Negative traits of the Russian nation. Characteristic features of the Russian national character

The character of the Russian people was formed mainly under the influence of time and space. History and geographical position our homeland also made their own adjustments. The constant danger from possible raids and wars rallied people, gave birth to a special patriotism, a desire for a strong centralized power. Climatic conditions, I must say, not the most favorable, forced the people to unite, tempered a particularly strong character. The vast expanses of our country have given a special scope to the actions and feelings of the Russian people. Although these generalizations are conditional, it is still possible to identify common features and patterns.

Since its inception, Russia has shown itself to be an unusual country, unlike others, which aroused curiosity and added mystery. Russia does not correspond to templates, does not fall under any standards, everything in it does not resemble the majority. And because of this, her character, the character of her people, is very complex and contradictory, difficult for foreigners to understand.

Nowadays, scientists and researchers began to find an increasing role of national character in the development of society as a whole. It is a single, integral system with a hierarchy of traits and qualities that affect the way of thinking and acting of a given nation. It is passed on to people from generation to generation, it is rather difficult to change it by adopting administrative measures, but it is still possible, however, for large-scale changes you need a large number of time and effort.

Interest in the Russian national character is shown not only abroad, but we ourselves are trying to understand it, although this is not entirely successful. We cannot understand our actions, explain some historical situations, although we notice some originality and illogicality in our actions and thoughts.

Today, a turning point is taking place in our country, which we are experiencing with difficulty and, in my opinion, is not entirely true. In the XX century, there was a loss of many values, there was a decline in national identity. And in order to get out of this state, the Russian people must, first of all, understand themselves, return their former features and instill values, eradicate shortcomings.

The very concept of national character is widely used today by politicians, scientists, mass media, and writers. Often this concept has a very different meaning. Scholars have debated whether national character really exists. And in our days, the existence of certain features characteristic of only one people is recognized. These features are manifested in the way of life, thought, behavior and activities of the people of a given nation. Based on this, we can say that national character is a certain set of physical and spiritual qualities, norms of activity and behavior characteristic only for one nation.

The character of each nation is very complex and contradictory due to the fact that the history of each nation is complex and contradictory. Also, important factors are climatic, geographic, social, political and other conditions that affect the formation and development of a national character. Researchers believe that all factors and conditions can be divided into two groups: natural-biological and socio-cultural.

The first explains that people of different races will manifest their character and temperament in different ways. It should also be said that the type of society formed by a particular people will also have a strong influence on its character. Therefore, an understanding of the national character of a people occurs through an understanding of the society, conditions and factors in which this people lives.

It is also important that the type of society itself is determined by the system of values ​​adopted in it. Thus, social values ​​are the basis of national character. National character is a set of important methods of regulating activities and communication, created in accordance with the social values ​​inherent in this people... Therefore, in order to understand the Russian national character, it is necessary to highlight the values ​​characteristic of the Russian people.

In the Russian character, such qualities as conciliarity and nationality, aspiration for something infinite, stand out. Our nation has religious and ethnic tolerance. A Russian person constantly has dissatisfaction with what is on this moment, he always wants something different. The peculiarity of the Russian soul is explained, on the one hand, by "hovering in the clouds," and, on the other hand, by the inability to cope with one's emotions. We either restrain them as much as possible, or let them out at once. Maybe that's why there is so much soulfulness in our culture.

The peculiarities of the Russian national character are most accurately reflected in the works of folk art. Here it is worth highlighting fairy tales and epics. The Russian man wants a better future, but he is really too lazy to do anything for this. He would rather resort to the help of a goldfish or a talking pike. Probably the most popular character in our fairy tales is Ivan the Fool. And this is no accident. After all, behind the outwardly disorderly, lazy, unable to do anything, the son of an ordinary Russian peasant is hiding a pure soul... Ivan is kind, sympathetic, savvy, naive, compassionate. At the end of the tale, he always wins over the calculating and pragmatic king's son. Therefore, the people consider him their hero.

The feeling of patriotism among the Russian people, it seems to me, is beyond doubt. For a long time, both old people and children fought against invaders and occupiers. It's enough to remember World War II 1812, when the whole people, the whole army asked the French to give battle.

The character of a Russian woman deserves special attention. Huge strength of will and spirit makes you sacrifice everything for the sake of a person close to her. For her beloved, she can go even to the ends of the world, and this will not be blind and obsessive following, as is customary in eastern countries, but this is a deliberate and independent act. You can take as an example the wives of the Decembrists and some writers and poets sent into exile in Siberia. These women very consciously deprived themselves of everything for the sake of their husbands.

One cannot fail to mention the cheerful and perky disposition, about the sense of humor of Russians. No matter how hard it is, a Russian person will always find a place for fun and joy, and if it’s not hard and everything is fine, then the scope of fun is guaranteed. They talked about the breadth of the Russian soul, talk and will talk more. A Russian person just needs to take a walk to the fullest, make a splash, show off, even if, for this, he must give the last shirt.

For a long time, there was no place for self-interest in the Russian character, never material values ​​went to foreground... A Russian person could always make great efforts in the name of lofty ideals, be it defending the Motherland or defending sacred values.

Harsh and hard life taught the Russians to be content and interrupt with what they have. Constant self-restraint has left its mark. That is why the desire for money accumulation and wealth at any cost was not widespread in our people. This was the privilege of Europe.

For Russians, oral folk art is very important. Knowing proverbs, sayings, tales and phraseological units reflecting the reality of our life, a person was considered educated, worldly wise, possessing folk spirituality. Spirituality is also one of the characteristic features of a Russian person.

Due to increased emotionality, our people are characterized by openness and sincerity. This is especially evident in communication. If you take Europe as an example, then individualism is highly developed there, which is protected in every possible way, but here, on the contrary, people are interested in what is happening in the lives of others, and a Russian person will never refuse to tell about his life. This also most likely includes compassion - another very Russian character trait.

