The Great Russian tribe is not only a well-known ethnographic composition, but also a peculiar economic system and even a special national character, and the nature of the country has worked a lot both on this system and on this character.

It remains for us to note the effect of the nature of Great Russia on the mixed population that was formed here through Russian colonization. The Great Russian tribe is not only a well-known ethnographic composition, but also a peculiar economic system and even a special national character, and the nature of the country has worked a lot both on this system and on this character. The Upper Volga region, which constitutes the central region of Great Russia, still differs in noticeable physical features from Dnieper Rus; six or seven centuries ago it was even more different. The main features of this region are: the abundance of forests and swamps, the predominance of loam in the composition of the soil and the cobweb network of rivers and streams running in different directions. These features left a deep imprint both on the economic life of Great Russia and on the tribal character of the Great Russian.

In the old Kievan Rus, the main spring of the national economy, foreign trade, created numerous cities that served as large or small centers of trade. In Upper Volga Russia, too remote from coastal markets, foreign trade could not become the main driving force of the national economy. That is why we see here in the XV - XVI centuries. a relatively small number of cities, and even in those a significant part of the population was engaged in arable farming. Rural settlements here received a decisive advantage over the cities. Moreover, these settlements differed sharply in their character from the villages of southern Russia. In the latter, constant external dangers and a lack of water in the open steppe forced the population to settle in large masses, to crowd into huge, thousand-strong villages, which still make up distinguishing feature southern Russia. On the contrary, in the north, a settler in the midst of forests and swamps could hardly find a dry place where he could put his foot with some safety and convenience, build a hut. Such dry places, open hillocks, were rare islands among the sea of ​​forests and swamps. One, two, many three peasant households could be placed on such an island. That is why a village with one or two peasant households was the dominant form of settlement in northern Russia almost until the end of the 17th century. Around such small scattered villages, it was difficult to find a significant continuous space that could be conveniently plowed up. Such convenient places around the villages came across in insignificant areas. These areas were cleared by the inhabitants of a small village. It was an unusually difficult job: having chosen a convenient dry place for arable land, it was necessary to burn the forest that covered it, uproot the stumps, and raise the virgin soil. Distance from large foreign markets, the lack of exports did not give the cultivators an incentive to expand the plowing, which was so difficult for them. Farming on the Upper Volga loam had to satisfy only the urgent needs of the cultivators themselves. We would be mistaken in thinking that with the poverty of the population, with the abundance of unoccupied land, the peasant in ancient Great Russia plowed a lot, more than in the past or present century. Household arable plots in Great Russia in the 16th - 17th centuries. in general, no more allotments according to the Regulations of February 19. Moreover, the then methods of cultivating the land imparted a mobile, restless, nomadic character to this arable farming. By burning the forest in the nov, the peasant imparted increased fertility to the loam and for several years in a row got an excellent harvest from it, because the ash serves as a very strong fertilizer. But that was a forced and transient fertility: after six or seven years, the soil was completely depleted and the peasant had to leave it for a long rest, let it go into fallow. Then he transferred his yard to another, often remote place, raised another new one, put a new “repair on the forest”. So, exploiting the land, the Great Russian peasant moved from place to place and all in one direction, towards the northeast, until he reached the natural borders of the Russian plain, to the Urals and the White Sea. To make up for the meager income from arable farming on the Upper Volga loam, the peasant had to turn to crafts. Forests, rivers, lakes, swamps provided him with many lands, the development of which could serve as an aid to meager agricultural earnings. Here is the source of the peculiarity that has distinguished the economic life of the Great Russian peasant from time immemorial: here is the reason for the development of local rural crafts, called handicrafts. Barking, bast fishing, animal hunting, beekeeping (forest beekeeping in hollows of trees), fishing, salt making, tar smoking, ironwork - each of these occupations has long served as the basis, nursery of economic life for entire districts. Such are the features of the Great Russian economy, created under the influence of the nature of the country. These are 1) the dispersion of the population, the dominance of small towns and villages, 2) the insignificance of peasant plowing, the smallness of household arable plots, 3) the mobile nature of arable farming, the dominance of portable or shifting agriculture, and 4) finally, the development of small rural industries, the increased development of forest, river and other lands.

Along with the influence of the nature of the country on the national economy of Great Russia, we notice traces of its powerful effect on the tribal character of the Great Russian. Great Russia XIII - XV centuries. with its forests, marshes and marshes, at every step presented the settler with thousands of small dangers, unforeseen difficulties and troubles, among which it was necessary to find one, with which one had to fight every minute. This taught the Great Russian to vigilantly follow nature, look both ways, in his words, walk, looking around and feeling the soil, not poking into the water without looking for a ford, developed in him resourcefulness in minor difficulties and dangers, the habit of patient struggle with adversity and hardship. . In Europe there is no people less spoiled and pretentious, accustomed to expect less from nature and fate and more enduring. Moreover, by the very nature of the region, each corner of it, each locality posed to the settler a difficult economic riddle: wherever the settler settled here, he first of all had to study his place, all its conditions, in order to look out for a land, the development of which could be most profitable. Hence this amazing observation, which is revealed in Great Russian folk signs.

