For Many of Us, He Was a Sort of Guide to the World of High Professional Sociology”. Interview Prepared by D.M. Rogozin

Abstract

This interview is dedicated to Gennady Semyonovich Batygin (1951–2003), a colleague and friend of Gevork Aramovich Poghosyan. The interview reveals the specifics of his personal communication, the influence that Batygin had on others. The issues of arranging scientific publications, his personal meetings during the 1980’s and 1990’s are also touched upon. The life world is presented of scientific employees who, on the one hand, have achieved significant results in their scientific careers, who by that time had written relevant works on the methodology of social research, received recognition among colleagues, and, on the other hand, those who are easy to communicate with, meet up in their kitchens – not only at the workplace – to discuss things, argue and support each other. The interview reproduces the social environment of the 1990’s, shows how the Merton principle of scientific communism can be realized in practice, according to which knowledge is open and accessible to everyone who is in search of it, and has no status or administrative boundaries.