As well as positive qualities, such as generosity, breadth of soul, openness, courage, there is one, of course, negative. I'm talking about drinking. But it is not something that has gone hand in hand with us throughout the history of the country. No, this is the ailment that we caught relatively recently and cannot get rid of it in any way. After all, we did not invent vodka, it was brought to us only in the 15th century, and it did not become popular at that hour. Therefore, it is impossible to say that drunkenness is a distinctive feature and feature of our national character.

It is also worth noting such a feature that you both wonder and admire at the same time - this is the responsiveness of the Russian people. It is embedded in us from childhood. Helping someone, our person is often guided by the proverb: "As it comes around, it will respond." Which, in general, is correct.

National character is not static, it is constantly changing as society changes and, in turn, exerts its influence on it. The Russian national character that has developed in our days bears similarities with the character that was once before. Some features remain, some are lost. But the basis and essence has been preserved.

N.A. Berdyaev and N.O. Lossky.
Both thinkers, being of a religious orientation, put in the first place the religiosity of the Russian person, which they considered intrinsically inherent in him and from which all the particular moral properties of the Russian soul naturally flowed, first of all the permanent - constant and continuous - search for absolute goodness.

The outstanding Russian philosopher Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) noted its inconsistency (duality, antinomy) and pronounced political apathy, non-stateness of the Russian people... It is the first of these signs that makes it difficult to understand the characteristics of the Russian soul, and precisely understanding this inconsistency is the solution to the riddle of the Russian soul.
Berdyaev unambiguously says: "You can approach the solution of the secret hidden in the soul of Russia, immediately recognizing the antinomy of Russia, its terrible contradictoriness." Inconsistency - and this is the main thing - leads to the fact that Russia lives an "inorganic life" it lacks integrity and unity.
In this connection, Berdyaev remarks: “Imperialism in the Western and bourgeois sense of the word is alien to the Russian people, but he dutifully devoted his energies to the creation of imperialism, in which his heart was not interested. The secret of Russian history and the Russian soul is hidden here. No philosophy of history, Slavophil or Westernizing, has yet figured out why the most stateless people created such a huge and powerful statehood, why the most anarchist people are so submissive to the bureaucracy, why a free spirit people seem to be unwilling free life? This secret is associated with a special ratio of feminine and masculine principles in Russian popular character... The same antinomy runs through the whole of Russian life "

About the second main feature of the Russian character Berdyaev says: “Russia is the most stateless, the most anarchist country in the world. And the Russian people are the most apolitical people who have never been able to arrange their land ... "
... And at the same time, according to Berdyaev: “Russia is the most state-owned and most bureaucratic country in the world; everything in Russia is turning into an instrument of politics. The Russian people created the most powerful state in the world, the greatest empire. From Ivan Kalita, Russia was consistently and stubbornly gathered and reached dimensions that stagger the imagination of all the peoples of the world. The forces of the people, about which they not without reason think that they are striving for an inner spiritual life, are given to the colossus of statehood, which turns everything into its instrument. " there is no contradiction in essence, because in the first case we have in mind the mechanics of governance (and in this respect, everything is true: we have never strived for high-quality governance of the country, calling on all sorts of foreigners for this matter, in the initial period of the formation of the Russian state - the Varangians, in Petrine and post-Petrine epochs - all sorts of "Germans"), and in the second - the real practice of creating a state, which was characterized by successful expansion in different directions of the world, primarily to the east.

The most important property of the character of the Russian people is tolerance for foreigners that Berdyaev notes in the following words: “Russia is the most non-chauvinistic country in the world. Nationalism in our country always gives the impression of something non-Russian, superficial, some kind of unremarkable. The Germans, the British, the French are chauvinists and nationalists en masse, they full of national self-confidence and self-righteousness.
Russians are almost ashamed of being Russian; national pride is alien to them and often even - alas! - national dignity is alien.
The Russian people are not at all characterized by aggressive nationalism, inclination of violent Russification.
Russian does not advance, does not exhibit, does not despise others.
In the Russian element, there truly is some kind of national disinterestedness, sacrifice, unknown to Western peoples.
The Russian intelligentsia has always treated nationalism with disgust and abhorred it as an evil spirits ... It is precisely its supranationalism, its freedom from nationalism that is national in Russia; in this, Russia is distinctive and unlike any other country in the world. Russia is called to be the liberator of peoples. This mission is inherent in its special spirit "

The Russian people do not lend themselves well to political organization.
This is due to the fact that “Russia is a country of boundless freedom of spirit, a country of wandering and seeking God's truth. Russia is the least bourgeois country in the world; it does not have that strong philistinism that so repels and averts Russians in the West. "
And at the same time: “Russia is almost impossible to budge, so it has grown heavy, so inert, so lazy, so immersed in matter, so humbly puts up with his life.
All our estates, our soil layers: the nobility, the merchants, the peasantry, the clergy, the bureaucracy — all do not want and do not like to ascend; everyone prefers to stay in the lowlands, on the plain, to be "like everyone else"
... This kind of property of the Russian person leads to the fact that in our country there are still no well-developed political institutions that would create an efficiently functioning civil society. However, some elements of civil society, albeit with great difficulty, very slowly, but began to emerge in Russia in the last years of tsarist rule, that is, in the era of constitutional monarchy, but all this was completely ruined by the Bolshevik coup, as a result of which the reins of government in the country took the political elite, while the bulk of the population remained purely indifferent in terms of the manifestation of social initiative (which is reflected in the well-known rule of the Soviet man, namely, "keep your head down").

