Russian Cultural Traditions Research Articles

Dialect Word as “Archetype” of Russian Culture

The article analyzes the problems of anthropological linguistics. In the last decades, the ideas of anthropological linguistics have been actualized, which contributed to the revival of interest in Alexander von Humboldt’s idea that a language is “activity of national spirit.” It focuses on the study of the manifestations of the “human spirit” in language, customs, rituals, myths – in other words, the analysis of the processes of perception, knowledge, thinking, and man’s emotional attitude to the world. Language as “activity of national spirit” in accordance with the direction of anthropological linguistics is considered both as a tool of mental ordering of the world and as a mirror of ethnic worldview. Before linguistics opened a new field of research related to the hermeneutic study of language, which allowed us to move from empirical data to their interpretation analysis, i.e. to rise from the level of registration of facts to the level of their explanation. From linguistics “in itself and for itself” (F. Saussure), it turned into a “why/why-linguistics” (A.E. Kibrik). And in this transformation of interpretative linguistics, cognitive science has a special role and gives cultural, ethno-psychological, and historical explanation to the linguistic facts. The author believes that an adequate description of the nation’s psychology and its culture should be obtained based on the data of their language. Appeals to authorities’ opinions in the field of literature or philosophical thought are not convincing, because it is always a point of view from the outside, which is subjective. According to the author, it is necessary to abandon the imposed assessments and penetrate into the ideology of language. Moreover, the success of cognitive-oriented linguistics suggests that the language structure is not arbitrary and it is significantly motivated by the organization of cognitive structure, which is reflected in the mirror of natural language. Using a lot of dialect material, the author proves that by studying the dialect word we will be able to understand not only the archetype of our culture, but also its true essence. The author illustrates this position on the example of such basic concept of Russian traditional culture as WORK. The analysis of dialect material in the proposed perspective allowed to critically assess the negative perception of the Russian people, who are allegedly characterized as lazy and passive. According to the author, WORK is not just an activity, but an ethically significant activity, which is still determined by the Russian mentality, so the idea that Russians do not accept hard work is denial of the moral basics of their life.

Objects as culture‐specific referents of color terms in Russian

AbstractThe present study is an extension of our analysis of Russian basic color terms (BCTs) elicited in a web‐based psycholinguistic experiment. Color samples (N = 600) were approximately uniformly distributed in the Munsell color solid. An unconstrained color‐naming method was employed. Native Russian speakers (N = 713; 333 males) participated in the study. Among 1422 elicited unique color words, 698 terms (49%) were derived from object names. Here we explore object‐derived non‐BCTs, focusing on broad classes of names referred to objects, categories within these, and the inventory of color terms, as well as their frequency, patterns of derivation, and derivational productivity. Six classes of object referents were identified: flora, fauna, inanimate nature, food and beverages, man‐made objects, body and bodily products. In detail, 20 most frequent object‐derived terms are reported. These are accompanied by analysis of gender differences and representation of the terms' denotata on the Munsell Mercator projection. In addition, Russian object‐derived color terms are related to those in English; discussed are differences between the 2 languages in the color term classes, inventories and incidences. We conclude that Russian object‐derived color terms follow the generic metonymy pattern, that is, signifying color of objects in the speakers' natural environment. The inventory is also language‐specific, reflecting social practices, preferences and views entrenched in the traditional Russian culture. Furthermore, recent extensive development of the inventory signals 2 novel phenomena: marked globalization influence, surfacing as abundant transliteration of English referent loanwords, and noticeable sociolectal diversification that manifests itself by novel evocative color terms, particularly in marketing and advertisement.

Russian artists in Slovenia after the October revolution

This article presents selected Russian artists in theater, opera and ballet, which have been working in Ljubljana Theater since 1920. In the article are presented Russian actors, dancers, singers, choreographers and teachers who brought to the Slovenian land two hundred years old traditions of Russian culture and contributed to the success of Slovenian theater, opera and ballet.

