1. {Project by Maria RudkoK. If all of the worlds cultural heritage (sports, music, fashion,architecture, literature, painting, etc..) was contained in a time capsule,what would you include to demonstrate the legacy of your country?* For the IE admission process

2. My countryRussiaBaikal lake. Russia 3. C60H89N15O13ultureistoryationrigin*Formula alpha-Neoendorphin 4. Russian culture has a long history and can claim a long tradition of dividend in many aspects of the arts,especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture and painting, cinemaand animation, which all had considerable influence on world culture. The country also has a flavorful materialculture and a tradition in technology.Russian culture started from that of the East Slavs, with their pagan beliefs and specific way of life in the woodedareas of Eastern Europe. Early Russian culture was much influenced by neighboring Finno-Ugric tribes and bynomadic, mainly Turkic, peoples of the Pontic steppe. In the late 1st millennium AD the Scandinavian Vikings, orVarangians, also took part in the forming of Russian identity and Kievan Rus state.Kievan Rus had accepted Orthodox Christianity from the Eastern Roman Empire in 988, and this largely definedthe Russian culture of next millennium as the synthesis of Slavic and Byzantine cultures. After the fall ofConstantinople in 1453, Russia remained the largest Orthodox nation in the world and claimed succession to theByzantine legacy in the form of the Third Rome idea.At different points in its history, the country was also strongly influenced by the culture of Western Europe. SincePeter the Greats reforms for two centuries Russian culture largely developed in the general context of Europeanculture rather than pursuing its own unique ways. The situation changed in the 20th century, when theCommunist ideology became a major factor in the culture of the Soviet Union, where Russia, or Russian SFSR, wasthe largest and leading part.Nowadays, Russian cultural heritage is ranked seventh in the Nation Brands Index, based on interviews of some20,000 people mainly from Western countries and the Far East. Thats with the fact, that due to the relatively lateinvolvement of Russia in modern globalization and international tourism, many aspects of Russian culture, likeRussian jokes and the Soviet Art, remain largely unknown to foreigners.Culture. History. Nation. Origins. 5. The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the"Golden Era" of Russian literature. Its when appearmany of the most significant Russian writers who arewidely known and read in all around the world.There names speak for themselves. Havent you everheard about A.S. Pushkin? Pushkin is credited with bothcrystallizing the literary Russian language andintroducing a new level of artistry to Russian literature.His best-known work is a novel in verse, EugeniyOnegin.Prose was flourishing as well. The first great Russiannovelist was Nikolai Gogol. Leo Tolstoy and FyodorDostoyevsky soon became internationally renowned tothe point that many scholars such as F. R. Leavis havedescribed one or the other as the greatest novelist ever.In the second half of the century Anton Chekhovexcelled in writing short stories and became perhaps theleading dramatist internationally of his period.By the 1880s Russian literature had begun to change. The age of the great novelists was over and short fiction and poetrybecame the dominant genres of Russian literature for the next several decades, which later became known as the Silver Age ofRussian Poetry. Previously dominated by realism, Russian literature came under strong influence of symbolism in the yearsbetween 1893 and 1914.Leading writers of this age include Valery Bryusov, Andrei Bely, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Aleksandr Blok, Nikolay Gumilev, DmitryMerezhkovsky, Fyodor Sologub, Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Leonid Andreyev, Ivan Bunin, andMaxim Gorky. While the Silver Age is considered to be the development of the 19th century Russian literature tradition, someavant-garde poets like Vladimir Mayakovsky tried to overturn it.Literature 6. Russian influence on Fashion, Theatre, ArtsBallets RussesLev Bakst hugely influenced Paris haute couture in the 1910s with his costumes for theBallets Russes, providing an imaginary, wild and exotic Russia that the West craved tosee. In 1925, the French journal Art Got Beaut captures that interest in its article A lafaon des Ballets Russes, claiming that the contemporary Paris fashions