Features & Opinion

Juvenile Delusions

Russian beauties

12:20 16/07/2010

The concept of the elusive Russian soul emerged in France and elsewhere in Europe in the late 19th century, after local readers discovered what became known as the Russian psychological novel.

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The Soul on the Sleeve
12:17 19/07/2010
The notion of the existence or lack of a Russian soul has been a feature of the past 500 years of Russian history. The Russian soul in foreign policy stems from the time of Tsar Ivan III, who declared Russia, after the fall of Constantinople, the true inheritor of the Byzantine Empire, or the Third Rome.
Faith in Serendipity
14:00 18/07/2010
“The mysterious Russian soul, the subject of admiration and curse,” wrote the Soviet poet Evgeny Dolmatovsky. Judge all you want, but I believe that the mysterious Russian soul is no more an enigma than the mysterious Indonesian soul.
The Piety of Soil and Spirit
14:50 17/07/2010
Is there a connection between the legendary Russian soul and the chaotic world of Russian business today? Absolutely! I learned this soon after coming to Russia to start a business back in 1992. I learned that business in Russia is like business anywhere else—but different. That difference is partly due to what I call “the third side of the Russian coin.”
The Engineers of Destruction
13:08 15/07/2010
The character of the Russian revolutionary is recognizable and universally known, since some of the best-known figures of Russian history were, at least at some stage of their lives, revolutionaries. Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were professional revolutionaries who chose the career of professional insurgents early in their lives.
Wanted: a Dictator
13:21 13/07/2010
The Russian autocrat is perhaps the most “marketed” type of the Russian soul, a sort of a negative trademark applied to Russia both by its honest critics and malevolent detractors. The belief that Russia has been ruled, is ruled and will be ruled by autocrats on all levels is widespread and, like many popular stereotypes, is rather a simplification.
Pining for a Pampered Past
13:02 12/07/2010
In his 1973 classic comedy “Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession,” Leonid Gaidai transported viewers back in time to the 16th century’s land of plenty and conquests, ruled by Tsar Ivan the Terrible. As comedy goes, it was a carefree world of drinking, dancing, caviar and vodka that left the audience enthralled with the grandeur and splendor of Ivan Grozny’s court for a solid 93 minutes.
Chained to the Land
20:05 11/07/2010
Russia. There’s a lot of it—17,075,200 square kilometers, to be precise. Eleven and half percent of the world’s land mass. Even shaving off the vast waters of Baikal and the Volga and the Lena and the Ob, that leaves 120,000 square meters per person. With a population of 142 million, there are just eight people per square kilometer.
Pulp Friction
12:55 11/07/2010
If one was to set about the rather barmy task of pinpointing the geographical origins of the Russian soul—some kind of locus point emitting Russianness and uniting its people—then a good place to start might well be the heart of Siberia, at the bottom of the world’s largest freshwater lake.
A Superfluous Instrument
10:38 10/07/2010
Forty-seven year old Alexei Varlamov is one of the most prominent modern Russian writers. He debuted with short stories in the late 1980s and gained fame in 1995 with his semi-autobiographical novel “Lokh” (roughly translated into English as “Dupe”), to be followed by “Rozhdenie” (“Birth”), which won him the prestigious Anti-Booker award.
Demanding a Miracle
12:48 09/07/2010
On a weekday afternoon in mid-June it took one hour of standing in a quiet line at the Convent of the Protection of Our Lady in east-central Moscow to reach the Russian capital’s most popular shrine—the relics of the Blessed Matrona of Moscow. On weekends and holidays the line may take several hours to get through.
Pseudoscientific Genius
12:08 08/07/2010
Russian scientists have stunned the world for years. Last March Grigori Perelman, Russia’s ascetic math maverick, cracked a puzzle that had baffled mathematicians for a century—and then mystified the world’s laymen when he spurned the $ 1 million prize. But behind Russia’s reputation for scientific genius, the specter of pseudoscience looms large.
An Exercise in Disbelief
12:28 07/07/2010
There are many reasons to be suspicious of anyone using the phrase “Russian soul,” and not only because of the frequency with which it is trotted out by peddlers of travel books, photographs, and package cruises down the Volga river. Any term can be misapplied, abused and overused until it becomes hollow.
Evolution of the Homo Sovieticus
15:14 06/07/2010
The concept of the mysterious Russian soul has been around at least since the middle of the 19th century. Generally perceived as the antipode of the capitalist and rational West, the Russian soul embodied such traits as altruism, openness, spirituality, generosity, conscientiousness, willingness to sacrifice a personality for the community, the ultimate search for a universal truth and indifference toward wealth.

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Special Report: "Russian soul"

RussiaProfile.Org, an online publication providing in-depth analysis of business, politics, current affairs and culture in Russia, has published an unusual Special Report on the mysterious "Russian soul". Fifteen articles by both Russian and foreign contributors examine this concept, which has been used by Russia watchers for some 150 years, from a contemporary perspective.