THE CONCEPT "FRIEND" IN CHINESE AND RUSSIAN CULTURAL LINGUISTICS

Strengthening the economic and cultural ties of China and Russia requires efficient cross-cultural communication between the representatives of these countries, in the light of which linguo-cultural studies become especially urgent as they can compare the concept spheres of the Chinese and Russian languages. The important concepts of the Chinese and Russian national cultures are «Pengyou» (朋友) и «Друг», meaning “Friend”. The goal of this research is to reveal the similarities and the differences between the abovementioned concepts in Chinese and Russian linguocultures. To reach this goal it is necessary to undertake the following: 1) analysis of dictionary definitions and concepts in the Chinese and Russian cultural traditions; 2) comparative analysis of associative fields of the concepts in Russian and Chinese; 3) analysis of contexts from the National Corpus of the Chinese language and the National Corpus of the Russian language. For the Chinese concept its hieroglyphic variant is important: the concept is connected with the traditional cultural situation “old friends will bring two rows of bowls to drink beer together”. Both Chinese and Russian concepts are in the core of the language consciousness of these languages. The corpus analysis revealed that collocations with these concepts in the corpora of the Chinese and Russian languages are to a great extent similar (37.5%), which is the proof of the proximity of the concepts (collocations with the following words exist in both languages: my, old, good/best, dear, his, your, our, love and close). The differences reveal the peculiarities of the mentality of these nations: for instance, in Chinese “friend” is classified according to the gender (female and male), there are references to the country (Chinese, Foreign, Soviet), and finally, the similar collocations in Russian and Chinese are not equally relevant. The material of this research may be important for psycholinguistics, linguoculturology, cognitive linguistics and it can be used in teaching Chinese and Russian languages.

Creative Intuition

Abstract Among the artists of the Russian avant-garde, there was general agreement that the new art forms they were seeking were not to be found in the visible world but rather the artist’s own creative intuition. The true artist created freely and independently, without regard for the appearance of the objective world or conventional approaches to its depiction. In their explorations of the artistic process and the creative endeavor, the artists found inspiration in Henri Bergson’s concept of intuition as a philosophical method, which the French philosopher had formulated in his 1903 essay “Introduction à la métaphysique” (An Introduction to Metaphysics). Bergson’s ideas were further developed and integrated into the larger discussion about organic perception and creative intuition within the Russian cultural tradition by the Russian philosopher Nikolai Lossky. Lossky’s own concept, which he called intuitivism, was developed as an alternative to Bergson’s philosophy; it was an attempt to unite pre-Kantian rationalism, particularly Leibniz’s monadology, with the strong tradition of mystical rationalism in Russian philosophy. Kazimir Malevich related non-objectivity in art to creative intuition and promoted suprematism as a theory of unbounded creativity that could overcome the narrow notion of art and encompass all spheres of life. In suprematism, “art advances toward creation as an end in itself and toward domination over the forms of nature.” Malevich’s suprematist elements can be compared to Lossky’s substantival agents—they are a creation of the absolute, i.e., intuitive reason, and serve as fundamental building blocks of the world. The essay discusses the Russian interpretation of Henri Bergson’s L’Evolution créatice (Creative Evolution) by Nikolai Lossky and the role Lossky’s concept of intuitivism played in the art and art theory of the Russian avant-garde, specifically Malevich’s suprematism.

ТОЛЕРАНТНОСТЬ: ЕСТЬ ЛИ АЛЬТЕРНАТИВА?

The article suggests a re-evaluation of theoretical and practical application of tolerance in its contemporary European-American understanding as a concealed expansion of spiritual values, extraneous to Russian mentality. One of the conduits of this tolerance, propagating “western values” and alien to Russian peoples, is satirical comedy shows on Russian television, where a Russian person is depicted as a primitive brute. We examine the history of various understanding of cultural values between Russian people and western countries. Fundamental traditional moral and ethical values and cultural experience of Russian peoples are considered to be top priority in cultural development. For this reason, the author suggests establishing learning and teaching and academic centres and departments to study, preserve and actualize traditional cultures of native peoples of Siberia, the Far North and the Far East, as well as to research and regenerate Russian traditional culture.

