informal Zdravstvuy or Zdorovo. Friends, but not strangers, might also ask

Kak dela? (How are you?) and wait for a response. Russians are introduced

by their full name (given, patronymic, surname). Surnames are not used

without titles, such as Gospodin (Mr.) and Gospozha (Mrs.). The military,

police, and some citizens continue to use the Soviet-era title tovarishch

("friend" or "comrade"). At work or in polite com pany, Russians address

each other by given name and patronymic (the possessive of the father's

first name). This is also the most appropriate form of address for a

superior or a respected elder. Close friends use given names alone.

Hand gestures carry much significance in Russian culture. Pointing

with the index finger is improper but commonly practiced. It is impolite to

talk (especially to an older person) with one's hands in the pockets or

arms folded across the chest. To count, a Russian bends (closes) the

fingers rather than opens them.

Russians like to visit and have guests. Sitting around the kitchen

table and talking for hours is a favorite pastime. One usually removes

shoes when entering a home. Hosts generally offer refreshments, but guests

may decline them. Friends and family may visit anytime without notice but

usually arrange visits in advance. They make themselves at home and

generally can expect to be welcomed for any length of time. Visits with new

acquaintances are more formal.

Giving gifts is a strong tradition in Russia, and almost every event

(birthdays, weddings, holidays, etc.) is accompanied by presents. For

casual visits, it is common (but not required) for guests to bring a simple

gift (flowers, food, or vodka) to their hosts. The object given is less

important than the friend ship expressed by the act. Flowers are given in

odd numbers; even numbers are for funerals. If friends open a bottle of

vodka (which means "little water"), they customarily drink until it is

empty.

Knowing the general attitudes is extremely important in Russia. Tankred

Golenpolsky in his book Doing Business in Russia emphasized the need the

right local partner in Russia by asking the following questions:

. Where should you invest your money?

. When should you invest your money?

. How much money should you invest?

Answering these questions correctly can assure success elsewhere, but not

in Russia. In Russia, everything begins with selection of the right partner

to work for you (Golenpolsky 27-28). Having the right partner with the wide

network of people is extremely helpful for starting your own business in

Russia. Therefore, it is extremely important to know and understand Russian

attitude and behavior patterns in order to deal with Russians and

successfully build the relations in Russian environment. Later, the authors

give the following recommendations on choosing the right candidate who

“must meet some basic requirements such as fluency in English and an

education background comparable to his or her Western colleagues. He or she

preferably should be married since this indicates a degree of stability and

seriousness, and the spouse must be ready to fit into a new system of

relationships -relationships that did not exist in the former Soviet Union.

(Golenpolsky 29-30)

Although food is plentiful in the cities, many products are expensive.

Hence, the average person eats imported fruits and vegetables infrequently.

People on fixed and limited incomes (mainly the elderly) eat more bread and

potatoes than any- thing else. Urban residents more often have meat and

dairy products. Rural people have gardens. Urban dwellers usually grow

vegetable gardens in the country or on plots near the city. Traditional

Russian foods include borsch (cabbage soup with beets), pirozhki (a stuffed

roll, eaten as "fast food"), golubtsy (stuffed cabbage leaves baked with

tomato sauce and eaten with sour cream), and shi (soup with sour cabbage).

Borsch is still one of the most popular foods in the country. Its

ingredients (potatoes, cabbages, carrots, beets, and onions) almost

complete the list of vegetables used in everyday life. Pork, sausage,

chicken, and cheeses are popular, but they can be expensive. Russians drink

coffee and mineral water; juice and soda are available. Vodka is preferred

to wine.

Russians have little leisure time because of the hours they devote to

getting food, working extra jobs, or taking care of their households. Urban

Russians spend nearly all their spare time at their dachas (country

cottages), if they have them, relaxing and growing fruits and vegetables

for the winter. In the summer, people Re to gather mushrooms. Cities have

relatively few nightclubs and entertainment usually ends before midnight,

even in Moscow.

The country's favorite sport is soccer. Winter sports such as ice

skating, hockey, and cross-country skiing are also particularly popular.

Most families like to watch television in the evening. Russia has a grand

and abiding heritage in cultural arts. The people highly appreciate

theaters and movies, but these are available only in big cities. Rural

people can watch movies at community recreation centers called dvorets

kultury (palace of culture) or the smaller dom kultury (house of culture)

New Year's Day is the most popular holiday in Russia. Almost everyone

decorates fir trees and has parties to celebrate the new year. Grandfather

Frost leaves presents for children to find on New Year's Day. Easter and

Christmas observances, long interrupted by communism, regained their

prominence in 1990. Christmas is on 7 January, according to the Julian

calendar used by the Russian Orthodox Church. Women's Day is 8 March.

Solidarity Day (I May, also known as May Day) is a day for parades. Victory

Day (9 May) commemorates the end of World War II and is deeply important to

most Russians.

