The earliest origins of Russian culture are in dispute. Some believe that the ancestors of the modern Russians were seventh- or ninth-century migrants from the Vistula River valley (now Poland). Other archaeological evidence suggests that Slavic pastoralists may have spread across the central plains of Eurasia as much as a thousand years earlier, coexisting alongside northern Finnic and Lithuanian tribes. Whatever their prehistory, people sharing the same language, beliefs, social practices, and religion have occupied what is now Russia for at least a millennium. By the tenth century C.E., Eastern Slavic society was culturally distinct and highly developed in terms of agriculture, technology, commerce, and governance. Prince Vladimir I brought Byzantine Christianity to Kiev in 988 and sponsored the baptism of the peoples of Rus, a gradual process that blended Slavic pre-Christian practices with Eastern Orthodoxy.
The Russian Empire grew steadily from the eighteenth to the twentieth century through colonization of Siberia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. The Soviet era brought further territorial expansion. Population density also grew throughout the millennium. By 1991, the year of the end of the Soviet Union, the population of the Russian Federation was 146,393,000. Ethnic Russians comprised 81 percent of this number, with more than one hundred other ethnic nationalities, many of them culturally Russified, making up the rest. There is a recognizably Russian culture among the population of the Russian Federation and strong cultural continuity among the Russians living in the newly independent republics of Central Asia, the Baltic region, and the Caucasus.
Russia's cultural history is multifaceted, encompassing both the distinct patterns of the rural peasantry and the intricate social rituals of the aristocracy, the mercantile caste, the bureaucracy, and other groups. Russia's thousand-year history of class stratification, imperial growth and contraction, political consolidation and disintegration, repression and relaxation, messianism and self-examination, and socioeconomic and cultural interconnections with other nations has had far-reaching effects on every aspect of Russian national culture.
For many centuries, the question of whether Russian culture was more "eastern" or "western" was a burning issue. Situated at the crossroads of major civilizations and empires - Scandinavian, Byzantine, Persian, Chinese, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, British - the peoples of Russia have profoundly influenced and been influenced by them all in terms of trade, technology, language, religion, politics, and the arts.
Since at least the time of Peter the Great, Russian writers, artists, politicians, and philosophers, as well as ordinary people in everyday discourse, have engaged in intensive cultural self-examination. Ethnic Russians have struggled to redefine their national identity in the wake of the Soviet collapse and the turmoil that accompanied the end of communism.
The northern climate has influenced cultural, social, and political institutions, settlement patterns, household configurations, village politics, agricultural systems, and technologies. Defiance of the natural limitations of this harsh environment is seen throughout Russian history and plays a significant role in local identity.
Country and City
In 1917 the population of Russia was more than 80 percent rural. The disruptions of the Soviet period - civil war, rural collectivization, world war - brought a massive migration to the cities. By 1996, 73 percent of the population was urban. Although there are still tens of thousands of small villages, many are simply disappearing as older people die and the younger generation departs. But despite the demise of rural communities, much of the urban population retains strong material and psychological ties to the countryside. Many own modest dachas within an hour or two of their city apartments and spend their weekends and summers gardening, hiking, hunting, gathering mushrooms and berries, and swimming in lakes and rivers. Some people maintain ties to their natal villages or those of their parents or grandparents and travel there to mark significant family events.
In the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a tiny minority has accrued enough wealth to build private homes and estates on the outskirts of the cities, but most people live in small apartments in apartment blocks. Space in flats can be tight, so a single room may serve as living room, bedroom, and dining room. Domestic furnishing is fairly consistent, for reasons of both cultural style and limited purchasing power. The range of consumer décor choices has become enormous in the largest cities but elsewhere only slightly better than it was during the Soviet period, when state stores offered little design variation. Architectural and domestic styles are changing gradually with growing consumer opportunities and increased attention to global fashions.
At home, people spend much time in the kitchen, eating and drinking tea (or something stronger), talking, reading, watching television, cooking, or working on crafts. When guests come, people sit at the table for the entire gathering. Public spaces around apartment blocks are often decayed and dirty, so the threshold to a family's apartment marks a transition to private, clean space. Everyone removes shoes just inside the doorway to prevent dirt being brought inside, and slippers are worn at home.
