Russians

There are two Russian words which are commonly translated into English as "Russians". One is {{lang|ru|русские}} (russkiye), which in modern Russia most often means "ethnic Russians". The other one is {{lang|ru|россияне}} (rossiyane), derived from {{lang|ru|Россия}} (Rossiya, Russia), which denotes "people of Russia", regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation. In daily usage, those terms are often mixed up, and since Vladimir Putin became president, the ethnic term русские has supplanted the non-ethnic term.{{cite book|first=Andreas|last=Kappeler|author-link=Andreas Kappeler|title=Ungleiche Brüder: Russen und Ukrainer vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart|trans-title=Unequal Brothers: Russians and Ukrainians from the Middle Ages to the Present|year=2023|publisher=C.H.Beck oHG|place=München|isbn=978-3-406-80042-9|lang=de}}{{rp|26}}

The name of the Russians derives from the early medieval Rus' people, a group of Norse merchants and warriors who relocated from across the Baltic Sea and played an important part in the foundation of the first East Slavic state that later became the Kievan Rus'.{{cite book|title=Viking Rus|last=Duczko|first=Wladyslaw|year=2004|publisher=Brill Publishers|isbn=978-90-04-13874-2|pages=10–11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA10|access-date=29 June 2021|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414014750/https://books.google.com/books?id=hEawXSP4AVwC&pg=PA10|url-status=live}}{{cite book|first=Andreas|last=Kappeler|author-link=Andreas Kappeler|title=Russische Geschichte|trans-title=Russian History|year=2022|publisher=C.H.Beck oHG|place=München|isbn=978-3-406-79290-8|lang=de|page=13}}

The idea of a single "all-Russian nation" encompassing the East Slavic peoples, or a "triune nation" of three brotherly "Great Russian", "Little Russian" (i.e. Ukrainian), and "White Russian" (i.e. Belarusian) peoples became the official doctrine of the Russian Empire from the beginning of the 19th century onwards.{{rp|25-26}}

{{further|Rus' people|Old Russians}}

File:East Slavic tribes peoples 8th 9th century.jpg tribes and peoples, 8th–9th century]]

The ancestors of modern Russians are the Slavic tribes, whose original home is thought by some scholars to have been the wooded areas of the Pinsk Marshes, one of the largest wetlands in Europe.For a discussion of the origins of Slavs, see {{Cite book|last=Barford, P. M.|title=The Early Slavs|publisher=Cornell University Press|pages=15–16|isbn=978-0-8014-3977-3|year=2001}} The East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia with Moscow included in two waves: one moving from Kiev toward present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk toward Novgorod and Rostov.{{Cite book|author=Christian, D.|title=A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|year=1998|pages=286–288|isbn=978-0-631-20814-3}} Prior to the Slavic migration in the 6-7th centuries, the Suzdal-Murom and Novgorod-Rostov areas were populated by Finnic peoples,{{Cite journal |last=Backus |first=Oswald P. |date=1973 |title=The impact of the Baltic and Finnic peoples upon Russian history |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01629777300000011 |journal=Journal of Baltic Studies |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1080/01629777300000011 |issn=0162-9778}} including the Merya,{{Cite book|author=Paszkiewicz, H.K.|title=The Making of the Russian Nation|publisher=Darton, Longman & Todd|year=1963|page=262}} the Muromians,{{Cite book|author=McKitterick, R.|title=The New Cambridge Medieval History|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=15 June 1995|page=497|isbn=0521364477}} and the Meshchera.{{Cite book|author=Mongaĭt, A.L.|title=Archeology in the U.S.S.R.|publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House|year=1959|page=335}}

From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs slowly assimilated the native Finnic peoples,Ed. Timothy Reuter, The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume 3, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 494-497. {{ISBN|0-521-36447-7}}. so that by year 1100, the majority of the population in Western Russia was Slavic-speaking. Recent genetic studies confirm the presence of a Finnic substrate in modern Russian population.

Interactions between gene pools of Russian and Finnish-speaking populations from tver region: Analysis of 4 million snp markers. 2020. Bull Russ State Med Univ. 6, 15-22. O.P. Balanovsky, I.O. Gorin, Y.S. Zapisetskaya, A.A. Golubeva, E.V. Kostryukova, E.V. Balanovska. doi: 10.24075/BRSMU.2020.072.

Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD, when the Primary Chronicle starts its records.The Primary Chronicle is a history of the Ancient Rus' from around 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113. By 600 AD, the Slavs are believed to have split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{main|Kievan Rus'|Grand Duchy of Moscow|Tsardom of Russia}}

File:Lebedev baptism.jpg, by Klavdy Lebedev]]

The Rus' state was established in northern Russia in the year 862,{{cite book |last1=Roesdahl |first1=Else |title=The Vikings |date=30 April 1998 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-194153-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S9XNbDqS7dsC |language=en |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=7 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907233142/https://books.google.com/books?id=S9XNbDqS7dsC |url-status=live }} which was ruled by the Varangians.{{cite book |last1=Riasanovsky |first1=Nicholas V. |title=Russian Identities: A Historical Survey |date=29 September 2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-515650-8 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xno8DwAAQBAJ |language=en |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928153551/https://books.google.com/books?id=Xno8DwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod became the first major cities of the new union of immigrants from Scandinavia with the Slavs and Finns.{{cite book |title=Russian Nationalism, Past and Present |publisher=Springer |year=1998 |isbn=9781349265329 |editor-last=Hosking |editor-first=Geoffrey |page=8 |editor-last2=Service |editor-first2=Robert}} In 882, the prince Oleg seized Kiev, thereby uniting the northern and southern lands of the East Slavs under one authority. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state as a result of in-fighting between members of the princely family that ruled it collectively.{{cite book |last1=Channon |first1=John |last2=Hudson |first2=Robert |title=The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia |date=1995 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-86461-4 |page=16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kewWAQAAIAAJ |language=en |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=7 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907233145/https://books.google.com/books?id=kewWAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}

After the 13th century, Moscow became a political and cultural center. Moscow has become a center for the unification of Russian lands.{{cite book |last1=Moss |first1=Walter G. |title=A History of Russia Volume 1: To 1917 |date=1 July 2003 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-84331-023-5 |page=88 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHdPAgAAQBAJ |language=en |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928153551/https://books.google.com/books?id=bHdPAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} By the end of the 15th century, Moscow united the northeastern and northwestern Russian principalities, overthrew the "Mongol yoke" in 1480,{{cite book |last1=Chew |first1=Allen F. |title=An Atlas of Russian History: Eleven Centuries of Changing Borders |date=1 January 1970 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-01445-7 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ShZK2-Fz-kC |language=en |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=7 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230907233142/https://books.google.com/books?id=5ShZK2-Fz-kC |url-status=live }} and would be transformed into the Tsardom of Russia after Ivan IV was crowned tsar in 1547.{{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=Robert |last2=Romanoff |first2=Nikita |title=Ivan the Terrible |date=1 October 2002 |publisher=Cooper Square Press |isbn=978-1-4616-6108-5 |page=67 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p1abtsPCPm8C |language=en |access-date=2 September 2023 |archive-date=28 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928153552/https://books.google.com/books?id=p1abtsPCPm8C |url-status=live }}

{{main|Russian Empire|Soviet Union|Russia}}

File:Максимов Бабушкины сказки 1867.jpg]]

In 1721, Tsar Peter the Great renamed his state as the Russian Empire, hoping to associate it with historical and cultural achievements of ancient Rus' – in contrast to his policies oriented towards Western Europe. The state now extended from the eastern borders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Pacific Ocean, and became a great power; and one of the most powerful states in Europe after the victory over Napoleon. Peasant revolts were common, and all were fiercely suppressed. The Emperor Alexander II abolished Russian serfdom in 1861, but the peasants fared poorly and revolutionary pressures grew. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the Stolypin reforms of 1906–1914, the constitution of 1906, and the State Duma (1906–1917) attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the Emperors refused to relinquish autocratic rule and resisted sharing their power.

File:Percentage of Russians by region.svg of Russia according to the 2010 census:{{cite web |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_etn_10.php |title=EAll- Russian population census 2010 – Population by nationality, sex and subjects of the Russian Federation |work=Demoscope Weekly |year=2010 |access-date=1 April 2023 |archive-date=19 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819112304/http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_etn_10.php |url-status=live }}

{{legend|#ff0000|above 80%}}]]

A combination of economic breakdown, war-weariness, and discontent with the autocratic system of government triggered revolution in Russia in 1917. The overthrow of the monarchy initially brought into office a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists, but their failed policies led to seizure of power by the communist Bolsheviks on 25 October 1917 (7 November New Style). In 1922, Soviet Russia, along with Soviet Ukraine, Soviet Belarus, and the Transcaucasian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, officially merging all four republics to form the Soviet Union as a country. Between 1922 and 1991, the history of Russia became essentially the history of the Soviet Union, effectively an ideologically based state roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire before the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union based itself on the one-party rule of the Communists, as the Bolsheviks called themselves, beginning in March 1918. The approach to the building of socialism, however, varied over different periods in Soviet history: from the mixed economy and diverse society and culture of the 1920s through the command economy and repressions of the Joseph Stalin era to the "era of stagnation" from the 1960s to the 1980s. The actions of the Soviet government caused the death of millions of citizens in the famine of 1930–1933 and the Great Purge. The attack by Nazi Germany and the ensuing war, together with the Holocaust, again claimed millions of lives. Millions of Russian civilians and prisoners of war were killed or starved to death during Nazi Germany's genocidal policies called the Hunger Plan and the Generalplan Ost, including one million civilian casualties during the Siege of Leningrad. After the victory of the Soviet Union and the Western Allies, the Soviet Union became a superpower opposing Western countries during the Cold War.

