The character of the Great Russian. On the national character of the Great Russians. The Great Russians who settled in agricultural regions continued their native occupations, but those who ended up in the northern regions, where farming was completely impossible or where it cost

Klyuchevsky about special natural conditions northern Rus', different from those in the south of the country, and how they affected the character of the Russian person:

Great Russia, he wrote, “with its forests, swamps and swamps, at every step presented the settler with a thousand small dangers, unforeseen difficulties and troubles, among which it was necessary to find oneself, with which one had to constantly fight. This taught the Great Russian to vigilantly monitor nature, look both ways, as he put it, walking around looking around and feeling the soil, not poking into the water without looking for a ford, developed in him resourcefulness... the habit of patiently struggling with adversity and deprivation. In Europe there is no people less spoiled and demanding, accustomed to expect less from nature and fate and more resilient... The Great Russian did not work in an open field, in front of everyone, like an inhabitant of southern Rus': he fought with nature alone, in the depths of the forest with with an ax in his hand... After all you can't break through walls with your forehead, And only crows fly straight, say Great Russian proverbs. Nature and fate led the Great Russians in such a way that they taught them to take a roundabout route onto the straight road. The Great Russian thinks and acts as he walks. It seems that you can come up with curves and twists of a Great Russian country road? It was as if a snake had slithered through. But try to go straighter: you’ll only get lost and end up on the same winding path...” “The main mass of the Russian people,” Klyuchevsky points out in another place, “having retreated in the face of overwhelming external dangers from the Dnieper southwest to the Oka and upper Volga, they gathered there her broken forces, strengthened in the forests of central Russia, saved her people...”

Excerpt from Abd-ru-shin’s report “Strive for Conviction!”

“Let everything that is ossified in relation to your neighbors fall, instead become alive and mobile! Give in for a while where things don’t seem to be working out, but never let go of the reins! Eventually, by adapting, you will bring the resisting one to where it should be. A good rider will never cruelly push his horse to get his way if he understands how to treat animals. He You just have to first learn to understand animals if you want to control them! His ossification would only lead to stubbornness or That obedience, which can cease again at any moment. At the same time, he sits as if on a powder keg, instead of the horse carrying him with love and care!

Really adamant that the will that leads to the goal, even if she must change her path, but not one who allows her goal to be crushed by her own ossification. Rigidity Always false because it is unnatural and is not in agreement with the Primordial Laws of Creation, which require mobility. Any ossified the clue is helplessness, which does not recognize other beaten paths, and therefore hinders the forward striving of his neighbors!