Urban parks are an important space of everyday life. People spend leisure time strolling or sitting on benches to talk, smoke, play chess, or read. Smaller urban parks may center on a statue of a writer or political leader, and these squares are popular meeting places. Public plazas in urban centers have played a role in political and social life for centuries. The most famous of all, Moscow's Red Square, is a historical site of government ritual, revolutionary protest, and rebellion. The central sites where parades, concerts, and state funerals are held also provide a place for festivals, family outings, and commemorations.
Gender Relations, Family, and Kinship
Russian society has always been structured around gendered divisions of labor. Prerevolutionary rural communities were patrilocal; newly married women moved in with their husband's family and were fully subservient to his parents until they had borne sons. The details of household management were codified in texts such as the Domostroi that addressed even intimate practices of family life and patriarchal authority, influencing both the peasantry and the aristocracy. Around the turn of the twentieth century, rural and urban women of all classes experienced the loosening of gender norms, and many women pushed the boundaries of their social options.
After the 1917 revolution, communist ideology promoted the liberation of women and families from oppressive norms and structures. Women engaged in what had been male-only work in agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. During the Soviet period, they played increasingly significant roles in medicine, engineering, the sciences, and other fields. By the 1980s, one-third of the deputies in the Supreme Soviet were female, and women accounted for more than 50 percent of the students in higher education. But though "liberated" to work in the public sphere, women often retained the burden of household labor. Moreover, their equal employment status was not fully reflected in the workplace, where gender discrimination was common.
Some of the hard-earned status of women eroded after 1991. Unemployment increased in the 1990s, and women were frequently the first discharged. Managerial jobs in the new commercial sectors were largely held by men, and a traditionalist view of work and family reasserted itself throughout society. The devaluation of women's labor contributions has been devastating for women who need to work. Some women became entrepreneurs, but they faced stiff gender prejudice in starting businesses. The percentage of women holding political office has declined, and women's participation in high levels of industry, the sciences, the arts, and the government has shrunk. Some young women turn to prostitution, or work in bars and nightclubs, which may seem to be a way to escape poverty.
Despite Soviet indoctrination, traditional gender ideologies never vanished: Men are not supposed to be able to cook, clean, or perform child care, whereas women are seen as driving cars, supervising others, and engaging in politics poorly. Women are held in high regard as mothers, nurturers, and bearers of culture. Although feminists have challenged these dichotomous gender norms, and few families can afford to divide labor along strict gender lines, such ideas are widespread. Students receive equal education, but some school activities and expectations are divided by gender.
Romantic love is the standard motivation for marriage, and cultural tradition idealizes the passion of lovers, often in a tragic form. People meet partners at school or university, at work, or at clubs or music venues. Premarital sex is generally tolerated. With little variation over the decades, twenty-three has been the average age at marriage. Almost half of all marriages end in divorce, with economic hardship and alcohol abuse being contributing factors. Ethnic intermarriage became fairly common in Soviet times.
The nuclear family is the fundamental domestic unit, and married couples crave apartments of their own. Since the housing shortage and the high price of new apartments make this difficult, family units are often multigenerational. Many couples with children live with a widowed parent, often a grandmother, who provides child care and cooking. A grandparent's monthly pension may be a crucial part of family income.
Kinship is reckoned bilaterally (counting both parents' sides), but naming is patrilineal. Until the mid-nineteenth century, kin terms for more than sixty relations were in use; since then the number of terms has greatly decreased. Even across distances, people maintain strong relations with their siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews, and many are close with even more distant relatives. Among the social factors that support such ties are the low level of geographic mobility, the importance of networks of mutual aid, and regular visits to relatives in ancestral villages for summer rest and gardening.
Childbirth practices reflect traditional ideas. Women stay in the hospital for at least a week after a birth, during which time fathers are allowed to see mother and baby only briefly. Infants used to be swaddled at birth and continue to be bundled tightly, especially when venturing outside. Many customary beliefs about medical or supernatural dangers surround pregnancy, birthing, and new babies.
Academic standards are high, and students are well trained in world history, foreign languages, music, mathematics, and science. Although the figures have gradually dropped since the Soviet years, more than 90 percent of the population completes secondary education, and around 12 percent go on for higher education. The literacy rate is one of the world's highest. Post-secondary education confers social prestige and is more and more essential for economic success.
