Russian Culture Cuisine

Russian Culture

• Cuisine

• Theatre

• Literature

• Humor

• Music

• Famous Russians

Cuisine Basics

• Russian cuisine has a rich and diverse history

• Includes a wide variety of soups and fish dishes

• Mushrooms, vegetables, and fruit play a greater role than meat does

• Primordial Russian products such as caviar and buckwheat have had a profound world influence

Cuisine Okroshka

• Okroshka is a cold Russian soup

• It usually has meat or fish in it

• Always has two vegetables

• Is eaten as an appetizer

• Russians keep ice on hand to keep it cold

Cuisine Shchi

• Shchi is also known as cabbage soup

• Has been the main Russian first course for a millennia

• Consists of cabbage, meat, carrots, herbs, sour components, etc

• In cooking it is stewed on the stove

• It is eaten regularly over the course of the year

Cuisine Entrees

• Golubtsy consists of stuffed cabbage rolls in cream sauce

• Stuffed with beef, rice, tomatoes, etc

• Pelmini is a Siberian meat dumpling

• Filling is mainly of beef chuck and pork fat

Cinema Basics

• Russian cinema came into prominence in the 1920’s

• In the beginning Russian film’s were predominantly propaganda types

• Up through the early 1960s film was quite censored

• Finally in the 1980s censorship was relieved and touchy issues could be talked about openly

Cinema Early Films

• Sergei Eisenstein was a famous director in the Stalinist era

• Some of his greater films include Aleksandr Nevsky and Ivan Grozny

• In the 1950s and 60s Ballada o Soldate and Letyat Juravli claimed increasing renown

Cinema Modern Films

• The collapse of the Soviet Union brought a virtual end to Russian cinema and literature

• Very few noteworthy films were made for over a decade

• Russian cinema now centers on profit making

• Low quality action, comedy, and pornography features prevail

Cinema Russian Ark

• In 2002, Aleksandr Sokurov filmed Russian Ark

• It was the world's first unedited feature film: recorded in uncompressed high definition, shot in a single take and featuring the world's longest steadicam shot

• Russian Ark has been critically acclaimed around the world

Literature Basics

• Refers to true Russian literature, or that of émigrés

• Émigrés were white Russians who fled after the Bolshevik Revolution

• Some literature comes from countries that were once part of Russia or the Soviet Union

Literature Soviet Era

• Sovietization of Russia affected her literature after 1917.

• Maxim Gorky, Mikhail Sholokhov, and Valentin Kataev were prominent writers of this period

• Socialist Realism was the only official writing style supported by the Union

• Classical Russian style literature had to be secretly written

Literature Modern

• Modern Russian literature currently is suffering through a difficult period, for few writers rise above the mass pulp fiction

• Detective stories and thrillers are very popular genres in Russia

• Generations of Winter (about a family struggling in the Stalin Era) by the Russian writer Vasily Aksyonov has been critically acclaimed and gained popularity in the US

Humor Basics

• Russian humor exhibits much wit and flexibility due to the richness of the Russian language

• Like other nations, Russia’s humor includes political satire, lewd jokes, wordplay, toasts, and anecdote

• Russia also has it Chastuskas which are usually humorous Russian poetry

Humor Satire

• Russian humor expresses human spirit

• Even under communist oppression, humor flourished as a way to counter and ridicule the elite

• In the 70s and 80s satirical political wit addressed social shortcomings

• In the 90s Russia began to lament the decline of humor as a symptom of Westernization

Humor Chastushkas

• Chastushka are a type of traditional Russian poetry

• They us an “abab” or “abcb” rhyme scheme

• Chastushkas are often put to music as well, usually with a balalaika or accordion

• The rigid, short structure parallels limericks in British culture

• The name chastushka originates from a Russian word meaning “speak fast”

Music Basics

• Russia is a large and extremely diverse country, with dozens of ethnic groups, each with their own forms of folk music