From the article by Konstantin Leontyev “Literacy and Nationality”.
We have 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 at the inner horror for the distant future of the West that is heard under these lines that are written without meaning.
Unfortunately, a similar uninformed concept about Russia and Russians also exists among those peoples who are connected to us by tribal affinity, or by faith and political history. Chance forced me to live on the Danube for quite a long time. 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, Moldova and Wallachia - a visit to one such area as Dobrudja cannot pass without leaving an impression on an attentive person.
In this Turkish province live under the same government, on the same soil, under the same sky: Turks, Tatars, Circassians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Greeks, Gypsies, Jews, German colonists and Russians of several kinds: Orthodox Little Russians (who moved here partly from the Zaporozhye Sich, partly later during the times of serfdom), Great Russians-Old Believers (Lipovans), Great Russians-Molokans and Orthodox Great Russians. If we add here the shores of Moldova, 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 Gentiles, we will also find eunuchs in large quantities. Among the cab drivers, for example, who carry phaetons around Galati, there are a lot of eunuchs. The same thing, as we hear, happened until recently in Iasi and Bucharest.
Systematic, comparative study the life of the tribes inhabiting the banks of the lower Danube could, I am sure, produce 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 especially value two results achieved: a living, visual acquaintance with the Russian commoner, transferred to foreign soil, and also acquaintance with the views of our political friends on us and on our people.
In Dobruja, two old people recently died - one a rural Bulgarian; the other is a Tulchin fisherman and Old Believer. Both were extremely remarkable as representatives: one of the narrow Bulgarian, the other of the broad Great Russian nature. Unfortunately, I have forgotten 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 common people. The Bulgarian was nearly 80 or even 90 years old. He lived in his village without a break. He worked tirelessly himself; His huge family lived with him. He had several sons: all married, of course, with children and grandchildren; the eldest of the sons were themselves already gray-haired old men; but these gray-haired old men also obeyed their father like children. They did not dare to hide a single piastre they earned from their patriarch or spend it without asking. The family had a lot of money; most buried herself in the ground so that Turkish officials would not get to them. Despite all their prosperity, this huge family ate only onions and black bread on weekdays, and ate lamb 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 large fishing team. By winter, fishing ended and the old Great Russian distributed his huge earnings in his own way. He counted out the fishermen, released those who did not want to stay with him; gave something to my brother; he bought provisions, vodka and wine for the whole artel and supported all the young people, who remained with him for the whole winter without obligatory work. With these comrades, the healthy old man caroused and had fun until spring, spent all his money and again in the spring began to work with them. This is how he spent his entire long life, objecting to his brother’s complaints that “he loves his guys”! We often saw an old fisherman in the Khokhlatsky quarter of Tulcha; he sat down in the middle of the street on the ground, surrounded himself with wine and delicacies and exclaimed:
- Little Ukrainians! come make me happy!
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, we note by the way (and very opportunely!), did not prevent him from being a strict executor of his church charter.
It is also interesting to add that an old Polish nobleman, an emigrant in 1936, told me with delight about the Old Believer fisherman; and the Greek merchant spoke with respect about the stingy Bulgarian farmer.
Both Greeks and Bulgarians are equally bourgeois in the spirit of their home life, equally disposed to what the Germans themselves called philistinism.
Whereas the sweeping knightly tastes of the Polish nobleman come closer to the Cossack breadth of the Great Russian.
I don’t want to humiliate the Bulgarians by this and elevate the Great Russians beyond measure. I will only say that the Bulgarians, even the “indigenous” - rural in spirit, are less original than ordinary Great Russians. They are more like any other respectable villagers.
The serious and modest qualities that distinguish the Bulgarian people can give them a unique role in the Slavic world, so diverse and rich in forms.
But a “creative” genius (especially in our time, which is so unfavorable for creativity) can only ascend to the head of such a people, which is both diverse in its very depths and completely unlike others. This 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 inclined to be “St. Petersburg residents,” are little inclined to capitalize, and capitalization is needed.
To this I will give two examples: one from Little Russia, the other from the Great Russian environment:
The Birzhevye Vedomosti recounts the following incident that recently took place in Poltava. Peasants dressed in common folk style appeared at the local treasury - a husband and wife. Both of their sexes were swollen from some kind of burden. The husband turned to the official with a question: can he exchange old-style credit cards for new ones?
- How many of them do you have? - asks the official.
- How can I tell you?.., really, I don’t know myself. The official smiled.
- Three, five, ten rubles? he asks.
- No, more. My wife and I counted all day but couldn’t count...
At the same time, both showed stacks of banknotes from under the counter. Naturally, suspicion arose regarding the acquisition by the owners of such a sum. They were detained and the money was counted: it turned out to be 86 thousand.
-Where did you get the money?
“Great-grandfather folded, grandfather folded, and we folded,” was the answer.
According to the investigation, the suspicions against them were not justified and the peasant was exchanged money. Then they return to the treasury.
- Do you exchange gold, kindness?
- We change. 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 around, like this Ukrainian or the old Bulgarian patriarch, it is necessary that it goes into circulation. If these people were literate, they would understand their mistake.
But in response to these words I will take in my hands new fact and I will hit those poor Russians who are unable to sympathize with me.
One Old Believer, Philip Naumov, still lives in Tulcea. He doesn't know how to read; can only write numbers for his accounts. He not only does not smoke or drink tea and wears his shirt untucked, but he is so firm in his rules that, often visiting taverns and coffee houses to treat people of different faiths and nations who enter into trade deals with him, he, treating them, does not touch anything himself. He never drinks even wine and vodka, which are not persecuted by the Old Believers. He does not like to invite anyone to his place, because, having invited, one must treat, and having treated, one must break, throw away or sell the dishes desecrated by non-believers (even Orthodox). He has several hundred thousand piastres of capital in constant circulation, several houses; of them, one large one on the banks of the Danube is constantly rented 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 a Russian-style gate and decorated it beautifully and the original white walls of this house have a wide blue and brown checkerboard stripe at half the height. /
He is very honest and, despite the severity of his religious distance from the Gentiles, he is reputed 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 - 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) to plan 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 all respects worthy Dalmatian, an official of the Austrian service, with whom I was familiar, 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 a Great Russian trait.
A Bulgarian or a Greek, as soon as he opened a grocery or haberdashery shop and learned to read and write, he now took off his oriental clothes (always either stately or elegant), bought from a Jew on the corner a clumsy frock coat and trousers of a style that had never been worn in Europe, and in a cheap tie (or even without a tie) with dirty nails, he went to make visits to his troubled wife, European visits, in which the sparkle of the conversation consists of the following: “How is your health? -- 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.”

