Russia's Culture

People

Although Ethnic Russians make up the majority

of the population, there are other ethnic groups such as the Tatars, Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Chechen and the Armenians. The Russian Orthodox Church has been recognized as the leading faith since 1997, and has a huge impact on its Russia’s culture. Other religions include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism.

Indigenous People

Tatars: Tatars are descendents from

the Mongol-Tatar armies of Chinggis Genghis Khan and hi successors and from earlier Hunnic, Turkic and Finno-Ugric settlers. They lived in Siberia before the Russians arrived. Most of the Tatars today are muslim and about 2 million of them make up nearly half of the Tartarstan Republic’s population. About a million other Tatars live

in other parts of Russia and the Commonwealth of independent states.

Chuvash & Bashkirs: The Chuvash are the descendents of the pre-Mongol settlers in Russia. They are Orthodox Christians and are form a majority of the Chuvash Republic, which is west of the Tartarstan Republic.

The Bashkirs are Muslim and have Turkish roots. About half of them live in the Republic of Bashkortostan; however they are outnumbered by the Russians and Tatars who live there.

Finno-Ugric People: Many groups of Finno-Ugric People live in central and northern European Russia and these groups can include the Orthodox or Muslim Mordvins, the Udmurts or Votyaks, snd the Mari.

Lifestyle

Though Russians may appear to be unfriendly, uncooperative and guarded when they meet new people, they are very generous and hospitable once you get to know them better. An invitation to their home for dinner would consist of many different courses of food. Russian hospitality comes before practicality and an invitation to a Russian home may be repeated several times even until the family cannot afford the expense. This happens often especially outside the big cites, as locals are determined to share everything they have though they may not have much.

Russians consider themselves a well-educated nation, and the people there read a lot as books are not very expensive in Russia. Most people can afford to buy 5-10 book a month. Every city in Russia has at least one theatre, and since tickets are affordable, live performances at the theatres are very popular. The theatre culture was developed when tickets were sold through schools and businesses during the Soviet times. Cities were divided into neighborhoods and there was a theatre agent in every neighborhood to distribute tickets and organize visits to the theatre.

Healthcare and education are free in Russia, and it is still possible to study in university for free just be passing the entrance exams. However, universities are now decreasing the number of students who study for free due to poor state financing.

Russians love their country and though they may criticize their Country, they are proud of their country's history and cultural roots.

Language

Although there are 160 ethnic groups that speak around 100 languages in Russia, Russian is the only official language while there are 27 other languages which are also considered as official languages in certain regions in Russia. Some examples of these other languages would be Tartar, Abaza, Khakas and Bashkir. As a result of tsarist and Soviet campaigns to suppress minority languages, many of the non-Russians ethnic groups speak Russian as their native or only language.

References:

http://books.google.com/books?id=98KCfjd6E7YC&pg=PA72&dq=russia+culture+travel&hl=en&ei=W4z_TPjXBYHjrAfbsISFCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=tradition&f=false

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html

http://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Russia.html

http://www.justgorussia.co.uk/en/russian_people.html