recall orientalbazaars gaudy trinkets with their marvellously frightening embroidered flowers,slightly Cubist motifs enriched with crushed mirror pieces, paillettes and big sequins.Similarly, the American Harpers Bazaardeclares in 1922 that the strongest influence infashion is Russia, while commenting on Coco Chanels Russian-inspired collection. Shehad a contract with Kitmir House of Embroidery, founded by the exiled Grand DuchessMaria Pavlovna Romanova, and was the lover of Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, cousinof Tsar Nicholas II, for one year.The West has long taken an interest in Russias ethnic heritage. This fascination becameespecially prominent during a period of general attraction towards the vernacular andthe primitive at the beginning of the twentieth century.As many Russians emigrated toParis around the time of the 1917 revolution. Their cultural impact was phenomenal.The Ballets Russes (sometimes rendered in English in the singular as "The Russian Ballet") was an itinerant ballet company thatperformed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America.The companys productions created a huge sensation around the world, completely reinvigorating the art of performing dance,bringing many visual artists to public attention, and significantly affecting the course of musical composition. Its ballets havebeen variously interpreted as Classical, Neo-Classical, Romantic, Neo-Romantic, Avant-Garde, Expressionist, Abstract, andOrientalist. The influence of the Ballets Russes lasts to this day.Princess Nadine Wonlar Larsky inkokoshnik designed by Diaghilev andmade by Faberg, the Tsars fancy-dressball, St Petersburg, 1903 (Wonlar-Larsky,N. The Russia that I loved. London: ElsieMacSwinney, 1937) 7. Ballets RussesFor his new productions, Diaghilev commissioned theforemost composers of the 20th century. This served todistinguish his ballets from many 19th-century ballets, forwhich the music had usually been provided by less inspiredcomposers such as Riccardo Drigo, Ludwig Minkus, andCesare Pugni. His ballets included music by artists such asDebussy, Milhaud, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Ravel, Satie, Respighi,Stravinsky and Richard Strauss.The impresario also engaged conductors who were, or becameeminent in their field during the 20th century, including PierreMonteux (191116 and 1924), Ernest Ansermet (191523),Edward Clark (1919-20) and Roger Dsormire (192529).The ballet "The Rite of Spring. Sergei Diaghilev, putting this "wild" ballet musicturned the perception of dance and choreographic vision for years forward. Bycombining the work on them geniuses of Russian culture at the beginning of thetwentieth century - the artist and scientist Nicholas Roerich, composer IgorStravinskys ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky.The Ballets Russes invited the collaboration of rising contemporary fine artists inthe design of sets and costumes. These included Benois himself, Bakst, Braque,Gontcharova, Larionov, Picasso, Chanel, Matisse, Derain, Mir, de Chirico, Dal,Bilibin, Tchelitchev, Utrillo, Nicholas Roerich, and Rouault. In 1917, Pablo Picassodesigned the sets and costumes in the Cubist style for Parade with music by ErikSatie.Diaghilev had hired the young Stravinsky at a time when he was virtually unknown to compose the music for The Firebird, afterthe composer Anatoly Lyadov proved unreliable. Stravinskys early ballet scores were the subject of much discussion. TheFirebird (1910) was seen as an astonishingly accomplished work for such a young artist (Debussy is said to have remarked drily:"Well, youve got to start somewhere!"). Many contemporary audiences found Petrushka (1911) to be almost unbearably dissonantand confused. The Rite of Spring nearly caused an audience riot. It stunned people because of its willful rhythms and aggressivedynamics. The audiences negative reaction to it is now regarded as a theatrical scandal as notorious as the failed runs of RichardWagners Tannhuser at Paris in 1861 and Jean-Georges Noverres and David Garricks Chinese Ballet at London on the eve of theSeven Years War. However, Stravinskys early ballet scores are now widely considered masterpieces of the genre. 