By the mid-1980s, with Soviet economic and political weaknesses becoming acute, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev embarked on major reforms; these culminated in the dissolution of the Soviet Union, leaving Russia again alone and marking the beginning of the post-Soviet Russian period. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic renamed itself the Russian Federation and became the successor state to the Soviet Union.

{{main|Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states|Russian diaspora}}

File:Russians ethnic 94.jpg

Ethnic Russians historically migrated within the areas of the former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, though they were sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderland areas by the Tsarist and later Soviet government.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4420922.stm Russians left behind in Central Asia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115111257/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4420922.stm |date=15 November 2019 }}. BBC News. 23 November 2005. Sometimes ethnic Russian communities, such as the Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or the Doukhobors in Canada, emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority.{{Cite book |last=Wallace |first=Donald Mackenzie |url=http://archive.org/details/trent_0116302179423 |title=A short history of Russia and the Balkan states |date=1914 |publisher=London Encyclopaedia Britannica Co |others=Internet Archive}}File:Eglise notre dame de l assomption 7.jpg in Paris, the resting place of many eminent Russian émigrés after 1917]]

There are also small Russian communities in the Balkans — including Lipovans in the Danube delta"[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7571310/Saving-the-souls-of-Russias-exiled-Lipovans.html Saving the souls of Russia's exiled Lipovans] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170620112211/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatnews/7571310/Saving-the-souls-of-Russias-exiled-Lipovans.html |date=20 June 2017 }}". The Daily Telegraph. 9 April 2013. — Central European nations such as Germany and Poland, as well as Russians settled in China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. These communities identify themselves to varying degrees as Russians, citizens of these countries, or both.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Significant numbers of Russians emigrated to Canada, Australia and the United States. Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and South Beach, Staten Island in New York City are examples of large communities of recent Russian and Russian-Jewish immigrants. Other examples are Sunny Isles Beach, a northern suburb of Miami, and West Hollywood of the Los Angeles area.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, many Russians who were identified with the White army moved to China — most of them settling in Harbin and Shanghai."[https://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/21/style/21iht-shang.t.html The Ghosts of Russia That Haunt Shanghai] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308113826/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/21/style/21iht-shang.t.html |date=8 March 2016 }}". The New York Times. 21 September 1999. By the 1930s, Harbin had 100,000 Russians. Many of these Russians moved back to the Soviet Union after World War II. Today, a large group in northern China still speak Russian as a second language. Russians (eluosizu) are one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China (as the Russ); there are approximately 15,600 Russian Chinese living mostly in northern Xinjiang, and also in Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

According to the 2021 Russian census, the number of ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation decreased by nearly 5.43 million, from roughly 111 million people in 2010 to approximately 105.5 million in 2021.* {{Cite news |last=Sidorov |first=Harun |date=7 January 2023 |title="Русский мир" Путина и "кот Шредингера" |trans-title=Putin's "Russian World" and "Schrödinger's cat" |url=https://www.idelreal.org/a/32211336.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107213809/https://www.idelreal.org/a/32211336.html |archive-date=7 January 2023 |work=idelreal.org |language=ru}}

• {{Cite news |date=10 January 2023 |title=5 Million Fewer Than in 2010, Ethnic Russians Make Up Only 72 Percent of Russia's Population |url=https://jamestown.org/program/5-million-fewer-than-in-2010-ethnic-russians-make-up-only-72-percent-of-russias-population/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230225214004/https://jamestown.org/program/5-million-fewer-than-in-2010-ethnic-russians-make-up-only-72-percent-of-russias-population/ |archive-date=25 February 2023 |work=Eurasia Daily Monitor |publisher=The Jamestown Foundation |volume=20 |issue=6}}
• {{Cite news |date=4 March 2023 |title=Russia's population nightmare is going to get even worse |url=https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/03/04/russias-population-nightmare-is-going-to-get-even-worse |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230410004023/https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/03/04/russias-population-nightmare-is-going-to-get-even-worse |archive-date=10 April 2023 |newspaper=The Economist |quote=The decline was largest among ethnic Russians, whose number, the census of 2021 said, fell by 5.4m in 2010-21. Their share of the population fell from 78% to 72%.}}

File:Вилково, Дунайские плавни 1962 г.JPG in the Danube Delta]]

Among Russians, a number of ethnographic groups stand out, such as: the Northern Russians, the Southern Russians, the Cossacks, the Goryuns, the Kamchadals, the Polekhs, the Pomors, the Russian Chinese, the Siberians (Siberiaks), Starozhily, some groupings of Old Believers (Kamenschiks, Lipovans, Semeiskie), and others.{{sfn|Alexandrov|Vlasova|Polishchuk|1997|pp=107–123}}

The main ones are the Northern and Southern Russian groups. At the same time, the proposal of the ethnographer Dmitry Zelenin in his major work of 1927 Russian (East Slavic) Ethnography to consider them as separate East Slavic peoples{{sfn|Zelenin|1991|loc=§§ 1–4}} did not find support in scientific circles.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Russia's Arctic coastline had been explored and settled by Pomors, Russian settlers from Novgorod.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/3157665 |author=Teriukov, A.I. |title=Поморы |trans-title=Pomors |encyclopedia=Большая российская энциклопедия/Great Russian Encyclopedia Online |year=2016 |language=ru |access-date=14 January 2024 |archive-date=9 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220909122639/https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/3157665 |url-status=dead }}

Cossacks inhabited sparsely populated areas in the Don, Terek, and Ural river basins, and played an important role in the historical and cultural development of parts of Russia.{{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=L0Zk3tUQ1M4C&q=cossacks+old+believers&pg=PA62 |title= Warriors and peasants: The Don Cossacks in late imperial Russia |isbn= 978-0-312-22774-6 |last1= O'Rourke |first1= Shane |year= 2000 |publisher= Palgrave Macmillan |access-date= 10 November 2020 |archive-date= 6 February 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220206071147/https://books.google.com/books?id=L0Zk3tUQ1M4C&q=cossacks+old+believers&pg=PA62 |url-status= live }}

{{Main|Genetic studies on Russians}}{{See also|Yamnaya culture#Eastern Europe and Finland|Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture#Genetics}}

Russians have close genetic affinities to surrounding Northeast and Eastern European populations. They also display evidence for multiple genetic ancestries and admixture events, and high identity-by-descent sharing with the Finnic peoples.{{Cite journal |last1=Usoltsev |first1=Dmitrii |last2=Kolosov |first2=Nikita |last3=Rotar |first3=Oxana |last4=Loboda |first4=Alexander |last5=Boyarinova |first5=Maria |last6=Moguchaya |first6=Ekaterina |last7=Kolesova |first7=Ekaterina |last8=Erina |first8=Anastasia |last9=Tolkunova |first9=Kristina |last10=Rezapova |first10=Valeriia |last11=Molotkov |first11=Ivan |last12=Melnik |first12=Olesya |last13=Freylikhman |first13=Olga |last14=Paskar |first14=Nadezhda |last15=Alieva |first15=Asiiat |date=23 July 2024 |title=Complex trait susceptibilities and population diversity in a sample of 4,145 Russians |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=6212 |doi=10.1038/s41467-024-50304-1 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=11266540 |pmid=39043636 |bibcode=2024NatCo..15.6212U |quote=We present the analysis of genetic and phenotypic data from a cohort of 4,145 individuals collected in three metro areas in western Russia. We show the presence of multiple admixed genetic ancestry clusters spanning from primarily European to Asian and high identity-by-descent sharing with the Finnish population. As a result, there was notable enrichment of Finnish-specific variants in Russia. ... In addition, another study showed that Siberian populations separated from other East Asian populations 8800–11,200 years ago and significantly contributed to the formation of Eastern European populations 4700–8000 years ago16. ... Our cohort illustrates that the genetic structure of the Russian population, sampled in metropolitan areas in the European part of the country, consists of the number of subpopulations with high relatedness to Finnish and East Asian populations. We also identified a subgroup that has Central Asian origins.}}

While modern European populations derive most of their ancestry from three major sources: Western hunter-gatherers, Early European Farmers, and Western Steppe Herders (Yamnaya), this three-way model is insufficient to explain the ethnogenesis of northeastern Europeans such as Saami, Russians, Mordovians, Chuvash, Estonians, Hungarians, and Finns. They carry an additional Siberian/Nganasan-related genetic component and increased allele sharing with modern East Asians.{{Cite journal |last1=Lamnidis |first1=Thiseas C. |last2=Majander |first2=Kerttu |last3=Jeong |first3=Choongwon |last4=Salmela |first4=Elina |last5=Wessman |first5=Anna |last6=Moiseyev |first6=Vyacheslav |last7=Khartanovich |first7=Valery |last8=Balanovsky |first8=Oleg |last9=Ongyerth |first9=Matthias |last10=Weihmann |first10=Antje |last11=Sajantila |first11=Antti |last12=Kelso |first12=Janet |last13=Pääbo |first13=Svante |last14=Onkamo |first14=Päivi |last15=Haak |first15=Wolfgang |date=27 November 2018 |title=Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=5018 |doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07483-5 |issn=2041-1723 |pmc=6258758 |pmid=30479341 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.5018L |quote=This model, however, does not fit well for present-day populations from north-eastern Europe such as Saami, Russians, Mordovians, Chuvash, Estonians, Hungarians, and Finns: they carry additional ancestry seen as increased allele sharing with modern East Asian populations1,3,9,10. [qpAdm results in supplementary data 4.]}}{{Cite journal |last1=Peltola |first1=Sanni |last2=Majander |first2=Kerttu |last3=Makarov |first3=Nikolaj |last4=Dobrovolskaya |first4=Maria |last5=Nordqvist |first5=Kerkko |last6=Salmela |first6=Elina |last7=Onkamo |first7=Päivi |date=9 January 2023 |title=Genetic admixture and language shift in the medieval Volga-Oka interfluve |journal=Current Biology |language=English |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=174–182.e10 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2022.11.036 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=36513080|doi-access=free |bibcode=2023CBio...33E.174P }}

