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We want to give you not only information about Russian recipes and cuisine but also some kind of knowledge about Russia, Russian literature, Russian music, so you will be able to understand Russian people better.

Reading Russian books, listening Russian music and songs will allow you to learn more about life of Russian people, their customs, their relationships, different aspects of Russia and life in Russia.

Click the link below to read interesting Russian book, listen you favourite song or enjoy great music from Russia:

Russian Literature and Music

You will be directed to “SGS book and music store” (by the way, SGA is abbreviation of our names, Svetoslav and Galina Sergeev).
Type “Russian” for any category and you will be able to choose what you want. Our store is in your possession.

Now let’s continue with short introduction to Russian literature and Russian music.

Prior to the nineteenth century, the seeds of the Russian literary tradition were sown by well known poets, playwrights and writers as Derzhavin, Fonvizin, Sumarokov, Trediakovsky, Karamzin and Krylov.

The 1830s are called “a golden age” of Russian literature, it began with the poet and novelist Aleksandr Pushkin and culminating in two of the greatest novelists in world literature, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the short story writer and playwright Anton Chekhov.

In the Twentieth Century leading figures of Russian literature included internationally recognised poets such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Boris Pasternak, Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Konstantin Simonov, Alexandr Tvardovsly , and very popular in the 1960s Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Andrey Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky and Bella Akhmadulina;  prose writers Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Nabokov, Mikhail Sholokhov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Boris Pasternak, Aleksei Tolstoy,  Vladimir Nabokov, Ivan Bunin, Ilf and Petrov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and many more.

You can learn more about Russian literature visiting “Russian literature” page of Wikipedia online.

Wikipedia describe Russia as “… a large and extremely culturally diverse country, with dozens of ethnic groups, each with their own forms of music. During the period of Soviet domination, music was highly scrutinized and kept within certain boundaries of content and innovation. After the fall of the USSR, western-style rock and pop music became the most popular musical forms in Russia.”

There is some truth but we believe that Russian cultural roots are prevailing in classical and rock music.

Russia has long history of classical music innovation and long list of world famous composers.

The first important Russian composer was Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857), who added religious and folk elements to classical compositions in his operas, like “A Life for the Tsar” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”; they were distinctively Russian but based on the Italian tradition.
Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin and César Cui were often influenced by Russian folk music and tales.

In 1859 the Russian Musical Society was founded by composers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein. The most notable compositions of that time were the operas The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka), Sadko, Boris Godunov, Prince Igor and Khovanshchina, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade.

Other famous Russian composers include Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and in the 20th century Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Scriabin, Shostakovich and Alfred Schnittke. Of these, Tchaikovsky remains the best known outside Russia, and his fame as the country’s most famous composer is unquestioned. He is best known for ballets like Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

In the 1910s very popular was romance (in exotic Russian, Caucasian, Gypsy and Italian styles). The greatest and most popular singers of romances usually sang in operas at the same time, like Fyodor Shalyapin, the most famous and popular of them. Singers usually composed music and wrote the lyrics themselves, such as Alexander Vertinsky, Konstantin Sokolsky, Pyotr Leshchenko.

Bard songs and the criminal songs started in 60’s. Artists like Bulat Okudzhava, Alexander Galich and Vladimir Vysotskiy all wrote their own songs, and the recordings were distributed underground. With time they gained so much popularity that they worked have being edited and distributed by the state owned Melodija record company.

Prison songs were largely popularized by Arkady Severny.

Soviet time produced many prominent musicians. Very popular was a group of musicians called bards. The icon of the Russian scene was Vladimir Vysotsky. Very popular became Sofia Rotaru and later of Alla Pugacheva, whose music career continues to this day.

Russian rock was born at the same period with the band “Pojuschie Gitary” who created a movement called VIA and later released the first Russian rock opera, “Orpheus and Eurydice”. Other VIA bands of the era included “Tcvety”, “Pesnyary” and “Zemlyane”.

At the same time popular folk-oriented groups had arisen; the most popular were “The Cossack Kazachy Krug” and “Pesen Zemli”.

To find your favourite Russian book, song or piece of music, click the link below:

Russian Literature and Music

Enjoy reading, listening and learning something new about Russia!

RUSSIAN MATRYUSHKA NESTING DOLLS

Gathering a collection and learning the backgrounds of the art work provides information about the history of Russian national costume, and Russian political history, art, literature…

Chris Campbell’s story of 19th Century Russian …

Chris Campbell’s story of 19th Century Russian Literature Flung at Lionel Richie’s Head and Narrowly Missing, by Chris Campbell I am in the garden with my dachshund Claudius when he app…

Music, Poetry Together At Reynolda Museum

He holds a masters degree in Russian studies and is fluent in both Russian and French. Early in his career he practiced international law, and he has been able to apply his internationa…

Dmitri Shostakovich – reading notes

Soviet commentators believed he wanted to pull one past the audience and became known as “the enfant terrible of Russian music” (Kay, Norman 1971).

Russian Music Society: Rachmaninov …

This great recording is a part of the Platinum Collection of the Russian Music Society.It is featuring the unique and very succesful RMS project.

Very sad news: Valentina Tolkunova, one of the most popular Russian folk singers died few days ago during her last concert in small Russian city. Here are few of her songs:

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