8. Chanel Paris Moscow Collection, 2008, designed byKarl Lagerfeld (Lagerfeld, K. Chanels RussianConnection. Gttingen: Steidl, 2009)Anna PavlovaShe was, of course, involved with the fashionable BalletsRusses. Chanel designed costumes for four productions,notably Le Train Bleu in 1924 and Apollon Musagete(Apollo, Leader of the Muses) in 1929. According to KarlLagerfeld, Chanels current creative director, she, "...helpedDiaghilev to stage (his ballet) again after World War I in1919". Designing costumes for dancers was perfect for adesigner whose clothes liberated women and allowed themto move more freely. She once said that, I have always triedto give women a feeling of being at ease with their time.It was not only creative inspiration that drew her to theBallets Russes. She had an affair with Igor Stravinsky, whocomposed some of the greatest work of the company. LeSacre du Printemps (Rite of Spring) had a particularlypowerful impact - the violent rhythms, combined with thepagan ferocity of Vaslav Nijinskys choreography, actuallysparked a riot in the aisles of the Thtre de Champslyses on its opening night in 1913.Coco Chanel was heavily influenced by Russia in the 1920s, and one of her most beautiful and innovative perfumes, Cuir deRussie , was inspired by the rich, birch scented leather of Cossack boots. She also had a roubachka style peasant blouse madein crepe de chine for her affluent customers, and many of her designs featured the brightly colored embroidery typical ofRussia.Lagerfeld himself is hugely inspired by the Ballets Russes. He recently designed a costume for the English National Balletsproduction of The Dying Swan as part of its Ballets Russes season (indeed, the company was founded by two Ballets Russesdancers: Dame Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin). At the time, he commented that, "As a child, I was already inspired by oldimages of Anna Pavlova dancing the ballet. 9. Russian musicSwan lake, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky(fragment)The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky(fragment)The Bolshoi TheatreThe Bolshoi TheatreBoris Godunov, Modest Mussorgsky(fragment)Russian music went through a long history, beginning from ritual folk song and the sacred music of the Russian orthodoxchurch. The 19th century saw the rise of highly acclaimed Russian classical music, and in 20th century major contributionsby various composers such as Igor Stravinsky as well as Soviet composers, while the modern styles of Russian popularmusic developed, including Russian rock and Russian pop.The first known opera made in Russia was A Life for the Tsar byMikhail Glinka in 1836. This was followed by several operas such asRuslan and Lyudmila in 1842. Russian opera was originally acombination of Russian folk music and Italian opera. After theOctober revolution many opera composers left Russia. Russias mostpopular operas include: Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin, The GoldenCockerel, Prince Igor, and The Queen of Spades. 10. The first great Russian composer to exploit native Russian music traditions into the realm of Secular music was Mikhail Glinka(18041857), who composed the early Russian language operas Ivan Susanin and Ruslan and Lyudmila. They were neither thefirst operas in the Russian language nor the first by a Russian, but they gained fame for relying on distinctively Russian tunesand themes and being in the vernacular.Russian folk music became the primary source for the younger generation composers. A group that called itself "The MightyFive", headed by Balakirev (18371910) and including Rimsky-Korsakov (18441908), Mussorgsky (183981), Borodin (183387) and Csar Cui (18351918), proclaimed its purpose to compose and popularize Russian national traditions in classicalmusic. Among the Mighty Fives most notable compositions were the operas The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka), Sadko, BorisGodunov, Prince Igor, Khovanshchina, and symphonic suite Scheherazade. Many of the works by Glinka and the Mighty Fivewere based on Russian history, folk tales and literature, and are regarded as masterpieces of romantic nationalism in music.Sadko in the Underwater Tsardom byIlya RepinThis period also saw the foundation of the Russian Musical Society (RMS) in 1859, led bycomposer-pianists Anton (182994) and Nikolay Rubinstein (183581). The RMS foundedRussias first Conservatories in St Petersburg and in Moscow: the former trained the greatRussian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (184093), best known for ballets like SwanLake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. He remains Russias best-known composeroutside Russia. Easily the most famous successor in his style is Sergey Rakhmaninov(18731943), who studied at the Moscow Conservatory (where Tchaikovsky himselftaught).The late 19th and