The most common human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is haplogroup R1a (c. 46,7%), followed by haplogroup N-M231 (c. 21,6%), haplogroup I-M170 (c. 17,6%), and haplogroup R1b (c. 5,8%). The remainder (c. 8,3%) are other less frequent haplogroups (E3b, J2, etc.).{{Cite journal |last1=Balanovsky |first1=Oleg |last2=Rootsi |first2=Siiri |last3=Pshenichnov |first3=Andrey |last4=Kivisild |first4=Toomas |last5=Churnosov |first5=Michail |last6=Evseeva |first6=Irina |last7=Pocheshkhova |first7=Elvira |last8=Boldyreva |first8=Margarita |last9=Yankovsky |first9=Nikolay |last10=Balanovska |first10=Elena |last11=Villems |first11=Richard |date=10 January 2008 |title=Two Sources of the Russian Patrilineal Heritage in Their Eurasian Context |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |language=English |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=236–250 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.019 |issn=0002-9297 |pmc=2253976 |pmid=18179905}}

{{sectstub|date=May 2024}}

Russians have sometimes found it useful to emphasize their self-perceived ability to assimilate other people to the Russian ethnicity - and as a historic great power with imperial expansionist tendencies the Russian state has sometimes encouraged Russian-centred monoculturalism. Steppe peoples, Tatars, Baltic Germans, Lithuanians and native Siberians in Rus', Muscovy or the Russian Empire could in theory become "Russians" ({{langx |ru| русские}}) simply by accepting Russian Orthodoxy as their faith.

{{cite book

|last1 = Nițescu

|first1 = Julia

|editor-last1 = Simon Dreher

|editor-first1 = Simon

|editor-last2 = Mueller

|editor-first2 = Wolfgang

|date = 15 December 2022

|chapter = From Individual Destinies to an Emergent Community: Latins in Sixteenth-Century Moscow

|title = Foreigners in Muscovy: Western Immigrants in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Russia

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PmmdEAAAQBAJ

|publisher = Taylor & Francis

|isbn = 9781000802986

|access-date = 15 May 2024

|quote = Conversion to Orthodoxy became a rather common means for accessing positions at the court or entering the service of the grand prince. As the Muscovite state grew, it became the preferred method for integrating non-Orthodox individuals, whether Latins or Tatars.

}}

{{cite book

|last1 = Khazanov

|first1 = Anatoly M.

|author-link1 = Anatoly Khazanov

|editor-last1 = T. V. Paul

|editor-first1 = T. V.

|editor-link1 = T. V. Paul

|editor-last2 = Ikenberry

|editor-first2 = G. John

|editor-link2 = John Ikenberry

|editor-last3 = Hall

|editor-first3 = John A.

|editor-link3 = John A. Hall

|date = 10 November 2020

|orig-date = 2003

|chapter = A State without a Nation? Russia after empire

|title = The Nation-State in Question

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-kP_DwAAQBAJ

|publication-place = Princeton

|publisher = Princeton University Press

|page = 93

|isbn = 9780691221496

|access-date = 15 May 2024

|quote = Russian nationalists considered linguistic and even cultural assimilation insufficient. To them and even to the majority of the general public, the sine qua non of assimilation was conversion to Orthodoxy. The Russian literature is abundant with characters of non-Russian ancestry who refer to their profession of the Orthodox faith in order to prove their Russianness.

}}

The attitude of ready inclusivity is summed up in the popular phrase (sometimes attributed to Emperor Alexander III of Russia) - Хочешь быть русским - будь им! ({{translation| You want to be Russian - be that!}}).

For example:

{{cite book

|last1 = Koldovskaya

|first1 = Mariya

|year = 1998

|chapter = Хочешь быть русским - будь им!

|title = Voĭna i rabochiĭ klass

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nSUtAQAAMAAJ

|publisher = Izd. gazety "Trud"

|page = 11

|access-date = 15 May 2024

}}

{{Main|Russian language}}

Russian is the official and the predominantly spoken language in Russia.{{cite web|url=http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-04.htm|title=Chapter 3. The Federal Structure|quote="1. The Russian language shall be a state language on the whole territory of the Russian Federation."|work= Constitution of Russia |access-date=22 April 2015|archive-date=9 May 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200509113142/http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-04.htm |url-status=live}} It is the most-spoken native language in Europe,{{cite web|url= https://www.tandem.net/10-most-spoken-languages-europe|title=The 10 Most Spoken Languages in Europe|work= Tandem|date= 12 September 2019|access-date= 31 May 2021|archive-date=2 June 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210602215325/https://www.tandem.net/10-most-spoken-languages-europe|url-status=live}} the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia,{{cite web|url=https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/languages-and-translation/language-learning/russian|title=Russian|publisher= University of Toronto |quote= "Russian is the most widespread of the Slavic languages and the largest native language in Europe. Of great political importance, it is one of the official languages of the United Nations – making it a natural area of study for those interested in geopolitics."|access-date=9 July 2021|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210812061133/https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/languages-and-translation/language-learning/russian|url-status=live}} as well as the world's most widely spoken Slavic language. Russian is the third-most used language on the Internet after English and Spanish,{{cite web|url= https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language|title=Usage statistics of content languages for websites|website= W3Techs|access-date= 24 October 2023|archive-date= 25 March 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200325113425/https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language|url-status=live}} and is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station,{{cite web|last= Wakata|first= Koichi|author-link= Koichi Wakata|url=https://global.jaxa.jp/article/special/expedition/wakata01_e.html|title=My Long Mission in Space|publisher= JAXA|quote="The official languages on the ISS are English and Russian, and when I was speaking with the Flight Control Room at JAXA's Tsukuba Space Center during ISS systems and payload operations, I was required to speak in either English or Russian."|access-date=18 July 2021|archive-date=11 March 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200311062633/https://global.jaxa.jp/article/special/expedition/wakata01_e.html|url-status= live}} as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations.{{cite news|url= https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages |title= Official Languages|newspaper= United Nations|quote= "There are six official languages of the UN. These are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. The correct interpretation and translation of these six languages, in both spoken and written form, is very important to the work of the Organization, because this enables clear and concise communication on issues of global importance."|access-date= 16 July 2021|archive-date= 13 July 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210713075145/https://www.un.org/en/our-work/official-languages |url-status=live}}

{{main|Culture of Russia}}

File:Boris Kustodiev - Shrovetide - Google Art Project.jpg's Maslenitsa, 1916]]

File:L.N.Tolstoy Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg's (1828–1910) notable works include the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction.]]

Russian literature is considered to be among the world's most influential and developed.{{cite book |last1=Kahn |first1=Andrew |last2=Lipovetsky |first2=Mark |last3=Reyfman |first3=Irina |last4=Sandler |first4=Stephanie |title=A History of Russian Literature |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-966394-1}} It can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were composed.Letopisi: Literature of Old Rus'. Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary. ed. by Oleg Tvorogov. Moscow: Prosvescheniye ("Enlightenment"), 1996. ({{langx|ru|[http://interpretive.ru/dictionary/1311/word/letopisi Летописи] // Литература Древней Руси. Биобиблиографический словарь / под ред. О.В. Творогова. – М.: Просвещение, 1996.}}) By the Age of Enlightenment, literature had grown in importance, with works from Mikhail Lomonosov, Denis Fonvizin, Gavrila Derzhavin, and Nikolay Karamzin. From the early 1830s, during the Golden Age of Russian Poetry, literature underwent an astounding golden age in poetry, prose and drama.{{cite news |last1=Prose |first1=Francine |last2=Moser |first2=Benjamin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/what-makes-the-russian-literature-of-the-19th-century-so-distinctive.html |title=What Makes the Russian Literature of the 19th Century So Distinctive? |work=The New York Times |date=25 November 2014 |access-date=19 July 2021 |archive-date=31 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331103449/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/what-makes-the-russian-literature-of-the-19th-century-so-distinctive.html |url-status=live }} Romanticism permitted a flowering of poetic talent: Vasily Zhukovsky and later his protégé Alexander Pushkin came to the fore.{{cite journal |last=Emerson |first=Caryl |jstor=20057504 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=29 |number=4 |date=1998 |pages=653–672 |journal=New Literary History |title=Pushkin, Literary Criticism, and Creativity in Closed Places |doi=10.1353/nlh.1998.0040 |s2cid=144165201 |quote=...and Pushkin, adapting to the transition with ingenuity and uneven success, became Russia's first fully profes-sional writer.}} Following Pushkin's footsteps, a new generation of poets were born, including Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolay Nekrasov, Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Fyodor Tyutchev and Afanasy Fet.{{cite web |url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/43.htm |title=Russia – Literature |editor=Glenn E. Curtis |year=1998 |publisher=Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress |location=Washington D.C. |access-date=27 July 2021 |archive-date=9 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182042/http://countrystudies.us/russia/43.htm |url-status=live }}