Religious Beliefs and Practices
Most Russians identify themselves as Orthodox Christians. Not all are active church members, but observance of major holidays is increasing. The state has returned thousands of churches, icons, and religious objects appropriated during the Soviet period to local religious communities. Orthodox practice hinges on the emotive experience of liturgy and the veneration of icons, and the faithful light candles, pray, and bow before sacred images of the Virgin Mary and the saints. Rural houses feature a special corner where the family's icon hangs, and many apartments have an icon shelf. Religious practices were proscribed during the Soviet era but continued anyway.
Pre-Christian practices and beliefs have persisted over a millennium of Orthodoxy. Traditional beliefs about forest and house spirits, the evil eye, and metaphysical healing are found everywhere - and are especially strong in rural areas. Certain prohibitions stem from them; for example, evil intentions are attracted by bragging about good fortune or health, and can be cured only by metaphysical intervention of some kind.
Folk medicine is highly developed. Herbal remedies are used for everyday maladies. Professional practitioners advertise their services for treating serious illnesses and life problems. Homeopathy, the application of leeches, mineral baths, light therapy, and other treatments are popular. Physicians may also prescribe herbal teas, tinctures, and plasters.
Proper treatment and remembrance of the dead is important. The dead are prevented from staying among the living by covering mirrors with black cloth, laying out the body in ways that help usher out the spirit, and accompanying the deceased from home to church and from church to cemetery in elaborate processions. In the church or hall where the body is displayed, mourners circle the open coffin counterclockwise and kiss the body or put flowers on it. After burial, mourners gather to share vodka and food while remembering the deceased with stories and anecdotes. The soul remains on earth for forty days, when a second gathering is held to bid it farewell as it departs for heaven. The anniversary of a death is memorialized every year; some people travel long distances to visit the graves of their loved ones.
Calendrical Ritual
Holidays fill the calendar. Some are Orthodox or pre-Christian, some mark historical events, some are secular, and a few, like Valentine's Day, are post-Soviet imports. March 8, International Women's Day, is a legal holiday. Men bring flowers to the women in their lives and congratulate female friends, coworkers, and relatives. May Day, commemorating international labor solidarity, heralds the coming of spring. Victory Day on May 9 celebrates the Soviet capture of Berlin and the end of World War II in Europe. This holiday is sacred to older people, who gather to remember family, friends, and comrades lost in the war. Russia Day, June 12, marks independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 with parades and fireworks. October Revolution Day, November 7, is celebrated mostly by communists nostalgic for Soviet power. New Year's Eve is the most lavish secular holiday. Grandfather Frost and the Snow Maiden leave gifts under a decorated New Year's Tree, and people gather for song, feasting, vodka, and champagne. The party may last all night. The observance of Christmas and Easter and other Orthodox holidays has grown since the end of Soviet religious repression.
Food
Bead and potatoes are the basic everyday foods. Cabbage, carrots, and beets are staple vegetables; onions and garlic are used liberally. Russians generally love meat. Sausage, salami, pork, beef, mutton, chicken, and dried or salted fish are widely available and inexpensive.
Breakfast is a quick snack of coffee or tea with bread and sausage or cheese. Lunch is a hot meal, with soup, potatoes, macaroni, rice or buckwheat kasha, ground meat cutlets, and peas or grated cabbage (or, for business people, a quick meal in one of the increasing number of fast-food cafés). A later supper may consist of boiled potatoes, soured cabbage, and bread or simply bread and sausage or cheese. There is a huge array of cakes, pies, and chocolates.
Russian cuisine features many dairy products, such as tvorog, a local version of cottage cheese, and many hard cheeses and fermented milk products. These items can be purchased from large shops or farmers' markets or made at home. In provincial towns, fresh milk is sold from trucks, although bottles and cartons of pasteurized milk are available everywhere. Russians are great tea drinkers.
Fruits are widely cultivated in home gardens. Fruits and berries are made into preserves, compotes, cordials, and concentrates for the winter months. Mushroom picking is an art, and many people salt, dry, or pickle them. Cabbage, cucumbers, garlic, and tomatoes are salted or pickled. The chronic shortages of the Soviet era led many people to produce food for themselves. The impoverishment of the post-socialist era means that a significant portion of the population continues to depend on their own produce. Some estimates hold that 80 percent of the vegetables consumed in Russia are grown in small family plots.
Coffee has grown in popularity and is often served thick and strong. Although wine, beer, cognac, and champagne are popular, vodka reigns among alcoholic beverages.