Here all the characteristic, often elusive phenomena of the annual turnover of Great Russian nature are captured, its various accidents, climatic and economic, are noted, the entire annual daily routine of the peasant economy is outlined. All seasons, every month, almost every day of the month appear here with special well-defined climatic and economic physiognomies, and in these observations, often at the cost of bitter experience, both the observed nature and the observer himself were clearly reflected. Here he observes the environment, and reflects on himself, and tries to tie all his observations to the holy calendar, to the names of saints and to holidays. The church calendar is a memorial book of his observation of nature and, at the same time, a diary of his thoughts on his economic life. January is the beginning of the year, winter is the middle. Since January, the Great Russian, who has endured the winter cold, begins to make fun of her. Epiphany frosts - he tells them: “Crack, crack - water-cresses have passed; blow don’t blow - it didn’t go to Christmas, but to Great Day (Easter). However, January 18 is still the day of Athanasius and Cyril; Afanasiev's frosts make themselves felt, and the Great Russian dejectedly confesses to premature joy: Athanasius and Kirillo are taken by the snout. January 24 - the memory of the Monk Xenia - Aksinya - half-bread-half-winter: the half-winter has passed, half of the old bread has been eaten. Sign: what is Aksinya, such is spring. February-bokogrey, the sun is hot from the side; February 2, Candlemas, Candlemas thaws: winter meets summer. Sign: at the meeting of the snow - rain in the spring. March is warm, but not always: and March sits on the nose. March 25 Annunciation. On this day, spring overcame winter. At the annunciation, the bear gets up. Sign: what is the annunciation, such is the saint. April - in April the earth dies, it blows windy and warm. The peasant alerts attention: the painful time of the cultivator is approaching. A proverb: April hoots and blows, promises warmth to the women, and the peasant looks, something will happen. And winter stocks of cabbage are running out. April 1 - Mary of Egypt. Her nickname is Marya-empty cabbage soup. I wanted sour cabbage soup in April! April 5 - Martyr Fedul. Fedul windmill. Fedul came, a warm wind blew. Fedul pouted his lips (bad weather). April 15 - Apostle Pud. Rule: to expose bees from the winter omshanik to the bee house - the flowers appeared. On St. Puda get the bees out of the bush. April 23 - St. George the Victorious. The economic and climatic correlation of this day from May 9 was noticed: Egory with dew, Nikola with grass; Egory with warmth, Nikola with food. Here is May. Winter supplies have arrived. Ay May, the month of May, not cold, but hungry. And the chills are coming in, and the real thing is not yet in the field. Saying: May - give hay to the horse, and climb onto the stove yourself. Sign: if in May doge - there will be rye; cold May is a grain-growing year. May 5 - Great Martyr Irina. Arina nursery: seedlings (cabbage) are planted and last year's grass is burned out so that the new one does not interfere. Saying: on Arina there is thin grass from the field. May 21 - St. Tsar Constantine and his mother Helena. Flax contacted Alena in consonance: this flax on Alena and plant cucumbers; Alena flax, Konstantin cucumbers. In the same way, among sayings, jokes, household signs, and sometimes “hearts of sad remarks”, the rest of the months run from the Great Russian: June, when the bins are empty in anticipation of a new harvest and which is therefore called June - ay! then July - a sufferer, a worker; August, when the sickles are heated at hot work, and the water is already cold, when the second one is saved for the transformation, take mittens in reserve; followed by September - September is cold, but full - after the harvest; then October is a dirty one, he doesn’t like wheels or a snake, you can’t pass on a sleigh or a cart; November is a chicken coop, because on the 1st day, on the day of Cosmas and Damian, women cut chickens, which is why this day is called - chicken name day, chicken death. Finally, here is December-jelly, the collapse of winter: the year ends - winter begins. It's cold outside: it's time to sit in the hut and study. December 1 - the prophet Naum the literate: they begin to teach children to read and write. Saying: "Father Naum, bring to mind." And the cold is getting stronger, bitter frosts are coming, December 4 - St. Great Martyr Barbara. Saying: "Varyukha is cracking - take care of your nose and ear." Thus, with the holy calendar in hand, or, more precisely, in tenacious memory, the Great Russian went, observing and studying, the entire annual cycle of his life. The Church taught the Great Russian to observe and count time. Saints and feasts were his guides in this observation and study. He remembered them not only in church: he took them from the temple with him to his hut, into the field and forest, hanging his signs on their names in the form of unceremonious nicknames that are given to bosom friends: Athanasius the Lomonos, Samson the Hay, which in In July, the hay rots with rain, Fedul-anemone, Akulina-buckwheat, March Avdotya-wet the threshold, April Marya-light the snow, play the ravines, etc. without end. In the signs of the Great Russian and his meteorology, and his economic textbook, and his everyday autobiography; in them all he was cast with his way of life and horizons, with his mind and heart; in them he reflects, and observes, and rejoices, and mourns, and he himself laughs both at his sorrows and at his joys.

The folk omens of a Great Russian are capricious, just as the nature of Great Russia reflected in them is capricious. She often laughs at the most cautious calculations of the Great Russian; the capriciousness of the climate and soil deceives his most modest expectations, and, having become accustomed to these deceptions, the prudent Great Russian sometimes, headlong, chooses the most hopeless and imprudent decision, opposing the whim of nature with the whim of his own courage. This inclination to tease happiness, to play at luck, is the Great Russian chance. The Great Russian is sure of one thing - that it is necessary to cherish a clear summer working day, that nature gives him little convenient time for agricultural work, and that the short Great Russian summer can still be shortened by untimely, unexpected bad weather. This forces the Great Russian peasant to hurry, to work hard in order to do a lot in a short time and to get out of the field just in time, and then to remain idle through the autumn and winter. So the Great Russian got used to the excessive short-term exertion of his strength, got used to work quickly, feverishly and quickly, and then to rest during the forced autumn and winter idleness. Not a single people in Europe is capable of such a strain of work for a short time as a Great Russian can develop; but nowhere in Europe, it seems, will we find such an unaccustomed to even, moderate and measured, constant work, as in the same Great Russia. On the other hand, the properties of the region determined the order of settlement of the Great Russians. Life remote from each other, secluded villages with a lack of communication, of course, could not accustom the Great Russian to act in large alliances, friendly masses. The Great Russian did not work in the open field, in front of everyone, like an inhabitant of southern Russia: he fought nature alone, in the wilderness of the forest with an ax in his hand. It was silent black work on external nature, on a forest or a wild field, and not on oneself and society, not on one's feelings and attitudes towards people. That is why the Great Russian works better alone, when no one is looking at him, and with difficulty gets used to the friendly action by common forces. He is generally withdrawn and cautious, even timid, always on his mind, unsociable, better with himself than in public, better at the beginning of the business, when he is not yet sure of himself and of success, and worse at the end, when he has already achieved some success. and will attract attention: self-doubt excites his strength, and success drops them. It is easier for him to overcome an obstacle, danger, failure than with. withstand success with tact and dignity; it is easier to do great things than to get used to the idea of ​​your own greatness. He belongs to that type of smart people who become stupid from recognizing their intelligence. In a word, the Great Russian is better than the Great Russian society. It must be natural for every people to perceive from the surrounding world, as well as from the fates they experience, and to translate into their character not all, but only certain impressions, and hence comes the diversity of national warehouses, or types, just as unequal light susceptibility produces diversity. colors. In accordance with this, the people also look at their surroundings and what they experience from a certain angle, reflect both in their minds with a certain refraction. The nature of the country, probably, is not without participation in the degree and direction of this refraction. The inability to calculate in advance, to figure out a plan of action in advance and go straight to the intended goal, was noticeably reflected in the mentality of the Great Russian, in the manner of his thinking. Life's bumps and accidents taught him to discuss the path traveled more than to think about the future, to look back more than to look ahead. In the fight against unexpected snowstorms and thaws, with unforeseen August frosts and January slush, he became more prudent than prudent, learned to notice consequences more than set goals, cultivated the ability to sum up the art of making estimates. This skill is what we call hindsight. The proverb that a Russian man is strong in hindsight belongs entirely to a Great Russian. But hindsight is not the same as hindsight. With his habit of vacillating and maneuvering between the unevenness of the path and the accidents of life, the Great Russian often gives the impression of indirectness, insincerity. The Great Russian often thinks in two, and this seems like double-mindedness. He always goes to a direct goal, although often not well thought out, but he walks looking around, and therefore his gait seems evasive and hesitant. After all, you can’t break through a wall with your forehead, and only ravens fly straight, say Great Russian proverbs. Nature and fate led the Great Russian in such a way that they taught him to go to the straight road by roundabout ways. The Great Russian thinks and acts as he walks. It seems that you can come up with a crooked and winding Great Russian country road? Like a snake crawled through. And try to go straighter: you will only get lost and go out onto the same winding path. This is how the action of the nature of Great Russia affected the economic life and tribal character of the Great Russian.

