...An introduction to Russian: History, culture, and psychotherapy. Elms College Maxim M. Arbuzov Spring 2012 Abstract: On March 15, 2012, I landed in Vladivostok, Russia. I was amazed by the diversity and fast growth of the city since my last visit in 2006. Everything has changed the population has quickly grown, and people from around the world are visiting this place that is economically expanding. I seen family, friends, and professionals, which all knew my academic intentions. I talked a lot about social work and counseling, and more specifically: what would they do in times of crisis? Would they seek help? Where? I interviewed a few people of different age brackets, and they all had the same thing to say, for some odd reason; grab a bottle, head over to your best friends house, that is our therapy session. From this I became very interested in one underdeveloped and not heavily researched topic: psychotherapy and counseling in Russia. Introduction It is rather difficult to understand the status of psychotherapy in Russia nowadays, without background information on its history and culture. Russia among other nations has a long history of war and revolutions, which impacted every sphere of life for their populations. Different nations fell under the umbrella of the former “Soviet Union”, which is why Russia is such an interesting country to study because of the vast diversity. Along with diversity the most interesting part researching Russian Psychotherapy is that...
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...Russian Culture When talking about the culture of Russia, using the ASCOPE method is an accurate approach to get an overview of what the culture consists of and the breakdown of the important factors. ASCOPE an abbreviation for: Area, which is the geographic location or territory of the country. Structures, is a physical location and function that can hinder a military operation: schools, government buildings, mosques and cemeteries. Capabilities, which refer to limitations of key personnel and civilian organization: Health, education and social status. These can also be measured by what they produce. Organization, are categorized by the positive or negative impact of the U.S mission. People, understanding the people are the most important in Counter Insurgency Operations. Learning the people and relating to the people will benefit the country by limiting the mistakes from misunderstandings and will guarantee more accomplished missions. Lastly is Events, which are the cultures religious traditions and holidays or any specific event that is cherished amongst the people (Miles). “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories” (Sun Tzu, The Art of War). So, when looking at Russia it is important to take into consideration the aspects of ASCOPE, especially the people. Russia is located in northern Eurasia, and is considered to be the world’s largest country on the basis of territory. It spans over 17,075,200 kilometers and covers roughly one eighth of...
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...Select one of the national-based cultural examples presented in Gannon and Pillai (2012) (understanding Global Culture) and analyse the extent to which the metaphor explains or describes the prevalent business culture in that country. The Russian Ballet Word Count: 2450 This essay is going to examine a chapter from the book “Understanding Global Cultures” of Gannon and Pillai (2012) – “The Russian Ballet” and for what extend it speaks the truth about the Russian business culture. As well, the essay is going to provide some extra information and will provide a clearer example of what is the Russian business culture like. Through the essay, I am going to provide different examples and case studies, which explains why do culture clashes matter. The world has become more globalised and connected through the internet. It made possible the formation of all kinds of communities of people with common interests, who are all around the world. Today, information is much more accessible and easily exchanged, as a result from today’s technology, as well as many people can afford to travel around the world. As a result, from this business practices have become more global and cross-cultural. Business must learn to market products in different countries and to deal with their different government restrictions. As a conclusion from the above in the future business ethics would become increasingly less adequate. (Shirin, 2011) Culture is day- to-...
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...Russian Negotiation Report (Director of the Archives) 1. What, in general, did you learn about negotiation from the simulation? What surprised you? What would you do differently? The pub was chosen to be the place to meet. It was meant to be a friendly place with drinks so that barriers would be broken. Of course, given it was just a simulation and we actually knew each other as friends, I’m guessing the real world scenario would be slightly different, or at least the effect of choosing a friendly place would have different impact than I would imagine. That being said, I did notice that in an environment with a lot of background noise (I remember a basketball game was on), people tend to speak loudly, which leads them to be looser in the way they talked. Interestingly, that led some people to make serious accusations to their counterparts. Then again, it was a simulation and this effect would probably be less probable in real life. The minister was a bit late to the meeting. That didn’t give us enough time to prepare with the minister. That was a huge mistake. It appeared that the minister had a lot of information that we didn’t know and could’ve used to better the outcome of the negotiation and avoid disagreements within our Russian side. For example, the minister had a clear demand of receiving %50 of the revenues, while Pipeline wanted to split the profit 50-50. Because the minister didn’t communicate this radical demand with the cultural attaché beforehand...