• During the period of Soviet domination, music was highly scrutinized and kept within certain boundaries of content and innovation

• After the fall of the USSR, western-style rock and pop music became the most popular musical forms in Russia

Music Classical

• Russia has a long history of classical music innovation

• The first major Russian composer was Mikhail Glinka

• He added folk and religious elements to classical compositions

Music Soviet Era

• In the 1910s, romances became very popular

• This period saw the birth of Russian rock with the band Pojuschie Gitary

• With Sovietism came samizdat, a grassroots strategy to sidestep imposed censorship

• Bulat Okudzhava and Vladmir Vysotskiy gained black market fame playing jazz and rock music

Famous Russians Basics

• For a long time Russia has been a multinational country, and many people of different nationalities contributed to its culture

• They may be ethnic Georgians (like Stalin), Jews (like Trotsky), Poles (like Vaslay Nijinsky), Tatars (like Rudolf Nureyev), Ukrainians (like Nikolai Gogol), Germans (like Catherine the Great

• Sometimes we don't know their exact ancestry, for their formal nationality was written down at random or for political or other reasons

• They may have emigrated or immigrated, and thus may appear in other "Lists of...", but nevertheless their names are linked to the words “Russia” and “Russian”

Famous Russians Konstantin Thon

• Konstantin Thon was an official architect of Imperial Russia during the reign of Nicholas I

• His major works include the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Armory in Moscow

• Konstantin was a master of Byzantine Revival and Neo-Byzantine architectural styles

Famous Russians Igor Stravinsky

• Igor Stravinsky was Russian-American composer of modern classical music

• He wrote works in the neo-classical and serialist styles

• Stravinsky also wrote in a broad spectrum of ensemble combinations and classical forms

• Stravinsky was one of the most authoritative composers in 20th century music, both in the West and in his native land

• He was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the century

Famous Russians Anna Kournikova

• Anna Kournikova sports personality who achieved fame first as a tennis player

• She was born in Moscow, Russia but currently lives in Miami, Florida, in the United States

• She set her mark after she became a professional player. Kournikova debuted at age 14 in the Fed Cup for Russia, still the youngest player ever participating

• Her serve was notably weak for a top-level tennis player but her variety of shots delighted the pure tennis fan

Famous Russians Grigori Rasputin

• Grigori Rasputin was a Russian mystic with an influence in the later days of Russia's Romanov dynasty

• Rasputin was also known as the Mad Monk, although he was not actually a monk, but a religious pilgrim

• He was believed to have been a psychic and faith healer. He can be considered one of the more controversial characters in 20th century history

• He played a small but extremely pivotal role in the downfall of the Romanov dynasty that finally led to Bolshevik victory and the establishment of the Soviet Union

Famous Russians Aleksandr Pushkin

• Aleksandr Pushkin was a Russian author, whom many consider the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature

• Pushkin pioneered the use of vernacular speech in his poems and plays, creating a style of storytelling -- mixing drama, romance and satire

• Pushkin's work shows the influence, among others, of the satire of Voltaire, of the poetry of Lord Byron and of the tragedies of Shakespeare

Famous Russians Vladimir Lenin

• Vladimir Lenin was a Russian revolutionary, the leader of the Bolshevik party and the founder of the ideology of Leninism

• Rather than settle into a legal career, he became more involved in revolutionary propaganda efforts and the study of Marxism

• On November 8, Lenin was elected as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars by the Russian Soviet Congress

• Lenin was shot twice in an attempted assassination in 1918

Famous Russians Andrei Rublev

• Andrei Rublev is considered to be the greatest Russian iconographer

• There is little information about his life, but Andrei Rublev probably lived in the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra

• He decorated icons and frescos for the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Moscow Kremlin

• The only work authenticated as entirely his is the icon of the Old Testament Trinity (pictured)

• He was canonized in 1988. The church celebrates his memory on July 4 Back to Home