The first great Russian novelist was Nikolai Gogol.{{cite journal |last=Strakhovsky |first=Leonid I. |title=The Historianism of Gogol |jstor=2491790 |doi=10.2307/2491790 |volume=12 |number=3 |date=October 1953 |pages=360–370 |journal=The American Slavic and East European Review (Slavic Review) |publisher=Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies}} Then came Ivan Turgenev, who mastered both short stories and novels.{{cite journal |last=Henry Chamberlin |first=William |title=Turgenev: The Eternal Romantic |jstor=125154 |publisher=Wiley |doi=10.2307/125154 |volume=5 |number=2 |pages=10–23 |journal=The Russian Review|year=1946 }} Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy soon became internationally renowned. Ivan Goncharov is remembered mainly for his novel Oblomov.{{cite magazine |last=Pritchett |first=V.S. |title=Saint of Inertia |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1974/03/07/saint-of-inertia/ |magazine=The New York Review of Books |date=7 March 1974 |access-date=29 July 2021 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329061729/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1974/03/07/saint-of-inertia/ |url-status=live }} Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote prose satire,{{cite journal |last=Neuhäuser |first=Rudolf |title=The Early Prose of Saltykov-Shchedrin and Dostoevskii: Parallels and Echoes |journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers |jstor=40867755 |volume=22 |number=3 |date=1980 |pages=372–387 |doi=10.1080/00085006.1980.11091635}} while Nikolai Leskov is best remembered for his shorter fiction.{{cite journal |last=Muckle |first=James |title=Nikolay Leskov: educational journalist and imaginative writer |publisher=Australia and New Zealand Slavists' Association |date=1984 |pages=81–110 |journal=New Zealand Slavonic Journal |jstor=40921231}} In the second half of the century Anton Chekhov excelled in short stories and became a leading dramatist.{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/03/classics |title=A Chekhov lexicon |last=Boyd |first=William |date=3 July 2004 |access-date=15 January 2022 |work=The Guardian |quote=...Chekhov, whatever his standing as a playwright, is quite probably the best short-story writer ever. |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329082810/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/03/classics |url-status=live }} Other important 19th-century developments included the fabulist Ivan Krylov,{{cite journal |last1=Pirie |first1=Gordon |last2=Chandler |first2=Robert |title=Eight Tales from Ivan Krylov |journal=Translation and Literature |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |jstor=40340118 |volume=18 |number=1 |date=2009 |pages=64–85 |doi=10.3366/E096813610800037X}} non-fiction writers such as the critic Vissarion Belinsky,{{cite journal |last=Gifford |first=Henry |title=Belinsky: One Aspect |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |jstor=4204011 |volume=27 |number=68 |date=1948 |pages=250–258}} and playwrights such as Aleksandr Griboyedov and Aleksandr Ostrovsky.{{cite journal |last=Brintlinger |first=Angela |title=The Persian Frontier: Griboedov as Orientalist and Literary Hero |journal=Canadian Slavonic Papers |jstor=40870888 |volume=45 |number=3/4 |date=2003 |pages=371–393 |doi=10.1080/00085006.2003.11092333 |s2cid=191370504}}{{cite journal |last=Beasly |first=Ina |title=The Dramatic Art of Ostrovsky. (Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, 1823–86) |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |jstor=4202212 |volume=6 |number=18 |date=1928 |pages=603–617}} The beginning of the 20th century ranks as the Silver Age of Russian Poetry. This era had poets such as Alexander Blok, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Konstantin Balmont,{{cite journal |last=Markov |first=Vladimir |title=Balmont: A Reappraisal |jstor=2493225 |journal=Slavic Review |volume=28 |number=2 |date=1969 |pages=221–264 |doi=10.2307/2493225|s2cid=163456732 }} Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Osip Mandelstam. It also produced some first-rate novelists and short-story writers, such as Aleksandr Kuprin, Nobel Prize winner Ivan Bunin, Leonid Andreyev, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Andrei Bely.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russian literature split into Soviet and white émigré parts. In the 1930s, Socialist realism became the predominant trend in Russia. Its leading figure was Maxim Gorky, who laid the foundations of this style.{{cite journal |last=Tikhonov |first=Nikolay |title=Gorky and Soviet Literature |date=November 1946 |pages=28–38 |volume=25 |number=64 |publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association |jstor=4203794 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review}} Mikhail Bulgakov was one of the leading writers of the Soviet era.{{cite journal |jstor=4212557 |last=Lovell |first=Stephen |title=Bulgakov as Soviet Culture |volume=76 |number=1 |pages=28–48 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |year=1998 |publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association}} Nikolay Ostrovsky's novel How the Steel Was Tempered has been among the most successful works of Russian literature. Influential émigré writers include Vladimir Nabokov.{{cite journal |last=Grosshans |first=Henry |title=Vladimir Nabokov and the Dream of Old Russia |jstor=40753878 |publisher=University of Texas Press |pages=401–409 |date=1966 |journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language |volume=7 |number=4}} Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, such as Nobel Prize-winning novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who wrote about life in the Gulag camps.{{cite journal |last=Rowley |first=David G. |title=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Russian Nationalism |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |jstor=260964 |publisher=SAGE Publishing |pages=321–337 |volume=32 |number=3 |date=July 1997|doi=10.1177/002200949703200303 |s2cid=161761611 }}

{{Main|List of Russian philosophers}}

Russian philosophy has been greatly influential. Alexander Herzen is known as one of the fathers of agrarian populism.{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Aileen |title=The Destruction of Idols: Alexander Herzen and Francis Bacon |jstor=2709278 |doi=10.2307/2709278 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |year=1980 |volume=41 |number=4 |pages=635–662}} Mikhail Bakunin is referred to as the father of anarchism.{{cite journal |last=Rezneck |first=Samuel |title=The Political and Social Theory of Michael Bakunin |jstor=1945179 |doi=10.2307/1945179 |pages=270–296 |volume=21 |number=2 |journal=The American Political Science Review |year=1927 |publisher=American Political Science Association|s2cid=147141998 }} Peter Kropotkin was the most important theorist of anarcho-communism.{{cite journal |last=Adams |first=Matthew S. |title=Rejecting the American Model: Peter Kropotkin's Radical Communalism |jstor=26227268 |pages=147–173 |volume=35 |number=1 |journal=History of Political Thought |publisher=Imprint Academic |date=2014}} Mikhail Bakhtin's writings have significantly inspired scholars.{{cite journal |last=Schuster |first=Charles I. |title=Mikhail Bakhtin as Rhetorical Theorist |jstor=377158 |doi=10.2307/377158 |volume=47 |number=6 |pages=594–607 |journal=College English |year=1985 |publisher=National Council of Teachers of English|s2cid=141332657 }} Helena Blavatsky gained international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy, and co-founded the Theosophical Society.{{cite journal |last=Bevir |first=Mark |title=The West Turns Eastward: Madame Blavatsky and the Transformation of the Occult Tradition |jstor=1465212 |pages=747–767 |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=62 |number=3 |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |date=1994|doi=10.1093/jaarel/LXII.3.747 }} Vladimir Lenin, a major revolutionary, developed a variant of communism known as Leninism. Leon Trotsky, on the other hand, founded Trotskyism. Alexander Zinoviev was a prominent philosopher in the second half of the 20th century.{{cite journal |last=Brom |first=Libor |title=Dialectical Identity and Destiny: A General Introduction to Alexander Zinoviev's Theory of the Soviet Man |jstor=1347433 |doi=10.2307/1347433 |volume=42 |number=1/2 |date=1988 |pages=15–27 |publisher=Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association |journal=Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature|s2cid=146768452 }}

{{Main|Science and technology in Russia}}

File:Dmitri Mendeleev (1834–1907).jpg (1837–1906) is best known for formulating the Periodic Law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements.]]

{{See also|Timeline of Russian inventions and technology records|List of Russian scientists|List of Russian inventors}}

Mikhail Lomonosov proposed the conservation of mass in chemical reactions, discovered the atmosphere of Venus, and founded modern geology.{{cite journal |last=Usitalo |first=Steven A. |title=Lomonosov: Patronage and Reputation at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences |journal=Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas |date=2011 |pages=217–239 |publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag |jstor=41302521 |volume=59 |number=2|doi=10.25162/jgo-2011-0011 |s2cid=252450664 }} Since the times of Nikolay Lobachevsky, who pioneered the non-Euclidean geometry, and a prominent tutor Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematicians became among the world's most influential.{{cite journal |last=Vucinich |first=Alexander |title=Mathematics in Russian Culture |jstor=2708192 |doi=10.2307/2708192 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |volume=21 |number=2 |date=1960 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |pages=161–179}} Dmitry Mendeleev invented the Periodic table, the main framework of modern chemistry.{{cite journal |last=Leicester |first=Henry M. |title=Factors Which Led Mendeleev to the Periodic Law |jstor=27757115 |doi=10.2307/27757115 |date=1948 |pages=67–74 |publisher=University of California Press |journal=Chymia|volume=1 }} Sofya Kovalevskaya was a pioneer among women in mathematics in the 19th century.{{cite journal |last=Rappaport |first=Karen D. |title=S. Kovalevsky: A Mathematical Lesson |jstor=2320506 |doi=10.2307/2320506 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |journal=The American Mathematical Monthly |volume=88 |number=8 |pages=564–574 |date=October 1981}} Grigori Perelman was offered the first ever Clay Millennium Prize Problems Award for his final proof of the Poincaré conjecture in 2002, as well as the Fields Medal in 2006, both of which he declined.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/science/02math.html |title=A Math Problem Solver Declines a $1 Million Prize |work=The New York Times |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |date=1 July 2010 |access-date=8 January 2022 |archive-date=20 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220230504/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/science/02math.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/science/02math.html |last=Chang |first=Kenneth |title=Highest Honor in Mathematics Is Refused |work=The New York Times |date=22 August 2006 |access-date=8 January 2022 |archive-date=20 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220230504/https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/science/02math.html |url-status=live }}

