Culture Paper – Russia

Russia is the world’s largest nation by area, as it extends throughout Northern Asian and Eastern Europe, exhibiting much diversity in geography, ethnicities and cultures. Russia has been through several phases of governance which spans from a history of migrating peoples and ancient kingdoms to the Kievan Rus,
Peter the Great, the Slavs, Tsardom, Imperialism, Revolution and the Russian Republic, Soviet Russia, the
Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. These aspects of Russian history are important to Russian culture because they have made Russia (its people, architecture, food, festivals, language, literature and art) what they are today.
Though those who live in Russia are called “Russians,” over 180 various ethnic groups can be found in
Russia. Russian is the official language, though over 100 languages are spoken by its peoples. Besides the
Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians), who account for about 80 percent of Russia's population, three main ethnic groups and a handful of isolated smaller groups reside within the federation.
The majority of Russians identify with the Eastern Orthodox (Christian) religion, but Judaism, Islam, and
Buddhism are also practiced in Russia. Islam, professed by about 19 percent of believers in the mid1990s, is numerically the second most important religion in Russia. Various non-Orthodox Christian denominations and a dwindling but still important Jewish population complete the list of major religious groups in the Russian Federation. In general, Russians of all religions have enjoyed freedom of worship since the collapse of the communist regime in 1991, and large numbers of abandoned or converted religious buildings have been returned to active religious use in the 1990s.
Russia's capital city is Moscow, though St. Petersburg once held that title and now serves as a “second