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

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

Reply from Valery Garanzha[guru]
count how many there are and compare... By the way, I am a Little Russian

Reply from Evgeniy[guru]
VELIKORUSY (VELIKOROSSY) - the most numerous of the three branches of the Russian people (Great Russians, Little Russians, Belarusians), usually called simply Russians. The Great Russians, like the Little Russians and Belarusians, descended from a single ancient Russian nationality that emerged 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 - the Rhodians, the Rosses, or the Russians. From their land in the Middle Dnieper region the name “Rus” spread to the entire Old Russian state, which included, in addition to the Slavic, some non-Slavic tribes. The formation of the Russian people 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 ancient Russian lands, where, in addition to the descendants of the Slavs - the Vyatichi, Krivichi and Slovenians, there were many immigrants from other regions. In the XIV-XV centuries. these lands began to be called Russia in the 16th century. - Russia. Neighbors called the country Muscovy. The names “Great Rus'” as applied to the lands inhabited by the Great Russians, “Little Rus'” by the Little Russians, and “White Rus'” by the Belarusians appeared in the 15th century.

Reply 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 nation, by which representatives of one nation can be distinguished from another. IN Chinese proverb It is said: “As is the land and the river, such is the character of man.” Each nation has its own special character. About the secrets of the Russian soul, about Russian national character much has been said and written. And this is no coincidence, because Russia, having long history, experiencing a lot of suffering and changes, occupying a special geographical position, having absorbed 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, in connection with the profound changes that have occurred in Russia, interest in it is increasingly increasing. The character of the people and the fate of the country are closely interconnected, influencing each other throughout the entire historical path, therefore, an increased interest in the national character of the Russian people is noticeable. As the Russian proverb says: “When you sow character, you reap destiny.” National character is reflected both in fiction, philosophy, journalism, art, and in language. For language is a mirror of culture; it reflects not only real world surrounding a person, not only the real conditions of his life, but also the social consciousness of the people, their mentality, national character, way of life, traditions, customs, morality, value system, attitude, vision of the world. Therefore, the language must be studied in inextricable unity with the world and culture of the people speaking the language. given language. Proverbs and sayings are a reflection folk wisdom, they contain the people’s idea of ​​themselves and therefore the secrets of the Russian national character can be tried to be comprehended through Russian proverbs and sayings. By limiting the scope 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 intelligence, natural ingenuity, ingenuity, and creativity. The Russian people are great workers, creators and creators, and have enriched the world with great cultural achievements. It is difficult to list even 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 work you can’t pull a fish out of the pond”, “Patience and work will grind everything down”, “God loves work”. The Russian people value work very much: “Gold is learned in fire, and man in work,” “Talent without work is not worth a penny.” Russian folklore also speaks about the existence of workaholics: “The day is boring until the evening, if there is nothing to do,” “Living without work is just smoking the sky,” “It’s not the concern that there is a lot of work, but the concern that there is none.” Working people are not envious: “Don’t blame your neighbor when you sleep until lunchtime.” Proverbs condemn the lazy: “It’s a long time to sleep, but it’s a long time to get up,” “He who gets up late doesn’t have enough bread.” And at the same time they praise the hardworking: “He who gets up early, God gives him.” Only honest earnings were valued by the people: “Easy to get, easy to live,” “A free ruble is cheap, an acquired ruble is expensive.” And in the upbringing of young people, preference was given to work: “Teach not by idleness, but teach by handicraft.” Love of freedom One of the basic, deep-seated 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 performing actions, and not freedom as a conscious necessity, that is, as the possibility of a person expressing his will on the basis of awareness of the law. For example, proverbs: “Even though the lot is hard, everyone has their own will”, “One’s own will is more valuable than anything else”, “Liberty is more valuable than anything else”, “Will is more valuable than gold”

