughout history, mountains such as the Ural Mountains, rivers such as the Dnieper River, and plains such as the Russian steppes have served an important role in the development of Russian culture and beliefs. Mountains have served as a natural barrier, and have limited Russian expansion, while rivers have made Russia vulnerable to invasion. The steppes were great for Russia and gave Russians power and authority. Russia had a variety of types of geography, which all affected Russia in different ways.

Russia is known for its overall power, thus ranking it at the second most powerful country in the world, next to the United States. Russia has throughout history been a dominate figure due to its military strength. As of right now the Russian military is also ranked as the second most powerful military, only due to defense spending. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia’s economy has fluctuated drastically. Another key aspect to Russia is its diversity in politics.

Historically created solutions: “culture is the conscious and unconscious content that a group learns, shares, and transmits from generation to generation that organizes life and helps interpret existence” … “culture is the distinctive life…way of people who are united by a common language” … “the sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguish one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted, through language, material objects, rituals, institutions, and art from one generation to the next.” These definitions revolve around this definition: “culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” People are born into culture, not with culture. Culture provides access to historically created, time tested solutions. for effective living that have been transmitted over generations.

Ideologies made a significant amount of contribution to the making of modern Russia. At the

Russia has experienced major changes in lifestyle since the Soviet Union fell in the early 1990’s. The country has still managed maintained over 190 ethnic groups and has a population of 142,423,773. (NETWORK.COM, 2015). Russian families are more than just mom, dad, sister and brothers. It extends to aunts, uncles and even grandparents. When it comes to food, the Russian cuisine is known worldwide. (Mary.Dejevsky, 2006) The sometimes-harsh cold conditions of Russia makes their diets consist of a lot of fish, milled grains, poultry and beef. (www.livescience.com, 2015) The history of Russian literature goes back to around the 11th century. (www.kwintessential.co.uk, 2015 ) The significance of Old Rus¬sian literature is that you will come to understand just how far this country has evolved and understand why Russia’s civic spirt and pride for the homeland really is. (NETWORK.COM, 2015)Russia is the world’s largest country covering almost 7 million square miles. In this paper, I will show you Russia and its past, present and its future.

In 1991, the great social experiment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved. The empire spanning almost five centuries, from the remnants of the Golden Horde to Stalin's "new Russia" (Hoskins, 1997) from Poland to the Pacific disappeared, leaving a political-sociological void that is only now moving towards resolution. Still the largest nation in the world (Shultz, 2000), Russia spans two continents, multiple time zones, and a land area that diminishes that of the United States. Although it no longer demonstrates the breadth of cultural conglomeration existing in the era of Soviet existence, the Russian Federation provides for an interesting cultural examination, and will be the basis of this paper.

Russia is in many ways similar to our beloved United States of America in that it is a melting pot of many cultural integrities that shows drastic changes from city to rural outline. From monarchy to communist socialism, the people of Russia have endured many hardships that either changed, destroyed, or fortified their customs. The strength of that is required to live in the harsh environmental conditions and ever-changing political régime makes native Russians some of the most resolute and adept survivors on earth, who hold a unique and diverse society defined by everything from geography and politics to education and family. Because of Russia’s rise as a communist superpower and subsequent fall, as well as its Phoenix like

Culture can be defined in many ways due to the fact that everyone can have their own distinct and traditional beliefs and values. “ Culture is fluid, it is not a static entity which one takes out of the box on occasion. It is with us daily” (Cultural Handout). Someone’s culture is set as the characteristics of the group practices in language, religion, types of food, social traits and habits, and the distinct arts and music. There are a variety of different cultures for example, Western Culture, Eastern Culture, Latin Culture, Middle Eastern Culture, and African Culture. All of these different cultures have their own ideas, values, and individualism, laws that are implied, civil rights, and even technology. In our, “ Culture Handout” culture is defined as the tool of the mind, “ it is an individual’s way seeing and interacting within the world. It encompasses one’s values systems, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around them. Race, socio-economic class gender, sexual orientation, ability, geographic location, age, religion language, etc. all impact the formation of culture, but these various context are not culture” (Cultural Handout).