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...The Russian “Trepak” vs. The Ukrainian “Hopak” The popular FOX TV show “So You Think You Can Dance” began introducing various styles of dance to bring awareness of traditions of other cultures into the mainstream television in the US. In last season’s finale, the two top male dancers, Joshua and Twitch, danced a ‘Russian “trepak”’ while wearing Ukrainian folk costumes and dancing traditional hopak moves. The hopak is the traditional dance of Ukraine. This caused some controversy, and offended those from Ukraine as well as Russia. The dance was choreographed to music from “The Nutcracker”, which raised questions as well. The fact that the composer, Tchaikovsky, who was of Ukrainian origin, used Ukrainian folk melodies in his works does not make them automatically Russian. Just to give a little history, trepak, or hopak was developed and then danced by the Ukrainian Cossacks even before Ukraine was taken over by Russia. The costumes, choreography and music had nothing to do with Russian culture, but instead were tied to Ukrainian traditions. Russians have never danced “trepak” as part of their traditional cultural dance. The fact that the dance was presented as a Russian number was not only an uncharacteristic sign of ignorance, but also insulted many Ukrainians watching everywhere! The “trepak” and hopak are distinct Ukrainian national dances that even the Soviet government never suggested were Russian in origin! Also, it was said that it was “Russian street dancing”...
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...Late Eighteenth Century Russian Reforms Russian reforms were not exclusion just to the late eighteenth century; however, the need for Russia to emerge from backwards of policies, administrative, and agriculture means met its mountain by the mid-1800s. The need to modernize Russia was apparent from the defeat during the Crimea War 1853 – 1856 that saw Russian borders erode back to eastern territories which left unattended defense against the French and British navy that could attack from the Black Sea. As with any monarch, reforms came from whom the ruler was but the reforms that the Russian people needed and paved the way to modernization first were the ideas of Peter the Great, expanded upon under Catherine the Great, and materialized during Alexander II’s wearing of the crown. First notion to mimic western cultures first came to pass during Peter the Great reign. Already established as a great land empire, Peter I did not changed ruling policies of past emperors. He did add changes in economy and culture by benchmarking western innovations. Peter’s first major change was in his military structure. Peter recruited bureaucrats from outside of the aristocracy. This led to the creation of his secret police force which kept the aristocracy in check. Peter the Great also created the Imperial navy; the council of nobles was disbanded and replaced by provincial governors that Peter was able to control. The tax system was reformed to place more burdens on the serfs. Serfs...
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...Russian Terrorism The devastating defeat of Russian forces in the Crimean War exposed the backwardness of Russia. In response, Tsar Alexander II passed a series of reforms, which were intended to liberalize Russian society. They included the abolition of serfdom, the modernization of the government, the opening of universities to people of all socioeconomic classes, the granting of semi-autonomy to the Russian territory of Poland, and the relaxation of some laws that were punitive to various religious groups (Burleigh 27). While these reforms had good intentions they failed to have the intended effects. The educational reforms did allow more people to be admitted to universities, but they did little to change life conditions for these new people. For example, women left universities with no new societal roles in which they could utilize their education. In addition, educated people of lower classes had few employment opportunities available for them upon graduation (Alexander and His Times). The tough situation for the newly accepted students caused students to rise up and take control of their professors (Burleigh 28). The emancipation of the serfs was also not entirely successful. This is because it left awkward agreements between former serfs and landlords that forced serfs to reimburse their former masters for the financial loss of losing them as unpaid workers. These agreements caused tension and some unrest in rural areas. Even in Poland, the limited self-rule...
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...1917 Russian Revolution The 1917 Russian Revolution was not, as many people suppose, one well organised event in which Tsar Nicholas II was overthrown and Lenin and the Bolsheviks took power. It was a series of events that took place during 1917, which entailed two separate revolutions in February and October (with a great deal of political wranglings inbetween), and which eventually plunged the country into Civil War before leading to the founding of the Communist State. Growing Unrest The first major event of the Russian Revolution was the February Revolution, which was a chaotic affair and the culmination of over a century of civil and military unrest. The causes of this unrest of the common people towards the Tsar and aristocratic landowners are too many and complicated to neatly summarise, but key factors to consider were ongoing resentment at the cruel treatment of peasants by patricians, poor working conditions experienced by city workers in the fledgling industrial economy and a growing sense of political and social awareness of the lower orders in general (democratic ideas were reaching Russia from the West and being touted by political activists). Dissatisfaction of the proletarian lot was further compounded by food shortages and military failures. In 1905 Russia experienced humilating losses in the Russo-Japanese war and, during a demonstration against the war in the same year, Tsarist troops fired upon an unarmed crowd - further dividing Nicholas II from his...
