Institute of Concrete Social Research of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Development of the problem of the social structure of Soviet society

Abstract

The genesis of the development of Russian sociology is a process whose complexity was caused by the political and ideological collisions of the Soviet period. At the same time, starting from the middle of the twentieth century, a qualitatively new stage begins in the development of sociology, which is called the "golden age" of Russian sociological thought. During these years, not only theoretical and applied methods of the pre-war period are revived, but also a powerful theoretical and methodological scientific base is being created, which laid the foundation of sociology as an independent science. One of the important moments was the activity of the Institute of Concrete Social Research (ICSI) of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Within the framework of ICSI activities, multi-scale work was carried out, including on the problems of the social structure of Soviet society. The development of sociological science in the Soviet period can be called the most ambiguous and, to some extent, tragic page in the history of scientific thought in Russia. On the one hand, sociological research, especially regarding the social structure of Soviet society, has become in demand from both a political and an economic point of view since the emergence of the Soviet state. In a relatively short period in the young Soviet state, an extensive network of sociological laboratories was created, in which large-scale research was conducted in various directions. The activities of ICSI and its predecessors - the Sector of Research on New Forms of Work and Life and the Department of Sociological Research of the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences – allowed Soviet sociologists to unite into a team of like-minded people, and, despite ideological prohibitions and sanctions, to formalize sociological research into a multi-scale and complex theoretical and methodological basis of sociology.