Contemporary Russian Society Research Articles

Исламский фактор российской государственности в доимперский период

The article examines the problems of the relationship between Islam and Orthodox Christianity in the Russian state in the pre-Soviet period, which, according to the author, acquires special relevance in connection with unfolding polemics in the contemporary Russian society, since historical memory influences the nature of these relationships. It analyzes various worldview and socio-political approaches and assessments of the nature of these relationships in the period under study. In this connection, the author reveals the positive socio-political and ge-ostrategic potential of Islam – the autochthonous religion of Russia. Based on the need to rely on the civilizational essence of Russia in the processes of state-building, the article identifies the negative factors that influenced the relationship between Islam and the Russian state in the past, which will now allow, without repeating mistakes, to create the necessary conditions for positive cooperation, to develop common features of the Eurasian identity, to coordinate the most im-portant elements of both political cultures on an ongoing basis. In the final part of the article, relying on the systemic and sociological approaches, the author substantiates the conclusion that, as a historically established Russian phenomenon, the Islamic factor was taken into account as one of the socio-cultural, politically significant elements both in the domestic and foreign policy of the Moscow state.

Review: Olesia Zaharova, Гендерные стереотипы в современном российском обществе [Stereotipurile de gen în societatea rusă contemporană

The monograph Gender Stereotypes in Contemporary Russian Society analyzes the mechanisms that produce and transform gender types and how these stereotypes interact with political-economic discourse. The author presents original sociological research to demonstrate how gender stereotypes have evolved in the discursive realms of politics, economics, and the family in contemporary Russia of the past twenty years.

“You Will Bring the Truth into Your Kingdom…” The Image of the “True Christian Kingdom” in Russian Spiritual and Political Writings in the Middle of the 16th Century

The article examines the ideas of Russian spiritual and political thinkers of the 16th century about the “true Christian kingdom” under the conditions of expecting the imminent arrival of the Antichrist and the Second Coming of Christ. According to Russian spiritual and political figures of that time, the Russian state should fully comply with Christian notions about the ideal Christian state structure, and Russian rulers and ordinary residents should be filled with Christian piety. Only in that case, Russia could be ready to meet the “end of the world” with dignity, and its Orthodox inhabitants would be able to hope for “eternal salvation”. Therefore, throughout the 16th century in Russia, the search was constantly conducted for the most correct, from the Christian point of view, political and state structure, and domestic spiritual and political thinkers presented in their works various images of the ideal (“true”) Christian kingdom. It was important that the representatives of the interests of almost all social strata of contemporary Russian society (the peasantry, service people, boyars, the clergy) and even the tsar himself took part in those discussions.

Domestic violence as a social problem in contemporary Russian society

The article is devoted to domestic (family) violence in modern Russian society. The problem of domestic violence has long ceased to be an individual’s problem. It harms not only the victim, but also the state and society as a whole. Every year in Russia, 14,000 women die at the hands of their husbands. In Russia, domestic violence was first officially reported in the early 1990s. It is necessary to take into account the fact that in the past centuries the patriarchal family dominated, in which women occupied subordinate positions. The woman had to obey her husband unquestioningly and endure the beatings. Children were brought up in the same way. Corporal punishment was mandatory in the family. There is no specific law against domestic violence in our country. Domestic violence also abhors moral and ethical values. The authors looked at causes, varieties, statistics, cycles, the effects of domestic violence and ways to prevent domestic abuse in modern society. There are several forms of violence: physical, psychological, sexual and economic. The consequences of domestic violence are: self-harm, mental disorders, sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, alcohol or drug use, etc. Properly coordinated work by health care, law enforcement, and social services agencies can play an important role in preventing domestic violence. At the same time, both individual and general social prevention with young people should be carried out in order to prevent domestic violence and, of course, to introduce a law against domestic violence.

Russian Society's Civilizational Transit

This paper deals with the issue of specific civilizational process formation in Russia as a new figuration and configuration of the forms of modernity. It is argued that explanations of the dynamics of Russian society are often based on the idea of predestination of the trajectory of its development (path dependency) that is caused either by the universal logic of modernization and globalization or by persistence of the basic cultural program or matrix which is reproduced in social practices. A civilizational transit of Russian society phenomena is discussed within multiple modernities theory as a new perspective that allows overcoming some of the problems with the predominant approaches to Russian modernization. Civilizational approaches to analyses of Russian culture, politics and society have been associated mostly with theories of ‘historical cycles’ worked out in late nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. More recently a considerable attention has been devoted to different versions of ‘neoEurasianism’. In addition, the notion of ‘clash of civilizations’ proposed by Samuel Huntington became prominent in the political discourse in Russia at the end of 1990s. At the same time, the concept of civilization is discussed widely in today’s historical sociology. A specific school of ‘civilizational analysis’ that draws on the ideas of Shmuel Eisenstadt emerged at the end of the 1990s. This perspective has already influenced some new trends in sociology of religion, political sociology and international relations theory. The panel seeks to demonstrate the relevance of a new wave of civilizational analysis for understanding contemporary Russian culture, politics and society.
 Keywords: Russian society, civilizational transit, multiple modernities