The Concept CROSS [KREST] in Russian Cultural Tradition

The Concept CROSS [KREST] in Russian Cultural Tradition

V. V. Rozanov and the hermeneutics tradition in Russia

This article is about the hermeneutical tradition in Russian culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. The main direction in this tradition was biblical, philology and legal hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is one of most influential traditions in modern philosophy including the conceptions of such figures as F. Schleiermacher, W. Dilthey, M. Heidegger, H.-G Gadamer, and P. Ricoeur. The general precondi-tions causing their emergence, and also the similar phenomena in other cultures (Germany espe-cially). The central reality for the hermeneutic tradition is the reality of language. Language is a main means of human communication and a certain way of passing on some social experience from one generation to another. The paper researches various problems of philosophical knowledge: ontology, social philosophy, aesthetics. The author examines the relevant aspects of philosophical hermeneutics by V. V. Rozanov (1856–1919). There are revealed similarities and differences between the Rozanov’s concept and other authors (Russian and European) in the article. The author shows the inclusion of Rozanov’s hermeneutical conception in Russian cultural tradition. The author points out that these concepts should be attributed to Aristotelian philosophical currents. Of course, Rozanov was the most important figure this tradition in Russia. Refs 14.

Fiers vs Truffaldino: Sketches of Russian and European Culture

In this article, we discuss the interaction of those in positions of power and the subordination of the servant in different cultural traditions. The author contrasts the European practice of rational subordination with the subordination in the more fundamental practice of Russian culture. Speaking about the practices of subordination in the culture, the author is inclined to contrast the collective image of the European servant provided by Truffaldino with the popular collective image of the lackey within the framework of Russian culture as provided by Fiers. The author believes that these primeval service-providers possess features that complement each other and become one. As well, each type mentioned may be specific to the political practices of those in power in a particular cultural tradition. The author examines the similarities and differences in the practical services of the chosen servants in the context of behavioral strategies in detail. Selection strategy, in turn, is communicated within defined constraints. In totalitarian discourse conditions, the servants are unlikely to have a chance of achieving a more-or-less independent positioning or high mobility. The cultural context constructs a hierarchical submission, its structure, and functionality. Therefore, the rational life in European culture can be contrasted with the more-sweeping economic style taking place in Russian cultural tradition. The respect for the servant in the European culture associated with the contractual principle of service is impossible in Russian cultural practice, where the dependence of the servants on the lord seems to be much more fundamental.

Pankratiy Sumarokov’s Uchilishche lyubvi (School of Love) as a Meeting Space for Russia and Europe

The author reconstructs the literary and historical context of the first printed Siberian translation, Pankraty Sumarokov’s Uchilishche lyubvi (School of Love) (1789), in order to reveal its place and status in Russian prose of the late 18th century. The article is polemicises against traditional interpretations of the book (V. Pavlov, V. Rak, and others). This article is the first attempt to consider the novel within the framework of contextual and structural-typological analysis against the background of the peculiarities and functions of translated literature. The author shows that both original and translated Russian texts existing in ‘the force field’ of the European novel (P. Tallemant, S. Richardson, J.-J. Rousseau, J. G. B. Pfeil, L.-S. Mercier) tend to distance themselves from it. This is revealed in a variety of ways, ranging from liberal translations and intertextual re-interpretations to creative polemics and rejection. However, this does not deprive them of characteristic features like the uniformity of genre poetics (the system of motifs, typology of the characters, literary space, and plot structure). The meeting place of European and Russian cultural traditions in School of Love is treated on the level of micropoetics: geographic images (England, France, and Spain), the plot of Circe and Odysseus, the biographical context of Sumarokov’s creative work, etc. Additionally, School of Love is analysed in the context of Sumarokov’s poetic works resulting from his reading experience of French literature (La Fontaine, Voltaire). The article characterizes School of Love as a quaint phenomenon of the Russian literature of the late 18th century: an ‘English novel’ which is a Russian translation of a French version of a German story. Simultaneously, it is a case study of P. Sumarokov’s individual creative strategy as shaped in the Irtysh, prevrashchayushchiysya v Ipokrenu, with the underlying idea of interaction between the Russian and European traditions, the meeting of ‘friend’ and ‘foe’. The article is based on unique texts of 18th-century Russian literature kept in the Library of the Russian Academy of Science (St Petersburg).

