What are the Russians like?

Are you puzzled by the Russian mentality? Are you not clear about the way to deal with the Russians and to perceive their behaviour and manners?

The articles Russian National Character and Manners and Customs of the Russians might be of help!

We’ll be happy to post your comments and opinions here.

Russian Holidays

The Russian love for holidays is known the world over. We adore holidays, indeed. But who does not? Perhaps our love for holidays is special for its indiscrimination – anything goes, just give us a chance to break the daily working routine and indulge into the surfeits of merry-making, eating and drinking. Of course, every holiday is good in its own way and we are not indifferent to their meaning and ritual side. Yet, it is not rare in this country that holidays vary both their attributes and meaning.

Thus, Russian holidays present a mixture of new and old, religious and secular, professional and private. National holidays reflect multicolored Russian history. Christian traditions were combined with pagan ones and therefore strongly connected to the seasons and agricultural cycle. Church holidays were mixed with those introduced during the communist regime. And we do not mind: every holiday deserves celebration. When a national holiday falls on a weekend day people enjoy additional day-off because it is considered to be unfair to miss either a holiday or a weekend. Here is an outline of our major holidays.

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Russian cuisine

Throughout its long history the Russian cuisine has accumulated and inventively transformed various traditions - both Eastern and Western – from Mongolian to French ones – thus becoming one of the richest cuisines in the world.

Read about the Russian cuisine and find RECIPES of traditional Russian dishes