From the article by Konstantin Leontiev "Literacy and Nationality".
We read and heard a lot about the illiteracy of the Russian people and that Russia is a country where "barbarism is armed with all the means of civilization." When the British, French and Germans write and say this, we remain indifferent or rejoice in that internal horror for the distant future of the West, which is heard under these lines, hardened without meaning.
Unfortunately, a similar unreasonable notion about Russia and Russians exists among those peoples who are connected with us by tribal affinity, or by faith and political history. Chance forced me to live quite a long time on the Danube. Life on the banks of the Danube is very instructive. Not to mention the proximity of such large national and political units as Austria, Russia, Turkey, Serbia, Moldavia and Wallachia, a visit to one such region as Dobruja cannot pass without a trace for an attentive person.
In this Turkish province live under the same government, on the same soil, under the same sky: Turks, Tatars, Circassians, Moldavians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Gypsies, Jews, German colonists and Russians of several genera: Orthodox Little Russians (who retired here partly from the Zaporozhian Sich, partly later during the time of serfdom), Great Russians-Old Believers (Lipovans), Great Russians-Molokans and Orthodox Great Russians. If we add here the coasts of Moldavia, which are so close - Izmail, Galati, Vilkovo, etc., then the ethnographic picture will become even richer, and in Moldavian cities, in addition to the above-mentioned Russian infidels, we will also find eunuchs in large numbers. There are a lot of eunuchs among the cabbies, for example, who drive around Galati in chaises. The same thing, as one hears, was until recently in Iasi and Bucharest.
A systematic, comparative study of the life of the tribes inhabiting the banks of the lower Danube, I am sure, could give remarkable results. Circumstances did not allow me to do this, but I am already satisfied with what life itself has given me without careful and correct research. I cherish especially the two results obtained: a lively visual acquaintance with the Russian commoner, transferred to foreign soil, and also an acquaintance with the views of our political friends on us and on our people.
In Dobruja, two old men recently died - one rural Bulgarian; the other is an Old Believer fisherman from Tulchin. Both were extremely remarkable as representatives: one of a narrow Bulgarian nature, the other of a broad Great Russian nature. Unfortunately, I forgot their names; but if anyone doubted the truth of my words, then I could immediately make inquiries and present the very names of these peculiar Slavs. Both were very rich for commoners. The Bulgarian was under 80 or even under 90 years old. He lived without a break in his village. He worked tirelessly; his huge family lived with him. He had several sons: all married, of course, with children and grandchildren; the eldest of the sons themselves were already gray-haired old men; but even these gray-haired old men obeyed their father like children. They did not dare to hide a single piastres earned by them from their patriarch or spend it without asking. There was a lot of money in the family; most of them buried themselves in the ground so that Turkish officials would not get to them. Despite all their prosperity, this huge family on weekdays ate only onions and black bread, and ate mutton on holidays.
Our Old Believer lived differently; he was childless, but he had a family brother. This brother constantly complained that the old man gave and helped him little; but the Old Believer preferred his comrades to his relatives.
He had a big fishing team. By winter, fishing ended and the old Great Russian distributed his huge earnings in his own way. He counted on the fishermen, let go of those who did not want to stay with him; gave something to his brother; he bought provisions, vodka and wine for a whole artel and supported all the young people who remained with him all winter without compulsory work. With these comrades, the healthy old man reveled and had fun until spring, lived all the money and again in the spring set to work with them. So he spent his whole long life protesting his brother's complaints that "he loves his boys"! Often they saw an old fisherman in the Khokhlatsky quarter of Tulchi; he would sit down in the middle of the street on the ground, furnish himself with wine and dainties, and exclaim:
- Khokhlushki! go make me laugh!
Young Little Russian women, who, although stricter in morals than their northern compatriots, love to joke and have fun, ran to the gray-haired "communist", sang and danced around him, and kissed the cheeks that he offered them.
All this, let us note by the way (and very opportunely!), did not prevent him from being a strict executor of his church charter.
It is also curious to add that an old Polish gentry, an emigrant of 1936, enthusiastically told me about the fisherman of the Old Believer; and the Greek merchant spoke with respect about the stingy Bulgarian plowman.
Both Greeks and Bulgarians in spirit home life their equally bourgeois, equally disposed to what the Germans themselves called philistinism.
Whereas the sweeping chivalrous tastes of the Polish gentry are closer to the Cossack width of the Great Russian.
I do not want to humiliate the Bulgarians by this and exalt the Great Russians through measure. I will only say that the Bulgarians, even the "indigenous" - rural in spirit, are less original than ordinary Great Russians. They are more recent than any other respectable villagers.
The serious and modest qualities that distinguish the Bulgarian people can give them a wonderful role in their own way in the Slavic world, so diverse and rich in forms.
But "creative" genius (especially in our time, so unfavorable for creativity) can descend to the head only of such a people, which is diverse in its very depths and in its entirety most unlike others. Such is precisely our Great Russian great and wonderful ocean!
Perhaps someone would object to me that Russians (and especially real Muscovites) precisely because they are riotous and too disposed to be "St. Petersburg" people, are not very disposed to capitalization, and capitalization is needed.
I will give two examples of this: one from Little Russia, the other from the Great Russian environment:
In "Birzhevye Vedomosti" they tell the following incident, which happened recently in Poltava. In the local treasury, peasants dressed in the common folk style appeared - a husband and wife. Both floors were puffed out from some kind of burden. The husband turned to the official with a question: is it possible for him to exchange old-style credit tickets for new ones?
- How many do you have? the official asks.
- How can I tell you?., really, I don’t know myself. The official smiled.
"Three, five, ten roubles?" he asks.
- No, more. My wife and I counted all day but did not count ...
At the same time, both showed piles of banknotes from under the floor. Naturally, there was suspicion regarding the acquisition by the owners of such an amount. They were detained and the money was counted: it turned out to be 86 thousand.
- Where do you get money from?
- Great-grandfather folded, grandfather folded and we folded, - was the answer.
According to the inquiry, the suspicions were not justified and the peasant was exchanged money. Then they come back to the Treasury.
- Do you exchange gold, goodness?
- We're changing. How much do you have?
- Two boxes...
These peasants live in a simple hut and are illiterate."
But they will tell me: "this is not very good"; it is necessary that the money does not lie, like this Ukrainian or the old Bulgarian patriarch, it is necessary that they go into circulation. If these people were literate, they would understand their mistake.
But in response to these words, I will take a new fact into my hands and hit those poor Russians who are unable to sympathize with me.
Filipp Naumov, an Old Believer, still lives in Tulcha. He does not know how to read; can only write numbers for his accounts. He not only does not smoke or drink tea himself and wears his shirt loose, but is so firm in his charter that, often going to taverns and coffee houses to treat people of different faiths and nations who conclude trade deals with him, he, treating them, does not touch anything. Even wine and vodka, which are not persecuted by the Old Believers, he never drinks. He does not like to invite anyone to his place, because, having invited, it is necessary to treat, and having treated, it is necessary to break, throw away or sell dishes desecrated by non-Christians (even if they are Orthodox). It has several hundred thousand piastres of capital in constant circulation, several houses; of these, one large one on the banks of the Danube is constantly rented out to people with means: consuls, agents of trading companies, etc. He himself and his family, with a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter and son, live in a small house with Russian-style gates and decorated the premium and the pre-originally white walls of this house are wide blue with a brown checkered stripe at half the height. /
He is very honest and, despite the severity of his religious removal from the Gentiles, is reputed to be kind person. For many of his transactions, he does not give receipts; the guests, when they pay him for the house, do not require a receipt from him for receiving - they believe him anyway. On top of all this, he was one of the first in Tulcea (where there are so many enterprising people of different tribes) who conceived to order a steam engine from England for a large flour mill and, probably, his wealth will triple after this, if this ends successfully.
One very learned, educated and in every respect worthy Dalmatian, an official of the Austrian service, whom I knew, always looked at F. Naumov with amazement and pleasure.
- What I like about this man (the Austrian told me) is that, with all his wealth, he does not at all want to become a bourgeois; but remains a Cossack or a peasant. This is the Great Russian feature.
A Bulgarian or a Greek, just as he started a grocery or haberdashery shop and learned to read and write, so now he took off his oriental clothes (always either stately or elegant), bought from a Jew on the corner an awkward frock coat and pantaloons of a style that was never worn in Europe, and in a cheap tie (or even without a tie) with dirty nails, he went to make visits to Yu l "europIenne with his heavy wife, European visits in which the brilliance of the conversation is as follows: "How are you? -- Very good! - How is your health? -- Very good! -- And yours? -- Thank you. -- What are you doing? - I bow to you. -- What are you doing? - I bow to you. “And what is your wife doing?” "Bows to you."