Фольклор русских переселенцев в контексте местной традиционной культуры: феномен свадебного обряда села Арзамасцево Удмуртской Республики

The article is devoted to the specifics of the wedding ceremony in Arzamastsevo village of Karakulinskiy district of the Udmurt Republic (UR), where the Russian migrants from the Tambov province live since the first third of the XIX century. The history of the village is covered - documentary sources, stories, oral narratives. The local-group nicknames “yaguty,” “sleporody,” “slepushi,” the toponym “Arzamastsevo” are analysed. Elements of the wedding ceremony are characterized. Dialectal names to ritual actions are presented. Peculiar wedding customs are revealed - bride’s otbivaniye zori ; buddies’ riding of kurnik and the bride’s bed, stealing the bed; feast at the bride’s house after the wedding; stretching the filaments in the yard of the bride during the arrival of the bridegroom for the bride. The results are presented of a comparative analysis of wedding rituals of Arzamastsevo and other Russian dialect traditions of UR. It is established that the marriage rites of Arzamastsevo organically correlate with the Russian wedding folklore of Karakulinskiy district and other local traditions of UR. It is mentioned that the probable cause of this fact is that by the time Arzamastsevo arose on the territory of the Middle Kama region there had developed a strong local tradition, typologically close to the Russian traditional culture of the Central provinces of Russia. It is emphasized that the traditional culture of Arzamastsevo is a multi-component phenomenon, which is based on the original folklore of resettlers.

Старообрядцы Николаевска: адаптация или ассимиляция в светских условиях США?

<p>Старообрядцы Аляски являют собой пример приспособления традиционных духовных принципов к условиям пребывания в центре мировой глобализации, вестернизации, научно-технического прогресса и постиндустриализма. Старообрядческий опыт неагрессивного сопротивления миропорядку, затирающему любые этнические, культурные и конфессиональные разграничения, чрезвычайно важен при прочерчивании русского цивилизационного пути в современных условиях.</p><p>С целью изучения этого опыта авторами было проведено исследование образа жизни и менталитета русских старообрядцев штата Аляска (США). Проведенная в октябре2015 г. экспедиция вскрыла в жизни староверов Николаевска тесное переплетение остаточного мировоззренческого традиционализма, либерализующейся социальной сферы и радикального ментального модернизма. Все это заставило предположить беспомощность традиционного православия перед натиском секулярных реалий США. В статье проведено сравнение проблем николаевской старообрядческой диаспоры с аналогичными проблемами староверов-беспоповцев юга Аляски, с бо́льшим успехом сохраняющих свою самобытность, но также поддающихся секуляризующему воздействию американской повседневной культуры.</p><p>Выявлен культурный и духовный упадок аляскинского старообрядчества, а также зафиксирована мощь американского консюмеризма, который растворяет особенности иммигрантских диаспор, в то же время, сохраняя их внешнюю оригинальность и приумножая американскую субкультурную множественность.</p>

Об основаниях оптимизма в музыке С. С. Прокофьева

Sergei Prokofiev’s world-perception presents an expression of the profound foundations of the composer’s inner world, which was formed during his childhood under the influence of nature and the traditional forms of Russian national culture. A special place in the composer’s worldview reflection is held by religious strivings. An analysis of his personal notes and diaries reveals a closeness to the basic ideas of Russian philosophy: a priority of the spiritual, the involvement of the material in the spiritual and the divine (according to Vladimir Solovyov), the human being as a “flourishing revelation” in God (according to Nikolai Berdyayev), the human being as a bearer and an embodiment of the Divine Spirit. The determined aspiration towards Light characteristic to Prokofiev’s music is inherent in the directedness towards the absolute (Christian) values, asserted by the composer in his spoken utterances and written notes. Prokofiev’s view of life became a steady platform for his personality, which guarded him against numerous inner convulsions and doubts. The real basis for Prokofiev’s optimism is served by genuine spirituality, which stems from the Russian cultural tradition with its faith in the interconnection of the human being with the absolute origin of existence. Keywords: Sergei Prokofiev, foundations for Prokofiev’s optimism, the Russian cultural tradition, Russian religious philosophy.