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...Between 1861 and 1917, Russian society had undergone many changes. It is safe to say that every aspect of that society had been some how modified. These changes led up to the Bolshevik revolution in November of 1917. Given the nature of Russian society, was the Bolshevik revolution unavoidable? Among the changes Russian society had undergone, one starts off the whole chain of events. This was the emancipation of the serfs, in 1861, by Czar Alexander. The emancipation freed 44 million peasants. The Czar knew that the only way to end the discontent of the serfs and to show that Russia too was a modern society would be to let them free. The Edict of Emancipation caused many problems these uneducated peasants. The land now assigned to them was smaller then the plots they were using as serfs. This was an average of 8 acres. There was also a forty-nine year period over which installments could be paid before the peasants were given full ownership of the land. In fact many peasants were still working for their landlords after the edict. Because of his efforts Alexander was nicknamed "the liberator". Despite giving the serfs their freedom, Alexander's actions cause more problems then they solved. After the unification of Germany between 1861 and 1891, which accelerated it's military and political power, Russia too felt it should industrialize. A man named Sergei Witte, who was Minister of Finance from 1892-1903, almost single-handedly pushed Russia into its industrialization. He...
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...Introduction Palatalization is one of the biggest concerns in the Russian phonology. Palatalization is an articulation of a consonant in which the blade of the tongue moves toward the hard palate. For example, when the non-palatalized lateral approximant [l] sound of ‘лак’(‘lacquer’) is pronounced, the tip of the tongue presses up near the teeth and the central part of the tongue is low in the mouth. On the contrary, when the palatalized [l] in ‘лямка’ (‘sling’)is pronounced, the tip of thetongue presses up behind the upper teeth, and the blade and the central part of the tongue are raised towards the hard palate. There are several types of articulation observed in Russian, including velar palatalization, affricate palatalization, iotation and surface palatalization. The current paper focuses on the status of regressive palatalization in modern Russian Palatalization in Russian The articulation of almost every consonant in Russian comes in two forms, it can be either palatalized or non-palatalized. In Russian phonological works non-palatalized consonants are informally referred to as hard and palatalized are referred to as soft. Palatalization is similar but not identical for sounds of different places of articulation. Though there are these minor differences, all palatalized consonants influence vowels in the same way. When a given articulation occurs in both palatalized and non-palatalized forms, that articulation can be said to be paired , or mutable , for palatalization...
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...The reasons behind the 1905 Russian Revolution were multifaceted, varying in proximity. Long-term causes included the difficulties in ruling Russia, where vast size, climate and economy combined with a system of autocracy proved factors to the discontent of society. Personal limitations of Tsar Nicholas II destined his leadership to fail, no determination or desire inside his intentions, as growing hatred of the Tsar heightened for a lack of political representation plagued civilian’s lives. Short-term effects include the impact of the Russo-Japanese War and the impact of Bloody Sunday, eroding Nicholas’s reputation to that of a power hungry sadist. The Mutiny of the Black Sea Fleet presented disquiet within the military, concern for an inability of security forces to cope with pressure surging the need for revolution. The spectre of revolt was ever present. An extensive contribution to the 1905 Revolution can be uncovered through the difficulties in ruling Russia. A home to 125 million people, the Russian Empire consisted of nearly 23 million square kilometres, with only 5% of this area useable for agricultural purposes. This affected Russia’s industry and farming immensely, featuring shortages of food, living space and quality of living for victims of such conditions. A lack of nationalism lingered, as more than half the population consisted of Poles and Ukraine’s, creating barriers in language and traditions. This resulted in a vast difference of religion, and therefor stripped...