At the head of the ethnic group called “Russians” are the Great Russians, numbering 953,750 souls of both sexes. Their appearance on the territory of the Far East occurred at different times.

At first, the movement of the Great Russians was directed to Yakutsk (1632 - the founding of the Yakut Ostrog), and from there, as if in radii, they moved to the Lama (Okhotsk) Sea and further to Kamchatka, to the Arctic Ocean and south to Amur region, which after the Nerchinsk Treaty the “Russians” had to leave. The secondary colonization of the current Amur province began in 1858 after the Aigun Treaty with China, and the following year, 1859, we already find Russian settlements in the Ussuri region.

The first settlers - the Great Russians - went to Eastern Siberia at their own risk, but then in the early 80s of the last century the Russian government intervened in this spontaneous movement and began sending colonists on Voluntary Fleet ships by sea through Vladivostok. Even earlier, in order to secure the border along the left bank and along the right - Ussuri, Cossacks resettled from Transbaikalia were planted. When the newly acquired lands were connected to their metropolis by railroad, it became possible to carry out colonization more successfully by land. In particular, the massive resettlement of peasant farmers occurred in the period from 1906 to 1910.

The places where the Great Russians came out were mainly the northern regions of European Russia. The dialects of the Russian old-timer population of Siberia belong, for the most part, to the North-Voliko-Russian dialectical group, and only a small part of the old Russian population of Siberia speaks South Russian, for example, the Siberian Old Believers (Semeyskie) beyond Baikal (with an admixture of features of the South-Western- Russians, Little Russians and Polish).

Currently, we find the Great Russians settled in a more or less dense mass along the southern border strip of Transbaikalia, along the entire left bank (especially in the lower reaches of the Burei and Zeya rivers), on both sides of the lower mountains. Khabarovsk to the mouth, then along the lower reaches of the right tributaries of the Ussuri, in the Khankaisky and Suchansky regions and in the basins of small rivers (east of the Sikhote-Alin ridge), carrying their waters directly to the sea. The further you go to the north, the less and less there are, despite the long history of the rule of the Great Russians.

In the northern part of Transbaikalia, in the Amur province, in parts adjacent to the Yakut Autonomous Republic, and especially in the vast Okhotsk-Kamchatka and Anadyr regions, due to their small numbers and the overwhelming number of natives, they mixed with the latter and lost their original features. Their descendants turned into mestizos, which will be discussed below.

In the Kamchatka province, which embraces all the lands of both the Okhotsk and Chukotka-Anadyr regions, Russians live in single families here and there along the shores of the seas and along the pp. Okhota, Gizhiga, Bolshaya, Kamchatka and Anadyr. In these places, the main centers of Great Russian habitat will be the administrative points: Okhotsk, Gizhiga, Bolsheretsk and Petropavlovsk, Ust-Kamchatsk and the village of Mariinskoye at the mouth of the Anadyr River.

