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How can I trace back my family in Russia?

Is Russia culturally western??

  • i know Russia is geographically Eastern, but is it culturally Western? there are some nations in the world wherein they are eastern when it comes to location but western when it comes to culture. such as Australia. Ethnic Russians are slavic not turkic. slavic then can trace their roots to the ancient Greeks, therefore slavic is western. ethnic Russians are culturally western. am i correct??

  • Answer:

    Most important is not what we consider Russians to be, but what they consider themselves to be. Russians consider themselves to be both Eastern and Western culturally, although they will usually chose Eastern, reluctantly, if pressed on the issue. On Western culture, they believe that they have gleaned the better portion of Science and the Arts, and brought them to intellectual perfection, i.e. technology and industry, as well as performing arts such as ballet. They are among world leaders in both. However, they also claim mystical aspects of Eastern culture as it applies to the "Russian Soul." Russians usually consider themselves to be higher educated as a society, more socially conscious, and morally and philosophically more open to new ideas. To them, no non-Russian can truly understand the depth of the 'Russian Soul.' This mostly leads to a feeling of high self-esteem, devoid of any self-doubt or self-examination. To answer your question better, no self-respecting Russian would consider himself culturally Western. They believe the West is culturally devoid. But when it comes to how they want to live, their choice is almost unanimously for Western cultural values. They vote with their dollars and with their feet.

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NO.They have their own culture,different from western with more humanitarian consideration.

thirubala

Hard to classify. For a start the West is pretty diverse anyway - compare Italians with Dutch or Texans with New Yorkers. But more important has been the loss of many civic values in Russia as a result of seventy years of communism and fifteen years of anarchy.

Mardy

Yes. Ukrainians and Russian can trace their roots back to the Norse princes that settled that area. Culturally, Russia is very Western.

pinwheelbandit

You are probably referring to how Russia looks on the map. The thing is this: Russia is an Eastern European country that owns a part of Asia called Siberia. And Siberia is so huge that when one writes the words Russian Federation to be put in the center of the entire country, they get written on the Asian part of the map. That being said, it depends on what you consider "Western". If you mean as in Western European/USA , then, no. If you mean non-Asian, then yes. It is a Slavic civilization similar to Bulgaria, or Serbia/ Macedonia. There is another "East" outside of India, Pakistan, Burma and Indonesia. It is the East of Europe- which is not part of the West. Bulgaria, Romania( non-Slavic but close), and Serbia are not part of the West, but neither they are attending Asian games in Qatar, are they? When they ( the Russians) say they are "Eastern" to you, they mean "Eastern Orthodox" vs. "Western" Catholic, Protestant, etc. They do not mean that they are now Asians in culture such as the Chinese or the Japanese. Or Iranians/Pakistanis. They mean they are East Europeans, not West Europeans. They do not mean they are now related to Emperor Hirohito. Culturally and ethnically Russians are Europeans. However, during the Cold War, there was a propaganda movement to show that the Russians were " not one of us" i.e. non-European/non Western. Since most people in the West had never seen a Russian, they kind of went along with that propaganda. If Russians appear in the real East, as in real Asia ( HK, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Indonesia, and even India. Pakistan, etc) they do not get treated as Asians. Ever! They get treated as Westerners by Asians, as if they were Brits or Americans. People address them in English ( which many of them cannot speak), they ask them what state they come from ( as in what state in the US) and call them by the same name Asians call other westerners- such as "Gaijin", "Farang" etc. A Russian in many places in Asia gets asked "Are you British? Are you German? Not "Are you Chinese/ Japanese?. Or " Are you a Pakistani" As far as an average Asian on the streets of Tokyo or Seoul is concerned, a Russian is a Westerner. But as far as the people in Belgium or even Italy are concerned, a Russian is not. Anyway, they are basically East Europeans and the closest culture to them is Macedonia or Bulgaria.

MumbaJumba

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