The business week is 40 hours, with Saturdays and Sundays off. Offices

generally are open from 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 p.m. They close at lunchtime

(1:00 P.m.). Prices in stores are not negotiable, but prices are flexible

on the streets, where an increasing number of items is sold. Capitalism is

booming in Russia and a new generation of entrepreneurs is beginning to

thrive. Numerous small businesses and joint ventures with foreign firms are

finding success, and employees are buying state-run factories and working

to make them profitable. Under communism, there were no incentives for

bureaucrats to perform well or even be nice to clients, so the usual answer

to any question was "No." This practice is still found in society, but "no"

is no longer final. One must simply bargain and be persistent to get what

one desires.

Russians prefer having social interaction before discussing business.

Trying to do business on the phone without seeing the prospective business

partner is ineffective. One often spends a lot of time in meetings before

even a small deal can succeed. The business climate is characterized by the

high level of uncertainty in Russia. However, any companies successfully

adapted to the Russian environment. In the Rising Russia the following

industries are of particular interest for foreign investors: gas and oil

refinery and export of oil, pharmaceutical, food and food-processing

industry, aluminum extraction and manufacturing. Leasing and franchising

opportunities exist in agricultural sector where the government established

a policy encouraging farmers to obtain the modern equipment. The number of

contracts were signed with car manufacturing plants such as Vojskiy

Avtomobiliniy zavod and Moskovskiy zavod. Russia welcomes the foreign

investors but has a number of difficulties in it such as corruption and

organized crime, difficult environment in business and tax laws,

unsuitability of local currency and unstable political situation due to the

war in Chechnya. However, the new Russian government took active steps

toward the Chechen populations supporting the international terrorists and

the terrorists who were fighting the Russian troops.

The First Chechen war cost a lot to the Russian government. The second war

was more successful than the first one but still Russians are in the active

process of guerrilla war with Chechen bandits. These challenges can stop

potential investors from using the opportunities of 150 million people

market.

Russia is a federation of autonomous republics and regions. Vladimir

Putin succeeded Boris Yeltsin as a president. The president is strong and

has power to dissolve parliament, set foreign policy, and appoint the Prime

Minister. The Federal Assembly has two houses, a 176-seat Federation

Council and the 450-seat State Duma. The Constitutional Court is Russia's

highest. The voting age is 18. An array of political parties is represented

in the Duma. The actual party names are less important than their

alliances. Communists form the largest block, but not a majority, and

nationalists and liberals form other substantial voting blocks. Recently,

new Russian president implemented the measures for strengthening his power

and ability to react and influence the national economy but many there are

critics.

Russia's natural resources give it great potential for economic growth

and development. Natural gas, coal, gold, oil, diamonds, copper, silver,

and lead are all abundant. Heavy industry dominates the economy, although

the agricultural sector is potentially strong. Russia's economy is weak and

unstable. Liberal reforms designed to attract foreign investment and

privatize the economy led to higher unemployment, high inflation (above I

00 percent), and lower production. Organized crime and corruption weigh

heavily on the economy's ability to perform. Real gross domestic product

per capita is $4,828. Poverty is increasing as fast as wealth. The currency

is the ruble (R). Nearly all transactions are made in cash.

Education is free and mandatory for everyone between ages six and

seventeen. In 1994, new curriculum guidelines were introduced to encourage

choice and innovation over previous approaches to teaching, but many public

schools are unable or unwilling to implement the reforms due to lack of

money and clear local leadership. However, a few are embracing new ideas

and even teaching basic market economics to young children. Students attend

primary, middle, and high school. They can specialize in their last two

years. Private schools offer a high-quality education to the wealthy and

influential. Education is highly valued, and Russia's literacy rate is 99

percent. More than five hundred universities, medical schools, and

technical academies are found throughout the country. Russians have a

distinct advantage of a high-standard education and they are actively using

their intelligence. Russian large intellectual potential and a system of

educating brains even with its drawbacks has produced a number of talented

people who can work at least at the same level as their Western

counterparts. Unfortunately, this educational potential is not fully

utilized by the current condition of the Russian economy. The facts on

Russian immigration to such developed countries as Canada, Australia, New

Zealand or United States confirms this fact.

(http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/welcome/index.html). The educational

potential of the nation is probably the most important factor that can

bring the nation to the family of the high-industrialized nations.

Russia with its rich heritage of music, theatre performance, poetry is

a distinct expression of the Russian media history. Currently, together

with the old ways of communications such as cinema, theatre, newspapers and

TV new avenues of the human interaction are rapidly developing. Internet

brought by the introduction of Western communicative abilities is changing

the Russian youth. Russian students are not isolated from rest of the World

due to the Internet. However, the introduction of this powerful source of

information exchange mainly affected the large cities where there are

enough resources. Countryside does not have a full access to the Internet

and can not enjoy the full advantage of Internet using. The scope of media

coverage in very wide in Russia. Russians commented on the Olympic Games,

War in Chechnya or situation in the Near East.