Berdyaev notes as a negative feature of the Russian character his excessive conceit, in connection with which he says that Russia is “a country that considers itself the only one called and rejects the whole of Europe, like rot and fiend of the devil, doomed to perish. Back side Russian humility is an extraordinary Russian conceit. The most humble is the greatest, the most powerful, the only one called. "Russian" is righteous, good, true, divine. Russia is "Holy Russia". Russia is sinful, but even in its sin it remains a holy country - a country of saints living with the ideals of holiness ... Russia considers itself not only the most Christian, but also the only Christian country in the world ... Church nationalism is characteristic Russian phenomenon... Our Old Believers are soaked through and through with it. " However, this opinion of an outstanding philosopher should be approached with caution, the name in mind that in this case there is a fine line between really excessive self-conceit, which is not good, and a possible underestimation of one's own national role in the formation of the world system of moral relations, which fully corresponds to the spiritual potential of the Orthodox Russian people.

Berdyaev says that “Russia - fantastic country spiritual intoxication, the country of the Khlysty, self-incinerators, the Dukhobors, the country of Kondraty Selivanov (the founder of the scopic sect that existed in the second half of the 18th century in the Oryol province - V.N.) and Grigory Rasputin, the country of impostors and Pugachevshchina. The Russian soul does not sit still, it is not a philistine soul, not a local soul. In Russia, in the soul of the people there is some kind of endless search, a search invisible hail Kitezh, an invisible home. Distances open before the Russian soul, and there is no delineated horizon in front of its spiritual eyes. The Russian soul burns out in a fiery search for truth, absolute, divine truth and salvation for the whole world and a general resurrection to a new life. She eternally grieves over the grief and suffering of the people and the whole world, and her torment knows no satisfaction. This soul is absorbed in solving the final, damned questions about the meaning of life. There is rebellion, rebelliousness in the Russian soul, insatiability and dissatisfaction with anything temporary, relative and conditional. Farther and farther must go, to the end, to the limit, to the exit from this "world", from this land, from everything local, bourgeois, attached ... The heroically-minded intelligentsia went to death in the name of materialistic ideas. This strange contradiction will be understood if one sees that, under a materialistic guise, she strove for the absolute. Slavic revolt is a fiery, fiery element unknown to other races ”[ibid., Pp. 9-10]. The properties of the Russian character noted by the genius philosopher, I think, could not but lead to the idea of ​​Russian cosmism, and also quite naturally the Russians, born in free-thinking France, the same “extravagant” - difficult to understand - idea of ​​solidarity was also quite naturally picked up by the Russians.

The most deeply considered topic Nikolai Onufrievich Lossky (1870-1965) developed in his book "The Character of the Russian People", first published in Frankfurt am Main by the NTS "Posev" Publishing House in 1957, republished in Moscow by the "Klyuch" Publishing House in 1990 year, and then as an article with the same title - in the journal "Voprosy filosofii" in 1996 (No. 4), from where it is cited. This philosopher emphasizes that the Russian idea is a Christian idea, and therefore the character of the Russian person as a Christian is formed under the influence of Orthodox morality, focused on the search for and bringing good, love and truth, “in the foreground is love for the suffering, pity, attention to an individual personality ... "[see. named source, p. 41]. In this regard, N.O. Lossky notes the exceptional role of religious ascetics - monastic "elders", to whom people went for instruction, consolation and blessing, in search of answers to many life questions, both the simplest - material, household, family, and the sublime ones - moral and spiritual, including the meaning of their existence, the Kingdom of Heaven, the meaning of church holidays and other wisdom.

Among the especially valuable properties of the Russian person, the philosopher notes a sensitive perception of other people's mental states, from which live communication of even unfamiliar people with each other follows. In this regard, he writes: “The Russian people have highly developed individual personal and family communication. There is no excessive replacement in Russia individual relationships social, there is no personal and family isolationism. Therefore, even a foreigner, having got to Russia, feels: “I'm not alone here” (of course, I'm talking about normal Russia, and not about life under the Bolshevik regime). Perhaps these properties are the main source of recognition of the charm of the Russian people, so often expressed by foreigners, well knowing Russia"[Ibid., P. 42].

The phenomenon of the openness of the Russian soul, which, in turn, determines the sincerity of the Russian person, is closely connected with the noted property. On this occasion, Lossky writes: "" Living according to one's heart "creates an openness of the soul of a Russian person and ease of communication with people, simplicity of communication, without conventions, without external grafted politeness, but with those virtues of politeness that follow from a sensitive natural delicacy" [ibid. ]. As can be seen from the above, the Russian person is completely alien to everyday - so to speak, everyday - hypocrisy, the presence of a politeness mask (like the same Americans who always have "mouth to ear", but at the same time often - "a stone in their bosom", or , if not a stone, then an elementary coldness, sheer indifference). For a Russian person, everything is written “in the face”. This is where the gloomyness of the Soviet - and also the post-Soviet - person, noted by almost all - both domestic observers and foreigners - is noted: why the bulk Soviet people, and today the majority of Russians were and are to rejoice?

According to Lossky, one of the primary basic properties of the Russian people is powerful willpower, the derivative of which is passion as a combination of a strong feeling and willpower, aimed at a beloved or hated value. Naturally, the higher the value, the stronger feelings and energetic activity it evokes in people with a strong will. Hence, the passion of the Russian people, manifested in political life, and even more passion in religious life. Maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance are the products of this passion. As an example confirming the presence of the latter property among the Russian people, the professor recalls the fact of the self-immolation of many thousands of Old Believers during the reformation of Patriarch Nikon, the most famous among whom was Archpriest Avvakum.

