Learn Russian: Сохраняемая традиция — это только маленькая часть культуры. - The preserved tradition is just a small part of culture.

It is a present passive participle made from the imperfective verb сохранять (to preserve). To form it, take the first-person plural present tense form (мы сохраняем), drop the pronoun, and add standard adjective endings. Here, we use the feminine ending -ая to agree with традиция.

What is the difference between using сохраняемая (present) and сохранённая (past) here?

The present passive participle сохраняемая stresses an ongoing process: a tradition that is actively being preserved right now. If you used the past passive participle сохранённая, it would mean the action is already complete: a tradition that has been preserved.

Why is there a dash before это?

In Russian, when both the main subject (традиция) and the main descriptive noun (часть) are in the nominative case, you use a dash to replace the missing present-tense verb 'to be' (is/are). The word это is often added right after the dash to make the connection clearer.

Why is культуры in the genitive case?

It translates to 'of culture'. Whenever you have a noun expressing a portion, fraction, or quantity, like часть (part), the noun that follows it must be in the genitive case to show what it is a part of.