“The Great Russian is sure of one thing - that it is necessary to cherish a clear summer working day, that nature gives him little convenient time for agricultural work, and that the short Great Russian summer can still be shortened by untimely unexpected bad weather. This makes the Great Russian peasant hurry, work hard to do a lot in a short the time and right to get out of the field, and then to remain idle through the autumn and winter.

Thus, the Great Russian became accustomed to excessive short-term exertion of his forces, got used to working quickly, feverishly and quickly., and then rest during the forced autumn and winter idleness. Not a single people in Europe is capable of such a strain of work for a short time, which a Great Russian can develop.; but nowhere in Europe, it seems, we will not find such a habit of even, moderate and measured, constant work, as in the same Great Russia.

On the other hand, the properties of the region determined the order of settlement of the Great Russians. Life remote from each other, secluded villages with a lack of communication, of course, could not accustom the Great Russian to act in large alliances, friendly masses.. The Great Russian did not work in the open field, in front of everyone, like an inhabitant of southern Russia: he fought nature alone, in the wilderness of the forest with an ax in his hand. It was silent black work on external nature, on a forest or a wild field, and not on oneself and society, not on one's feelings and attitudes towards people. That is why the Great Russian works better alone, when no one is looking at him, and with difficulty gets used to the friendly action by common forces. He is generally withdrawn and cautious, even timid, always on his mind, unsociable, better with himself than in public, better at the beginning of the business, when he is not yet sure of himself and of success, and worse at the end, when he has already achieved some success. and attract attention: self-doubt excites his strength, and success drops them. It is easier for him to overcome an obstacle, danger, failure than with. withstand success with tact and dignity; it is easier to do great things than to get comfortable with the thought of one's greatness....

In the fight against unexpected snowstorms and thaws, with unforeseen August frosts and January slush, he became more prudent than prudent, learned to notice consequences more than set goals, cultivated the ability to sum up the art of making estimates. This skill is what we call hindsight. The proverb that a Russian man is strong in hindsight belongs entirely to a Great Russian. But hindsight is not the same as hindsight. With his habit of vacillating and maneuvering between the unevenness of the path and the accidents of life, the Great Russian often gives the impression of indirectness, insincerity. The Great Russian often thinks in two, and this seems like double-mindedness. He always goes to a direct goal, although often not well thought out, but he walks looking around, and therefore his gait seems evasive and hesitant. After all, you can’t break through a wall with your forehead, and only ravens fly straight, say Great Russian proverbs. Nature and fate led the Great Russian in such a way that they taught him to go to the straight road by roundabout ways. The Great Russian thinks and acts as he walks. It seems that you can come up with a crooked and winding Great Russian country road? Like a snake crawled through. And try to go straighter: you will only get lost and go out onto the same winding path. This is how the action of the nature of Great Russia affected the economic life and tribal character of the Great Russian ....