The same was, in Lossky's opinion, and the Russian revolutionary movement which is also replete with examples of political passion and powerful willpower. Starting with the Narodnaya Volya, who were obsessed with their idea of ​​the need to establish social justice in society - the creation of the Kingdom of God on earth, but without God (!?), And ending with the Bolshevik-Leninists. Regarding the second, he writes: “The unyielding will and extreme fanaticism of Lenin, together with the Bolsheviks led by him, who created totalitarian state in such an excessive form, which was not, and God willing, there will be no more on earth ”[ibid.].

At the same time, Lossky also notes that in the Russian people there is also a property opposite to strong will and purposefulness, namely the familiar “Oblomovism”, that laziness and passivity, which is excellently portrayed by Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov”. On this issue, he is in solidarity with the opinion of N. Dobrolyubov, who explains the nature of "Oblomovism" in the following way: “... Russian people tend to strive for an absolutely perfect kingdom of being and at the same time excessive sensitivity to all the shortcomings of their own and other people's activities. Hence, there is a cooling to the work begun and aversion to its continuation; its design and general sketch is often very valuable, but its incompleteness and therefore inevitable imperfections repel the Russian person, and he is lazy to continue finishing with trifles. Thus, Oblomovism is in many cases the reverse side of the high qualities of the Russian person - the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of our reality ... ”[ibid.].

Among the primary properties of the Russian people, together with religiosity, the search for absolute goodness and willpower, Lossky attributes love to freedom and its highest expression - freedom of spirit. And the one who possesses the freedom of spirit is inclined to show doubt in every truth and to test every value, moreover, not only by thought, but even by experience. As a result of the free search for the truth, Russian people find it difficult to come to terms with each other. Therefore, in public life, the love of freedom of Russians is expressed in a tendency to anarchy, in repulsion from the state. One of the reasons, according to Lossky, why an absolute monarchy has developed in Russia, sometimes bordering on despotism, is that it is difficult to govern a people with anarchist inclinations, because such a people makes excessive demands on the state [ibid.].

All researchers of the issue under consideration note as an indispensable property of the soul of a Russian person - his kindness, in connection with which they say that the Russian soul has a feminine nature, in the words of Berdyaev, an eternal woman. However, Lossky does not agree with this, he speaks of a combination in the Russian character of kindness and courage, which seems absolutely correct. In this regard, he writes that “the Russian people, especially the Great Russian branch of it, the people who created a great state in the harsh historical conditions, in the highest degree courageous; but in him the combination of masculine nature with feminine gentleness is especially remarkable ”[ibid.].

With the property of kindness, this outstanding philosopher connects the presence in the character of a Russian person of another remarkable human quality- lack of rancor, which takes place in all sectors of society. Lossky notes that “quite often a Russian person, being passionate and inclined to maximalism, experiences a strong feeling of repulsion from another person, but when meeting with him, if there is a need for concrete communication, his heart softens, and he somehow involuntarily begins to show him his spiritual gentleness, even sometimes condemning himself for this, if he believes that the person does not deserve a kind attitude towards him ”[ibid.].

In full accordance with the inconsistency inherent in the Russian person, the property of kindness in his character is accompanied by the presence of a negative property - the need to lie in the name of good. Lossky explains this as follows: “The kindness of a Russian person encourages him to sometimes lie because of his unwillingness to offend his interlocutor, because of the desire for peace and good relations with people at all costs” [ibid.].

Along with kindness, the Russian person has many manifestations of the opposite property - cruelty. At the same time, Lossky notes that there are many types of cruelty and some of them can occur, paradoxically, even in the behavior of people who are not at all evil by nature. Lossky explains many of the negative aspects of the behavior of the peasants by their extreme poverty, by the multitude of grievances and oppression they experience and leading them to extreme anger. He found it especially outrageous that in peasant life husbands sometimes severely beat their wives, most often while drunk.

From the works of Boris Petrovich Vysheslavtsev (1877-1954; by the way, a member of the NTS), a thematic character is made by him in 1923 at one of the philosophical conferences in Rome, a report entitled “Russian national character”, in which the professor noted that “we [Russians ] are interesting, but incomprehensible to the West and, perhaps, therefore, they are especially interesting, that they are incomprehensible; we do not fully understand ourselves, and, perhaps, even incomprehensibility, irrationality of actions and decisions constitute a certain trait of our character ”[see. B.P. Vysheslavtsev. Russian national character // Questions of philosophy. 1995. No. 6, p. 113]. In this work, the philosopher, noting that the character of the people manifests itself at the unconscious level, in the subconsciousness of the people who make up this or that nation (especially Russians, in whose soul "the region of the subconscious occupies an exclusive place" [ibid.]), Draws attention to the possibility of penetrating This is the subconscious, so to speak, to spy on what is real, without hiding the negative and excessive embellishment of the positive, the people think in the mass. This can be done, according to Vysheslavtsev, through the analysis of the content folk epic, through fairy tales and epics, invented by the people (including those used by them in order to educate the younger generation, which is especially socio-politically important), in which, as in a person's dream, they involuntarily express innermost thoughts, deeply hidden, inner aspirations and dreams of the people. Moreover, both morally positive and not so.

Citing examples from Russian fairy tales, Vysheslavtsev defines the most characteristic character traits of the Russian people, which appear in the form of their fears and cherished dreams. So, according to the observation of the philosopher, the Russian people are afraid of poverty, even more - of labor, but most of all of some kind of "grief", which is understood as "not the external fate of the Greeks, resting on ignorance, on delusion," for Russians, "this is their own will, or rather some own lack of will. " But there is another fear in the fairy tales of the Russian people, a fear more sublime than the fear of hardship, labor and even “grief” - this is the fear of a broken dream, the fear of falling from heaven [ibid.].

