Unit 2. Russian Culture

Topical vocabulary

1. associated – связанный, взаимодействующий

2. country – страна

3. in the country – за городом, в деревне

4. to leave the country – уехать за границу

5. rich – богатый, ценный, изобилующий

6. art - искусство

7. cinema – кино, кинотеатр

8. animation - мультипликация

9. considerable – значительный, важный

10. influence – влияние, воздействие

11. strong – сильный, крепкий, серьезный

12. belief – вера, верование, доверие

13. wooded - лесистый

14. ancestor – предок, прародитель

15. neighbouring – соседний, смежный

16. tribe - племя

17. identity – идентичность, индивидуальность, подлинность

18. to accept – принимать, допускать, признавать

19. Empire - Империя

20. Orthodox – Православный, ортодоксальный, правоверный

21. to define – определять, давать определение

22. to fall – падать, потерпеть крах

23. to remain – оставаться, пребывать в прежнем состоянии

24. century – столетие, век

25. to develop – развивать, совершенствовать, разрабатывать

26. to change – меняться, сменять, заменять

27. census - перепись

28. right – право

29. widespread – широко распространенный

30. to belong – принадлежать, относиться, происходить

31. quarter – четверть, квартал

32. scientific – научный

33. to be considered – считается, рассматривается

34. to contribute – содействовать, способствовать, делать вклад

35. literary – литературный

36. to boost – способствовать росту популярности

37. native – родной, местный

38. to emerge – появляться, выходить, возникать

39. the Golden Age of Russian Poetry – Золотой век русской поэзии

40. founder – основатель, учредитель

41. to describe – описывать, характеризовать

42. to continue – продолжать, оставаться, сохранять

43. in particular – в частности, в особенности

44. literature - литература

45. early – преждевременный, ранний, рано

46. millennium - тысячелетие

47. to take part – принимать участие

48. largely- в значительной степени, в широком масштабе

49. point – точка, место, пункт

Introductory text What Russian Culture is

Russian culture is the culture associated with the country of Russia. It has a rich history and a long tradition in every aspect of the arts, especially literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture and painting, cinema and animation, which all had considerable influence on the world culture. The country also has a rich material culture and a strong tradition in technology.

Russian culture started from that of the East Slavs, with their beliefs and specific way of life in the wooded areas of Eastern Europe. Early on, the culture of Russian ancestors was much influenced by neighbouringFinno-Ugric tribes and mainly Turkic, peoples of the steppe. In the late 1st millennium AD the Scandinavian Vikings, also took part in the forming of Russian identity and Kievan Rus' state. Kievan Rus' had accepted Orthodox Christianity from the Eastern Roman Empire in 988, and this largely defined the Russian culture of next millennium as the synthesis of Slavic and Byzantine cultures. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the world. At points of its history, the country also was strongly influenced by the culture of Western Europe. Since Peter the Great's reforms for two centuries Russian culture largely developed in the general context of European culture. The situation changed in the 20th century, when the Communist ideology became a major factor in the culture of the Soviet Union, where Russia, or Russian SFSR, was the largest and leading part.

Language. Russia's 160 ethnic groups speak some 100 languages. According to the 2008 census, 142.6 million people speak Russian, followed by Tatar with 5.3 million and Ukrainian with 1.8 million speakers. Russian is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives the individual republics the right to make their native language co-official next to Russian. Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken Slavic language. Russian belongs to the Indo-European language family and is one of the living members of the East Slavic languages; the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian. Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian. The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Russian literature is considered to be among the most influential and developed in the world, contributing many of the world's most famous literary works. Russia's literary history dates back to the 10th century; in the 18th century its development was boosted by the works of Mikhail Lomonosov and Denis Fonvizin, and by the early 19th century a modern native tradition had emerged, producing some of the greatest writers of all time. This period and the Golden Age of Russian Poetry began with Alexander Pushkin, considered to be the founder of modern Russian literature and often described as the "Russian Shakespeare" or the "Russian Goethe". It continued in the 19th century with the poetry of Mikhail Lermontov and Nikolay Nekrasov, dramas of Aleksandr Ostrovsky and Anton Chekhov, and the prose of Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Ivan Goncharov, Aleksey Pisemsky and Nikolai Leskov. Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in particular were titanic figures.

Exercise 1. Comprehension questions.

1. What is Russian culture associated?

2. What did Russian culture start from?

3. Who took part in the forming of Russian identity in the late 1st millennium AD?

4. Is Russian the official state language?

5. What language family do Russian belong to?

6. What is Russian literature?

7. When did the period of the Golden Age of Russian Poetry begin?

8. What titanic figures of the Russian literature do you know?

9. What is your favourite writer?