The Dynamics of Youth Values in the Conditions of Social Instability: Case of Contemporary Russia

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of Russian youth values in the circumstances of moral and ethical instability of Russian society in 2012–2018. The central focus of the research was inspired by the idea of analytical extrapolation of R. Inglehart’s theory of intergenerational value change in the context of contemporary Russian society. The period between 2012 and 2018 was accompanied by complexities in international situation and difficulties in social and economic development of Russian society. These new challenges changed the context of the growing up and socialization of Russian youth. Implementation of R. Inglehart’s theory helps to formulate a hypothesis about the essence of influence of these changes on the values of youth. It is possible to say, that complication of the circumstances of growing up and socialization created a favorable basis for popularization of materialistic values among Russian youth. This hypothesis was tested by the author by comparison of youth’s surveys data, conducted in Yekaterinburg, Russia in 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2018. The survey has shown that the evolution of youth values between 2012 and 2018 was noticeable. It should be noted that materialistic values are not the key ones for Russian youth. Situation of new risks and challenges made young Russians even more indifferent to these values.
 Keywords: youth, values, beliefs, the dynamics of values, a change in values, a value query, socialization

Конституционно закрепленное право граждан на объединение как форма политического участия (на примере профессиональных союзов)

The article discusses the implementation of the right to form trade unions as a form of political participation in contemporary Russian society. The right to form associations is enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and is a conventional form of political participation. The author indicated methodological aspects of this problem through the prism of the concept of “professional interest” viewed as a desire of individuals to secure oneself against possible difficulties in the process of professional self-realization in the system of labor law relations or professional activity. Joining a trade union has a rational basis, because such behavior is thought to ensure an “effective result” – restoration of the violated right, assistance in realization of the right, etc. Another important methodological point is related to the consideration of cultural factors that do not determine political participation, although they are stable over time and related to other factors. Political culture is a reflection of the current political system. This area of concern reveals grounds and contradictions that determine the existing behavioral attitudes towards consensual political participation through joining trade unions.

Issue of fairness in modern Russian society and the humanitarization of education as a way to solve it

The research reflects on the contribution of the humanitarization of education in solving the problems of fairness in contemporary Russian society. The authors reveal the concepts of humanitarization of education and fairness, as well as analyze the relationship between the humanitarization of education and the crisis of value system, justifying the importance of creating conditions for the development of a humanitarian personality who has the competencies needed for orientation, and who is capable of self-actualization in the contemporary socio-cultural space. The authors attempt to explain the relationship between the process of humanitarization of education and the mechanism of achieving social fairness in Russian society. The research presents the attitude of individual stakeholders of educational services to the humanities in the university curricula. At the end of the research, the conclusion is made about the need for making joint managerial decisions by the federal executive authorities and educational institutions of Russia to enhance the role of higher education institutions in forming the population’s value system, as well as moral qualities of the individual.

ТРАНЗИТИВНО-ТУРБУЛЕНТНОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО: ПРОБЛЕМЫ ЛИЧНОСТИ И ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ

