Character of the Russian people

The main feature of the nature of the Russian people is his religiousness and the associated search for absolute good, which is only possible in the Kingdom of God. In the soul of a Russian man there is a force that draws him to good and condemns evil, a voice of conscience. Even with the loss of the Christian idea of ​​the Kingdom of God, becoming an atheist, the Russian person retains the desire for perfect good.

The ability of the Russian people to higher forms of experience (religious, moral experience, the perception of someone else's soul-life, intellectual intuition) is its unique feature.

Especially valuable is the quality of a Russian person as a sensitive perception of someone else's emotional state. Hence - a live individual communication, even among unfamiliar people.

Religiousness, associated with the search for absolute good, makes a person think about the meaning of life. Russian people are characterized by a "religious - emotional" interpretation of life.

Also highly developed in the Russian people is the aesthetic experience necessary for artistic creativity.

The second primary property of the Russian character, along with religiosity, is a mighty willpower. It is with her that the passion of the Russian man is connected, the product of which is maximalism, extremism and fanatic intolerance. The higher the value, the stronger feelings and activity it causes in people who have a strong will.

Along with the passion and will power in the Russian character, one can also find "Oblomovism", laziness, passivity. They meet in all classes and are in many cases the reverse side of such high qualities of the Russian character as the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of reality. The idea is often very valuable, but sensitivity to the shortcomings of one's own and others' activities causes a cooling to the started business of the Russian person.

Among the primary properties of the Russian people is love for freedom, as well as its highest manifestation - freedom of the spirit. This property is associated with the search for absolute good. In public life, the love of freedom is expressed by Russians in their propensity for anarchy, in repulsion from the state.

Freedom of spirit, broad nature, search for the perfect good and the associated test of values ​​with thought and experience led to the fact that the Russian people developed the most diverse and sometimes opposite forms and ways of behavior (despotism of the state and anarchy, liberty, cruelty and kindness, humanity, individualism, heightened consciousness of the individual and impersonal collectivism, etc.). The search for absolute good has developed in the Russian people the recognition of the high value of each individual. It is from here that there is an increased interest in social justice.

Kindness is another primary basic property of the Russian people. Thanks to religiousness and the search for absolute good, it is maintained and deepened. Sensitivity to good is connected with the Russian person with the satirical direction of the mind, with a tendency to criticize everything, and kindness, along with a living imagination, often becomes the cause of lies.

Despite the fact that kindness is the predominant feature of the character of a Russian person, there are in his life not a few manifestations of cruelty (cruelty as a means of education, as a means of intimidating criminals, etc.).

The search for absolute good is the source of a variety of experiences and different abilities. Hence - the rich development of the spirit and the abundance of gifts. The clever, practical mind of the Russian man was manifested in the very successful development of science and technical inventions, and the love of beauty and the gift of creative imagination became factors contributing to the high development of Russian art. Russian fiction, music, theater, ballet, painting, architecture are known all over the world.

In the Russian character, there are many shortcomings that can lead to frustration (sometimes very dangerous) in public life: maximalism, extremism, undeveloped character, lack of discipline, daring test of values, anarchism, excessive criticism. However, it should be noted that all these negative features are secondary, they are only the reverse side of the main primary properties of the Russian character.

 

· Translate the text into English;

· Divide the text into logical blocks and name them;

· Identify the positive and negative sides of the Russian character according to the text;

· Scan the implicit and explicit forms of the Russian way of personal representing; agree or disagree with the one given in the text;

· Read the text again and try to explain the Russian contrariety. Why, you think it exists? What are the historical reasons for this feature of the character? Try to find the examples in the history to prove this feature? If you disagree with it, prove you point of view;

· Make a PR action. Find no less than 5 positive and five negative features of the Russians. Stand your point of view. Ask your group to help you in managing the PR. Make a sort of statistics. Ask your friends, relatives and teachers. Make a chart (see more about the chart composing in Block VI. Biblical Items), divide it into the age groups. What different generations think about the Russian character? Share the information with the group.