Russian Cultural Development in the Modern World

Due to intensive cultural integration within the last two decades Russian culture has experienced a lot of changes. Now things that were out of reach in the Soviet Russia has gradually become something like the modern Russian living benefits: free exchange of information, and interexchange of intellectual values between different countries. As a result, now Russian people know and adopt Algerian humorous rhymes, American jazz, Honk Kong action movies, Japanese video games, and Jamaican reggae. They mostly borrow new trends and patterns from Western cultures that have almost become a standard for imitation. Some representatives of cultural life in Russia believe that such changes bring death to the real, “original” Russian culture.

Now growing cultural integration is evidently forming the global mass culture which unites people of different sexes, age, and religious beliefs. This new culture is being spread in Russia through tunes, tokens, expressions, cultural stereotypes and even businesses (for instance, MacDonald’s). It is quite obvious that modern Russia is oriented more to adopting the images and values of developed Western cultures than to preserving old Russian living standards. However, even with this in mind it is still important to provide preservation of cultural values. But now little attention is paid to the Russian cultural problems when the government has to deal with multiple economical issues that attack the country every day. They just have too much to worry about, because they have to think about improving Russian living conditions first of all.

Of course, progress and development are necessary for any country. They are inevitable as well. However, sometimes cultural integration which comes with them may help people forget their own culture and adopt other cultures easier. This is what has been an issue in Russia after it suddenly became wide open to the rest of the world. However, many Russian cultural minds still argue about the influence of other cultures on the Russian life and uniqueness.