In the old Kievan Rus, the main spring of the national economy, foreign trade, created numerous cities that served as large or small centers of trade. In Upper Volga Russia, too remote from coastal markets, foreign trade could not become the main driving force of the national economy. That is why we see here in the XV - XVI centuries. a relatively small number of cities, and even in those a significant part of the population was engaged in arable farming. Rural settlements here received a decisive advantage over the cities. Moreover, these settlements differed sharply in their character from the villages of southern Russia. In the latter, constant external dangers and a lack of water in the open steppe forced the population to settle in large masses, to crowd into huge, thousand-strong villages, which still constitute a distinctive feature of southern Russia. On the contrary, in the north, a settler in the midst of forests and swamps could hardly find a dry place where he could put his foot with some safety and convenience, build a hut. Such dry places, open hillocks, were rare islands among the sea of ​​forests and swamps. One, two, many three peasant households could be placed on such an island. That is why a village with one or two peasant households was the dominant form of settlement in northern Russia almost until the end of the 17th century .....

Great Russia XIII - XV centuries. with its forests, marshes and marshes, at every step presented the settler with thousands of small dangers, unforeseen difficulties and troubles, among which it was necessary to find one, with which one had to fight every minute. This taught the Great Russian to vigilantly follow nature, look both ways, in his words, walk, looking around and feeling the soil, not poking into the water without looking for a ford, developed in him resourcefulness in minor difficulties and dangers, the habit of patient struggle with adversity and hardship. . In Europe there is no people less spoiled and pretentious, accustomed to expect less from nature and fate and more enduring. Moreover, by the very nature of the region, each corner of it, each locality posed to the settler a difficult economic riddle: wherever the settler settled here, he first of all had to study his place, all its conditions, in order to look out for a land, the development of which could be most profitable. Hence this amazing observation, which is revealed in Great Russian folk signs.

who are the Great Russians, and why are they so great? :)) and got the best answer

Answer from the color of the sky[guru]
the size of your country

Answer from Valery Garanzha[guru]
count how many of them and compare... By the way, I'm a Little Russian


Answer from Eugene[guru]
VELIKORUSI (GREAT RUSSIANS) - the most numerous of the three branches of the Russian people (Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians), usually referred to simply as Russians. The Great Russians, like the Little Russians and Belarusians, descended from a single ancient Russian people, which developed back in the 6th-13th centuries. According to many historians, the names "Russians", "Great Russians", "Rus", "Russian Land" go back to the name of one of the Slavic tribes - Rhodi, Ross, or Russ. From their land in the Middle Dnieper, the name "Rus" spread to the entire Old Russian state, which included, in addition to the Slavic, and some non-Slavic tribes. The formation of the Russian nationality is associated with the struggle against the Mongol-Tatar yoke and the creation of a centralized Russian state around Moscow in the 14th-15th centuries. This state included the northern and northeastern Old Russian lands, where, in addition to the descendants of the Slavs - Vyatichi, Krivichi and Slovenes, there were many settlers from other regions. In the XIV-XV centuries. these lands began to be called Rus, in the 16th century. - Russia. Neighbors called the country Muscovy. The names "Great Russia" as applied to the lands inhabited by the Great Russians, "Little Russia" - by the Little Russians, "Belaya Rus" - by the Belarusians, appeared from the 15th century.


Answer from Gennady Kodinenko[guru]
Song Yanwei, Dalian Polytechnic University (China) National character is a set of the most significant defining features of an ethnic group and a nation, by which representatives of one nation can be distinguished from another. A Chinese proverb says: "As the land and the river, such is the character of man." Every nation has its own special character. Much has been said and written about the secrets of the Russian soul, about the Russian national character. And this is no coincidence, because Russia, having a long history, experiencing a lot of suffering, changes, occupying a special geographical position, incorporating the features of both Western and Eastern civilizations, has the right to be the object of close attention and targeted study. Especially today, at the turn of the third millennium, when due to the profound changes that have taken place in Russia, interest in it is increasing. The nature of the people and the fate of the country are closely interconnected, they influence each other along the entire historical path, therefore, an increased interest in the national character of the Russian people is noticeable. As the Russian proverb says: "Sow a character, reap a destiny." The national character is reflected in both fiction, philosophy of journalism, art, and language. For language is a mirror of culture, it reflects not only the real world surrounding a person, not only the real conditions of his life, but also the public self-consciousness of the people, their mentality, national character, way of life, traditions, customs, morality, value system, worldview, vision of the world. Therefore, the language should be studied in inseparable unity with the world and culture of the people who speak this language. Proverbs and sayings are a reflection of folk wisdom, they store the idea of ​​the people about themselves and therefore the secrets of the Russian national character You can try to comprehend through Russian proverbs and sayings. Limiting the volume of the article, the author does not pretend to list all the features of the Russian people, but only dwells on typical positive features. Hard work, talent. Russian people are gifted and hardworking. He has many talents and abilities in almost all areas. public life. He is characterized by observation, theoretical and practical mind, natural ingenuity, ingenuity, creativity. The Russian people, a great worker, builder and creator, have enriched the world with great cultural achievements. It is difficult to enumerate at least a small part of what has become the property of Russia itself. This trait is reflected in Russian proverbs and sayings: “Happiness and work live side by side”, “Without labor you cannot pull a fish out of a pond”, “Patience and work will grind everything”, “God loves work”. The Russian people value labor very much: “Gold is known in fire, and a person in labor”, “Talent without labor is not worth a penny”. Russian folklore also speaks of the existence of workaholics: “Day until evening is boring, if there is nothing to do”, “To live without work is only to smoke the sky”, “Not that concern that there is a lot of work, but that concern that there is none.” Working people are not envious: "Do not blame your neighbor when you sleep until dinner." The proverbs condemn the lazy: “Long sleep, get up with a duty”, “Whoever gets up late, that bread is not enough.” And at the same time they praise the hard-working: “He who gets up early, God gives it to him.” Only honest earnings were valued by the people: “It is easy to get, it is easy to live,” “The gratuitous ruble is cheap, acquired is expensive.” And in the upbringing of the young, preference was given to work: "Do not teach idleness, but teach needlework." Love of freedom Among the basic, deep properties of the Russian people is love of freedom. The history of Russia is the history of the struggle of the Russian people for their freedom and independence. For the Russian people, freedom is above all. The word “will” is closer to the Russian heart, understood as independence, freedom in the manifestation of feelings and in the performance of actions, and not freedom as a conscious necessity, that is, as the possibility for a person to manifest his will on the basis of awareness of the law. For example, proverbs: “Though a hard lot, but everything has its own will”, “Own will is more expensive than anything”, “Liberty is more expensive than everything”, “Will is more expensive than gold"