Analyzing the composition of the unconscious dreams of the Russian people, presented in national fairy tales Vysheslavtsev notes the presence in them of the entire gamut of desires, from the highest to the lowest, from the basest everyday desires, justified by the notorious "economic materialism", to ideas about their desired future, which are based on the cherished dreams of Russian idealism [ibid.]. So, the idiot Emelya the fool, selflessly dreaming, sitting on the stove, about a baked bull and milk rivers with jelly banks, is by no means bad guy our famous fairy tales. Indeed, there are quite a few such real-life characters in Russia. It was these dreamers-idlers who "rushed" with the whole crowd to the Bolshevik call in 1917. It is they who, overwhelmed by a cherished dream, inspired by many, by and large, morally and politically vicious fairy tales, who dream that they will have everything not as a result of hard work, but “according to pike dictates, according to my will, "succumbed to the temptation organized by the Bolsheviks to take everything from others - in their understanding, from the wealthy world-eaters - under the Marxist slogan about the goodness of" expropriating the expropriators. " In the latter case, as you can easily see, we have an example of the inclination of the Russian person to his beloved extreme: the awareness of the viciousness of the unfair distribution of material wealth in many cases with practical methods of ensuring social justice using the easiest technique - "take away and divide", and not by persistent improvement of public relations.

Another example of a negative property, considered by Vysheslavtsev, is highly indicative. This example concerns, unfortunately, the most important moral imperative an orthodox person- his religiosity, or, more precisely, his attitude to religious shrines, which once, in the heat of the unrestrained resentment of a Russian person against something or someone, suddenly do not become such (again, this is the same case of manifestation of psychological extreme in the nature of the Russians). We are talking about the valiant Ilya Muromets, who, being “mortally” offended by the fact that Prince Vladimir did not invite him to his “banquet,” began to shoot the domes and “miraculous crosses” on Kiev churches with arrows. As the philosopher notes, “here is the whole picture of the Russian revolution, which the ancient epic saw in a prophetic dream. Ilya Muromets - the personification of peasant Russia, organized, together with the most disgusting rabble, with drunkards and idlers, a real defeat of the church and the state, suddenly he began to destroy everything that he recognized as a shrine and that he defended all his life ”[ibid, p. 116]. Then follows the conclusion that in this epic the whole Russian character is clearly visible: there was injustice, but the reaction to it was completely unexpected and spontaneous. This is not a Western European revolution, with its acquisition of rights and the struggle for a new order of life; is a spontaneous nihilism, instantly destroying everything people's soul worshiped, and, moreover, conscious of his crime. This is not the restoration of the broken justice in the world, it is a rejection of the world in which such injustice exists. This prophetic warning, clearly expressed in the Russian epic epic, was not understood by the Russian monarchy, and thus doomed itself to inevitable collapse.

It is also indicative in terms of reflecting one of the features of the character of Russian people, noted by Vysheslavtsev, their desire to be transported in their fairy tales "across three seas, to another kingdom, to another state." As the analyst philosopher notes, this is probably "the main and most beautiful dream of the Russian people." And although in fairy tales this dream is most often quite prosaic: in most cases it is a desire to get her Vasilisa the Wise, who, again, will provide Ivan Tsarevich personally happy and socially problem-free, and Ivanushka the Fool - which is more often in Russian fairy tales - comfortable and an idle life. However, in fabulous travels“Beyond the three seas” also contains something more sublime, namely the striving for the new, the unknown. Among the most thinking representatives of the Russian people, this was once expressed in the dream of space, which is not just “beyond the three seas”, but much further and inaccessible, and therefore even more tempting.

Another great Russian philosopher and state scholar Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin (1883-1954) said well about the character of the Russian people: “Motherland is not the place on earth where I was born, came into the world from my father and mother, or where I was“ used to living ” ; but that spiritual place where I was born in spirit and where I come from in my life creativity... And if I consider Russia as my homeland, it means that I love, contemplate and think in Russian, sing and speak in Russian; that I believe in the spiritual strength of the Russian people and accept its historical fate with my instinct and my will. His spirit is my spirit; his fate is my fate; his suffering is my grief; its flowering is my joy.

This is what he thinks and feels true patriot speaking about their homeland: “My people! I was born from your bosom in flesh and spirit. The very spirit that burned in my ancestors is burning in me. The instinct of national self-preservation, which led you through the jungle and torment of your history, lives and drives me in me ”…“ The sigh of my people is my sigh; and the groan of my people is my groan. I am strong by his strength and I give this strength to him and for him. I am connected with him into a single we. I believe in his spiritual power and in his creative ways. I myself create as he does; I pray and work with him, I contemplate and think with him; I dream of having all his dignity and I am sick of his weaknesses and imperfections. His national interest is mine, personal. I joyfully share in his glory, and I am tormented in the days of his downfall and shame. His friends are my friends. His enemies are my enemies. He owns my life. His tongue is my tongue. His terrestrial territory is my territory, and an army loyal to him is my own army. I did not choose him, because he himself gave birth to me from his bosom. But, being born by him, I chose him and accepted him into the last depths of my heart. And therefore I am faithful to him; and is faithful to him - in all positions, difficulties and dangers of life. I cannot have this feeling for two peoples at once. A person cannot have two mothers, or profess two different faiths. And if my people are great and diverse and have taken in themselves streams of many bloods, then each of these bloods can and must find its baptism in its spirit; and each of them is called to link their fate with his fate, and think, and feel in spiritual identity with him "..." (I. Ilyin. For national Russia. Manifesto of the Russian movement, p. 15 - Love for the Motherland).