The Great Russians who settled in agricultural regions continued their native occupations, but those who ended up in the northern regions, where agriculture was completely impossible or where so much labor was spent on it that it was not worth the results, lost their agricultural traditions and began like the natives, by hunting and fishing.

Having abandoned the cart due to the lack of communications, the Great Russian abandoned the horse and switched to dog farming. It is surprising that, having arrived in a country where reindeer herding was in full bloom, the Great Russians (reindeer herders literally surrounded them) never took up this business. And yet, despite the barbaric attitude towards itself, the harsh climate, deep snowy winters, the horse is slowly but surely replacing the dog. But there is a limit over which a horse will never step, and beyond which a deer or a dog will forever reign.

Beyond the Arctic Circle, the Great Russian learned the way of life and habits of the Hyperborean.

If we look at the territory of the Far East somewhat from the outside, so as to have it all before our eyes, we will see that in the southern parts Eastern Siberia The Great Russians are engaged in agriculture, and in the north, having mixed with the natives, they forgot all their crafts: carpentry, carpentry, blacksmithing, plumbing, cooperage, etc.

As for cattle breeding, the Great Russians of Transbaikalia, when they were in their homeland, had it at a higher level. Having arrived at the free pastures of Eastern Siberia, they descended to the level of the Buryats, and therefore their cattle breeding became as primitive as that of their native neighbors. But at the same time, the Great Russians immediately created a completely new form of farming - deer breeding - which gave them significant profits.

By nature, the Great Russian is a fairly active person and at the same time sedentary, energetic and impetuous: his periods of indifference and apathy are often replaced by very intense activity; the transition from thought to action is extremely fast.

In the Far East, the Great Russian cannot be taken in isolation: he must be considered in comparison with his yellow neighbors, especially the Chinese. Where urgent work needs to be done in a short time, a Great Russian is an indispensable worker, but on condition that this work is not protracted and not monotonous; but where the work is long and methodically monotonous, there one has to give preference to the Chinese. When both work side by side, the Great Russian first quickly overtakes the Chinese, then begins to fall behind. The first is looking for big earnings, the second does not put the price of labor in the first place - for him it is only important that the source of earnings be as long as possible or even inexhaustible.

Such character traits of the Great Russians explain to us their comprehensive activity and, in connection with this, adaptability to the environment. We see Great Russians at gold mines, at various kinds of earthworks, at buildings railways; They cut down and transport timber, engage in hunting and various outdoor activities. Great Russians often change jobs, move from one place to another, and at the same time we find them engaged in such seemingly purely sedentary activities as gardening and beekeeping.

Most of them, having arrived here from the wooded northern provinces, began not to adapt the region to themselves, but themselves tried to adapt to new living conditions. In this regard, the Old Believers in the Ussuri region were the best able to settle down. They engage in farming (but do not consider it their main occupation), then searching for valuable ores, hunting and treating diseases, breeding sika deer, looking for ginseng, catching and salting fish, collecting berries and nuts, drying mushrooms, etc. To the taiga they look at it as a source of income, and not as a source of suffering and grief.

Wherever a Great Russian settles, he builds a house from wood, which he sometimes transports to his place of residence from afar. Volga residents, on the contrary, avoid the forest, settle in more open places and direct all their energy into the field of agricultural culture. The latter exhibit an amazing conservatism. Living next to the Chinese, who have the highest form of agriculture, they stubbornly do not want to part with the techniques that their fathers and grandfathers brought, and they conduct agriculture in the old way, as in Russia.

All these properties of the Great Russian - conservatism and at the same time adaptability, aggressive aspirations and the ability to approach the native - make him a wonderful colonizer, especially when this energy is directed to more southern latitudes, where human abilities are under less pressure from nature than they are. north. Here it would be appropriate to note that agricultural traditions were best preserved among the sectarians (Molokans and Bespopovtsy Old Believers). These people went to Far East on their own initiative, persecuted for their religious beliefs. They looked at new places as a second homeland and settled firmly, like real colonists. Natural farmers - they did not strive to penetrate far to the north, avoided the natives and therefore most preserved the pure type of Russian people with all their inherent properties. The sectarians produced almost no mestizos.

