Russia
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Russian literature is considered to be among the most influential literature in the world. Russia has a rich literary history, beginning with the poet Alexander Pushkin, considered the greatest Russian poet and often described as the "Russian Shakespeare".<ref name=lit> "Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207547>.</ref> In the nineteenth century Russian literature underwent an astounding golden age, beginning with the poet Pushkin and culminating in two of the greatest novelists in world literature, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Russia has remained a leading nation in literature since that time. Significant Russian writers of the Soviet period were Boris Pasternak, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vladimir Mayakovski, Mikhail Sholokhov, and the poets Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky. In the field of the novel, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in particular were titanic figures, and have remained internationally renowned, to the point that many scholars have described one or the other as the greatest novelist ever.<ref> "Russian literature." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-29157>.</ref>
Russia is a large and culturally diverse country with dozens of ethnic groups; each with their own forms of folk music. Music in 19th century Russia was defined by the tension between classical composer Mikhail Glinka and his followers, who embraced a Russian national identity and added religious and folk elements to their compositions, and the Russian Musical Society led by composers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein, which was musically conservative. The later Romantic tradition of Tchaikovsky was brought into the 20th century by Sergei Rachmaninoff. During the Soviet Era, music was highly scrutinized and kept within certain boundaries of content and innovation; notable composers included Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich.
Russia has a revered and recognised tradition of ballet. Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed the most famous works of ballet - Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty. During the early 20th century, Russian dancers Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky rose to fame, and Ballets Russes' travels abroad profoundly influenced the development of dance worldwide for decades to come.<ref name=ballet> "Russia." Britannica Student Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 July 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/ebi/article-207552>.</ref> Soviet ballet continued the 19th-century traditions,<ref name=ballet/> and the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov in St. Petersburg remain famous throughout the world.<ref name=ballet/>
Russian filmmaking came to prominence during the 1920s when it explored editing as the primary mode of cinematic expression, resulted in world-renowned films such as Battleship Potemkin. This outburst of creativity and innovation was short-lived, however. In the 1930s, Soviet censorship stifled creativity, though it did produce the hit Chapaev. Later Soviet-era filmmakers, most notably Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Tarkovsky, would become some of the world's most innovative and influential directors. Russian cinema has been transformed since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. During the 1990s, Russian filmmaking decreased sharply, but recent years have brought increased viewership and subsequent prosperity to the industry through exploration of contemporary subjects.
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