With this baggage - a set of classic positive and negative character traits of the soul inherent in Russian people from time immemorial, we met the 20th century. It was the presence of these properties that determined the origin of those events and deeds that accompanied the Russian people and which the Russian people did over the next century. They determined our future destiny up to the present day, pushing us into a terrible social experiment - the construction of an ugly socialist society, and leading us to the most desperate heights of human thought and deed - it was we, the Russians, who were the first earthlings to come out into Space, having realized our own, primordially Russian, the idea of ​​mastering the Universe (in the second case, we became truly Gagarin in everything - both in theory and in practice, having passed the way from the abstract dream of Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov-Gagarin, which originated in the middle 19th century, before the real flight into space of the first earthling - Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, a century later, on April 12, 1961). In order to go further, it is necessary to consider the factors of the formation of the character of the Russian person and what the Soviet reality did to him.

A lot of research - artistic and journalistic - has been written about what the Russian character is, what features are defining, primordial in it. The best minds of the national and western philosophy and literature for several centuries. The same Dostoevsky, through the lips of Dmitry Karamazov, argued that in the soul of every Russian person two ideals coexist - the Madonna and the Sodom one. Time has proved the complete justice of his words and their relevance to the present day.

So, what is the Russian character like? Let's try and we will highlight some of the defining aspects of it.

Qualitative characteristic

• Domestic poets and writers such as Khomyakov, Aksakov, Tolstoy, Leskov, Nekrasov considered collegiality to be a distinctive feature of a man of the people. It has long been accepted by the "world" in Russia to solve many issues, from helping impoverished fellow villagers to global problems... Naturally, this moral and ethical category was considered as an attribute village life... And since Russia was originally an agrarian country and the bulk of the population was the peasantry, it was the village peasant who personified the character of the Russian person. It is not without reason that Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" determines the value of all heroes by spiritual closeness to the people.
• Another feature inherent in the people is directly related to conciliarity - religiosity. sincere, deep, unbearable, and the peacefulness, humility, mercy associated with it are included in the character of the Russian person as an organic part of it. An example of this are the legendary Archpriest Avvakum, Peter and Fevronia of Murom, Matryona of Moscow and many other personalities. No wonder the saints and holy fools, wandering monks and pilgrims enjoyed special respect and love among the people. And although the people treated the official church with irony and criticism, examples of real piety can be viewed as features of the Russian national character.
• Self-sacrifice is inherent in the mysterious Russian soul to a greater extent than other nationalities. as the personification of eternal sacrifice in the name of neighbors "while the world is standing" - here it is, the Russian character in its pure form, without any foreign impurities. And if you remember the Great Patriotic War, the simplicity and greatness of the soldier's feat, it becomes clear that neither time nor change has power over true values, over what is eternal.
• Oddly enough, but in number natural properties a person from the people includes such qualities as stupidity, recklessness - on the one hand, and a sharp mind, natural intelligence - on the other. The most famous and popular fairy tales are Ivanushka the fool and the lazy Emelya, as well as the skilled Soldier, who contrived to cook and porridge, and they embody these features of the Russian national character.
• Heroism, courage, dedication to your ideals, the cause you serve, modesty, peacefulness - this should also not be forgotten when talking about a Russian person. The writer Alexei Tolstoy has a wonderful essay in which the Russian character is defined succinctly, deeply and figuratively - "human beauty".
• However, the Russian person is ambivalent. It was not for nothing that Dostoevsky spoke of two ideals fighting in his soul. And therefore, along with boundless kindness and sacrifice, he is capable of the same boundless cruelty. "Russian revolt", senseless, merciless, about which Pushkin warned, and then Civil War- terrible examples of what people are capable of, if their patience is exhausted, if they are brought to the limit of the possible.
• Drunkenness and theft are also, alas, primordially Russian qualities. Included in the jokes famous phrase Karamzin about what is being done at home. His laconic answer - "They steal!" - says a lot. By the way, it is still relevant now!

Afterword

You can talk a lot and for a long time about Russian. Love to native land, to "fatherly graves", respect for ancestors and the memory of them are Russians. But the Ivans, who do not remember their kinship, who have betrayed their small homeland, are also Russians. Truth-seekers, ready to suffer for an idea, neglecting material values ​​for the sake of spiritual ones, are Russians. But Chichikov, and Sharikov and others like him are the same Russians ...

The Russian people are representatives of the East Slavic ethnos, the indigenous inhabitants of Russia (110 million people - 80% of the population Russian Federation), the largest ethnic group in Europe. The Russian diaspora numbers about 30 million people and it is concentrated in countries such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, in countries the former USSR, in the US and EU countries. As a result of the sociological research it was found that 75% of the Russian population of Russia are followers of Orthodoxy, and a significant part of the population does not classify itself as a particular religion. The national language of the Russian people is Russian.

Each country and its people have their own significance in the modern world, the concepts of folk culture and history of the nation, their formation and development are very important. Each nation and its culture are unique in their own way, the color and uniqueness of each nation should not be lost or dissolve in assimilation with other nations, the younger generation should always remember who they really are. For Russia, which is a multinational power and home for 190 peoples, the issue of national culture is quite acute, due to the fact that for recent years its erasure is especially noticeable against the background of the cultures of other nationalities.

Culture and life of the Russian people

(Russian folk costume)

The first associations that arise with the concept of "Russian people" are, of course, the breadth of the soul and the strength of the spirit. But the national culture is formed by people, it is these character traits that have a huge impact on its formation and development.

One of distinctive features The Russian people has always been and is simplicity, in former times Slavic houses and property were very often plundered and completely destroyed, hence the simplified attitude to everyday life. And of course, these trials, which fell to the lot of the long-suffering Russian people, only hardened their character, made them stronger and taught them to get out of any life situations with their heads held high.

Another of the traits that prevails in the character of the Russian ethnos is kindness. The whole world is well aware of the concept of Russian hospitality, when "they will feed, and give, and put to sleep." A unique combination of such qualities as cordiality, mercy, compassion, generosity, tolerance and, again, simplicity, which are very rare in other peoples of the world, all this is fully manifested in the very breadth of the Russian soul.

