Russian Culture Essay

The Russian Revolution ended the reign of the Czars. The Czars were the absolute ruler of Russia from the 14th to 20th centuries. Months later, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Bolshevik people initiated a coup that gave the world’s first communist state its upcoming. The Bolsheviks were a party of revolutionary Marxists. Lenin also destroyed the Russian Orthodox Church: the Russian form of Christianity from the Byzantine integrated with local religion. Vladimir Putin, the current President of Russia, is against the celebrations as he does not want to be compared to these historical figures as they were not remembered as heroes. Putin is control of the “new” Russia, not the Russia in which participated in this revolution that destroyed many ideals. The reputation of himself is interfering with the practical reasons these events occur. Many argue that the event in 1917 was a symbol for social justice, and nothing more. However, the people are surrounded by this historical event everyday as they have art and monuments on the streets for these leaders and cannot pay honor to those who participated. The concern towards the events remembering the Revolution of 1917 are the lessons the children upcoming will have. The people want to teach their children to have national pride, but to never overthrow or kill to get to where they need to be. Regardless the

Many things reflect Russia’s diverse culture but two main things are art and the church.

One country is comparable to the United States of America in terms of world power and prominence. Russia makes their name known beginning in World War 2 (WW2), later in the Korean War, Cold War, and today’s proxy war in the Syria. Russia’s culture, environment, politics, military, and economy do not just make Russia a regional powerhouse, but slowly becoming a region of influential power to surrounding countries with the end state of a global superpower. All the factors that make Russia the powerhouse that it is slowly becoming, highlights the impressive trend that supersedes the previous Soviet Union and past leaders.

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.

With many new factors making the world globalized and as steps were taken toward modernization in the 1700s, the world underwent many changes, however still keeping some of its initial traditions. From 1700-1900 in Eastern Europe, the economy had switched from agricultural to manufacturing due to the growth of factories and industry in the 1800s and serfdom was abolished, however the tsars still remained the center of authority.

Mongol Conquest and Movement of the People The Russians have been conquered by the Mongols. The Mongols were born war masters that conquered much of Asia. There are many ways they have influenced Russia's culture for the many years they ruled. The Mongols wanted to remake trade under a political system.

Vladimir accepted Christianity in 988 CE for two reasons, the first being that he wanted Russia to have one religion, the second being that he wanted to marry Anna, sister of Byzantine Emperors Basil II and Constantine. Vladimir had a few options for the religion of Russia, being Islam, Judaism, the Catholic Christianity of Western Europe, and the Orthodox Christianity of Eastern Rome. Vladimir’s ambassadors described the great Cathedral of Hagia Sophia as though they did not know if it were in heaven or on earth, and said that God dwells there among men and that their service surpasses the worship of any other place. Vladimir was impressed by Anna, who the Emperors Basil II and Constantine offered to Vladimir as a bride, on the condition

What Motivated Vladimir I to convert to Christianity and how did the new religion change the culture of Eastern Slavs?

Ivan the Terrible was one of them, “Ivan’s reign was successful in defeating the remnants of Mongol power, adding vast new territories to the realm, and laying the foundations for the huge, multiethnic Russian empire.” (Mckay, Hill, Buckler, Crowston, Wiesner-Hanks, Perry 469) The Mongol Horde was no longer a threat, allowing Russia to take more land. Ivan was known as “the Terrible” for acts including: Executing all suspected opposition, moving to make all commoners serve the tsar, and binding traders and artisans to their towns for taxation. Chaotic times followed his death, and when the nobles fought amongst each other, a rebellion of peasants and Cossacks (free groups or warrior bands) demanding fairer treatment, brought them together. By the end of the 1600's, the Romanov tsars were able to take land in Ukraine from Poland, and completely conquer

Tsar and People overviews the history of Russia from the Muscovite Tsardom to the end of Imperial Russia in 1917. The book moves through the history of Russia while covering a large unspoken topic, Russian myths. The state of Russia was considered a Christian nation for sponsoring Orthodoxy as their religion from their existence. “Holy Russia” was part of the Russian national myth. The myths in Russia surrounded the state, tsar, and Orthodoxy.

At the commencement of the Soviet Union, there was a grave of food shortages; to improve the agricultural productions; in 1921 Lenin instated the New Economic Plan (NEP). The New Economic Plan gave the opportunity for the farmers or peasants to produce their crops for profit; in the years that followed, some of these farmers were prosperous after the implementation of the NEP. Unfortunately, Stalin abandoned the NEP and replaced it with the Five Year Plan, he also justified the collectivization of Agriculture and lastly Stalin’s statism had an impact on Russian History.

When one thinks of Russian culture, it generally is associated with the keeping of tradition. It is not a country that evokes much change from century to century but when taking a closer look into the country, this is a rather bias view compared to just how much the country has constantly been evolving. The biggest push of cultural change happened during the reign of Peter the Great. Peter came to power in 1682, a time when the Russian court was unreliable to one true leading family until Peter’s ruling when that changed. This was a man who saw that his country needed to break from the tradition and emerge into a western society. This was not an easy change considering the remote location that Russia had to Europe and the deep traditional ways of the people. With this in mind, he created many changes that Russia was to undergo to become this powerhouse country that Peter envisioned for his people. With so much change to happen, the movement was a slow process but with Peter’s motivation, nothing seemed to stop the man. Peter the Great’s efforts to Westernize Russia unified Russia through his military ambitions, his cultural ambitions and his finally the creation of his city, St. Petersburg. All of these are major developments created a new version of Russia that has created the country that it is today.

It is the middle ground of Europe and Asia, and as a result, which cultural aspects to draw from had a great deal of influence over Russian culture. For example, Peter the Great’s transformation of Russia into a more modernized Europeanized nation had some traces of cultural inferiority. The only need to modernize and imitate a nation into a replica of a European state is because there is a sense of loss of identity. This is important to understanding the key similarities and differences that played out when comparing and contrasting Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union.

Generally, the United States approached the Soviet Union with two noteworthy and unchallengeable assumptions: to begin with, the suspicion of the consistent and inescapable threat of Soviet Military animosity; and, second, the presumption of the certainty of American military predominance. The first presumption led to the conclusion that arrangement with the Soviet Union on the premise of shared bargain – which is the main reason for genuine transactions’ – was futile or risky. The last two assumptions promoted the idea that arranging any form of negotiations was pointless and, likewise, perhaps ethnically wrong. Americans commonly see security in institutional terms: adapted by their own atypical

The Russian Church is the oldest Christian church in Russia, and one of the most established churches in the world. It has been able to exist for over 1,000 years because of its strong Christian foundation and influence over the previous rulers, the acceptance of Christianity within the hearts of Russian Christians who fought to hold on to their religious belief even with a communist government ruling them, and Russia’s big and open landscape which allowed Russian Christians to worship in secrecy to avoid being caught by the communist government. Many Russian Christians thrived in Russia, and many people rejected Roman Catholicism, in favor of Christianity. However, in October of 1917, Russia became a communist government and Christians lost