Alexander Popov was among the inventors of radio,{{cite web |last=Marsh |first=Allison |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/who-invented-radio-guglielmo-marconi-or-aleksandr-popov |title=Who Invented Radio: Guglielmo Marconi or Aleksandr Popov? |work=IEEE Spectrum |publisher=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |date=30 April 2020 |access-date=12 July 2021 |archive-date=16 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416082156/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/who-invented-radio-guglielmo-marconi-or-aleksandr-popov |url-status=live }} while Nikolai Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were co-inventors of laser and maser.{{cite journal |last1=Shampo |first1=Marc A. |last2=Kyle |first2=Robert A. |last3=Steensma |first3=David P. |title=Nikolay Basov—Nobel Prize for Lasers and Masers |journal=Mayo Clinic Proceedings |date=January 2012 |volume=87 |issue=1 |pages=e3 |doi=10.1016/j.mayocp.2011.11.003 |pmid=22212977 |pmc=3498096}} Zhores Alferov contributed significantly to the creation of modern heterostructure physics and electronics.{{cite journal |title= Remembering Zhores Alferov |last=Ivanov |first=Sergey |volume=13 |number=10 |pages=657–659 |date=10 September 2019 |doi=10.1038/s41566-019-0525-0 |journal=Nature Photonics|bibcode=2019NaPho..13..657I |s2cid=203099794 }} Oleg Losev made crucial contributions in the field of semiconductor junctions, and discovered light-emitting diodes.{{cite journal |last=Zheludev |first=Nikolay |title=The life and times of the LED — a 100-year history |date=April 2007 |volume=1 |pages=189–192 |doi=10.1038/nphoton.2007.34 |journal=Nature Photonics|issue=4 |bibcode=2007NaPho...1..189Z }} Vladimir Vernadsky is considered one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and radiogeology.{{cite journal |last=Ghilarov |first=Alexej M. |title=Vernadsky's Biosphere Concept: An Historical Perspective |jstor=3036242 |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |volume=70 |number=2 |journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology |date=June 1995 |pages=193–203|doi=10.1086/418982 |s2cid=85258634 }} Élie Metchnikoff is known for his groundbreaking research in immunology.{{cite journal |last=Gordon |first=Siamon |title=Elie Metchnikoff, the Man and the Myth |journal=Journal of Innate Immunity |pmid=26836137 |date=3 February 2016 |volume=8 |number=3 |pages=223–227 |doi=10.1159/000443331 |pmc=6738810 |doi-access=free}} Ivan Pavlov is known chiefly for his work in classical conditioning.{{cite journal |last=Anrep |first=G. V. |title=Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. 1849–1936 |jstor=769124 |publisher=Royal Society |volume=2 |number=5 |date=December 1936 |pages=1–18 |journal=Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1936.0001 }} Lev Landau made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics.{{cite journal |last=Gorelik |first=Gennady |title=The Top-Secret Life of Lev Landau |jstor=24995874 |journal=Scientific American |volume=277 |number=2 |pages=72–77 |date=August 1997 |publisher=Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc.|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0897-72 |bibcode=1997SciAm.277b..72G }}

Nikolai Vavilov was best known for having identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants.{{cite journal |last=Janick |first=Jules |title=Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov: Plant Geographer, Geneticist, Martyr of Science |doi-access=free |doi=10.21273/HORTSCI.50.6.772 |date=1 June 2015 |url=https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/pdfs/772.full.pdf |volume=50 |number=6 |journal=HortScience |pages=772–776 |access-date=21 January 2022 |archive-date=2 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402131158/https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/pdfs/772.full.pdf |url-status=live }} Many famous Russian scientists and inventors were émigrés. Igor Sikorsky was an aviation pioneer.{{cite journal |last=Hunsaker |first=Jerome C. |title=A Half Century of Aeronautical Development |jstor=3143642 |publisher=American Philosophical Society |volume=98 |number=2 |pages=121–130 |date=15 April 1954 |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society}} Vladimir Zworykin was the inventor of the iconoscope and kinescope television systems.{{cite web |url=https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/vladimir-zworykin |title=Vladimir Zworykin |work=Lemelson–MIT Prize |access-date=12 July 2021 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329042251/https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/vladimir-zworykin |url-status=live }} Theodosius Dobzhansky was the central figure in the field of evolutionary biology for his work in shaping the modern synthesis.{{cite journal |last=Ford |first=Edmund Brisco |author-link= E. B. Ford |doi=10.1098/rsbm.1977.0004 |title=Theodosius Grigorievich Dobzhansky, 25 January 1900 – 18 December 1975 |date=November 1977 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume= 23 |pages=58–89 |pmid= 11615738 |doi-access=free |issn=1748-8494}} George Gamow was one of the foremost advocates of the Big Bang theory.{{cite web |url=https://www.colorado.edu/physics/events/outreach/george-gamow-memorial-lecture-series/distinguished-life-and-career-george-gamow |title=The Distinguished Life and Career of George Gamow |date=11 May 2016 |publisher=University of Colorado Boulder |access-date=21 January 2022 |archive-date=28 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528173448/https://www.colorado.edu/physics/events/outreach/george-gamow-memorial-lecture-series/distinguished-life-and-career-george-gamow |url-status=live }}

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky is called the father of theoretical astronautics, whose works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers, such as Valentin Glushko, and many others.{{cite book |last=Siddiqi |first=Asif A. |title=Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 |date=2000 |publisher=United States Government Publishing Office |isbn=978-0-160-61305-0}}{{rp|6–7,333}}

In 1961, the first human trip into space was successfully made by Yuri Gagarin. In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first and youngest woman in space, having flown a solo mission on Vostok 6.{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-woman-in-space |title=Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space |work=History |publisher=A&E Networks |date=9 February 2010 |access-date=18 January 2022 |quote=On June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok 6, Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to travel into space. |archive-date=18 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118182644/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-woman-in-space |url-status=live }} In 1965, Alexei Leonov became the first human to conduct a spacewalk, exiting the space capsule during Voskhod 2.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_9035/index.html |title=The First Spacewalk |work=BBC |first=Paul |last=Rincon |date=13 October 2014 |access-date=31 May 2021 |archive-date=16 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216020616/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_9035/index.html |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Music of Russia|List of Russian composers}}

File:Porträt des Komponisten Pjotr I. Tschaikowski (1840-1893).jpg was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) ]]

Until the 18th century, music in Russia consisted mainly of church music and folk songs and dances.Excerpted from {{cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/russia/44.htm|title=Russia – Music|editor-first=Glenn E.|editor-last=Curtis|year=1998|publisher=Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress|access-date=25 June 2021|archive-date=25 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625184240/http://countrystudies.us/russia/44.htm|url-status=live}} In the 19th century, it was defined by the tension between classical composer Mikhail Glinka along with other members of The Mighty Handful, and the Russian Musical Society led by composers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein. The later tradition of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, was continued into the 20th century by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music.{{Cite book|last=Norris|first=Gregory|editor-last=Stanley|editor-first=Sadie|title=The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition|publisher=Macmillan|year=1980|location=London|page=707|isbn=978-0-333-23111-1}} World-renowned composers of the 20th century include Alexander Scriabin, Alexander Glazunov, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Georgy Sviridov and Alfred Schnittke.

Soviet and Russian conservatories have turned out generations of world-renowned soloists. Among the best known are violinists David Oistrakh and Gidon Kremer,{{cite book|title=Violin Virtuosos: From Paganini to the 21st Century|url=https://archive.org/details/violinvirtuososf0000roth|url-access=registration|last=Roth|first=Henry|year=1997|publisher=California Classic Books |isbn=1-879395-15-0}}{{cite news|first=Charlotte|last=Higgins|title=Perfect isn't good enough|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/nov/22/artsfeatures2|work=The Guardian|quote="Thirty years ago Gidon Kremer was rated as one of the world's outstanding violinists. Then he really started making waves..."|date=22 November 2000|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132052/https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/nov/22/artsfeatures2|url-status=live}} cellist Mstislav Rostropovich,{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Elizabeth|title=Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, Legend|location=London|date=2007|publisher=Faber & Faber|isbn=978-0-571-22051-9}} pianists Vladimir Horowitz,{{cite book|last=Dubal|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/rememberinghorow0000unse|title=Remembering Horowitz: 125 Pianists Recall a Legend|publisher=Schirmer Books|date=1993|isbn=0-02-870676-5}} Sviatoslav Richter,{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=John|title=Sviatoslav Richter: Pianist of the Century: Discography|location=London|publisher=Travis & Emery|date=2009|isbn=978-1-901395-99-0}} and Emil Gilels,{{cite web|first=Phil|last=Carrick|url=http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2013/09/21/3851467.htm|title=Emil Gilels: A True Giant of the Keyboard|work=ABC Classic|date=21 September 2013|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150126072651/http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2013/09/21/3851467.htm|archive-date=26 January 2015|url-status=dead}} and vocalist Galina Vishnevskaya.{{cite web|url=https://knightfoundation.org/articles/galina-vishnevskaya-the-russian-tigress-2/|title=Galina Vishnevskaya, the Russian tigress|work=Knight Foundation|first=Sebastian|last=Spreng|date=19 December 2012|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190530/https://knightfoundation.org/articles/galina-vishnevskaya-the-russian-tigress-2/|url-status=live}}

