Russia has a long and extensive history, which shows in both modern and traditional aspects. Like any country, Russia has unique traditions that only belong to them, such as the customs from the past and food they eat due to the environment they live in; more present day characteristics of life include fashion and art, which are surprisingly similar to how things are done in the United States.
While the United States has an established past, Russia does as well. Russia has a lot of traditional folk music, a very well known song being Kalinka, written by Ivan Larionov in 1860 (MasterRussian). Some Russian folklore contains colorful and a certain brightness, but others have very paganistic characters, like witches (Bradford). Most of their folklore …show more content…
Art is big in Russia, and had been for a very long time. “Russian culture has a long and rich cultural history, steeped in literature, ballet, painting and classical music (Bradford)”. Ballet was originally an Italian artform in roughly the 15th century and spread to other European countries, including Russia (Bradford). Russian ballet is considered a classical form of the graceful dance, and each country has made it their own style (Bradford). The Bloshi Ballet is a famous ballet company which was founded in 1776, and even owns The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (Bradford). Many famous ballet composers have come from Russia, some names include Leon Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, but most notably Ilyich Tchaikovsky for writing the popular performance of The Swan Lake (Bradford). Art is also found in one of the most well known symbols of Russia: Russian Dolls. In Russia they are actually called 'matrioshka dolls' (Bradford). These dolls normally use extravagant and ornate designs to depict a Russian peasant girl (Bradford). "[The] wooden figure that can be pulled apart to reveal another smaller version of the same image inside, and so on, often with six or more dolls nested inside one another (Bradford)." Brightly colored and interact designs are also found in traditional Russian architecture known as ‘onion domes’ for their onion-like tops (Bradford). The onion domed roofs are traced back to the reign of Ivan the Terrible, where the design was first seen in history (Bradford). Commonly, a cross will sit on top of these domes as "it has been speculated that [the dome structure] represents burning candles or vaults to heaven and often appear in groups of three representing the Holy Trinity