farshid, of course, all people do have some ancient and rich culture) I'm not sure about good though.

Though there are some complications: Russia was peasant country. 90% were <em>enslaved</em> during 18 century (i.e. it were peasants gradually losing their rights, with the worst state an the end of 18th century), another 5% were free peasants.
Accordingly, what we call 'russian culture' mostly comes from 1% of aristocracy of the time and often has foreign european origins. What people call 'folk songs' was mostly composed in 19th century.

- Happily, during the same 19th century our edcuated people developed interest in Russian culture proper: so our classic poetry, literature and our language are rich with dialectal words, references some folclore etc. etc.
As to folclore... 1000 years isn't 'ancient', but some folk tales/songs collected at the time in villages referenced 1000 years old events.

-Unhappily, during 20th cantury the process was going in opposite direction. These classics where considered 'high' while the villages which once served as a source for them - 'low'. As result, we are proud with our culture... but apart from thiese classics, we don't even know it:)

 Farshid,   it is probably a proverbialism that governments 

tell  their citizenry what they want for them to know and to think.

  It may be our hope that citizens think for themselves; but even that will not be of good effect

if the citizenry  does not take action to be responsible for the care and well-being of their fellow citizens.

The genuine treasure,  in any   country, is the people generally.