early 20th century saw the third wave of Russian classics: IgorStravinsky (18821971), Alexander Scriabin (18721915), Sergei Prokofiev (18911953) andDmitri Shostakovich (19061975). They were experimental in style and musical language.Stravinsky was particularly influential on his contemporaries and subsequent generationsof composers, both in Russia and across Europe and the United States. Stravinskypermanently emigrated after the Russian revolution. Although Prokofiev also left Russiain 1918, he eventually returned and contributed to Soviet music.In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the so-called "romance songs" became verypopular. The greatest and most popular singers of the "romances" usually sang in operasat the same time. The most popular was Fyodor Shalyapin. 11. PaintersThe birch grove , 1879, KuindzhiView of the Sea by Moonlight,1878, Aivazovsky Ivan the Terrible kills his son, Ilya RepinRealism came into dominance in the 19th century. The realists capturedRussian identity in landscapes of wide rivers, forests, and birchclearings, as well as vigorous genre scenes and robust portraits of theircontemporaries. Other artists focused on social criticism, showing theconditions of the poor and caricaturing authority; critical realismflourished under the reign of Alexander II, with some artists makingthe circle of human suffering their main theme. Others focused ondepicting dramatic moments in Russian history. The Peredvizhniki(wanderers) group of artists broke with Russian Academy and initiateda school of art liberated from Academic restrictions. Leading realists include Ivan Shishkin, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ivan Kramskoi, Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan, Vasily Surikov,Viktor Vasnetsov and Ilya RepinIvan Aivazovsky (originallyAivazian (July 29, 1817 May 5,1900) was an Armenian-Russianworld-renowned painter livingand working in Crimea, mostfamous for his seascapes, whichconstitute more than half of hispaintings. Aivazovsky is widelyconsidered as one of the greatestseascape painters of all times 12. The first half of the 20th century was a turbulent time for Russia: the political system was drastically and violentlytransformed.The First World War started in 1914, Russia was allied with UK and France and fought against Germany, Austro-HungarianEmpire and Turkey. This war changed completely the map of Europe and lead to the collapse of the Russian Empire as well.Emperor Nikolay the Second handled the power to the Temporary Government on February 27th 1917. The TemporaryGovernment attempted to gain control over the country, but it was supported by the bourgeois only. The situation was used byBolsheviks who got popularity among soldiers and workers because of their populist slogans and charismatic leader VladimirLenin. Bolsheviks revolted on October 25th 1917. It took four more years of Civil war for Bolsheviks to get control over thewhole Russia. To the end of this period Russian republic was completely devastated. Millions of people were killed, industrycollapsed, famine started, Russia lost control over Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.Russian art was already in ferment before 1914, but World War I and the Bolshevik revolution transformed the cultural life ofthe nation. By late 1917 the private art market was shattered and avant-garde artists had taken charge of existing pedagogicalinstitutions and founded new ones. The Constructivist and Suprematist movements gained a brief ascendancy.Constructivism rejected easel painting as an expression of bourgeois-dominated society. Its most famous representative,Vladimir Tatlin, announced the death of traditional art and constructed three-dimensional, machine-inspired, abstractsculptures and reliefs. Other Constructivists designed utilitarian products (chairs, clothes, dishware) with a distinctlyindustrial veneer to help urbanize the psychology of the masses and usher in the new Communist stage of civilization.Suprematism was born with Kazimir Malevichs painting Black Square (1915) and other geometrical abstractions, whichwere supposed to point humanity away from capitalist exploitation and the horrors of the world war and toward thecrossroads of celestial paths. A philosophical Idealist, Malevich believed that his two-dimensional shapes provided a kind ofcerebral passage into the fourth dimension, comprehension of which was vital if mankind were to imagine a higher realityand thereby alleviate earthly suffering. Both Constructivists and Suprematists