A Cultural Examination of the Russian Federation Essay -- cultural mar

â€Æ' Introduction In 1991, the great social experiment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved. The empire spanning almost five centuries, from the remnants of the Golden Horde to Stalin's "new Russia" (Hoskins, 1997) from Poland to the Pacific disappeared, leaving a political-sociological void that is only now moving towards resolution. Still the largest nation in the world (Shultz, 2000), Russia spans two continents, multiple time zones, and a land area that diminishes that of the United States. Although it no longer demonstrates the breadth of cultural conglomeration existing in the era of Soviet existence, the Russian Federation provides for an interesting cultural examination, and will be the basis of this paper. Specifically, this paper will examine six different areas of culture noted by the Hofstede Centre's 6-D model; power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, pragmatism, and indulgence. A bar-graph of the various scorings of Russia by the standards of the Hofstede Centre to provide a visual representation of the information to be examined in this paper is provided below. Providing a cultural baseline also will assist the reader in examining a nation such as Russia, therefore the author has included cultural references and notations to the United States of America. As well, though it is outside the scope of this paper, a brief historical examination of different areas of Russia's culture will be offered, as to fully understand a nation's cultural existence and development, knowledge of its history is required. Power Distance The dimension of power distance, according to the Hofstede Centre, indicates that â€Å"[t]he extent to which the less powerful members within ... ...Soviet era, it will be of interest to examine these cultural markers and see if the nation will remain as it has throughout much of similar changes, or if Russia will truly redefine herself as the 21st century continues. References Hosking, G. (1997). Russia: People and empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. K., P. A. (2011). In this issue: Russia's special path. Russian Social Science Review, 52(6), 3. Kostenk, N. V. (2011). Information-culture styles in Russia and Ukraine. Sociological Research, 50(4), 57-86. Russia. (n.d.). In The Hofstede Centre. Web. January 28, 2015, from http://geert- hofstede.com/russia.html Schultze, S. (2000). Culture and customs of Russia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. United States. (n.d.). In The Hofstede Centre. Web. January 28, 2015, from http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html