Ceremonial occasions highlight food customs. Communal feasting marks birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, the achievement of a goal, important purchases, and major holidays. Tables are laden with salads, appetizers, sausage and cheese, and pickled foods, followed by meat and potatoes, and meat or cabbage pies. Vodka and wine are drunk throughout the meal, which may continue for many hours. Toasting is elaborate and can be sentimental, humorous, poetic, ribald, or reverential. Vodka is always drunk straight, accompanied by a pickled or salty food.
A growing number of people observe Lenten fasts during which they consume no meat, butter, eggs, or vodka. Easter provides an opportunity for a fast-breaking celebration with special foods.
Everyday Etiquette
Language rules play a significant part in good manners. When addressing elders, except for parents and grandparents, persons of higher status, strangers, and acquaintances, people use the second-person plural pronoun. The informal second-person singular is used only among friends, within the family, and among close coworkers of equal status. Addressing someone formally entails using the person's full name and patronymic. Misuse of the informal mode is insulting.
Table rituals are also important. Hosts and hostesses try to show unfailing generosity, and guests must accept hospitality with a willingness to be served, pampered, and stuffed full of food and drink.
Sitting on the floor or putting one's shoes on a table is prohibited. Proper femininity requires that clothes be immaculately clean and pressed, grooming fastidious, and comportment elegant and reserved. By contrast, in crowds, on lines, and on public transport, active shoving and pushing are the norm. In Soviet times, demure, nonflashy dress was valued, but this norm has changed with the explosion of fashion and the growth of subcultural identity.
The word uncultured is used by older people against family or strangers as a reprimand for inappropriate behavior. The public use of this reprimand diminished as the social status of elders fell after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and as aggressive behavior in the cities became a mark of the coolness of youth.
Cultural Symbols and Arts
The cupolas of Moscow's St. Basil's Cathedral are a popular visual symbol of Russia both within the country and abroad. Photographs of St. Basil's and many other churches and cathedrals adorn homes, offices, and media images.
Bread symbolizes central aspects of the national self-image. It is the mark of hospitality, as in the ritual of khleb-sol ("bread and salt"), welcoming visitors with a round loaf with a salt cellar on top. In broader terms, bread is the symbol of life. Other foods are also cultural symbols: black caviar, which signifies luxury; mushrooms and berries, the gifts of forest and dacha; pancakes served before Lent; the potato, symbol of survival in hard times, and vodka, symbolizing camaraderie and mischief-making.
Forest plants, animals, and objects are also important symbols. Birches conjure up the romance of the countryside; wolf, bear, and fox, are ubiquitous in folktales and modern cartoons; the peasant cottage signifies the intimate world of the past. Inside the cottage are other cultural symbols: the huge clay stove, the samovar, and the Orthodox icon in its corner. Although most Russians live in urban apartments, images of traditional rural life are still meaningful.
Conversation is rich with metaphors and proverbs, summarizing a complex view of shared identity. Russians think of the soul (dusha) as an internal spiritual conjunction of heart, mind, and culture. Friendship depends on a meeting of souls, accomplished through shared suffering or joy - or by feasting and drinking. Soul is said to be one of the metaphysical mechanisms that unite Russians into a people (narod). Stemming from the ancient Slavic for "kin" and "birth," and meaning "citizens of a nation," "ethnic group," or "crowd," narod refers to the composite identity of the people through history and is often invoked by politicians. People speak in terms of belonging by "blood"; a person is thought of as having Russian blood, Jewish blood, Armenian blood, or some other ethnic blood, and culture is supposedly transmitted through the blood.
Cultural symbols abound in folk art. Animal, bird, plant, solar, and goddess motifs, and a palette of reds and golden yellows with traces of black and green prevail in painted wooden objects and embroidered textiles. Soviet state studios kept many folk media alive, and the postsocialist period has seen independent craftspersons return to traditional mythological motifs. Folk art objects are popular and are found in homes everywhere.
The end of Soviet power meant an explosive opening of Russia to the world, with all of the changes for better and worse that come with globalization. Popular culture in Russia has become characterized by the vibrant and fertile mixing of local and international styles in music, art, literature, and film. Obsessions with mafia criminals, the new wealthy (so-called New Russians), biznismeny, and modern technology fill the media. Yet alongside this, indigenous artistic genres, shared symbols and values, and social practices hold their own and continue to shape the world of meaning and identity.
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—NANCY RIES
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