Russian Culture •Diverse ethnic groups, customs, and
• Cultural Landscape • -Russian Orthodox churches • -St. Basil’s Church • -Red Square • -Kremlin • -Siberian villages • -Soviet style apartment blocks
traditions
Dome -Hagia Sophia in Constantinople Constantinople
Roman Aqueducts
o
The Capital Building in Washington DC
St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square Moscow • The Russian
• After Domes w ere
created, architects began to use the same base of arches, but build the domes higher.
took these same ideas and took a step in a different direction: The Onion Dome
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Culture
Russian Orthodox Church The main religion in Russia is Christian, and the major denomination is the Russian Orthodox Church. The church architecture is distinguished by the presence of the onion dome.
http://www.galenfrysinger.com/russia.htm no copyright
Red Square
Kremlin • is the Russian word
for "fortress", "citadel", or "castle" and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historical Russian cities. This word is often used to refer to the best known one, the Moscow Kremlin , or the government that is based there.
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Portable Yurts are homes for nomads in Central Asia
Culture • Over 145 million people and over 150 different
ethnic groups • 80% = Slavs • Religions =Christian, Islam ic, Buddhist, or
Jewish • St. Petersburg = founded in 1703 by Peter the Great whose goal was to make the city a “Window of the West” • St. Petersburg has many beautiful mu seums and is home to the Marinsky Theatre = one of Russia’s top ballet companies
Culture • Russians enjoy all kinds of literature, •
• • • •
including folktales called skazki Russian Orthodox Church = incredibly popular and thriving even though communism tried to eliminate it Russian Orthodoxy w as responsible for a Slavic alphabet called Cyrillic ¾ of Russian people live in cities, mostly in large apartment blocks New Y ears is most festive holiday Russian workers are celebrated on May Da y
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Cultural characteristics cont.
• Cities as a center of
culture and trade –Moscow –St. Petersbu rg –Novosibirsk
Great Authors
Alexander Pushkin
• Alexander Pushkin- 1799-1837 • Anton Chekhov-1860-1904 • Fyodor Dostoyevsky- 1821-1881 • Boris Pasternak-1890-1960 • Leo Tolstoy-1828-1910 • Alexander Solzhenitsyn- 1918-current
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Leo Tolstoy
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Cultural Heritage –Ballet –Fabergé eggs –Icons –Matrioshka dolls –Samovars
Culture
Jesus Christ
Russian contributions to the arts and sciences
• Early Russian Art
revolved around Icons, Religious Art, -is an image, picture, or representation; it is a sign or likeness that stands for an object by signifying or representing it
St. Theodore
Peter Tchaikovsky
Mother of God
People kiss icons and light candles in front of them to show that they love the person depicted in the icon. These actions are also signs of asking the person for help or for a blessing.
Icons are displayed on the walls and on special stands in the Russian Orthodox Church to remind believers about Jesus Christ and events in his life and about the saints.
http://www.request.org.uk/main/churches/orthodox/christ.jpg No copyright
Dmitri Mendeleev
Ivan Pavlov
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Peter Carl Faberge
Culture
Fabergé Eggs Around 1885, Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé took the decoration of eggs to new heights. He volunteered to create a jewelry egg for Czar Alexander III to give his wife, Marie. Fabergé kept the egg a secret, but delighted the royal family with a jeweled looking "egg" that had tiny surprises made of gold, enamel, and precious gems inside.
Faberge’ eggs
Culture Bolshoy Theatre
http://www.nssnt.org/SpaceBallet_files/image005.jpg no copyright information
Culture
The circus is popular in Russia.
http://www.armory.com/~alexia/trip/moscow-jpg/Circus-Acrobat-2.jpg Picturecopyright1997SandyandBelaLubkin,allrightsreserved Usedwithpermission
The Bolshoy is considered one of the best opera and ballet theatres in the world. As with many other things, tickets are more expensive for foreigners than for Russian citizens.
Culture Russian wooden dolls with smaller dolls nested inside them are called matrioshka . Among peasants, the name Matriosha was a very popular female name. This name has a Latin root, "mater," which means "Mother." It is associated with the image of the mother of a big peasant family who was very healthy and had a portly figure.
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Matrioshka dolls
Culture
A samovar is an elaborate Russian tea pot. Tea was introduced to Russia in the 17 th century by the Mongols. Tea was first used as a medicine for the nobility.
Samovars
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