were radical utopians who yearned for thecreation of a new society and the destruction of the old. 13. At the same time, Russia had a unique chance to reinvent itself under thecommunism. Many avant-garde artists, poets, and writers were suddenlyideologically connected to the very top government officials and were givenhigh posts in the new hierarchy. For a while, the whole country was obsessedwith transforming itself. The communists even allowed a short period of NewEconomic Policy (NEP), during which people could freely do small businessesand the economy bloomed. The famous Soviet posters drawn by Rodchenko andMayakovsky come from that epoch. The great Russian filmmakers likeEisenschtein and Djiga Vertov created their best works during that time. Russianfuturism was on the rise.A photo by RodchenkoA poster by Rodchenko with Lila Brik, books.The two movements merged in the figures of El Lissitzkyand Alexander Rodchenko.Both of these artists made important contributions to thecultural life of the twentieth century--Rodchenko in theareas of furniture design and photography, Lissitzky inexhibition design and architecture.But their most far-reaching innovations were in the graphicarts: Soviet propaganda posters and advertising usinggeometrical shapes and bold, block lettering that combinedthe functionality of Constructivism with the visualelements of Suprematism. The goal was to subliminallyalter the mentality of the people, infusing in them thevalues of both artistic movements and, relatedly,Communism. As one of their German followers put it,these designs little by littlehammered into the masssoul.Soviet era was also the golden age of Russian Science fiction, that was initiallyinspired by western authors and enthusiastically developed with the success ofSoviet space program. Authors like Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Kir Bulychov,Ivan Yefremov, Alexander Belayev enjoyed mainstream popularity at the time. 14. The relevance of Mayakovskys influence cannot be limited to Soviet poetry. While for years he was considered the Soviet poetpar excellence, he also changed the perceptions of poetry in wider 20th century culture. His political activism as apropagandistic agitator was rarely understood and often looked upon unfavourably by contemporaries, even close friendslike Boris Pasternak. Near the end of the 1920s, Mayakovsky became increasingly disillusioned with the course the SovietUnion was taking under Joseph StalinOn the evening of April 14, 1930, Mayakovsky shot himself. This is disputed by his daughter, Yelena VladimirovnaMayakovskaya, a professor of Philosophy and Womens Studies at Lehman College in New York City.Mayakovsky (centre) with friends including Lilya Brik, Eisenstein(third from left) and Boris Pasternak (second from left).Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (July 19 [O.S. July 7] 1893 April 14, 1930) was a Russian and Soviet poet, playwright,artist and stage and film actor. He is among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism. Your thoughts,dreaming on a softened brain,like anover-fed lackey on a greasy settee,with my hearts bloodytatters Ill mock again;impudent and caustic, Ill jeer tosuperfluity.Of Grandfatherly gentleness Imdevoid,theres not a single grey hair in mysoul!Thundering the world with the might of my voice,Igo by handsome,twenty-two-year-old.(From the prologue of A Cloud in Trousers.) 15. In 1921, Akhmatovas former husband Nikolay Gumilyov was prosecuted for his alleged role ina monarchist anti-Bolshevik conspiracy and on 25 August was shot along with 61 others.According to the historian Rayfield, the murder of Gumilev was part of the state response to theKronstadt Rebellion. The Cheka (secret police) blamed the rebellion on Petrograds intellectuals,prompting the senior Cheka officer Yakov Agranov to forcibly extract the names ofconspirators, from an imprisoned professor, guaranteeing them amnesty from execution.Agranovs guarantee proved to be meaningless. He sentenced dozens of the named persons todeath, including Gumilev. Maxim Gorky and others appealed for leniency, but by the timeVladimir Lenin agreed to several pardons, the condemned had been shot. Within a few days ofhis death, Akhmatova wrote:Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russian writer, dissident andactivist. He helped to raise global awareness of the GULAG and theSoviet Unions forced labor camp system.While his writings were often suppressed, he wrote several books mostnotably The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of