Russian culture was, is and will be. Her current influences are no stronger than those in history. The originality of Russian culture is explained by its synthetic character.
You will need
An unbiased attitude to everything and simple common sense.
Instruction manual
1
The title question may seem far-fetched, if not ridiculous. It is enough to recall that all world literature stands on three pillars: Homer, Shakespeare, Tolstoy. And that “Russian Venus” Kustodieva today has surpassed the popularity of “Venus in front of the mirror” by Velazquez and Goya’s “Naked Swing”. And that traditional Russian architecture is aesthetically no less capacious and peculiar than Gothic or Egyptian pyramids.
But, the reader can say, this is in the past. And now? Does our own Russian culture exist now, and what is it?
2
Recall first what culture in general is. This concept is by no means vague, as it is expressed not in certain abstract reasonings, but in things. Culture is the worldview of people expressed in objects, their feelings, thoughts, moods. It comes from the Latin cultura - cultivation, and was first used in an agricultural sense. However, the ancient Romans, comparing the miracle of the development of a powerful plant from a small kernel with the appearance of elegant products from the hardened hands of a not always competent craftsman, extended it to the spiritual sphere.
The product of culture may be of natural origin. Several sea pebbles brought from the rest, tastefully laid out on a shelf of the house, are the cultural product of their owner. If the object of culture is made using some technology, then it will already be a cultural artifact, that is, the creation of the hands of its creator.
3
We turn to the first question: is there a peculiar Russian culture now? For an example we will take the most labor-consuming, utilitarian and durable cultural objects - architectural constructions. If there is any cultural tradition here, then it exists in other cultural areas.
The figure at the beginning of the article is the world famous Church of the Intercession on the Nerl. And in the illustration to this paragraph - the residential complex "Tricolor" in Moscow. It would seem that everything in the pictures is different, except for the color of the sky. But you can also see something in common, is not it? Some kind of vague general impression.
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It’s not so vague, it’s an impression. We will discuss it a bit below, but for now take a look at the following figure in the text. This is the church of San Isidro in Spain painted by Francisco Goya. The compositional solution and color (color scheme) are similar to the Church of the Intercession, the architecture is also simple and refined. But the impression is completely different. It is immediately clear that this is a product of a completely different culture. Not the worst and not the best, as strong and vibrant as the Russian, but different. Why?
5
Now it's time to answer the second question. Since cultural objects come from a person (sea stones need to be found, selected, washed, laid out in a suitable place), it will be more correct to search for the essence of Russian culture based on psychology. Then everything falls into place in the most natural way.
There are two types of mental organization of people (do not confuse with temperaments): introverts and extroverts. In a vulgarly primitive sense, an introvert is bad, and an extrovert is good. In fact, both the one and the other, if they are mentally healthy and properly raised, will be full members of society, not experiencing problems in relations with others and working fruitfully.
In essence, the difference is how they approach the next task. An extrovert seeks to project himself on it. This is expressed in the approach: "Let's try like this, and see what happens." An introvert, on the contrary, first tries to incorporate the initial conditions into itself and how to interpret them. Simply put: take a closer look, think it over, and then we will decide what and how to do it. While psychology was not sufficiently developed, it was believed that the extrovert was more material, and the introvert was spiritual.
An extrovert will do better where you need to quickly get at least some meaningful result. An introvert is where it is first of all necessary to understand far-reaching consequences. And those and others together constitute the mass consciousness and social morality of civilization.
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And what is Russian originality? Probably that we are half introvert, half extrovert, if we take Russian civilization as a whole. That same mysterious duality of the Russian soul from the standpoint of the achievements of modern science.
Western cultures are more extrovert; in the "San Isidro" of Goya this is expressed in the fact that it is impossible to imagine the church he depicted with calm solitude, like the Church of the Intercession. Eastern civilizations are more prone to introversion.
Like the general psychotype of man, the appearance of human civilizations is determined not only by the type of organization, but also by many other external and internal factors. And in Russia, their set is extremely peculiar, starting with a territory that has no analogues in size. Therefore, Russian culture, actively interacting with both the East and the West, will remain so, as long as there is Russia and the Russians.
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Finally. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for instilling respect for Russian culture. Understand this as a violent "Russification" is impossible in any case. You just need to develop Russian culture, its potential is incredibly huge and far from exhausted. Like the western one, it is not at all as degrading as it might seem.
Helpful advice
If your child claims that he likes Batman and does not like Emel with a pike, or Luntik, that's okay. Try a better game, as Batman and Emely help Luntik together. The synthesis of cultures also requires action, not abstract reasoning.
