At present I am reading a fascinating book entitled “Natasha’s Dance” by Orlando Figes. The book is a cultural history of Russia, detailing its history through its cultural development from the time of Peter the Great until the time of Leonid Brezhnev.
The book’s title comes from a scene in Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” in which Natasha, one of the book’s protagonists, visits her uncle on his country estate. At a celebration on the estate, the serfs belonging to Natasha’s uncle perform a traditional Russian peasant dance. Though Natasha has never danced that way before, she joins the serfs and amazes all by dancing as if she had been doing so from childhood. What Tolstoy wanted to show in the scene is that despite Natasha’s outward Europeanization, her Russianness was there, lurking just beneath the surface.
This is by and large the theme of the book which describes in cultural terms the tug between East and West that is on going within the Russian soul.
The book has moved me and made me see the Russians in an altogether new light. My preconceptions about Russia have always been rather negative and this book has made me eager to know more about them and their culture.
Notice, dear readers, how preconceptions and stereotypes are largely based on ignorance and how they can lead to great injustices if we are not careful. I know very little about Russia and therefore have a number of negative ideas. By reading this book, my prejudices have been shaken and a desire to know the reality of the Russian people has been awakened.
In many instances and with many people, we tend to judge them by the policies of their respective states. The absence of real knowledge of the people themselves can lead us to adopt a hostile posture toward them people as a whole. We must therefore sincerely try to understand other nations and peoples. We must not simply limit ourselves to what we read in the daily papers or see on the TV news. We must visit those nations, read their histories and talk to their people, ordinary ones as well as intellectuals. Then and only then should we form an opinion and adopt a position toward them.
At the same time, we must educate them about our own culture and address their prejudices and preconceptions about us.
