Vocabulary. Russia can take pride in numerous achievements and developments in many fields.

Alexander Popov was among the inventors of radio.

The greatest Russian success is in the field of space technology and space exploration. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the father of theoretical astronautics. His works had inspired leading Soviet rocket engineers such as Sergey Korolyov, Valentin Glushko and many others that contributed to the success of the Soviet space program.

Other technologies, where Russia historically leads, include nuclear technology, aircraft production and arms industry. The creation of the first nuclear power plant along with the first nuclear reactors for submarines and surface ships was directed by Igor Kurchatov.

The second thing I admire is Russian classical music which is famous all over the world for the complex harmony it offers, Russia has a long history of classical music. The first important Russian composer was Mikhail Glinka (1804—1857) who added religious and folk elements to classical compositions, composing operas like Ruslan and Lyudmila and Ivan Susanin which were distinctively Russian yet based on the Italian tradition. Glinka and the composers who made up The Mighty Handful after him (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin and Cesar Cui) were often influenced by Russian folk music and tales. Among the Mighty Handful's most notable compositions were the operas The Snow Maiden, Sadko, Boris Godunov, Prince Igor and Khovanshchina, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade.

Other prominent Russian composers include Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and in the 20th century Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Scriabin and Shostakovich. Of these, Tchaikovsky remains the most well-known outside Russia, and his fame as the country's most famous composer is unquestioned. He is best known for ballets like Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

The third thing I admire is Russian classical literature universally known for its psychological depth and powerful style. Many prose writers and poets all over the world have been influenced by the giants of Russian classical literature like Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, to name only a few.
In the humanities, Russian literature is considered to be one of the most influential and developed in the world. Russia's literary his­tory dates back to the 10th century; in the 18th century its development was boosted by the works of Mikhail Lomonosov and Denis Fonvizin, a playwright whose two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry, 'The Brigadier-General' and 'The Minor', are still staged today. In the 19th cen­tury some of the greatest writers of all time appeared. This period and the Golden Age of Russian Poetry began with Alexander Pushkin, considered to be the founder of modern Russian literature and often described as the 'Rus­sian Shakespeare' and 'the sun of Russian poetry'. It continued in the 19th century with the great poetry and prose of Mikhail Lermontov including his most important novel, 'A Hero of Our Time', and Nikolay Nekrasov, a poet of peasant Russia, social satirical dramas of Aleksandr Ostrovsky and subtle psychological short stories and dramas of Anton Chekhov. Then the great prose of Nikolai Gogol, the father of modern Russian realism, appeared. Ivan Turgenev was noted for his novels about the Russian gentry, such as 'A Nest of the Gentry', 'Rudin', 'On the Eve', 'Fathers and Sons'. Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as the greatest of novelists. His masterpieces 'Wir and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' represent in their scope, breadth and vivid depiction the 19th-century Russian life and attitudes and are considered the peak of realist fiction. Fyodor Dostoevsky is world-known for psychological novels 'Crime and Punishment' and 'The Brothers Karamazov'. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in I particular were titanic figures known also as philosophers, and many literary critics have described one or the other as the greatest novelist ever. Satire of Mikhail Saltykov- Shchedrin, novels by Ivan Goncharov, and short stories by Nikolai Leskov have also won world-wide recognition.