The annotated We: a new translation of Evgeny Zamiatin's novel

The annotated We: a new translation of Evgeny Zamiatin's novel, by Vladimir Wozniuk, Bethlehem, Lehigh University Press, 2015, 196 pp., US$75.00 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-611-46178-7When writing about Evgeny Zamiatin's We (1920-21), one of the canonical texts of Russian modernism, it is difficult to avoid mentioning the impressively heterogeneous scholarship the novel has generated over the past half-century. Modernist studies, genre studies, (anti-) utopian studies, mathematics, psychoanalysis, fine arts, biopoetics: the list of the novel's critical contexts goes on and on. In his short and seemingly simple science-fiction story of the mathematician D-503's struggle for selfhood in the futuristic One State, Zamiatin has woven together so many archetypes, intertexts, philosophical ideas, and socio-political allusions that even after almost one hundred years, We still keeps scholars busy and continues to attract new readers.Throughout its turbulent history, the novel has had considerably more luck with translators than with publishers. Not only did the first English edition predate a Russian one by almost thirty years, but also no fewer than eight translations of Zamiatin's jocular and most serious piece (xiii) have appeared to date (including Wozniuk's). Two of the most recent ones - by Garrett Brown and Natasha Randall - are still widely available on the market as Penguin and Modern Library paperbacks. This is quite an achievement for a Russian author whose last name is not spelled Dostoevskii or Tolstoii. Given such proliferation, one might question the need for yet another English version of Zamiatin's magnum opus. As Wozniuk explains, his intention was to produce an accessible English rendition of the novel, but one that would employ language, syntax, and even punctuation that mirror the strange precision and economy of Zamiatin's own (xvi). The result is one of the most accurate - and certainly the most thoroughly researched - translation of We. Wozniuk focuses on the novel's intertextual resonances and the majority of his choices set the text more firmly within the Russian cultural tradition. One particularly noticeable example is his decision to render the novel's chapter headings (zapisy in the original) as notes rather than records or entries, in order to reinforce the Dostoevskian connection (by pointing to Notes from the Underground). Perhaps it is a credit to Zamiatin and the power of his artistic imagination or to his other translators, but even though Wozniuk scrupulously examines every word and phrase from the original to come up with the best English equivalent, his version does not come across as superior to others on the market. D-503's narrative is still as enticing and allusive as ever, but it does not acquire any new dimensions.What truly distinguishes this volume is the second half of Wozniuk's project, namely a scholarly commentary introducing readers to fresh possibilities for the many-leveled game that is We, particularly regarding the many ostensibly cryptic passages that are linked to its peculiarities of lexicon (xvi). In the 53 pages of annotations appended to the end of the book - along with a selected bibliography - Wozniuk not only brings our attention to his translation choices - and, by extension, to the semantic richness of Zamiatin's text - but also undertakes a massive endeavour to untangle the dense intertextual network underlying the novel's narrative and imagery. …

Economics and Culture. The Russian Mentality and Market Reforms

The essay examines the conditions that gave rise to undesirable trends in Russian economic transformation leading to creation of a market that the author refers to as a “wild” market opposing it to the form of market economy inherent in the West (the civilized market). Discussing specific archetypes of Russian mass consciousness and Russian system of fundamental values, the author emphasizes the importance of balancing the specific steps of contemporary economic reforms in the country against unique features of Russian mentality and cultural traditions.

Socio-Psycho-Pedagogical Support of Migrant Children Adjustment in Educational Institutions

The article deals with the problem of migration, the formation of cultural identity and the establishment of intercultural dialogue at various levels of adjustive interaction from the perspective of the need to implement the socio-psycho-pedagogical support to migrant children when adjusting in educational institutions. Analysis of foreign and domestic research on the issue of migrant children and their adjustment to the new socio-cultural living environment, as well as identification of cultural identity formation aspects from the perspective of the impact of various environmental factors, led to the formulation of the research goal, namely, the organization of socio-psycho-pedagogical support for adjustment of migrant pre-school-age children. The formulated goal is realized with the help of two interrelated tasks: creating of socio-pedagogical conditions for the successful adjustment of migrant children, as well as the organization of volunteer groups of students, who are able and willing to carry out work on the adjustment of migrant children into the other-cultural environment. According to the authors, the optimal means of solving this problem is project activities that assume getting familiar with the traditions of Russian culture, fostering the skills of constructive engagement, and forming tolerance in migrant children. Means to form cultural identity of migrant children include folktales, games, toys and animated movies, used during the adaptive interaction between a child and an adult. The result of the project implementation has bilateral perspective: it allows solving not only the problem of adjustment of migrant children, but also helps student volunteers in getting hands-on experience of working with children, as well as expanding the ethnic and cultural horizons of future teachers. Presented statistical data reflect the peculiarities of the adjustment process in migrant children in the Russian Federation, including the Orenburg Region, as a border territory.