Diligence is another of the main features of the Russian character, although many historians in the study of the Russian people note both her love for work and great potential, and her laziness, as well as complete lack of initiative (remember Oblomov in Goncharov's novel). But all the same, the efficiency and endurance of the Russian people is an indisputable fact, against which it is difficult to object. And no matter how scientists around the world want to understand the "mysterious Russian soul", it is unlikely that any of them can do it, because it is so unique and multifaceted that its "highlight" will forever remain a secret for everyone.

Traditions and customs of the Russian people

(Russian meal)

Folk traditions and customs represent a unique connection, a kind of "bridge of times" linking the far past with the present. Some of them are rooted in the pagan past of the Russian people, even before the baptism of Rus, a little of them sacred meaning was lost and forgotten, but the main points have survived and are still observed. In villages and towns, Russian traditions and customs are honored and remembered to a greater extent than in cities, which is associated with a more isolated lifestyle of urban residents.

A large number of rituals and traditions are associated with family life(this is matchmaking, and wedding celebrations, and the baptism of children). Carrying out ancient ceremonies and rituals guaranteed a successful and happy life in the future, the health of descendants and the general well-being of the family.

(Colorized snapshot of a Russian family at the beginning of the 20th century)

Slavic families have long been different big amount family members (up to 20 people), adult children, already married, remained to live in home, the head of the family was a father or an older brother, all of them had to obey and unquestioningly carry out all their orders. Usually, weddings were held either in the fall, after the harvest, or in the winter after the Epiphany (January 19). Then the first week after Easter, the so-called "Red Hill", was considered a very good time for a wedding. The wedding itself was preceded by a matchmaking rite, when the groom's parents came to the bride's family together with his godparents, if the parents agreed to give their daughter in marriage, then the bride was held (acquaintance of the future newlyweds), then there was a ceremony of conspiracy and mating (parents decided on the dowry and the date of the wedding festivities ).

The rite of baptism in Russia was also interesting and unique, the child had to be baptized immediately after birth, for this, godparents were chosen, who would be responsible for the life and well-being of the godson throughout their lives. At one year old, the baby was put on the inside of a sheep's sheepskin coat and sheared, cutting off a cross on the crown, with such a meaning that impure forces would not be able to penetrate his head, and would not have power over him. Every Christmas Eve (January 6), a slightly grown godson should bring godparents kutya (wheat porridge with honey and poppy seeds), and they, in turn, should present him with sweets.

Traditional holidays of the Russian people

Russia is a truly unique state, where, along with the highly developed culture of the modern world, they carefully honor the ancient traditions of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, going back centuries and keeping the memory of not only Orthodox vows and canons, but also the most ancient pagan rituals and sacraments. And to this day are celebrated pagan holidays, the people listen to the signs and age-old traditions, remember and tell their children and grandchildren old legends and legends.

Main folk holidays:

• Christmas Jan. 7
• Christmastide January 6 - 9
• Baptism January 19
• Pancake week from 20 to 26 February

• Forgiveness Sunday ( before the onset of Lent)
• Palm Sunday (Sunday preceding Easter)
• Easter ( the first Sunday after the full moon, which occurs not earlier than the day of the conditional vernal equinox on March 21)
• Red hill ( first Sunday after Easter)

• Trinity ( Sunday at Pentecost - 50th day after Easter)
• Ivan Kupala 7 july
• Day of Peter and Fevronia July 8
• Ilyin's day August 2

• Honey Savior August 14
• Apple Spas August 19
• Third (Khlebny) Spas August 29
• Cover day October 14

There is a belief that on the night of Ivan Kupala (July 6-7), once a year a fern flower blooms in the forest, and whoever finds it will gain untold riches. In the evening, near rivers and lakes, big fires are kindled, people dressed in festive Old Russian robes lead round dances, sing ritual chants, jump over the fire, and let wreaths go downstream, hoping to find their soul mate.

Pancake week - traditional holiday of the Russian people, celebrated during the week before Great Lent. For a very long time, Shrovetide was not a holiday, but a ritual, when the memory of departed ancestors was honored, placating them with pancakes, asking them for a fertile year, and spending the winter by burning a straw effigy. Time passed, and the Russian people, thirsting for fun and positive emotions in the cold and dull season, turned the sad holiday into a more cheerful and daring celebration, which began to symbolize the joy of the imminent end of winter and the arrival of the long-awaited warmth. The meaning has changed, but the tradition of baking pancakes has remained, exciting winter fun: sledding and horse-drawn sledding downhill, a straw effigy of Winter was burned, during the whole Shrovetide week, a relative went to pancakes to his mother-in-law, then to his sister-in-law, the atmosphere of celebration and fun reigned everywhere, various theatrical and puppet performances were held on the streets with the participation of Petrushka and other folklore characters. One of the very colorful and dangerous entertainments on Shrovetide was fist fights, in which the male population participated, for whom it was an honor to take part in a kind of "war effort", testing them for courage, courage and dexterity.

Especially revered Christian holidays Christmas and Easter are considered among the Russian people.

The Nativity of Christ is not only a bright holiday of Orthodoxy, it also symbolizes the rebirth and return to life, the traditions and customs of this holiday, filled with kindness and humanity, high moral ideals and the triumph of the spirit over worldly concerns, in the modern world are reopened to society and rethought by it. The day before Christmas (January 6) is called Christmas Eve, because the main dish festive table, which should consist of 12 dishes, is a special porridge "sochivo", consisting of boiled cereals poured with honey, sprinkled with poppy seeds and nuts. You can sit down at the table only after the first star appears in the sky, Christmas (January 7) is a family holiday, when everyone gathered at the same table, ate a festive meal and gave each other gifts. 12 days after the holiday (until January 19) are called Christmastide, earlier at this time girls in Russia held various gatherings with fortune-telling and rituals to attract grooms.

