page_title: Russian culture
hierarchical_section_title: Russian culture
caption_attribution_description: English: The Cathedral of Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat (Собо́р Покрова́, что на Рву) also known as the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed (Храм Васи́лия Блаже́нного) on the Red Square, Moscow. Français&#160;: La cathédrale de l'Intercession-de-la-Vierge (Собо́р Покрова́, что на Рву), appelée également cathédrale Basile-le-Bienheureux ou Saint-Basile (Храм Васи́лия Блаже́нного) sur la Place Rouge à Moscou.
context_page_description: The culture of the ethnic Russian people has a long tradition of achievement in many fields, especially when it comes to literature, folk dancing, philosophy, classical music, traditional folk-music, ballet, architecture, painting, cinema, animation and politics. In all these areas Russia has had a considerable influence on world culture. Russia also has a rich material culture and a tradition in technology.
  Russian culture grew from that of the East Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of life in the wooded, steppe and forest-steppe areas of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Major influences on early Russian culture and Slavic people in Russia included:
  nomadic Turkic people and tribes of Iranian origin through intense cultural contacts in the Russian steppe
  Finno-Ugric peoples, Balts and Scandinavians through the Russian North
  Goths in the Pontic littoral, who left linguistic traces in the early Russian dialects
  the people of the Byzantine Empire with whom Old Russia maintained strong cultural links
context_section_description: The culture of the ethnic Russian people (along with the cultures of many other  ethnicities with which it has intertwined in the territory of the  Russian Federation and the former Soviet Union) has a long tradition of achievement in many fields, especially when it comes to literature, folk dancing,  philosophy, classical music, traditional folk-music,  ballet,  architecture,  painting,  cinema,  animation and  politics. In all these areas Russia has had a considerable influence on world culture. Russia also has a rich material culture and a  tradition in technology.
  Russian culture grew from that of the East Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of life in the wooded, steppe and forest-steppe areas of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Major influences on early Russian culture and  Slavic people in Russia included:
  nomadic Turkic people (Tatars, Kipchaks) and tribes of  Iranian origin through intense cultural contacts in the Russian steppe
  Finno-Ugric peoples, Balts and Scandinavians (Germanic people) through the Russian North
  Goths in the Pontic littoral, who left linguistic traces in the early Russian dialects
  the  people of the Byzantine Empire (especially Greeks) with whom Old Russia maintained strong cultural links
  In the late 1st millennium AD the Nordic sea culture of the Varangians (Scandinavian Vikings) and in the middle of the second millennium the nomadic peoples of the Mongol Empire also influenced Russian culture. The fusion of Nordic-European and Oriental-Asian cultures shaped Early Slavic tribes in European Russia and helped to form the Russian identity in the Volga region and in the states of the Rus' Khaganate (c. 9th century AD) and  Kievan Rus' (9th to 13th centuries).  Orthodox Christian missionaries began arriving from the Eastern Roman Empire in the 9th century, and Kievan Rus' officially  converted to Orthodox Christianity in 988. This largely defined the Russian culture of the next millennium as a synthesis of Slavic and Byzantine cultures. Russia or Rus' formed, developed its culture and was influenced through its location by Western European and Asian cultures so that a Russian-Eurasian culture developed.
  After Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, Russia remained the largest  Orthodox nation in the world and eventually claimed succession to the Byzantine legacy in the form of the Third Rome idea. An important period in Russian history, the Tsardom of Russia from 1547 until 1721, saw many Russian cultural peculiarities emerge and develop. At different periods in Russian history, the culture of Western Europe also exerted strong influences over Russian citizens. During the era of the Russian Empire which existed from 1721 to 1917, the title of the rulers became officially westernised: Tsars claimed the title and rank of "Emperor". Following the reforms of Peter the Great (reigned 1682–1725) in the Russian Empire, for two centuries Russian "high culture" largely developed in the general context of European culture rather than pursuing its own unique ways. The situation changed in the 20th century, when the distinctive  Communist ideology - originally imported from Europe - became a major factor in the culture of the Soviet Union, where Russia, in the form of the Russian SFSR, was the largest and leading part. The culture of the Soviet Union has decisively shaped the former Soviet Russian Republic and thus Russian culture.
  Although Russia has been influenced by Western Europe, the Eastern world, Northern cultures and the Byzantine Empire for more than 1000 years since ancient Rus' and is culturally connected with them, it is often argued that due to its history, geography and inhabitants (which belong to different language families but became embedded in the Russian language and culture), the country has developed a character with many aspects of a unique Russian civilization which in many parts differs from both Western and Eastern cultures.
  Nowadays, the Nation Brands Index ranks Russian cultural heritage seventh in importance, based on interviews of some 20,000 people mainly from We
caption: Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow
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