Culture
| Music: | * A wide range of traditional folk music originates in the many ethnic groups and often colours Russian classical music. * Famous composers: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Mikhail Glinka (19th century); Aleksandr Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. (20th century). |
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| Music theatre: | * The Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow) has been a centre for world class opera and ballet. * The Mariinsky Theatre (St Petersburg, formerly known as the Kirov Theatre) has a similar reputation. |
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| Writers and poets: | * Aleksandr Pushkin, Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Lermontov, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoevsky (19th century) * Aleksandr Blok, Anna Akhmatova, Maxim Gorky (early 20th century). * Vladimir Nabokov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Soviet period). |
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| Film: | Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin) and Andrei Tarkovsky were acknowledged as two of the world's most innovative and influential directors in the history of film. The Cranes are Flying won the Palme d'Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. Russian Ark (2002) was the first feature film ever to be shot in a single take. Night Watch (2004) and Day Watch (2007) were regarded as the Russian fantasy equivalent of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. | ||
| Art: | * Icon painting has continued throughout Russian history. * High quality landscape and portrait art flourished in the 19th century. * Early 20th century avant-garde artists include Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Aleksandr Rodchenko and Marc Chagall. |
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| Architecture: | * Many fine churches and monasteries in a variety of styles. * Aristocratic palaces with ornate interior decoration. |
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What is a "Kremlin"? You can click for a larger picture. |
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| * Monumental public buildings from the Soviet period. | |||
| Food: | Borsch (beetroot and tomato soup), solyanka (thick, spicy soup), pelmeni (dumpling pasties filled with minced meat), shashlyk (marinaded meat grilled on a skewer), pirozhki (pastries with a variety of fillings), blini (thin wheaten pancakes topped with sour cream, stewed fruit or caviar). | ||
| Drink: | Kvass (from mildly fermented wheat), vodka, black and green tea, medovukha (water flavoured with honey, fruit juice or hops), wine mainly from the Caucasus regions. | ||
| Sport: | * Russian athletes have always dominated international competitions. * Tennis player Maria Sharapova became the world's highest paid female athlete. * Famous football clubs include Zenit St Petersburg, and Spartak Moscow. * Russia was host for the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea. |
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