IvanDenisovich, two of his best-known works. "For the ethical force withwhich he has pursued the indispensable traditions of Russian literatureSolzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970.He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974 but returned to Russia in1994 after the Soviet system had collapsed.Terror fingers all things in thedark,Leads moonlight to theaxe.Theres an ominous knock behindthewall:A ghost, a thief or a ratWatch your New Year come in a blue Seawaveacross the town terrain In such an inexplicableblue, As if your life can start again, As if therecan be bread and light -- A lucky day -- andsomethings left,As if your life can sway aright, Once swayedaleft.Moscow Carol, Joseph Brodsky(fragment)Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology they were dubbed "dissidents" and could not publish their major works until the1960s. But the thaw did not last long. In the 1970s, some of the most prominent authors were not only banned from publishing,but were also prosecuted for their Anti-Soviet sentiments or parasitism. Nobel prize winning poet Joseph Brodsky, novelistsVasily Aksyonov, Eduard Limonov and Sasha Sokolov, and short story writer Sergei Dovlatov, had to emigrate to the US, whileVenedikt Yerofeyev and Oleg Grigoriev "emigrated" to alcoholism. Their books were not published officially until perestroika,although fans continued to reprint them manually in a manner called "samizdat" (self-publishing). 16. Notable artists from this era include El Lissitzky, Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko,Pavel Filonov and Marc Chagall. The Russian avant-garde reached its creative and popular height in the period between theRussian Revolution of 1917 and 1932, at which point the revolutionary ideas of the avant-garde clashed with the newly emergedconservative direction of socialist realism.In the 20th century many Russian artists made their careers in Western Europe, forced to emigrate by the Revolution. WassilyKandinsky, Marc Chagall, Naum Gabo and others spread their work, ideas, and the impact of Russian art globally.Demon sitiing, 1890, VrubelLovers and Red Rooster, 1947-1950, ShagalThe cutting line, KandinskyThe Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define thelarge, influential wave of modernist art that flourished in Russiafrom approximately 1890 to 1930. The term covers many separate,but inextricably related, art movements that occurred at the time;namely neo-primitivism, suprematism, constructivism, rayonism,and futurism.By the turn of the 20th century and on, many Russian artistsdeveloped their own unique styles, neither realist nor avante-garde. These include Boris Kustodiev, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin,Mikhail Vrubel and Nicholas Roerich. 17. Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was a Russian actor and theatre director. His system of acting has developed aninternational reach.Stanislavskis system is a progression of techniques used to train actors to draw believable emotions to their performances.The method that was originally created and used by Constantin Stanislavski from 1911 to 1916 was based on the concept ofemotional memory for which an actor focuses internally to portray a characters emotions onstage. Later, between 19341938, this technique evolved to a method of physical actions in which emotions are produced through the use of actions.Thelatter technique is referred to as Stanislavskis system. The system is the result of Stanislavskis many years of efforts todetermine how someone can control in performance the most intangible and uncontrollable aspects of human behavior,such as emotions and art inspiration.Stanislavski believed that if an actor completes the system, the desired emotion should be created and experienced. Oneearlier technique used for the system involved a "round the table analysis," a process in which the actors and directorliterally sit around a table and put forward their thoughts on the script and the characters until a clear understanding isformed. This technique involved breaking the script into sections. For the system to work, the structure of the script shouldbe analyzed and sectioned based on the different characters of the play. Later, this technique was changed to insteadimmediately begin rehearsals after the main idea of the play had been discussed, but the sections are still evolved eventhrough this practice.Stanislavski believed that the truth that occurred onstage was different than that