I come from a Serbian background. Both my father and my mother are Serbian, and both of them migrated to the United States during school. My deep roots have provided me with an immense amount of exposure to Eastern European culture. And based on on a number of similarities, including culture, genetics, and several others, I would consider Russia to be a part of Eastern Europe.
Although, as we discussed in class, Russia is geographically located in Asia (Or at least most of it) several things make it very similar to Eastern Europe. First, is culture. Like in Serbia, Russia is made up of a population that is primarily orthodox, as that is the dominant religion of the nation. Many of the Eastern European nations, as well as Russia, have a long history of communist rule. All of them have a long line of folklore, ethnic dishes, and people. In addition to all of this, like most Eastern European nations, the language spoken in Russia (Russian) is a slavic language. These things all make up the culture that can be observed in Russia and Eastern Europe alike.
Russia and Eastern Europe can also be seen as widely similar due to genetic similarities between the people in each. NYU Professor Mark Galeotti said “Russia is so sensitive to European criticism because the two aren’t neighbors, but family.” Although maybe not completely literally, Russia and much of Eastern Europe do contain the same roots. A while back in class we discussed “Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture”. In this lesson we learned about “Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, Masculinity, Long/Short-Term Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint”. When gazing at the scores for comparisons in those categories between Russia, Eastern Europe, and Asia, we find more often than not that Russia is more similar to Eastern Europe. Specifically, “As we predicted based on geography and genetic history, Russia’s culture matches more with eastern European culture than it does Asian culture” (PSU).
Through a number of similarities in culture, genetics, and language, Russia and Eastern Europe can be justly grouped together. To show just how similar they might be, I looked up “Russian Culture” and “Serbian Culture”. In the first few results of both searches came these photos(BELOW). Although two photos can’t be seen as total proof that they belong together, they can at least provide a first-hand look at how they are similar.
Sources:
Does Russia Belong to Europe? (2016, April 29). Retrieved July 22, 2017, from http://globalinterests.org/2016/04/29/does-russia-belong-to-europe/
Harvard, U. (n.d.). Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures. Retrieved July 22, 2017, from https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/pages/what-are-slavic-languages
Penn State University. Redman, B. (2017) Canvas Learning: Lesson 13: Eastern Europe and Russia. Retrieved July 22, 2017 From: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1847401/modules/items/22619480
mbn2 says
Stefan,
I think that it is very interesting to get to hear someones opinion that has actual roots in Russia. Russia is one of those countries that has been through so much in the last 100 years and has worked to pull itself out of such political downfall. While doing so, we have really gotten to see the type of structure they wanted to establish with their way of life. We see that they have taken a more European style of government as opposed to its other Asian sister countries such as China, Vietnam and North Korea that are communist. Their culture is much more similar to the european lifestyle as well. I feel as though the country of Russia is judged immensely for their way of life, their government and personality traits. If possible, I think if the world could see Russia the way that Russians do we could really be able to tell a difference as to which continent they seem to be from. If you were to stay in Russia for 3 months, could you pick up on traits where they are culturally different from Eastern Europeans and are more like Asians, or vice versa. Just a thought that would be neat to find out about.