Bright Easter has long been considered a great holiday in Russia, which people associated with the day of general equality, forgiveness and mercy. On the eve of Easter celebrations, usually Russian women bake cakes (festive Easter bread) and Easter, clean and decorate their homes, young people and children paint eggs, which are ancient tradition symbolize drops of blood of Jesus Christ crucified on the cross. On the day of Holy Easter, smartly dressed people, meeting, say "Christ is Risen!"

“Nations in many ways repeat the destinies of individuals. They also have their own home, work, live better or worse, but most importantly, like people, they are unique personalities with their own habits and character, with their own way of understanding things. Such peoples were made by history, all the circumstances of their long, difficult life", - the Russian philosopher Ilyin spoke figuratively about the national character of the people.

V broad sense national character is a natural phenomenon. Its bearers, ethnic groups, come and go; with them come and go different types of ethno-national character. In the narrow sense, national character is a historical phenomenon; national character changes over time as the self-organization of the people, changes historical setting and the historical challenges facing society. Thus, the circumstances of peaceful coexistence of various ethnic groups on the territory European Russia gave birth, in the words of the writer F.M. Dostoevsky, the national tolerance and "worldwide responsiveness" of the Russians.

Patience has become an important feature of the Russian character, which ensured survival in natural and climatic conditions. of Eastern Europe... Added to this constant wars, shocks, hardships of life in the conditions of a 250-year-old Tatar-Mongol yoke... In Russia they said: "God endured and ordered us", "For patience, God gives salvation", "Patience and work will grind everything." The main condition for patience was his moral validity.

The life of a Russian person demanded unification in labor collectives, in the artel, in the community. The personal interests of a person, his well-being were often put below the well-being of the community, the state. A harsh life demanded the fulfillment of duty, endless overcoming of difficulties; circumstances often acted not on the side of a person, but against him, therefore, the execution of what was conceived by the Great Russians was perceived as rare luck, luck, a gift of fate. Due to low productivity and riskiness, unpredictability of the results, labor for the Russian peasant became a natural, God-given occupation, rather a punishment (suffering from the word "suffering").

The openness of the borders and the constant external threat brought up feelings of self-sacrifice and heroism in the Russian people. The consciousness of the people associated foreign invasions with the sinfulness of people. Invasions are punishments for sins and a test of perseverance and pleasing to God. Therefore, in Russia it has always been righteous "not sparing his belly" to defend his land from the "bastard".

The soul of the people was largely brought up by Orthodoxy. The philosopher S. Bulgakov wrote: “The people's worldview and spiritual order are determined by the Christ's Faith. No matter how far the distance between ideal and reality may be, the norm is Christian asceticism. Asceticism is the whole story, with the Tatar region crushing it, standing at the post of protecting civilization in this cruel climate, with eternal hunger strikes, cold, and suffering. " The values ​​of Orthodoxy merged with moral values and formed moral core people.

The features of the Russian national character include the irrationality of thinking, when figurative, emotional forms prevail over conceptual ones, when practicality and prudence recede into the background. This is also one of the sides of the Russian "dual faith", that is, the preservation and mutual integration of paganism and Orthodoxy.

Patience and obedience went hand in hand with a love of freedom. In ancient times, Byzantine and Arab authors wrote about the freedom-loving Slavs. The most brutal serfdom could well coexist with freedom-loving as long as it did not encroach on inner world a person or until boundless violence ensued. The protest resulted in uprisings and, more often, in the withdrawal to undeveloped lands. The geopolitical realities of Eastern Europe and Siberia have allowed this to be done for centuries.

At the same time, the best features of the national character crystallized within the sub-ethnic groups. In the minds of the Cossack, military valor and the fulfillment of duty were elevated to an absolute, in the minds of the Siberian - inflexibility, perseverance and perseverance.

Thus, the features of the Russian character considered in part make it possible to single out duality, the struggle of opposites. According to the philosopher N. Berdyaev, Russia itself is "dual": it has combined different cultures, "Russia is the East-West."

Academician D.S. Likhachev wrote: “We need to understand the traits of the Russian character ... Rightly directed. These traits are an invaluable property of the Russian person. The revival of self-esteem, the revival of conscience and the concept of honesty - here in general outline what we need. "

IN. Klyuchevsky:“The calculating Great Russian sometimes loves, headlong, to choose the most hopeless and imprudent decision, opposing the whim of nature to the whim of his own courage. This tendency to tease happiness, to play luck, is the Great Russian maybe. Not a single people in Europe is capable of such a strain of labor on a short time what a Great Russian can develop ... we will not find such an unaccustomedness to even, moderate and measured, constant work, as in the same Great Russia.

He is generally reserved and cautious, even timid, always on his mind ... lack of self-confidence excites his strength, and success drops them. The inability to calculate in advance, to figure out a plan of action and go directly to the intended goal was noticeably reflected in the mentality of the Great Russian ... he became more circumspect than prudent ... the Russian man is strong in hindsight ... ".

ON. Berdyaev:“In a Russian person there is no narrowness of a European person who concentrates his energy on a small space of the soul, there is no this prudence, economy of space and time ... The power of the width over the Russian soul gives rise to a number of Russian qualities and Russian shortcomings. Russian laziness, carelessness, lack of initiative, weak developed feeling responsibility is associated with this. The Russian man is ruled by the earth ... The Russian man, the man of the earth, feels helpless to take possession of these spaces and organize them. He is too used to entrusting this organization to the central government ... ”.

Alfred Göttner:"The severity and avarice of nature, deprived, however, of the wild power of the sea and high mountains, taught him the passive virtues of contentment with little, patience, obedience - virtues, even strengthened by the history of the country ...".