Russia has a rich cultural heritage, brought to fruition under the patronage of tsars and aristocrats, and born of the relentless oppression of the serfs and common people by their feudal masters. The whole of the 19th century is replete with extraordinary achievements in the fields of literature, architecture, ballet, musical composition and performance, be it the dancers Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Mikhail Fikine from St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet School or symphonies, concertos and orchestral works of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and Shostakovich.

Onion shaped domes is Russia’s most identifiable architectural style. Religious icons, Fabergés handcrafted beauties, paintings and portraits, 20th century revolutionary art and so much more that can be easily identified as Russian.  Films like  Eisenstien’s Battleship Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible, the works of Andrei Tarkovsky too made its mark on world cinema . Classical ballet and folk dances,   music and theatre, handicrafts, embroidery, woodcarvings and wooden dolls - the list is as endless as the work is valuable.