Is Erofeich an honest man? Ask for something easier ... Honest - Hugo Karlovich, and Erofeich, he is not honest, he is ... a saint. We have no honest people in Russia, but we have all the saints.
L. Anninsky
"Intravital and posthumous adventures of the German mechanic Hugo Pectoralis in Russia (From the history of Lesk's texts)"
Among the problems considered in this paper, the topic of the national character of the Great Russian (the ethno-cultural Russian population of Russia) is the most delicate, since it is most based on the opinions of individual (but very authoritative) representatives of historical science - N. M. Karamzin, S. M. Solovyov, V. O. Klyuchevsky and literary criticism - L. Anninsky. At the same time, the basis for relying on the views of precisely these representatives of the fields of science and culture that are far from the professional status of the author are the views of the largest domestic psychiatrists - P. B. Gannushkina, E. K. Krasnushkina, P. M. Zinoviev.
Based on this, two concepts should be defined - folk temperament and national character. Following V. O. Klyuchevsky, further, the national temperament will be understood as “living conditions and spiritual characteristics, which are developed in the human masses under the obvious influence of the surrounding nature”, and under the national character - “the historical personality of the people that has become a state and aware of its political significance. Thus, the concept of national character reflects the modern (state) stage of the historical formation of the personality (idealized Ego-image, I-concept) and includes the national (ethnic) temperament as the basis. It seems that the category of constitutional psychotypes discussed above corresponds to the characteristics of the national temperament, while the category of narcissistic (mental, idealistic) neuroticism corresponds to the features of the national character of the Great Russian (ethno-cultural Russian). In other words, the features of the national (more correctly, ethno-cultural) "character are transmitted by historical succession from generation to generation, inheritance, upbringing, "historical tradition." Perhaps in modern conditions there is a transition to new stage formation of personality - general humanistic, planetary. Perhaps the exploration of outer space will lead to the formation of an even more comprehensive type of personality. However, at present the national character of the Great Russian (ethno-cultural Russian) is a historical reality and attempts to ignore it underlie many of the difficulties of our time.
It seems appropriate to consider some of the conditions of the "historical tradition" that shapes the character of many generations of Great Russians (ethno-cultural Russians).
Two historical stages of its formation can be distinguished - the history of Ancient Russia and the history of Moscow Russia (Moscow State). Both of these stages, from the point of view of the formation of a national type of personality, can be characterized as chronic severe stress (CFS) of survival throughout more than a thousand-year history of the Slavs.
However, the factors of this stress in the two historical stages are completely different.
One category of factors - the geopolitical conditions for the survival of the Slavic culture, language, ethnic groups - has been characterized throughout the millennium by the pronounced severity of the climate, geography, and hostile environment. As a result, the blood of the Eastern Slavs is much more descendants of the Huns (Attila) and the Mongols (Genghis Khan) than Vladimir Monomakh. But the descendants of Vladimir Monomakh came to reign in Suzdal (and then in Moscow), brought an army (army) and brought with them the culture of Ancient (Kiev) Rus, along with the Old Slavonic language and writing, the Orthodox Christian religion.
The development of vast expanses with a harsh climate, unreliable agriculture, low population density at the junction of the Byzantine Orthodox (urban) and nomadic (steppe) cultures formed the Old Russian epileptic folk temperament, whose heroes are the holy defenders of the Russian land epic hero Ilya Muromets and the commander-martyr, in the words of N. M. Karamzin, "the ill-fated, truly courageous" Prince Alexander Nevsky.
Here is how the outstanding Russian psychiatrist E.K. Krasnushkin described the polarity of the epileptotamic nature: “... from slavish obedience, obsequiousness, awe and reverence for the strongest, recognition of their power and authority, since this affirms his material well-being and does not violate inert and narrow selfish interests and the order of his life ... to an aggressive position of self-affirmation in life, to a fanatical apostle for truth and justice, to recognizing oneself as the only and infallible authority, to the desire to rule and control others, to assert one's rights in the most extreme cruel way, murder of one's neighbor... The main core of the epileptotymic psyche, the assertion and defense of one's "I" in the world, permeates all of it ideological content. The religion of the epileptothymic is the religion of profit, of insurance for him... The epileptothymic either builds a plan to conquer the whole world, like Napoleon, or dreams of destroying it to the ground, like Verkhovensky in Dostoevsky's Possessed.
And further:
“But, as if, the entire historical past of Russia, with its raids by the Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy, etc., the three hundred year yoke of the Tatars, the gathering of Russia, the age-old Asian despotism of tsars, with its Ivan the Terrible, the dungeons of the Malyut Skuratovs, the oprichina, the boyars , serfdom. ., Domostroyevsky family life, etc., cultivated, next to panic fear of a spontaneous raid of the enemy, fearlessness, this is the true madness of the brave Russian man, next to obedience to fate and the strongest, readiness for furious protest, reconciliation with the fragility of physical existence and a passionate desire for the fullest possible provision of it, etc. - in other words, it set the psyche in every possible way for self-defense or cultivated the features of epileptothymia.
It seems, however, that at present the situation is more sad.
The second historical stage in the formation of the national character of the Great Russian began with the development of the Moscow state (Muscovy). This development, as is known, was extremely successful, often ahead of its European neighbors. This continued until the tragic page in the history of Muscovite Russia -1565, the very beginning of the twentieth year of the reign of Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible (as in V.O. Klyuchevsky. -N.P.).
Already in the first years of his reign before that, the liberation policy of uniting the Russian lands into a single Muscovite state was replaced by an imperial policy of conquests and annexations. Moscow began to turn into the Third Rome - a gigantic empire. It is interesting to note that E.K. Krasnushkin, analyzing the story "Life" from N. Gogol's collection "Arabesques", believed that ancient Egypt (in the description of N. Gogol) is schizotyme, cheerful Greece is cyclothymic (synthonic), and iron Rome - epilepto-timous, singing the thirst for power, glory and conquest.
