RUSSIAN CULTURE

The 19th century is generally regarded as the high point of Russian art, especially literature. Beginning with the poet Alexander Pushkin, the author of Eugene Onegin, and continuing with writers such as Michael Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Leo Tolstoy, as well as the playwright Anton Chekhov, Russians produced some of the world’s great classic literature. In the 20th century the best-known writer was Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who opposed the Communist state. In the graphic arts Russia is best known for its elaborate religious art, much of it dating back to the 10th century. In the performance arts Russians have been world leaders, especially such names as Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich in classical music and Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Rudolph Nurieyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov in ballet.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

Rather than succumbing to the cold that locks in the country much of the year, Russians embrace the climate and have become outdoor enthusiasts. Many people can be found playing chess or musical instruments in public parks even during the coldest weather. Russians are also sports enthusiasts, with as many as one-fourth of Russians taking part in some sort of organized sports activity, including tennis, skiing, ice skating, gymnastics, and acrobatics. Chess is almost a national pastime, and the nation’s chess masters occupy a high place in Russian society. Russians are very proud of their high culture, and such activities as attending the ballet are commonplace, even among ordinary people, in a nation where the word “uncultured” has long been an insult.

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