During the Soviet times, popular music also produced a number of renowned figures, such as the two balladeers—Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava,{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/Music|title=Russia – Music|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407043936/https://www.britannica.com/place/Russia/Music|url-status=live}} and performers such as Alla Pugacheva.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/28/nyregion/superstar-evokes-superpower-diva-s-voice-adoring-fans-hear-echoes-soviet-days.html?scp=5&sq=pugacheva&st=cse|title=A Superstar Evokes a Superpower; In Diva's Voice, Adoring Fans Hear Echoes of Soviet Days|work=The New York Times|first=Alison|last=Smale|date=28 February 2000|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=28 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328231350/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/28/nyregion/superstar-evokes-superpower-diva-s-voice-adoring-fans-hear-echoes-soviet-days.html?scp=5&sq=pugacheva&st=cse|url-status=live}} Jazz, even with sanctions from Soviet authorities, flourished and evolved into one of the country's most popular musical forms. The Ganelin Trio have been described by critics as the greatest ensemble of free-jazz in continental Europe.{{cite web|url=https://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/ganelin.html|title=Ganelin Trio|first=Piero|last=Scaruffi|author-link=Piero Scaruffi|quote="The Ganelin Trio was the greatest ensemble of free-jazz in continental Europe, namely in Russia. Like other European improvisers, pianist Vyacheslav Ganelin, woodwind player Vladimir Chekasin and percussionist Vladimir Tarasov too found a common ground between free-jazz and Dadaism. Their shows were as much music as they were provocative antics."|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184606/https://www.scaruffi.com/jazz/ganelin.html|url-status=live}} By the 1980s, rock music became popular across Russia, and produced bands such as Aria, Aquarium,{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141013-meet-the-bob-dylan-of-russia|title=Boris Grebenshikov: 'The Bob Dylan of Russia'|work=BBC|first=Sally|last=McGrane|date=21 October 2014|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331091042/https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141013-meet-the-bob-dylan-of-russia|url-status=live}} DDT,{{cite news|last=Pellegrinelli|first=Lara|url=https://www.npr.org/2008/02/06/18752518/ddt-notes-from-russias-rock-underground|title=DDT: Notes from Russia's Rock Underground|work=National Public Radio|quote="For the Russian band DDT, it was hard enough being a rock group under the Soviet regime. The band, which formed in 1981, gave secret concerts in apartments, bomb shelters, and even kindergarten classrooms to avoid the attention of authorities... Later, the policies of perestroika allowed bands to perform out in the open. DDT went on to become one of Russia's most popular acts..."|date=6 February 2008|access-date=10 July 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331101353/https://www.npr.org/2008/02/06/18752518/ddt-notes-from-russias-rock-underground|url-status=live}} and Kino.{{cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/leningrad-rock-club-scorpions-meine-soviet-union-wind-of-change-tsoi/31157285.html|title='Crazy Pirates': The Leningrad Rockers Who Rode A Wind Of Change Across The U.S.S.R.|work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|first=Coilin|last=O'Connor|date=23 March 2021|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=13 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220413053633/https://www.rferl.org/a/leningrad-rock-club-scorpions-meine-soviet-union-wind-of-change-tsoi/31157285.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-music-kino-tsoi/27185480.html|title=Musician, Songwriter, Cultural Force: Remembering Russia's Viktor Tsoi|work=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|quote="Also in 1982, Tsoi formed the band Kino and the group recorded its first album, 45... Tsoi and Kino quickly became a sensation... In 1986, the band released Khochu peremen – an anthem calling on the young generation to become more active and demand political change. The song made Kino's reputation across the Soviet Union..."|date=12 August 2015|access-date=19 July 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102434/https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-music-kino-tsoi/27185480.html|url-status=live}} Pop music in Russia has continued to flourish since the 1960s, with globally famous acts such as t.A.T.u.{{cite web|url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/tatu-bad-to-be-true-20030614-gdvvq0.html|title=Tatu bad to be true|work=The Age|date=14 June 2003|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331103131/https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/tatu-bad-to-be-true-20030614-gdvvq0.html|url-status=live}} In the recent times, Little Big, a rave band, has gained popularity in Russia and across Europe.{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/@sabrinafaramarzi/a-review-of-russian-rave-band-little-big-in-berlin-9eb4e8e1b0db|title=Little Big: camp, outrageous Russian rave|work=Medium|first=Sabrina|last=Faramarzi|date=12 May 2019|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190111/https://medium.com/@sabrinafaramarzi/a-review-of-russian-rave-band-little-big-in-berlin-9eb4e8e1b0db|url-status=live}}

{{main|Cinema of Russia|Cinema of the Soviet Union}}

File:Vintage Potemkin.jpg (1925) by Sergei Eisenstein, which was named the greatest film of all time at the Brussels World's Fair in 1958.{{cite web|last=Hodgson|first=Jonathan|url=https://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/media/EISENSTEIN%2C+Sergei+-+BATTLESHIP+POTEMKIN+-+1925+Russia/1_sub9wj41|title=EISENSTEIN, Sergei – BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN – 1925 Russia|publisher=Middlesex University|date=4 December 2020|access-date=10 July 2021|archive-date=29 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329091227/https://www.play.mdx.ac.uk/media/EISENSTEIN%2C+Sergei+-+BATTLESHIP+POTEMKIN+-+1925+Russia/1_sub9wj41|url-status=live}}]]

Russian and later Soviet cinema was a hotbed of invention, resulting in world-renowned films such as The Battleship Potemkin.Miller, Jamie. "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/20451166?seq=1 Soviet Cinema, 1929–41: The Development of Industry and Infrastructure] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527122843/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20451166?seq=1 |date=27 May 2021 }}" Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 58, no. 1, 2006, pp. 103–124. JSTOR. Retrieved 26 May 2021. Soviet-era filmmakers, most notably Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, would go on to become among of the world's most innovative and influential directors.{{cite web|url=https://www.inverse.com/article/40392-sergei-eisenstein-google-doodle|title=Sergei Eisenstein: How the "Father of Montage" Reinvented Cinema|work=Inverse|first=Mike|last=Brown|date=22 January 2018|access-date=27 May 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331100137/https://www.inverse.com/article/40392-sergei-eisenstein-google-doodle|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-andrei-tarkovsky|title=Where to begin with Andrei Tarkovsky|work=British Film Institute|first=Carmen|last=Gray|date=27 October 2015|access-date=27 May 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331091343/https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-andrei-tarkovsky|url-status=live}} Eisenstein was a student of Lev Kuleshov, who developed the groundbreaking Soviet montage theory of film editing at the world's first film school, the All-Union Institute of Cinematography.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/All-Union-State-Institute-of-Cinematography|title=All-Union State Institute of Cinematography|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=29 June 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331092540/https://www.britannica.com/topic/All-Union-State-Institute-of-Cinematography|url-status=live}} Dziga Vertov's "Kino-Eye" theory had a huge impact on the development of documentary filmmaking and cinema realism.{{cite web|url=https://news.yale.edu/2019/08/12/yale-film-scholar-dziga-vertov-enigma-movie-camera|title=Yale film scholar on Dziga Vertov, the enigma with a movie camera|work=Yale University|first=Kendall|last=Teare|date=12 August 2019|access-date=21 June 2021|archive-date=19 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419004549/https://news.yale.edu/2019/08/12/yale-film-scholar-dziga-vertov-enigma-movie-camera|url-status=live}} Many Soviet socialist realism films were artistically successful, including Chapaev, The Cranes Are Flying, and Ballad of a Soldier.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The 1960s and 1970s saw a greater variety of artistic styles in Soviet cinema. The comedies of Eldar Ryazanov and Leonid Gaidai of that time were immensely popular, with many of the catchphrases still in use today.{{cite web|url=https://www.rferl.org/a/eldar-ryazanov-films/27398408.html|title=Eldar Ryazanov And His Films|work=Radio Free Europe|quote="Eldar Ryazanov, a Russian film director whose iconic comedies captured the flavor of life and love in the Soviet Union while deftly skewering the absurdities of the communist system... His films ridiculed Soviet bureaucracy and trained a clear eye on the predicaments and peculiarities of daily life during the communist era, but the light touch of his satire helped him dodge government censorship."|date=30 November 2015|access-date=27 May 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331102410/https://www.rferl.org/a/eldar-ryazanov-films/27398408.html|url-status=live}}Prokhorova, Elena, "The Man Who Made Them Laugh: Leonid Gaidai, the King of Soviet Comedy", in Beumers, Birgit (2008) A History of Russian Cinema, Berg Publishers, {{ISBN|978-1845202156}}, pp. 519–542 In 1961–68 Sergey Bondarchuk directed an Oscar-winning film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's epic War and Peace, which was the most expensive film made in the Soviet Union.Birgit Beumers. A History of Russian Cinema. Berg Publishers (2009). {{ISBN|978-1-84520-215-6}}. p. 143. In 1969, Vladimir Motyl's White Sun of the Desert was released, a very popular film in a genre of ostern; the film is traditionally watched by cosmonauts before any trip into space.{{cite web|url=http://filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale08/russian08/whitesunofthedesert.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905102633/http://filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale08/russian08/whitesunofthedesert.html|archive-date=5 September 2008|publisher=Film Society of Lincoln Center|title=White Sun of the Desert|access-date=18 January 2008}} In 2002, Russian Ark was the first feature film ever to be shot in a single take.{{cite web|url=https://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/russian-ark-history-one-shot/|title='Russian Ark' a history in one shot|work=The Michigan Daily|first=Jeff|last=Dickerson|date=31 March 2003|access-date=25 May 2021|archive-date=25 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525123421/https://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/russian-ark-history-one-shot/|url-status=live}} Today, the Russian cinema industry continues to expand.{{cite web|url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/01/18/the-revival-of-russias-cinema-industry-a64197|title=The Revival of Russia's Cinema Industry|work=The Moscow Times|first=Ben|last=Aris|date=18 January 2019|access-date=25 May 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331103222/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/01/18/the-revival-of-russias-cinema-industry-a64197|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Russian architecture|List of Russian architects}}

File:Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.jpg, built between 1555 and 1683, in Moscow]]

The history of Russian architecture begins with early woodcraft buildings of ancient Slavs,{{cite book|last1=Rem Koolhaas, James Westcott, Stephan Petermann|title=Elements of Architecture|date=2017|publisher=Taschen|isbn=978-3-8365-5614-9|page=102}} and the architecture of Kievan Rus'.{{Cite book|last=Rappoport|first=Pavel A.|title=Building the Churches of Kievan Russia|date=1995|page=248|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780860783275}} Following the Christianization of Kievan Rus', for several centuries it was influenced predominantly by the Byzantine Empire.{{Cite journal|last=Voyce|first=Arthur|date=1957|title=National Elements in Russian Architecture|journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians|volume=16|issue=2|pages=6–16|doi=10.2307/987741|issn=0037-9808|jstor=987741}} Aristotle Fioravanti and other Italian architects brought Renaissance trends into Russia.{{cite book|last1=Jarzombek|first1=Mark M.|last2=Prakash|first2=Vikramaditya|last3=Ching|first3=Frank|title=A Global History of Architecture 2nd Edition|date=2010|page=544|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0470402573}} The 16th century saw the development of the unique tent-like churches; and the onion dome design, which is a distinctive feature of Russian architecture.{{Cite journal|last=Lidov|first=Alexei|title=The Canopy over the Holy Sepulchre. On the Origin of Onion-Shaped Domes|url=https://www.academia.edu/2694753|journal=Academia.edu|date=2005|pages=171–180|access-date=5 August 2021|archive-date=29 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329115442/https://www.academia.edu/2694753|url-status=live}} In the 17th century, the "fiery style" of ornamentation flourished in Moscow and Yaroslavl, gradually paving the way for the Naryshkin baroque of the 1690s. After the reforms of Peter the Great, Russia's architecture became influenced by Western European styles.{{cite book|last=Shvidkovsky|first=Dmitry|title=Russian Architecture and the West|publisher=Yale University Press|page=480|date=2007|isbn=9780300109122}} The 18th-century taste for Rococo architecture led to the splendid works of Bartolomeo Rastrelli and his followers.{{cite book|last1=Ring|first1=Trudy|last2=Watson|first2=Noelle|last3=Schellinger|first3=Paul|title=Northern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places|date=1995|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfPYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA657|page=657|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781884964015|access-date=5 August 2021|archive-date=28 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928153552/https://books.google.com/books?id=yfPYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA657#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}} During the reign of Catherine the Great, Saint Petersburg was transformed into an outdoor museum of Neoclassical architecture.{{Cite book|title=The Most Intentional City: St. Petersburg in the Reign of Catherine the Great|last=Munro|first=George|publisher=Farleigh Dickinson University Press|year=2008|isbn=9780838641460|location=Cranbury|page=233}} During Alexander I's rule, Empire style became the de facto architectural style, and Nicholas I opened the gate of Eclecticism to Russia. The second half of the 19th-century was dominated by the Neo-Byzantine and Russian Revival style. In early 20th-century, Russian neoclassical revival became a trend. Prevalent styles of the late 20th-century were the Art Nouveau, Constructivism,{{cite book|last=Lodder|first=Christina|title=Russian Constructivism|date=1985|page=328|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300034066}} and Socialist Classicism.{{cite book|last1=Tarkhanov|first1=Alexei|last2=Kavtaradze|first2=Sergei|title=Architecture of the Stalin Era|date=1992|page=192|publisher=Rizzoli |isbn=9780847814732}}

{{Main|Russian Orthodox Church|Religion in Russia}}

{{POV section|date=November 2023}}

File:День Святой Троицы. Престольный праздник.jpg in Russia; the Russian Orthodox Church has experienced a great revival since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a country that had a policy of state atheism.]]

Russia's largest religion is Christianity—It has the world's largest Orthodox population.{{cite web|title=Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-and-eastern-europe/|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|date=10 May 2017|access-date=21 November 2020|archive-date=10 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510190714/http://www.pewforum.org/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-and-eastern-europe/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Orthodox Christianity in the 21st Century|url=https://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/08/orthodox-christianity-in-the-21st-century/|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|date=10 November 2017|access-date=21 November 2020|archive-date=25 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125010533/https://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/08/orthodox-christianity-in-the-21st-century/|url-status=live}} According to differing sociological surveys on religious adherence, between 41% to over 80% of the total population of Russia adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church.There is no official census of religion in Russia, and estimates are based on surveys only. In August 2012, [http://sreda.org/arena ARENA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612143249/http://sreda.org/arena |date=12 June 2018 }} determined that about 46.8% of Russians are Christians (including Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and non-denominational), which is slightly less than an absolute 50%+ majority. However, later that year the [http://www.levada.ru/17-12-2012/v-rossii-74-pravoslavnykh-i-7-musulman Levada Center] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231020830/http://www.levada.ru/17-12-2012/v-rossii-74-pravoslavnykh-i-7-musulman |date=31 December 2012 }} determined that 76% of Russians are Christians, and in June 2013 the [http://fom.ru/obshchestvo/10953 Public Opinion Foundation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200415213226/https://fom.ru/obshchestvo/10953 |date=15 April 2020 }} determined that 65% of Russians are Christians. These findings are in line with [http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/ Pew] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200510181111/https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/ |date=10 May 2020 }}'s 2010 survey, which determined that 73.3% of Russians are Christians, with [http://wciom.ru/index.php?id=268&uid=13365 VTSIOM] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929201730/https://wciom.ru/index.php?id=268&uid=13365%2F |date=29 September 2020 }}'s 2010 survey (~77% Christian), and with [http://www.fgi-tbff.org/sites/default/files/elfinder/FGIImages/Research/fromresearchtopolicy/ipsos_mori_briefing_pack.pdf#page=40 Ipsos MORI] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117013643/http://www.fgi-tbff.org/sites/default/files/elfinder/FGIImages/Research/fromresearchtopolicy/ipsos_mori_briefing_pack.pdf |date=17 January 2013 }}'s 2011 survey (69%).[http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1997068 Верю — не верю] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120827114409/http://kommersant.ru/doc/1997068 |date=27 August 2012 }}. "Ogonek", № 34 (5243), 27 August 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.{{cite web|url=http://www.religare.ru/2_42432.html|script-title=ru:Опубликована подробная сравнительная статистика религиозности в России и Польше|language=ru|access-date=6 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151202081009/http://www.religare.ru/2_42432.html|archive-date=2 December 2015|url-status=dead}}

Non-religious Russians may associate themselves with the Orthodox faith for cultural reasons. Some Russian people are Old Believers: a relatively small schismatic group of the Russian Orthodoxy that rejected the liturgical reforms introduced in the 17th century. Other schisms from Orthodoxy include Doukhobors which in the 18th century rejected secular government, the Russian Orthodox priests, icons, all church ritual, the Bible as the supreme source of divine revelation and the divinity of Jesus, and later emigrated into Canada. An even earlier sect were Molokans which formed in 1550 and rejected Czar's divine right to rule, icons, the Trinity as outlined by the Nicene Creed, Orthodox fasts, military service, and practices including water baptism.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Other world religions have negligible representation among ethnic Russians. The largest of these groups are Islam with over 100,000 followers from national minorities,{{cite web|url=http://sreda.org/arena/arena-v-pdf|title=Арена|access-date=21 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202232117/http://sreda.org/arena/arena-v-pdf|archive-date=2 December 2013|url-status=dead}} and Baptists with over 85,000 Russian adherents.{{cite web |url=http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_639.html |title=statistics |publisher=Adherents.com |access-date=22 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810101834/http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_639.html |archive-date=10 August 2018 |url-status=usurped }} Others are mostly Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans and Jehovah's Witnesses.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Since the fall of the Soviet Union various new religious movements have sprung up and gathered a following among ethnic Russians. The most prominent of these are Rodnovery, the revival of the Slavic native religion also common to other Slavic nations.Victor Shnirelman. [http://legacy.wlu.ca/documents/6483/Christians_Go_home.pdf "Christians! Go home": A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202101/http://legacy.wlu.ca/documents/6483/Christians_Go_home.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }}. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2002.

{{Main|Sport in Russia}}

Football is the most popular sport in Russia.{{cite book|first=Suzanne J.|last=Murdico|title=Russia: A Primary Source Cultural Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwEWwYhv9ZUC&pg=PT96|access-date=19 November 2013|year=2005|publisher=Rosen Publishing|isbn=978-1-4042-2913-6|page=132}} The Soviet Union national football team became the first European champions by winning Euro 1960,{{cite web|url=https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/025a-0eb0ecf360cc-a9532565e049-1000--euro-1960-all-you-need-to-know/|title=EURO 1960: all you need to know|work=UEFA Champions League|date=13 February 2020|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225195942/https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/025a-0eb0ecf360cc-a9532565e049-1000--euro-1960-all-you-need-to-know/|url-status=dead}} and reached the finals of Euro 1988.{{cite web|url=https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/025d-0f859f66fcba-c8d3aa08dfa3-1000--classics-ussr-vs-netherlands-1988/|title=Classics: Soviet Union vs Netherlands, 1988|work=UEFA Champions League|date=29 May 2020|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132625/https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/025d-0f859f66fcba-c8d3aa08dfa3-1000--classics-ussr-vs-netherlands-1988/|url-status=dead}} In 1956 and 1988, the Soviet Union won gold at the Olympic football tournament. Russian clubs CSKA Moscow and Zenit Saint Petersburg won the UEFA Cup in 2005 and 2008.{{cite web|url=https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0253-0d806e352f9f-e83f37a18d8b-1000--sporting-cska-moskva-watch-their-2005-final/|title=Sporting-CSKA Moskva: watch their 2005 final|work=UEFA Champions League|date=7 August 2015|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132621/https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0253-0d806e352f9f-e83f37a18d8b-1000--sporting-cska-moskva-watch-their-2005-final/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://thesefootballtimes.co/2019/11/18/how-a-brilliant-zenit-saint-petersburg-lifted-the-uefa-cup-in-2008/|title=How a brilliant Zenit Saint Petersburg lifted the UEFA Cup in 2008|work=These Football Times|first=Joe|last=Terry|date=18 November 2019|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132621/https://thesefootballtimes.co/2019/11/18/how-a-brilliant-zenit-saint-petersburg-lifted-the-uefa-cup-in-2008/|url-status=live}} The Russian national football team reached the semi-finals of Euro 2008.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jun/26/russiaspainlive|title=Euro 2008: Russia v Spain – as it happened|work=The Guardian|first=Sean|last=Ingle|date=26 June 2008|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=12 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812004724/https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jun/26/russiaspainlive|url-status=live}} Russia was the host nation for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup,{{cite web|url=https://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/|title=2018 FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017|work=FIFA|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=3 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703122532/http://www.fifa.com/confederationscup/matches/round=274645/match=300334881/matchcast.html|url-status=live}} and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.{{cite web|url=https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/russia2018/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224033040/https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/russia2018/|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 February 2020|title=2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™|work=FIFA|access-date=31 May 2021}}