However, it was in February 1565 that Ivan the Terrible created the oprichnina, a state within a state, designed to ensure the goals of imperial policy in the face of an objective shortage of resources.
All subsequent history Russian state is (and largely remains) the history of the oprichnina imperial state. The uniqueness of the oprichnina, this state within a state, was expressed primarily in the fact that the ethnos of the metropolis for it was no different from the ethnos of the conquered outskirts. On the contrary, the principle “Beat your own, strangers will be afraid” since the time of Ivan the Terrible has guided the policy of the Russian oprichnina empire.
For more than 400 years, this state has been characterized by two qualities that make it uniquely tenacious and hostile to its people:
focus on imperial goals, obviously depleting the resources of the country and the population, alien to the ethnic groups (and superethnos) of the country, but beneficial to the oprichnina - an initially international formation;
the existence and virtual omnipotence of the secret state police, cultivating lawlessness and terrorizing their own people in order to preserve the oprichnina “state within a state”.
In fact, the entire history of the Russian state is the history of the civil war. Three times this war of the oprichny state with its own people took the most merciless forms: it happened under Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov-Lenin. It is interesting to note that in the biographies of these three rulers there are similar episodes of regicide and usurpation of power, and in anthropology there are signs of individual mental degeneration. It is also characteristic that at the basis of their state activity lay historically understandable varieties of the same utopian - reformist affect-idea. However, even in the most favorable periods of its history, the Russian state remained the only viable oprichnina empire in world practice (for example, the enlightened Empress Catherine II believed that “the state should be formidable for its own and respectable for strangers”). In the second half of the 19th century, Kozma Prutkov wrote his "Project on the introduction of unanimity in Russia", a satire on far from the most terrible product of oprichnina imperialism - the dominance of the bureaucracy.
It seems that by the middle of the XIX century. there was a constitutional consolidation of the KhZhS survival in the conditions of the imperial oprichnina and the formation of narcissistic neuroticism (intra-pihihic “civil war”) in the mentality of the Great Russian (ethno-cultural Russian). This consolidation was only facilitated by the epileptothymia of the Russian (East Slavic) folk temperament. It was the phenomena of internal discord, narcissistic neuroticism of the Russian national (ethno-cultural) nature that JI described. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky, but in the most complete form, his tragedy was reflected in the work of N. S. Leskov.
No wonder some proverbs are so characteristic of the mentality of the inhabitants of Muscovite Russia (in the words literary critic L. Anninsky, “dense, irrational, cunning and cruel Muscovy”): “Moscow does not believe in tears”, “Don’t renounce money and prison”, “Don’t believe, don’t be afraid, don’t ask”, “Beat your own, be afraid of others will."
No longer constitutional, but historically inherited procedural accumulation of irrationality of thinking in conditions of chronic frustration of the needs of self-determination, the manifestation of frustration regression of the affect of anxiety forms the psychodynamic basis of narcissistic neurosis (structural neuroticism) of the oprichnina. These phenomena are reflected in the work of the great Russian poet Sergei Yesenin (“Confession of a Hooligan”, “Moscow Tavern”, “Soviet Country” - “I know that sadness cannot be drowned in wine, / Souls cannot be cured / Desert and breakaway ...”). Such is the narcissistic (neurotic) specificity of the national character of the Great Russian (ethno-cultural Russian).
His clinic (intrapsychic split) was reflected in his work by N. S. Leskov. L. Anninsky defines this split as follows: “Loose, wet, soft and viscous, as opposed to hard, clear and cold (iron) - this is a figurative code (N. M. Leskov’s story Iron Will. - Ya. P.) .., the source and meaning of the drama .., sides of one spiritual reality.
Thus, the problem of the national character of the Great Russian (ethno-cultural Russian) has two sides - the initial epileptothymia of the ethnic folk temperament, which is based on the thousand-year geopolitical history of the Slavs, is combined with the historically inherited procedural accumulation of narcissistic structural neuroticism (constitutional autistic personality deformation). The reason for the accumulation of neurotic interpersonal destructiveness is more than 400 years of existence in Russia of an oprichnina imperial state.
Additional consideration deserves the metaneurosis of individual mental degeneration as a threat to the foundations of human society.
It is easy to see that the concept of metaneurosis of individual mental degeneration is the pathos of the developed metatheory and is based on E. Kretschmer's concept of the typology of constitutional continuums.
The essence of the pathophysiological aspect of psychoaggression is the sharpest objectively determined fluctuations in affect from grief (despair) to timid hope (ignored anxiety-threat). In other words, there is either suffering (a pure syntonic affect) or a frustration-regressed affect of anxiety. Constitutional psychodynamics brings to the fore either the processes of autistic personality transformation (narcissistic neurosis proper) and secondary organ neurosis and substance abuse neurosis (phenomena of regression neurosis), or (and in any case, as the psychopathological consequences of the emergency proceed) leads to the initiation of metaneurotic (psychobiological) processes: psycho-somatosis and individual mental degeneration (epileptoid psychopathization of personality).
The last process - the aggravation of epileptoid debilitating psychopathy, has unfortunately become characteristic of modern Russia and continues to be aggravated by social ill-being through psycho-organic disorders, intoxication and inflammatory lesions of the brain in a situation of survival CHD, especially when the experience of emergency situations - TPS and CCD is imposed on it.
Its essence is the steady growth negative qualities epileptoid affect, i.e., a return to the historically lived qualities of the ethnic Slavic temperament and, thus, to the primitive atavistic characteristics of interpersonal relations and social organization.
According to the definition of F. Minkowska from 1923 (quoted from 74. - N.P.):