Aim. Using the interaction of teachers and students as an example, the study shows how the interaction of people has changed in the context of the socio-cultural situation of contemporary Russian society and its influence on some psychological and socio-psychological characteristics of people. Methodology. The first theoretical part of the article contains an analysis of the current socio-cultural situation in Russian society. The second part illustrates the changes currently taking place in the educational space of the school. The study used methods that reflect the characteristics of teachers’ communicative competence and the trust factor. A brief description of the results of studying the features of communicative competence based on trust in professional activity (or lack thereof) among modern teachers is given. Results. The results made it possible to identify six models of teachers’ communicative competence, illustrating the named changes in the relationship between teachers and students. The study showed that empathy and cooperation were gone from the relationship of teachers with students, and adaptation, that is, adaptation to difficult conditions, became the leading strategy of behavior. Teachers were conditionally divided into two groups, one of which is prone to the manifestation of communicative tolerance, and the other, on the contrary, to a complete lack of tolerance in interaction with students. The article compares data obtained through the same study conducted in 2005. The comparison shows changes in the interaction of teachers and students that have occurred over the past 15 years. In 2005, the main trend in the interaction of teachers with students was trust, empathy and cooperation. Research implications. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the identification of the main characteristics of a transitive-turbulent situation: uncertainty of the future, complexity and diversity, multitasking, multiplicity of worlds and crisis and multiplicity of identities. It is shown that the rapidly occurring changes have generated significant social transformations in society. First of all, this concerns the emergence of a new cultural ethics and the formation of a different structure of value orientations among people and, especially, young people. The article also identifies other new psychological and socio-psychological phenomena generated by the modern socio-cultural situation. The practical significance of the article lies in the fact that it clearly shows the change in cultural ethics in the process of interaction of subjects of educational activity in the educational space.

Corruption as Shared Culpability: Religion, Family, and Society in Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan (2014)

This article engages in close analysis of how Andrey Zvyagintsev depicts corruption and its various manifestations: moral, familial, societal, and institutional, in Leviathan (Leviafan, 2014). While other post-Soviet films address the problem of prevalent corruption in Russia, Zvyagintsev’s work is the first to provoke strong public reactions, not only from government and Russian Orthodox Church officials, but also from Orthodox and political activist groups. The film demonstrates that the instances of legal and moral failings in one aspect of existence are a sign of a much deeper and wider-ranging problem that affects all other spheres of human experience. By elevating corruption from a well-known and accepted mundane problem to a religio-philosophical one, Leviathan creates a sense of shared culpability that underpins contemporary Russian society.

Retromania as the Symptom of Trauma: The Past and Present in Sergei Loznitsa’s Schast’e Moe

The article discusses Sergei Loznitsa’s film Schast’e moe (My Joy, 2010) as the most radical critique of the retromaniac glorification of the profound connections between the present-day Russia and its heroic history, especially the Great Patriotic War. Loznitsa presents this connection as a circular narrative that is driven by recurring patterns of violence, which in turn manifest unresolved societal traumas. The patterns of recurrent violence and the circularity of its cycle can be described through Freudian definition of trauma. Loznitsa treats retromania as an objective condition of contemporary Russian society – the one that mythologizes reproduction of these violence-based power relations, not only vertically but also horizontally. This logic is deeply embedded in the film’s structure and the system of recurring motifs, which eventually constitute a surreal picture in which the borders between the past and present are blurred by the permanence of violence in the fabric of society.
 Keywords: Sergei Loznitsa, violence, historical memory, trauma

РАЗМЫШЛЯЯ О ГРАЖДАНСКОЙ ВОЙНЕ

This paper describes the main stages in the development of the historiography of the Civil War in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation as well as in the Russian-language literature abroad. The author shows the dependence of the historiographers of the Civil War on the ideology that dominated in the USSR and the West during the Soviet era. In addition, the author notes the fact that contemporary Russian society has not yet been able to fully recover from the consequences of the Civil War of 1917–1920.

Http://soclabo.org/index.php/laboratorium/article/view/966

The dominant discourse in contemporary Russian society judges aging as a person’s defeat and defines success as the ability to hide the physical and bodily signs of one’s age. Old age is often constituted in public consciousness as the age of decline—decline in learning abilities, physical attractiveness, desires, activity, and so on. Social norms that restrict the behavior of older people should be defined as ageism. Resistance to ageism, in other words resistance to restrictive social constructs, is essential for subjective well-being of older people. The purpose of this article is to consider aging in contemporary Russia as a complex phenomenon that consists of certain rules and practices. Is it possible to resist the negative discourse of aging associated with decline? What would aging look like if it was possible to at least partially free ourselves from negative social beliefs about age? This research was carried out within a qualitative paradigm. The empirical material is based on 18 in-depth narrative interviews with 10 women and 8 men aged between 60 and 86. The results of the study reveal that existing norms and rules of aging in Russian society are related to the exclusion of older people from the public sphere and discrimination in the private sphere: they restrict the capacities of older people, deny their agency in determining their own goals and abilities to act in their own interest. Older people interiorize these norms and rules, and this leads to self-discrimination and perpetuation of ageism. Article in Russian DOI: 10.25285/2078-1938-2020-12-2-124-145

The Representation of the Evenkis and the Evenki Culture by a Local Community Museum

This article focuses on the representations of Evenkis and their culture in a local museum in Nizhneangarsk, Russia. The article uses the elements of critical discourse analysis to highlight the interplay between the real, imaginary, and ideological. The article explores how museum representations of the Evenkis and the Evenki culture create the ideological construction of the nature of the Evenkis and reproduce ethnic hierarchies in the region. The article examines the discursive strategies, rhetoric and meaning of texts, and the events presented by the museum’s exhibitions. The article shows how the museum creates the nature of the Evenkis as external others, primitive folk, in contrast to the Evenkis as internal others, citizens of the contemporary Russian society, in its attempts to shape local identities.

