Culture Russia

Culture

 Culture

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Muscovites have seen their way of life change radically. They discovered freedom of expression, the possibility to go abroad freely, the shows, the shops full of goods but then also the street demonstrations, a high unemployment rate, crime, inflation, millionaires and beggars, casinos and charity meals. Torn between their attraction to the Western world and their desire to bind again with old Slav values, confronted to an unstable society, many express their disappointment with the brutal appearance of this disorganized liberalism. However, in a country close to chaos, they have also found their spirit of initiative and autonomy again, after having been deprived of it for some time. Moscow is a lively city today, full of vitality and creativity; though do not be alarmed by the more relaxed approach to morals of the post-Soviet society. Ladies of the night prowling in hotels, bars and night clubs in search of a businessman or a tourist in need for love, have one thing on their mind, money. In Moscow, the race for dollars has become widespread and the black market is booming. However, this system in which you have to cope and make do, and the rise of individualism, plus the search for enrichment have not managed to distort what one calls ?the Russian spirit' - passionate and compliant, tender and wild, capable to endure the worst and overcome any obstacle and of unrivalled generosity.
If you have been invited to a Muscovites' house, it is advised to dress up and to take a gift to your hosts (wine, flowers, chocolate). You would generally take your shoes off on entering their home and put on some slippers. The meal is punctuated by many speeches and vodka toasts. Finally, the tradition of the dachas, small country houses, has become popular again. A wooden izba, surrounded by a tiny garden where flowers and potatoes grow is the urban Muscovite's idea of happiness.

 Literature

Russian literature classics available in paperback editions:
?The Queen of Spades' by Pushkin, ?Dead Souls' by Gogol, ?Crime and Punishment' by Dostoevsky, ?The Seagull' by Tchekhov, ?War and Peace' by Tolstoy, ?Doctor Zhivago' by Pasternak.
?The Gulag Archipelago', ?The Oak and The Calf', ?The Grain Between the Millstones' Alexandre Soljenitsyne, and the third volume of his literary autobiography.
Works of Andrei Bitov, Andrei Guelassimov, Vladimir Makanine, and Ludmila Oulitskaïa.
You can also read the works of poet-novelist Alexei Parin.

Contemporary writers:
Nikolai Maslov, the author of the comic book ?A Soviet Youth'.
?A Moscow Saga' by Russian writer Vassili Axionov, who received the Booker Prize in December 2004 for one of his books (judged best Russian novel of the year, by the Itar-Tass agency and Echo radio station).

 Films

Pavel Longuine's 'Taxi Blues', 'Luna Park' and 'La Noce', his latest film rewarded in 2000 at the Cannes festival.
Nikita Mikhalkov's 'Burnt by the sun', 'Urga' and 'The Barber of Siberia' or Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Andreï Roublev'.
'Old Women' by Guennadi Sidorov (which won the prize awarded by the public at Gardanne's autumn film festival in November 2004).

 Music

Symphonies, operas and ballets by Prokofiev.
?Romeo and Juliet' by Rachmaninov.
?Aleko' and ?Vespers' by Tchaikovsky.
?The Swan Lake' by Stravinsky.
?The Fire bird' and ?The rite of Spring'.

Among the new rock bands of Moscow, we can mention: Bravo, Doctor Watson and Moralny Kodeks.

The Russian pianist Evgueny Kissin.

Alexei Khvostenko was one of the founders of the counter-culture in the USSR. He is the writer of cult songs of the alternative scene. He really became very popular with the young Russian generation after the fall of the USSR, by collaborating with the group called Aouktsion. He was also a poet, a bard, a painter and a sculptor, who had emigrated to Paris in 1977 and died on 30th November 2004 in Moscow at the age of 64.