“We are talking about affectivity condensed, sticky, sticking to the objects of the surrounding world and not freed from them to the extent that changes in the environment require it: affectivity does not follow the movement of the environment and, so to speak, is always late. The epileptoid is primarily an affective being, but this affectivity is clingy and not mobile enough. Experiencing difficulty vibrating in unison with people, these people connect affectively mainly with objects: hence the love of order. Unable to embrace many people, they concentrate their affectivity on groups of them, or on general ideas with a sentimental or mystical color (universal peace, religion): in their relationship with their own kind, there is no personal imprint, but a common moral assessment prevails: they behave , without being aware of this, as carriers of a moral or religious mission; in the intellectual realm they are slow; dwell on the details and lose sight of the whole; changes and new things do not attract them; they love everything lasting and stable; they are workers, but not creators; on the contrary, they diligently preserve traditions and represent a conservative factor. Aggravated, these traits reach a painfully slow psychism, as well as sugary and obsessive affectivity, and, finally, egocentrism (when affectivity concentrates on one's own person, as on the object closest and requiring the least effort of adaptation). In view of their sugary and sticky affectivity, they they often give the impression of false people, not being them in reality: affectivity, becoming more and more viscous and accompanied by a growing mental slowdown, is less and less in time for the calls of the outside world; becomes more and more inadequate and eventually leads to a real stagnation; the latter creates for the individual an atmosphere that is suffocating, stormy and saturated with electricity; this is immediately followed by thunder and lightning. Stagnation causes explosive discharges, which the subject is not able to resist, they cover him suddenly, distinguished by surprise, force, causing a blackout of consciousness; those who are slow become agitated; then attacks of intense anger, impulsive actions, fugues, prolonged twilight states, visions, mystical ideas - all features whose relationship with epilepsy is not difficult to recognize.
The increase in constitutional interpersonal destructiveness when moving along the continuum “epileptothymia-epileptoidia-changes in the psyche (mentality) in epilepsy” was similarly described by the largest domestic psychiatrists of the first half of the 20th century - P. B. Gannushkin, E. K. Krasnushkin, P. M. Zinoviev, M. O. Gurevich, T. I. Yudin.
According to the previously formulated concept of the “real generation”, we are talking about the prevalence of three psychotypes in the population: epiaffective - rises in the MMIL profile on the sixth and second-ninth scales, hysteroepileptothymic (skirtoid) - rises in the MMIL profile on the sixth and third scales, as well as schizoepileptothymic - rises in the MMIL profile on the sixth and eighth scales. It should be noted that these psychotypes are inevitably formed not only in historical conditions (HZhS), but also in TIS, as the consequences of experienced catastrophes. The main mechanisms here are the long-term habit of neurotic externalization of cynicism, psychological (and psychochemical) swaying, leading to an increase in rigidity (“stuck”) of negative affect and the pathological development of affective epileptoid, hysteroepileptoid and schizoepileptoid.
Affectoepileptoids to the greatest extent correspond to the idea of ​​excitability, explosiveness of viscous affect: such dynamics is described in convicts sentenced to deprivation of liberty during a long (more than 10 years) stay in places of deprivation of liberty (i.e., in the genesis of affective epileptoid, the CLS of survival plays an obvious role). Affectoepileptoids are characterized by an irresistible desire for social reform "at any cost for others." The heroes of the works of A. Bester "The Man Without a Face" and "Tiger ... Tiger" can serve as a literary example.
Hysteroepileptoids (skirtoids) - this structurally disharmonic psychotype in everyday life corresponds to the idea of ​​"domestic tyrants" (the demonstrative manifestations of hostility, intolerance, tyranny are stronger, the more dependent the microsocial environment is), the phenomenon of skirtoidity (intolerance to narcissistic insult, characteristic of the culture of mountain peoples) in armed conflicts, they make hysteroepileptoids dangerous, ruthless and uncompromising opponents. Literary example-Troekurov in "Dubrovsky" by A. S. Pushkin.
Schizoepileptoids (paranoid personality type) - any long-term existence of this psychotype without manifest delusional disorders under normal conditions is practically impossible due to the extreme nature of the central IPC: on the contrary, in psychopathological conditions of emergency, this type (even more than skirtoid) shows "miracles of vitality "(Zombie syndrome, 2.2.1.). In the structure of a paranoid personality, there are always disorders of affect and disorders social adaptation. Examples should be sought in the special (psychiatric) literature.
Thus, individual mental degeneration (epileptoidization) in any case gives rise to stable psychotypes, with a high degree of probability interpersonally destructive. This destructiveness threatens the very foundations of the community.
The historical reality of the Russian state - a more than 400-year-old oprichnina empire - has led to the imposition of an unceasing series of TPS on a chronic, from generation to generation, HZhS of survival. Cultivation of the epileptotic narcissistic national character had a background - the desire for power not as a manifestation of organizational abilities and interests, but as a symbol of belonging to the "circle of the elite" - a neurotic (illusory-virtual) means of maintaining comfort, well-being and self-esteem (manifestation of Ego-mythization).
Its second side was (since the time of Ivan the Terrible) the uncontrollable desire of those in power (the oprichny "state within the state") to educate a "new person" - obeying without protest and criticism the order of things imposed "from above".
On the other hand, Ash-mythization of the bearers of power functions of the oprichnina imperial state is mirrored by the Ego-anchorage (autistic personality transformation) of the repressed ethno-cultural majority.
In general, the epileptoid (and toxicomaniac) metaneurosis of the population of the oprichnina empire, the product of the externalization of more than 400 years of intrapsychic "civil war", periodically turned into bloody "Russian riots" and ended in our time with social stagnation - a direct indicator of threatening social degradation .
Thus, one should distinguish between the ethnic East Slavic epileptic temperament and the neurotic national character of the Great Russian (ethno-cultural Russian - Muscovite). Ethnic temperament is socially neutral, although it can form the basis for the accumulation of interpersonal destructiveness (neuroticism). The narcissistic neurosis (structural neuroticism) of the Russian national character developed in the conditions of the survival of the KhZhS and represents the intrapersonal reality of a citizen of the oprichnina imperial state.
One of the most unpleasant consequences of the structural neuroticism of the Russian national character is the metaneurosis of individual mental degeneration - the epileptoidization of the personality. In the real generation, there are three two-radical psychotypes: reformers-affekgoepileptoids, tyrants-skirtoids (hysterepileptoids) and paranoid schizoepileptoids. All of them are characterized by an extremely high level of interpersonal destructiveness.