Relative Poverty in Russia: Evidence from Different Thresholds

The official method of measuring poverty in Russia is based on an absolute approach that uses an expertly calculated subsistence level as a poverty line. However, there is an ongoing debate about the possible use of other approaches to measuring poverty. This study focuses on identifying the relative ‘poverty line’ relevant to contemporary Russian society as a threshold of high poverty risk. Drawing on representative all-Russian surveys, the authors conclude that the relative poverty thresholds set at 0.5 and 0.75 times the median per capita family income identify different subgroups of the poor. A median threshold of 0.75 highlights poverty of the elderly, who are not considered to be poor by the absolute approach officially used in Russian statistics, but need attention in terms of social policy.

Russian news media as a public service actor: exploring the coverage of nonprofit organizations

ABSTRACT News media can serve as a public service actor by bringing attention to issues, topics, and areas that are bettering societies, such as providing coverage for a nonprofit sector. Driven by the agenda-setting and framing communication theories, this research project assesses how Russian nonprofits are presented in news media. More broadly, this study adds to the literature on the social role that news media plays in contemporary Russian society. We find that the Russian nonprofit sector is still finding its place within a larger Russian narrative, andRussian news media falls short in aiding its legitimization and unification. Specifically, the media presents nonprofit organizations as detached from their larger societal roles and mostly includes coverage of national organizations, their fundraising work, and activities.

Как возникает когнитивный диссонанс и параллельная мотивация: о восприятии межэтнических браков в современном российском обществе

Как возникает когнитивный диссонанс и параллельная мотивация: о восприятии межэтнических браков в современном российском обществе

Problematization of historical responsibility in contemporary Russian society: main trends

Problematization of historical responsibility in contemporary Russian society: main trends

A Review of Richard C. M. Mole (ed.), Soviet and Post-Soviet Sexualities. London; New York: Routledge, 2019, 212 pp.

The “Soviet and Post-Soviet Sexualities” collection consists of 10 articles which are either devoted to changes in attitudes towards non-normative sexuality during the Soviet era or describe the current state of affairs in some post-Soviet countries. Even though most of the works collected in the book are focused on contemporary Russian society—and many post-Soviet states have completely disappeared from the field of view of the authors and the editor—the reader is presented with a diverse picture, including various topics related to non-normative sexualities in multiple contexts. Although some articles are not without flaws in methodology, analysis, and argumentation, the collection is certainly an important contribution to the studies of Soviet and post-Soviet sexualities since it reveals new, still under-researched aspects of this area.

THE NOVEL «RESURRECTION» BY LEO TOLSTOY AS AN EPIC – THE AUTHOR’S APPROACH TO THE IMAGE OF FACTS OF CONTEMPORANEITY AND THEIR APPRAISAL

The novel «Resurrection» by Leo Tolstoy It is regarded as an epic one in the article. What is attributed to its specific features, includes – the fundamental importance of the common, folkish in the value system of the book, as well as the encyclopedic coverage of the late 19th century Russian life. What became the starting point for considering the material, is raising the problematic question of the inevitable contradiction between the objective re-creation of contemporaneity and the heightened subjectivity of Leo Tolstoy’s late creative work, which the increased ethical pathos is characteristic of. The article argues that the «removal» of the contradiction is due to the nature of the novelist’s approach to depicting the facts of contemporaneity. This approach implies the scale of generalisations, the correlation of the facts of contemporary life with folkish life, immersion of the facts in a voluminous historical and cultural context, including the historical and literary one. It is stressed that the author’s subjective coverage of St. Petersburg life paradoxically becomes a handwriting of the image of an objective picture. This is due to the fact that the author, who describes and evaluates the processes of contemporary life from the point of view of substantial and «due», relies on the folkish «view of things». In general, the coverage and assessment of trends in the development of contemporary Russian society are given in the novel «Resurrection» in an epic perspective.