FRANCE AND RUSSIA: INTERCULTURAL AND INTERLINGUAL MUTUAL INFLUENCE (XI-XXI CENTURIES)

The article is devoted to analyzing the Russian-French cultural interaction in diachronic dynamics (XI-XXI cc.) together with studying the contacts between the French and the Russian languages. The author believes that the issues concerning the functional yield of the culture and the language elements of intercultural communication, regarded by many culture experts and linguists separately, require a complex approach. The article in question is an attempt to amalgamate the two elements and embodies a contact analysis in both culture and language spheres, basing on the material of diachronic description of a Russian-French dialogue in terms of historical and cultural aspects. The outlined periods are the following: 1) XI c. - dynastic marriages practice emerges 2) XVI-XVII cc. - the countries get to know each other 3) XVIII c. - the interest in Russia activates 4) XIX c. - Russia starts to make its own impact on the cultural life of France 5) XX-XXI cc. - the interconnection becomes wider and deeper. The author shows that the contacts between France and Russia has had a ten-century history during which they have been shaping in different ways, like alliance, collaboration, severance of relations, wars, emigration. Nevertheless, the main direction of the intercultural interaction process can be characterized as an activating, widening and deepening one. Russia experienced the periods of: a) acquainting with the French culture; b) re-thinking of its ideas and values; c) inter-influencing and co-producing of cultural values. Meanwhile, France has come to the latter through: a) travelling; b) appointing the French on administrative positions in Russia; c) the Russian elements in the art. The interaction between the two cultures has taken place in different spheres to different extents of intensiveness. The most marked footprint of the Russian culture in France was in theatre, music, ballet and cinema. The evidence of the French culture influence in Russia is more tangible and can be found in paintings, arts and crafts, clothing, perfume and hairdressing spheres. The study of the language element of intercultural communication is effected basing on the following factors: the status of the language in question in the culture, the use of foreign words and expressions in different social spheres, the position of the foreign language at school and in higher education, the development of dictionaries and grammar, the translations of scientific and fictional literature. The author depicts that Russia showed interest in learning the French language earlier and deeper. Borrowing foreign words into the vocabulary of the culture in question is a matter of great importance when it comes to studying the issue. These borrowings show the peculiarities of how the foreign culture and its natives are comprehended, as well as the most animated contact spheres. Comparing French borrowings in Russian and vice versa, the amount of the former is much bigger. All in all, linguistic studies play a great role in specifying and completing the historical and cultural analysis