So the Great Russian became accustomed to excessive short-term strain on his strength, got used to working quickly, feverishly and quickly., and then relax during the forced autumn and winter idleness. Not a single people in Europe is capable of such intense labor for a short time as the Great Russian can develop.; but nowhere in Europe, it seems, will we find such an unaccustomed attitude to even, moderate and measured, constant work as in Great Russia.

On the other hand, the properties of the region determined the order of settlement of the Great Russians. Life in remote, secluded villages with a lack of communication, naturally, could not accustom Great Russians to act in large unions, friendly masses. The Great Russian did not work in an open field, in front of everyone, like an inhabitant of southern Rus': he fought with nature alone, in the depths of the forest with an ax in his hand. It was silent, menial work on external nature, on a forest or wild field, and not on oneself and society, not on one’s feelings and relationships with people. That’s why a Great Russian works better alone, when no one is looking at him, and has difficulty getting used to working together together. He is generally reserved and cautious, even timid, always on his own mind, uncommunicative, better with himself than in public, better at the beginning of a business, when he is not yet confident in himself and in 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’s easier to do great things than to get used to the idea of ​​your greatness....

In the fight against unexpected snowstorms and thaws, with unforeseen August frosts and January slush, he became more cautious than prudent, learned to notice consequences more than set goals, and cultivated the ability to sum up the art of making estimates. This skill is what we call hindsight. The saying that a Russian man is strong in hindsight completely belongs to the Great Russians. But hindsight is not the same as hindsight. With his habit of hesitating and maneuvering between the unevenness of the path and the accidents of life, the Great Russian often gives the impression of indirectness and insincerity. The Great Russian often thinks in two ways, and this seems like double-mindedness. He always goes towards 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 crows fly straight, as the Great Russian proverbs say. Nature and fate led the Great Russian in such a way that they taught him to take a roundabout route onto the straight road. The Great Russian thinks and acts as he walks. It seems that you can come up with a crooked and more tortuous Great Russian country road? It was as if a snake had slithered through. But try to go straighter: you will only get lost and end up on the same winding path. This is how the action of the nature of Great Russia affected economic life and the tribal character of the Great Russian....

In the old Kievan Rus the mainspring of the national economy, foreign trade, created numerous cities that served as large or small centers of trade. In Upper Volga Rus', too far from coastal markets, foreign trade could not become the main driving force national economy. That is why we see here in the 15th - 16th centuries. a relatively small number of cities, and even in those, a significant part of the population was engaged in arable farming. Rural settlements gained a decisive advantage over the cities here. Moreover, these settlements differed sharply in their character from the villages of southern Rus'. In the latter, constant external dangers and a lack of water in the open steppe forced the population to settle in large masses, crowding into huge villages of thousands, which still make up distinctive feature southern Rus'. On the contrary, in the north, the settler, in the midst of forests and swamps, had difficulty finding a dry place on which he could, with some safety and comfort, put his foot down and build a hut. Such dry places, open hillocks, were rare islands among a sea of ​​forests and swamps. On such an island it was possible to build one, two, or even three peasant households. That is why a village of 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, swamps and swamps, at every step it presented the settler with thousands of small dangers, unforeseen difficulties and troubles, among which it was necessary to find oneself, with which it had to constantly struggle. This taught the Great Russian to vigilantly monitor nature, to keep an eye on both, as he put it, to walk, looking around and feeling the soil, not to venture into the water without looking for a ford, developed in him resourcefulness in small difficulties and dangers, the habit of patiently struggling with adversity and deprivation . In Europe there is no people less spoiled and pretentious, accustomed to expect less from nature and fate and more resilient. Moreover, by the very nature of the region, every corner of it, every locality presented the settler with a difficult economic riddle: wherever the settler settled here, he first of all needed to study his place, all its conditions, in order to look out for land, the development of which could be the most profitable. Hence this amazing observation, which is revealed in the Great Russian folk signs."