THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL CHARACTER

The character of a people is a strong factor to define the fate of a country and the nation's government. A national character, which can partially change during the course of time, basically remains unchangeable within the people's historic life. When authority understands the people, it is the main chance for the country and the authority itself to survive.

Many patriots say that Russians are collectivists by nature who like to be in tight communities, while the living model in the West consists of separate people living under perpetual conditions of competition.

It is for sure can be traced in national history.

And it is not only the result of the Soviet times. It takes its roots in the communal living of the Old Rus and the Orthodox moral values. People worked jointly for the common good, always shared and rely on somebody's help is based on the feeling of kindred with other people. That is well reflected in the Russian language: a number of words denoting blood relations, can be used when informally addressing somebody, even strangers.

Collectivism also results from the fact that Russian peasants never owned land as private owners; they merely had land leased by their community. That demonstrates the unique russian ideology to some extent. At the time when interests of Europeans were confined within limits of the estate, the views of Russians turned from the community to the divine world, to the universe. This is an explanation to the high degree of spirituality in Russian literature and to the philosophic character of Russian ideology.

Mutual aid and the feeling of the fellowship always were strong among Russian people. Even now it is still habitual among students and co-workers to help each other rather than compete.

Natural generocity is typical for a Russian. It is believed that material wealth is the most unreliable thing. A russian saying goes: 'God has given, and God will take it back'(with regard to money and possessions. 'Give, spend and God will send' also suits here.

Quite often you can hear from a Russian such phrases as 'spacious soul' or 'big nature'.

"Russian people are altogether spacious people, just like their land, and extremely inclined to the fantastic and disorderly", - a Dostoyevsky's character says in "Crime and Punishment".

If you picture the vast expanses of this country stretching over the continent and uniting Europe and Asia, with a great variety of landscapes, nations and cultures ... and you will perceive its infinity reverberating in the unconscious collective mind of its people.

Sometimes Russian people are accused of passivity and sheer fatalism. Favourite saying - 'All that is done is done for the better'. It is like drifting throughout life. Russians are apt to adapt to ever-changing circumstances rather than to oppose them. That feature is quite understandable if you take into account the country`s history of upheavals and cataclysms, from the Tatar yoke with numerous barbaric forays to the 20th century with world and civil wars, revolutions, repressions, coup d'etats and shocking reforms.

Russians are also famous for its patience, that is as endless as the russian open country. The people have revealed its ability to endure any privations and severities - an almost superhuman ingeniousness in surviving inhuman living conditions. Moreover, one can suspect a sort of liking to bearing this cross, a certain pride for it. The spiritual experience of the Russian people not in the least proceeding from its sufferings, has given the world invaluable works of art and literature.

All that you can explore visitting Russia, meeting people and enjoying everything this wonderful country offers.