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...Russia has never been a happy place. Since the 12th Century it has been bogged down in poverty, horrific living conditions, and an extremely separated class system. It took many years for the workers and slaves of Russian life to finally organize themselves and revolt against the causes of such hardship; many years of pain, suffering, and oppression that were brought on by the czars. It was this stagnant suffering that would finally begin to lift, and eventually bring power to the Bolsheviks and communism to Russia. Many revolutionaries encouraged killing, robbery, and used terror to advance their effort. However, there were other kinds of revolutionaries, some violent, some not. Gorky, Dostoevsky, and Turgenev all contributed to the progress of the revolution by communicating through literature. All four books were intended to identify critical issues of life, to instigate social and political changes throughout Russia, and to wholly improve Russian life. Gorky’s My Childhood explains the terrible conditions Russia peasants faced. Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons represents the struggle between two ideologies, romanticism and liberalism. Gorky’s next book Mother is the idea of insurgency cells and how a group with no distinct leader can be effective. Finally, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Possessed shows how violence can be a major tool in fuelling a rebellion, although it also shows how extreme nihilism is self-destructive. Simply listing the problems with Russia up to the 19th and early...
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...English 11 Brammer 7 Russian Nihilism Interactive Oral Reflection My presentation with Cotton, Adrian and Albert was centered around Russian Nihilism in relation to Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Russian nihilism is the rejection of any sort of moral laws or beliefs. It is a philosophical approach that was initiated in Russia in the 1850s and 1860s. Nihilism rejects societal bonds and emotional concerns with the belief that there is no “mind” or “soul” outside of the physical world. Utilitarianism is similar to nihilism. Utilitarianism is the belief that moral decisions should be based the most amount of happiness for the largest number of people. The protagonist in Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, justifies his murder of the pawnbroker Alyona on a utilitarian and nihilist rationale. He claims that a “louse” has been eradicated from society. In addition, Raskolnikov portrays many nihilist behaviors. He is entirely apathetic for the majority of the novel; he doesn’t care about others’ emotions or society’s laws (such as the one against murder). We started the oral with a journal entry about going against the “status quo,” because Nihilism is very much related to going against the “norm”. Nihilism is about rejecting all societal expectations and going against the status quo. From there, we progressed to talk about Crime and Punishment and how Dostoevsky came to create this work. Dostoevsky was largely influenced by the Russian reform that was occurring during...
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...The Russian Ark by Aleksandr Sokurov is an amazing accomplishment for the film industry. It was the first film to be shot in one single take that lasted for ninety-six minutes. What I especially liked about Russian Ark is the history that is told in the film. Since the whole thing was done in the Hermitage Museum, I liked how the European flowed through the “halls of time” experiencing the greatness of Russia. That being said, I had a hard time following the film. Throughout the whole film, the European wanders through the museum which in the film is the Winter Ball. Not only does the film organize itself around the ball, it also shows different time periods of Russian history. I liked how we never met the narrator of the film but only relied on the European to show us around the Ball. He being a world traveler tied in to the fact that he is time traveling Russia. At the very end of the film, the narrator looked out of one of the windows and saw the ocean. I thought it was interesting how they tied the flow of history to an ark that holds Russia’s culture. It seems that it is saying that no matter what Russia had to go through; the 900 day siege, the days of Catherine the Great, the not so great times with Joseph Stalin; they stuck or sailed together However, as much as I liked the different time periods that were depicted, the colors, and music and dresses and the idea of a film with one single shot, I found that I was rather bored with the whole film. Like I said, as...
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...allegiance to Constantine. o Having no support, Nicholas was prepared to give up power. • After Constantine confirmed his refusal, Nicholas declared himself emperor o A plot was hatched by the military to overthrow Nicholas and to usurp power. Led to the Decembrist Revolt on 26 December 1825 Nicholas was successful in suppressing the uprising. • Fighting revolutionary ideas & dissent became Nicholas’ obsession o In the early 1830s, he brutally crushed a Polish rebellion, reducing Poland to the status of a Russian province. o In 1848 he sent troops to suppress a Hungarian uprising against Austrian control. • Back in Russia: o Tried to strengthen stability, streamlining Russia’s code of laws and its financial and education systems. Dreamt of an ideal society where people show loyalty to the unlimited authority of the Czar. • Motto of his regime was proclaimed to be “autocracy, Orthodoxy and nationality”. o Used to promote traditional Russian values and...
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