Categories
- Art (356)
- Other (3,632)
- Philosophy (2,814)
- Psychology (4,018)
- Society (1,010)
Recent Questions
- Why did everyone start to hate the Russians if the U.S. did the same thing in Afghanistan, Iraq?
- What needs to be corrected in the management of Russia first?
- Why did Blaise Pascal become a religious man at the end of his life?
- How do I know if a guy likes you?
- When they say "one generation", how many do they mean?
My friend, I will tell you what it means to be Russian.
__________________
In the morning, after drinking water, pray, cross yourself, pour water over yourself.
Take the bear for a walk, heat the oven, boil the soup and melt the bathhouse.
Mass Vanka call, pour vodka and treat dumplings.
And when you go to bed, ask God to live well in Russia.
This is a very difficult question. People always need a lot of time and effort to understand themselves, to understand who they are and what their place in the world is. The process of forming a national identity began to take place actively in Russia from the beginning of the 19th century, but was interrupted with the overthrow of the monarchy. The Bolsheviks did not need a Russian identity, and now, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we are left with a broken trough. Note that all the former republics of the USSR build their statehood precisely on their national identity – all except Russia. The state carefully avoids this issue, and every Russian has to figure out who he is and who we are on our own.
But the hints are scattered all around. This is our way of life, architecture, and painting. And, of course, literature. Every Russian classic has some observations about Russians. And especially valuable are the impressions of positive-minded foreigners: after all, you can see better from the outside.�
Here, for example, is Slovenian Alexander Trushnovich's first impression of Russia. He came to us during the First World War, voluntarily surrendering to the Russian army, hoping to fight on its side. He was being transported by train, still as a prisoner…
“The train slowed down and carefully, without disturbing the bridge clips, passed over the Dnieper. Feeling the ground beneath him, he sped up. An endless plain. Wherever you look — the horizon is flat. What fields! The wind stirs the waves of wheat. The Russian land is rich! Everything turned green, the meadows went, wherever you look-green to the horizon. The Russian land is wide!
The earth smiles at the sun, endless fields of golden-crowned sunflowers sing glory to the Creator. The stranger from the West looks with wide-open eyes in surprise and finds no words, his soul silently prays.
In the steppe, golden domes burn like candles. The Russian Church looks far out into the steppe, surrounded by white huts. About you, Russia, my prayer…
The sun has already sunk to the west, and there is no end to your fields and fields, your beauty and wealth. Do you want to be defeated, do you not want to feed your children, O bread-loving one?
Night fell. I lay down on the bench, but I didn't sleep. I heard the Germans scolding the Slavs, calling them traitors. I went out for a walk at one of the stations. A boulder flew past his head, and out of the darkness came the cry ” Slawischer Hund!” The senior non-commissioned officer transferred me to the guards.
At dawn, when the sun had already circled the whole earth, the astonished eyes saw the same richness of the fields, the same vast expanse, the same quiet, mighty beauty. It's as if we haven't moved yet, but how far have we already traveled…
There are a lot of people at the stations. A Russian peasant watches, and his eyes say: “Here are the poor, now away from their own people. And what did this war give up on? And the young one over there probably isn't married yet. The older one probably has a wife and kids at home. Both horse and cow. A peasant, it must be.”
And the woman stands and watches. His cheeks are pink, his eyes are alive, and the little boy clutched at his skirt: “But mine is also driving like this somewhere in their country. They should be served some bread.”
The captured Germans are standing at the door of the teplushka, talking to each other. I hear: “Here you are staring like idiots! Asians are damned!”
Kirsanov is a county town. A city? Not a city, not a village. Most residents have their own house, yard, vegetable garden, garden. Lots of greenery, wide streets, not what we have. I look into the courtyards-they are clean and cozy. The streets, however, could have been cleaner.
– Samovar! one of the prisoners shouted. And they all stopped, repeating: “Samovar, samovar!” The guard laughs:
— Samovar. For tea. All Russians have it.
Oh, dear, I've known what a samovar is for a long time, but I haven't seen a “live” one yet. All the people close and dear to me of Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky drank tea from the samovar, and at the samovar they talked about God, love, truth, and the Russian land. And the samovar listened to them and sang its quiet, calm song both in the long winter evenings, when the blizzard was blowing, and in the spring, when the cherry blossoms were blooming.”
“A Russian is not one who bears a Russian surname, but one who loves Russia and considers it his fatherland.” – a statement by the Russian military leader A. I. Denikin.
Can I tell you briefly? What you have listed is a set of stereotypes. They help to get only a general idea with contrasts, in order to have at least some reference in this world)))) In general, being Russian probably means associating yourself with Russia and loving something here, feeling that you belong to this culture. Maybe for someone it's vodka to drink, okay, to each his own)
Identity issues always cause discussions, often unfriendly ones. Fortunately, scientists have developed a terminology that allows us to describe ethnic identity in academic terms. That is, avoiding derogatory or, conversely, pathetic vocabulary.
Any ethnic identity (Russian, French, Japanese, Nepalese) can be described using only two terms: linguistic identity and historical memory. With the first one, everything is more or less clear. If your first word in life was “mom” (and not mutter or anyuka), then your parents speak Russian, and therefore define themselves and you as Russian. In the future, for example, you can change your place of residence and move to Australia. Your children will know Russian, but they will speak English. Their identification will be mixed, which will bring them a lot of problems. However, their children (your grandchildren) will already consider themselves Australians and in general they will not have personal problems related to self-determination issues. And your great-grandchildren, most likely, will not even know about the Russian origin of their great-grandfather, because this will be irrelevant information for them.
Historical memory is a little more complicated, although everything is also clear. Historical memory is a set of cognitive formulas about the structure of the past, learned from school history lessons, the media, and communication with friends. Divided into different states, but with a common language and a common memory, the Polish people twice rose from the ruins and revived their statehood.
What cognitive formulas are we talking about? A story is a narrative that describes long time periods, based on the idea that the world is divided into countries. And that these countries have a nature, if not eternal, then at least unlimited in the foreseeable future. As a result, histories are written as the histories of countries (the history of France, the history of Russia, the history of Hungary), and not of regions or peoples.
It is obvious to us that all the events from the textbook are about us, about our country, our people. Vladimir Svyatoslavich founded our state, Alexander Nevsky was a great commander who defended our state from the invasion of the Latins, Vladislav Vaza encroached on the sovereignty of our country, Peter Bagration was a Russian general, and Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, on the contrary, was a German. And that as our borders expand, so does our history (and vice versa).
Depending on how you assess the past (not all of it, but only those that are within the same vision horizon as those around you), you can tell who you define yourself as. A great example is the Second World War. If you believe that the main battles took place on the Soviet-German fronts, and that without the participation of the USSR, there was no chance to defeat Nazism, then you are a Russian. If the Second World War is just the eastern front of a global war for you, then you are a resident of one of the European countries. If you confuse World War II with Pacific War II, chances are good that you are a Chilean.
Of course, in addition to linguistic identity and historical memory, there are other markers that are important for peoples located close to each other or who previously lived within the same country. For example, religious. But I would still call them secondary.