Ice hockey is very popular in Russia.{{cite web|url=https://geohistory.today/russian_ice_hockey/|title=Russians on Ice: A Brief Overview of Soviet and Russian Hockey|work=GeoHistory|first1=Lisa|last1=Crandell|first2=Josh|last2=Wilson|date=3 December 2009|access-date=3 June 2021|archive-date=3 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603154409/https://geohistory.today/russian_ice_hockey/|url-status=live}} The Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team dominated the sport internationally throughout its existence,{{cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2015/2/25/8108397/soviet-hockey-red-army|title=How Soviet hockey ruled the world — and then fell apart|work=Vox|first=Emily|last=VanDerWerff|date=22 February 2019|access-date=27 June 2021|archive-date=26 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626205838/https://www.vox.com/2015/2/25/8108397/soviet-hockey-red-army|url-status=live}} and the modern-day Russia men's national ice hockey team is among the most successful teams in the sport. Bandy is Russia's national sport, and it has historically been the highest-achieving country in the sport.{{cite web|url=https://www.rbth.com/arts/sport/2013/02/14/bandy_a_concise_history_of_the_extreme_sport_22867.html|title=Bandy: A concise history of the extreme sport|work=Russia Beyond|first=Ilya|last=Trisvyatsky|date=14 February 2013|access-date=7 July 2021|archive-date=29 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329091226/https://www.rbth.com/arts/sport/2013/02/14/bandy_a_concise_history_of_the_extreme_sport_22867.html|url-status=live}} The Russian national basketball team won the EuroBasket 2007,{{cite web|url=https://www.euroleague.net/news/i/15364/eurobasket-2007-final-september-16-2007|title=EuroBasket 2007 final: September 16, 2007|work=EuroLeague|first=Javier|last=Gancedo|date=16 September 2007|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=16 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116171531/https://www.euroleague.net/news/i/15364/eurobasket-2007-final-september-16-2007|url-status=live}} and the Russian basketball club PBC CSKA Moscow is among the most successful European basketball teams. The annual Formula One Russian Grand Prix is held at the Sochi Autodrom in the Sochi Olympic Park.{{cite web|url=https://www.formula1.com/en/information.russia-sochi-autodrom.3nDdZPizsnPEtlHysv115Y.html|title=Russia – Sochi|work=Formula One|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=21 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321211802/https://www.formula1.com/en/information.russia-sochi-autodrom.3nDdZPizsnPEtlHysv115Y.html|url-status=live}}

Russia is the leading nation in rhythmic gymnastics; and Russian synchronized swimming is considered to be the world's best.{{cite web|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/08/19/russian-mastery-in-synchronized-swimming-yields-double-gold/89000222/|title=Russian mastery in synchronized swimming yields double gold|work=USA Today|date=19 August 2016|access-date=21 June 2021|archive-date=8 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208003710/https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2016/08/19/russian-mastery-in-synchronized-swimming-yields-double-gold/89000222/|url-status=live}} Figure skating is another popular sport in Russia, especially pair skating and ice dancing.{{cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22276736/figure-skating-olympics-winter-2022-lessons|title=Figure skating is on thin ice. Here's how to fix it.|work=Vox|first=Rebecca|last=Jennings|date=18 February 2021|access-date=21 June 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132621/https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22276736/figure-skating-olympics-winter-2022-lessons|url-status=live}} Russia has produced a number of famous tennis players,{{cite web|url=https://petercioth.medium.com/roots-of-the-fall-and-rise-of-russian-tennis-9ba2e01635e8|title=Roots of The Fall And Rise of Russian Tennis.|work=Medium|first=Peter|last=Cioth|date=9 February 2021|access-date=3 June 2021|archive-date=3 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210603153414/https://petercioth.medium.com/roots-of-the-fall-and-rise-of-russian-tennis-9ba2e01635e8|url-status=live}} such as Maria Sharapova and Daniil Medvedev. Chess is also a widely popular pastime in the nation, with many of the world's top chess players being Russian for decades.{{cite web|url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/09/how-did-russians-get-so-good-at-chess.html|title=Why are the Russians so good at chess?|work=Slate|first=Christopher|last=Beam|date=25 September 2009|access-date=21 June 2021|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331071732/https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/09/how-did-russians-get-so-good-at-chess.html|url-status=live}} The 1980 Summer Olympic Games were held in Moscow,{{cite web|url=https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/moscow-1980|title=Moscow 1980 Summer Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results|work=Olympics.com|date=24 April 2018|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132625/https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/moscow-1980|url-status=live}} and the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics were hosted in Sochi.{{cite web|url=https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/sochi-2014|title=Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics – Athletes, Medals & Results|work=Olympics.com|date=23 April 2018|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=8 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220408132652/https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/sochi-2014|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.paralympic.org/sochi-2014|title=Sochi 2014|work=International Paralympic Committee|access-date=31 May 2021|archive-date=6 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806054846/https://www.paralympic.org/sochi-2014|url-status=live}}

{{Portal|Russia}}

• All-Russian nation
• European ethnic groups
• List of Russian artists
• List of Slavic studies journals

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{cite book |title=Русские |trans-title=The Russians |language=ru |year=1997 |editor-surname1=Alexandrov |editor-given1=V.A. |editor-surname2=Vlasova |editor-given2=I.V. |editor-surname3=Polishchuk |editor-given3=N.S. |format=N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS |place=Moscow |publisher=Nauka |url=http://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/rus/sian/index.htm |isbn=5-02-010320-9}} ([http://www.valerytishkov.ru/engine/documents/document1860.pdf pdf])
• {{cite journal |date=January 2008 |title=Two sources of the Russian patrilineal heritage in their Eurasian context |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=236–50 |last1=Balanovsky |first1=Oleg |last2=Rootsi |first2=Siiri |display-authors=etal |pmc=2253976 |pmid=18179905 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.019}}
• {{cite thesis |year=2012 |surname=Balanovsky |given=Oleg P. |title=Изменчивость генофонда в пространстве и времени: синтез данных о геногеографии митохондриальной ДНК и Y-хромосомы |trans-title=Variability of the gene pool in space and time: synthesis of data on the genogeography of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome |type=Dr. habil. thesis in Biology |url=http://www.med-gen.ru/ar/ar_Balanovsky.pdf |place=Moscow: Russian Academy of Medical Sciences |language=ru}}
• {{cite journal |date=December 2004 |last1=Malyarchuk |first1=Boris |last2=Derenko |first2=Miroslava |display-authors=etal |title=Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes in Russian Populations |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/human_biology/v076/76.6malyarchuk.pdf |journal=Human Biology |location=Detroit, Mi |publisher=Wayne State University Press |volume=76 |issue=6 |pages=877–900 |doi=10.1353/hub.2005.0021 |pmid=15974299 |s2cid=17385503 |issn=1534-6617}}
• {{cite book |surname=Sankina |given=S. L. |title=Этническая история средневекового населения Новгородской земли |trans-title=Ethnic history of the medieval population of the Novgorod land |place=Saint Petersburg |year=2000 |isbn=5-86007-210-4 |language=ru}}
• {{cite book |surname=Zelenin |given=Dmitry K. |author-link=Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin |year=1991 |language=ru |title=Восточнославянская этнография |trans-title=Russian (East Slavic) Ethnography |orig-year=1927 |translator=K.D. Tsivina |place=Moscow |publisher=Nauka |url=http://www.verigi.ru/?book=216 |postscript=. [First published in German as Russische (Ostslawische) Volkskunde (Berlin; Leipzig, 1927).] |access-date=2 August 2021 |archive-date=1 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801235417/http://verigi.ru/?book=216 |url-status=dead }}

{{sister project links|collapsible=true|wikt=Russian|d=Q49542|c=Category:Russians|voy=Russia|species=no}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Russians}}
• {{in lang|ru}} [http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_14_24.htm 4.1. Population by nationality] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807002907/http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_14_24.htm |date=7 August 2011 }}
• {{in lang|ru}} [http://www.booksite.ru/fulltext/rus/sian/index.htm "People and Cultures: Russians"] book published by Russian Academy of Sciences
• [http://folkportal.3dn.ru/forum/17-186-1 Pre-Revolutionary photos of women in Russian folk dress]

{{Slavic ethnic groups}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Ethnic groups in Russia

Category:East Slavs