of real life, but that a scenic truth could beachieved onstage. A performance should be believable for an audience so that they may appear to the audience as truth.One of Stanislavskis methods for achieving the truthful pursuit of a characters emotion was his magic if. Actors wererequired to ask many questions of their characters and themselves. Through the magic if, actors were able to satisfythemselves and their characters positions of the plot. One of the first questions they had to ask was, "What if I were in thesame situation as my character?" Another variation on this is "What would I do if I found myself in this (the characters)circumstance? The "magic if" allowed actors to transcend the confinements of realism by asking them what would occur"if" circumstances were different, or "if" the circumstances were to happen to them. By answering these questions as thecharacter, the theatrical actions of the actors would be believable and therefore truthful.Stanislavskis acting system 18. Russia has made a priceless contribution to the world culture. It has given to the world not only great classics and fine artsmasterpieces but entire schools. Russian drama school of Stanislavski and ballet school are the world-famous ones.Russian literature in known all over the world. The books by Leo Tolstoy and Feodor Dostoevsky are known the same as theworks by Shakespeare and Dumas. War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment are translated into almost alllanguages. Eugene Onegin by the great Russian poet Pushkin is included into the list of world literature masterpieces of the19th century, and many remarkable books appeared in the 20th century, for example Master and Margarita by MikhailBulgakov.Russian classical music is well-known too. The best orchestras in the world play the symphonies by Peter Tchaikovsky, SergeyRachmaninoff and Alfred Schnittke. Every staging of Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, BorisGodunov by Mussorgsky, Tsars Bride by Rimsky-Korsakov and Prince Igor by Borodin is a remarkable cultural event.Russian opera singers and musicians are world-famous. Opera fans of Paris, London, Berlin, Milan and New-York applauded toFeodor Chaliapin. Great Russian conductors Valery Gergiev and Vladimir Spivakov are todays idols of classical music fans allover the world.Russian ballet, its rich traditions and famous names of the ballet dancers are the most important cultural symbols of Russia.Russian school of classical ballet is considered to be the best in the world. Classical ballet came into Russia in the 18th century.By the end of the 19th century the national school of ballet had finally formed. It has concentrated achievements of the bestballet schools of the world and enriched their with Russian national dance traditions. Nowadays Russian classical ballettraditions are supported and developed by dancers and choreographers not only from Russia but from all over the world.Great masters of Russian avant-garde of the 20th century have brought priceless contribution into the world art.They have generated new aesthetics of art, architecture and design. The works by Kazimir Malevitch and Vasily Kandinsky arebeing explored by critics of various countries. The Black Square by Malevitch (1915) is kept in Moscow, at the State TretyakovGallery.A special place among the cultural symbols of Russian is occupied by its architectural monuments. Churches, cathedrals andmonasteries constructed in different centuries reflect spirituality of Russia. It is possible to call cultural symbols of the countryBasils Cathedral in the centre of Moscow, white-stone temple on the Nerl river, unique Church of Transfiguration in Kizhi.The Hermitage, Russian Museum and Mariinski Theatre in Saint Petersburg, the Bolshoy Theatre and Tretyakov Gallery inMoscow are recognized as significant symbols of cultural Russia. 19. Alexander Vasiliev Beauty in Exile/ Slovo, Moscow, 2008 Joseph Brodsky Christmas poems/ Azbuka-classika, St. Petersburg, 2007 "Russian literature; Leo Tolstoy". Encyclopdia Britannica. Marina Ritzarev. Eighteenth-century Russian music. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006. ISBN 0-7546-3466-3,ISBN 978-0-7546-3466-9 Russian Music before Glinka: A Look from the Beginning of the Third Millennium." Marina Ritzarev(Rytsareva), Bar-Ilan University www.waytorussia.net www.wikipedia.org http://www.russianballethistory.com "Dancing into Glory: The Golden Age of the Ballets Russes". Ballets-Russes.com. www.bolshoi.ruMaterials used in presentation