Breakdown of Несмотря на то, что он любил богатство, он не предал свои идеалы.
не
not
он
he / it (for a masculine noun) / it (for a neuter noun)
любить
to love, to like
свой
one's own
Questions & Answers about Несмотря на то, что он любил богатство, он не предал свои идеалы.
Why is the phrase несмотря на то, что so long, and what does the то do here?
The preposition несмотря на literally means "without looking at" or "despite." Like many Russian prepositions, it must point to a noun or pronoun. Because the following part is a full clause (он любил...), we use the pronoun то (that) as a grammatical bridge. Literally, it means "Despite THAT, that he loved wealth..."
Could we express a similar idea using ради, the preposition of ultimate purpose we are learning?
Yes! Instead of saying he loved wealth, you could say he didn't betray his ideals "for the sake of wealth." You would express this by saying: Он не предал свои идеалы ради богатства. The noun богатство becomes богатства because ради always requires the Genitive case.
Why do we use свои (his own) instead of его (his) for "his ideals"?
In Russian, when the subject of the clause (here, он) is the owner of the object, you must use the reflexive possessive pronoun свой (in this case, plural свои). If you used его идеалы, it would strongly imply he didn't betray some other man's ideals.
Why is любил imperfective while не предал is perfective?
Любил (loved) is imperfective because it describes an ongoing state or background condition. Не предал (did not betray) is perfective because it refers to a decisive, completed fact. Even though it is negated, the perfective aspect emphasizes the successful result of his loyalty.