Правовое положение незаконнорожденных в Российской империи во второй половине XIX начале XX века

Results of the research of standard and legal regulation of legal status of the children born out of the marriage in the Russian Empire the XIX-XX centuries, which is carried out by the author within the cathedral scientific subject are presented in the article. The main features of legal status of this category of children are designated, the social and economic conditions and Russian cultural traditions which affected special legal status of illegitimate are noted, the attitude of Orthodox Church towards parents of the illegitimate during the considered period is revealed.

Love and Marriage: the Realities of Myth

Denis de Rougement, in his classic opus Love in the Western World argues that the West was unique in its paradoxical modeling of the relationship between passionate love and marriage; “Since its origins in the twelfth century passionate love was constituted in hostility to marriage.” This articles explores this hypothesis by comparing the French legend of Tristan of Yseult and the Russian legend of Peter and Fevronia of Murom. The contrast between the two stories can be analyzed in terms of the tension between Eros and Agape, between a fatal/passionate love in which the individual defies society - narrowing it down to the point of one irreducible and a companionate love, which embeds the individual in an ever-widening network of community made up of friends, relations, descendants. The article concludes on Anna Karenina. There Tolstoy presents a new variation on the theme of passion love and marriage - a synthesis demonstrating the effects of Westernization on traditional Russian culture, and one much closer to our modern sensibility.

Xenophobia as a Basis of Solidarity

The growth in Russia of antagonism toward non-Russians, immigrants, and certain forms of religious and sexual identity is a result of both a resurgence of traditional Russian culture and a deliberate policy to stir up hostility in the media and through new legislation aimed at suppressing difference.

Creating a Comprehensive Staff-Development System for Technical Competence Advancement in a Russian Company

Summary With reserves becoming more difficult to find and produce, oil and gas companies face a growing challenge to keep staff technically current. As the industry loses massive technical knowledge over the next 5–8 years because of retirement, younger staff will need to develop more quickly. Graduates from Russian universities in particular will need a variety of training, development, and motivational programs to enable them to develop globally competitive competencies. Traditional Russian culture and educational methods can hinder establishment of necessary developmental programs. Realizing that its technical capabilities were insufficient to deliver aggressive business goals, one large Russian company set out to change its approach. The Comprehensive Staff Development System (CSDS) it implemented differed greatly from Soviet-style efforts, which tend to be largely theoretical. Targeting more than 15,000 technical specialists and managers organized in 16 disciplines, the CSDS blended the efforts of functional, human-resources (HR), and operating departments. The CSDS covers technical specialists from the day they join the company until they retire or leave. University graduates can enter a Young Specialist program for 3 years, participate in a Pathways program for another 7 years, and then spend their professional career in the Technical Excellence program. Each program addresses different development needs. Overall, the CSDS aims to accelerate the creation of fully independent specialists and also spread knowledge and competence internally. Experts advance a technical career ladder, with appropriate reward and recognition paralleling that of management. A custom-designed Technical Team Leader program provides support for those who branched out into technical management. Designed primarily to keep technical competencies up-to-date, the CSDS also guides access to leadership; health, safety, and environment (HSE); and regulatory training. The system outlines competency requirements for various positions, competency-assessment methods, formal-training expectations, informal-training and distance-learning options, available knowledge-management systems (KMSs), communities-of-practice (CoP) options, mentoring and coaching opportunities, discipline career atlases, and the personal-development-plan (PDP) tool. The system is jointly owned by discipline leaders and HR. Discipline leaders and their staff-development networks ensure that programs target business needs, and contain high-quality and pertinent content. HR administers much of the process and brings professionalism in education methodology. Both parties work to make sure that the discipline as a whole is able to satisfy the professional challenges of the company. Western concepts influenced the design of the system, which was developed at relatively low cost by use of largely in-house expertise. Among the impediments to implementation, cultural resistance at many levels was the most difficult to overcome. Strong management support and a long-term view were critical to successful change.