Russian media is the most advanced among the CIS media in terms of the

connections with the foreign media sources. Russians have to create a new

media channels to deliver messages. They do not have such strict censorship

like Republics of the Central Asia or Caucasus. The Russians reformed TASS

and have a closed connection with CNN News, Reuters. MTV, a Musical channel

established a Russian speaking music channel. Russian media played a great

role in covering the news and war operations in Chechnya and was one of the

major reasons why Russians pressured the government to stop the massacre.

Russians receive news from abroad mainly by TV (ORT- Obchestvennoe

Rosiyskoe Televidine), (RTR-Rossiyskoe TeleRadiove Vechyanie), TV-4, TV-6.

Eduard Sagalaev together with CNN, headed by Ted Turner arranged NTV and

NTV+ for broadcasting on Moscow and St. Petersburg. The second source of

Information are the various newspapers in Russia. Most of them were

originated during or after the era of Perestroyka. However, many remained

from the Soviet Era but changed their profile to be more “readable”. Before

the newspapers only printed what they were allowed to print on political or

economic topics. They could touch sports or weather occasionally. Now

newspapers can criticize the government and give their comments on the

economic situation in Russia. Radio is usually listened in the countryside

or where people do not have televisions.

Unlike people in America, many Russians use the public transportation

and do not have cars except in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, due to

the high traffic, people prefer use subways to get to their work place. As

a result, radio does not enjoy such popularity like here in the States.

The last, but most flourishing, medium is Internet. It enjoys the

relatively lower costs of information exchange. Many newspapers have their

web sites where they place the information, news and current events.

Russian youth are becoming more and more exposed to the Internet. Internet

getting to the colleges and homes. The example of Russia organized search

engines are www.rambler.ru, www.lib.ru. Larger resources are allocated on

the information databases such as www.news.ru, www.omen.ru, which

specializes on music and entertainment. Russians made an advance step in

terms of the amount of servers but they are closely followed by Ukraine and

Kazakhstan.

Despite the rapid development of the Russian media there are still

some challenges and problems the media faces. Russian government was not

pleased with the way Russian reporters disclose the situation in Chechnya,

Kursk, fire in Ostankino and other major events where they government was

not acting at its best. Amnesty International reports on the arrests and

interrogations of the Russian reporters in Chechnya by the Russian

military. The reporters are being killed and the government does not want

to do anything about it.

Russians are facing another dilemma. The society has mixed feelings

about their identity and their role in CIS and the World. This reflects on

the ability of the Russian media to cover the news. They can not figure out

what is more important for the Russian society and what is not. The

difficult relations with West are a special circumstance of the Russian

society. Russians do not want to be portrayed as “losers” to the West. In

fact, in his speech at the West Point conference a chief editor of “Foreign

Policy” Zakartia said that Russians did not lose the cold war. They want to

change their system and life better. They do not think that the West won

it. He argued that thinking in such way and failing to cooperate with

Russia made the United States lose the Russia. This relationship prevents

the Russian media from showing the real attitude of Western democracies on

the events because the media do not want to be portrayed pro-Western. The

Russians are making steps toward democratization of their society and

political system and it has a reflection on the Russian media. The Western

nations should provide the full support to this movement while

understanding the situation in Russia and the challenges Russian go

through.

After the collapse of the Communist regime left Russia with an

inefficient economy, regional conflicts and problems with the neighboring

countries. Russia wants to become a democratic society with a developed

market oriented economy. It has a large potential especially in human

resources. Russians are educated, talented and bright people who are

willing to work hard if they are paid well. Russia has a vast variety of

natural resources that can attract foreign capital. Russians are welcoming

foreign investments. All these conditions will surely have an effect and

lead Russia to the family of the most-developed nations in the world. It

might take long time but it will surely happen.

Works Cited

Brudny, Yitzhak M. Reinventing Russia: Russian nationalism and the Soviet

State, 1953-1991. Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts,

London, England, 1998

Tankred G. Golenpolsky, Johnstone M. Robert and Kashin A. Vladimir Doing

Business in Russia Basic Facts for the Pioneering Entrepreneur. The Oasis

Press, Grants Pass, Oregon, 1995

Dunlop, John B. The Rise of Russian And The Fall Of The Soviet Empire.

Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1993

Finckenauer, James O. and Waring, Elin J. Russian Mafia in America:

Immigration, Culture, and Crime. Northeast University Press, Boston, 1998

Official Site for Immigration to Canada

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomer/welcome/index.html

Alexandr Soljenicin, “Odin deny Ivana Denisovicha” One Day of Ivan

Denisovich Trans. Rustam Tashpulatov.

Biblioteka Moshkova www.lib.ru

Information Database www.rambler.ru

Russian Gazeta www.gazeta.ru

Amnesty International http://www.amnesty.org/

Ferghana on Line www.ferghana.ru

Страницы: 1, 2