Russian Cultural Context Research Articles

Reluctance to Authenticity-Imbued Social Robots as Child-Interaction Partners

We are facing the rapid development of educational technology and social robots tested in classrooms. Research has identified teachers’ caution and concerns about these robots’ social skills. Pre-service education is critical for forming beliefs and preparing teachers for the future classroom and innovations in educational technology. In the present study, exploratory factor analysis is applied to examine pre-service teachers’ concerns about social robots’ instructional integration in the role of social agents interacting with children. We apply a concerns scale encompassing the instructional and socio-emotional concerns regarding robots’ instructional integration in the classroom environment. In this study, the scale, which was developed in Slovenia, is examined in the Russian cultural context. Based on the concerns scale, exploratory factor analysis identifies a one-factor solution with five statements (of a six-item factor) shared with the Slovene sample, adding three statements focusing on the importance of the teacher’s role. Russian pre-service teachers share concerns with Slovene pre-service teachers and further highlight the authenticity of unique human relationships and interactions. Slovenian pre-service teachers are more focused on children’s social skills and well-being, while Russian participants give special attention to the teacher’s role and value and believe that it would be wrong to place the robot in a classroom for such a purpose. They do not consider the robot’s human-like interaction skills sufficient for it to be assigned the role of a social agent and interaction partner in the classroom. The inappropriateness of the robot for pedagogical interactions and relationships is the basis of all their concerns. The Kruskal–Wallis test identified the moderate magnitude of the difference between the groups (ε2 = 0.07–0.12), with Russian pre-service teachers presenting the strongest reluctance towards authenticity-imbued social robots in pedagogical roles. The authors emphasize the need to clearly state stakeholders (roboticists, teachers, children, parents) in the research design and their roles in the evaluation of robot implementation.

The Terminological Thesaurus by M. M. Bakhtin in Modern Russian Dostoevsky Studies

The article examines the methodological aspects of the use of M. M. Bakhtin’s terminological thesaurus in modern Dostoevsky studies. The principal focus is on the instrumental application of the typical “Bakhtin formulas”: polyphony, the concept of genres, the confessional character of Dostoevsky’s word, chronotope, context of understanding, menippea, etc. It is noted that some of them are used discretely, that is, outside of their systemic connections with Bakhtin’s heritage as a whole. To one degree or another, they are taken into account in line with Russian ethnopoetics, in which the Bakhtin problem is actualized in the Orthodox context of Russian culture; it is noted that “Bakhtin” serves as the connection between Dostoevsky and the religious and philosophical tradition. Despite the fact that the discourse of a number of works provokes a possible transition to Bakhtin’s context of understanding Dostoevsky, the “absence” of Bakhtin is also significant in them, along with his ritual quoting. Bakhtin’s legacy remains an important philosophical and cultural stage in the study of Dostoevsky in Russian literary studies.

Hearing voices among Russian patients with schizophrenia.

There has been relatively little work which systematically examines whether the content of hallucinations in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia varies by cultural context. The work that exists finds that it does. The present project explores the way auditory hallucinations, or "voices," manifest in a Russian cultural context. A total of 28 individuals, diagnosed with schizophrenia, who reported hearing voices at the Republican Clinical Psychiatric Hospitals in Kazan, Russia, were interviewed about their experience of auditory hallucinations. The voices reported by our Russian participants did appear to have culturally specific content. Commands tended to be non-violent and focused on chores or other activities associated with daily life (byt). Many patients also reported sensory hallucinations involving other visions, sounds, and smells which sometimes reflected Russian folklore themes. For the most part, religious themes did not appear in patients' auditory vocal hallucinations, though nearly all patients expressed adherence to a religion. These findings support research that finds that the content, and perhaps the form, of auditory hallucinations may be shaped by local culture.

Духовно-нравственное измерение древнерусской книжности XI–XII вв. (Опыт философско-культурологического эссе)

The purpose of the study is to consider Old Russian literature of the XI–XII centuries within the context of Russian culture, which is of lasting significance. The main tasks are to comprehend high spirituality, patriotic love, and Christian universalism, as well as to identify the spiritual and moral dimensions of Old Russian literature. Mental constructions are embodied in the diversity of cultural creations, and their objective, comprehensive analysis requires involvement of not only verbal, but also non-verbal monuments. The attraction to a lively vivid word, a special interest in moral, historical subjects may be considered as certain advantages, because they raised the philosophical significance of culture as a whole and were addressed to the most topical issues of historical life. Following the development of Russian philosophical thought of the 11–12 centuries, we can trace the process of its gradual formation and the development of sustainable traditions. In the Old Russian milieu, certain notions about the development of world and domestic thought are being formed, and what can be called historical and philosophical knowledge is arising. A lot of research by historians, philosophers, and art historians addressed the relations of old Russian culture with Russian culture of 17–20 centuries. One of the vital tasks of modern Russian philosophical thought is the recognition of its unity with the more than a thousand-year-old tree of Russian culture, the development of those enduring values that were created by our people over many centuries of their constant creative work.

Ангелология Елены Шварц на примере сборника «Песня птицы на дне морском»

The article analyzes one of the most representative images in the poetry of Elena Schwartz: the image of an angel. The analysis is based on the author’s collection “The Song of a Bird at the Bottom of the Sea”. An image of an angel is the actual reflection and rediscovery of the interactions between religious and everyday plans of human existence. The image forms a special motif in the neo-baroque poetry of Elena Schwartz as a frequent metaphor, which is also proven based on the analyzed material. A special strategy of the author’s interaction with the established context of Russian culture allows us to formulate conclusions about the state of the studied motif in the poetry of the underground of the 1970s and later. The result of the study is the application of the close reading technique on one of the texts, “In the Izmailovsky Cathedral”, as well as a systematic analysis of the image in other texts of the collection. As a result, the features of the functioning of the image are revealed, its dialogic orientation and visionary nature are analyzed, and the introduction of a metabola is considered. The image reveals a systemic relationship with other uses of the image of an angel and accompanying images, which manifests itself in the peculiarities of the connection of images with the elements and emotions, the lack of objectification of the image and absence of its transfer onto a human image. This confirms the special strategy of Elena Schwartz’s usage of fantastic creatures images.

Придворный театр как факт европеизации России в эпоху правления царя Алексея Михайловича

Russia’s Theatrical Past: Court Entertainment in the Seventeenth Century (2021), written by Claudia Jensen, Ingrid Mayer, Stepan Shamin, and Daniel C. Waugh, focuses on the Russian court theatre of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, which existed from 1672 to 1676. The book analyzes this theatre within the context of Russian culture and diplomatic relations between Russia and Western Europe from the middle of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century. The study of intercultural exchange and how Russia assimilated Western European theatrical and musical traditions is based on unique documents, such as European newspapers, diplomats’ reports, foreign travel accounts, witness accounts, and payment records, that were found in Russian and Western European archives. In tracing the transmission and spread of Western performance traditions on Russian soil, the authors use the concept of intertheater. Intertheatrical processes were largely conditioned by diplomatic contacts. The book presents the Alexei Mikhailovich’s court theatre as a proven source of the Europeanization of Russia, which began before the reforms of Peter the Great.

The Names of the Muscovites: Onomastics of the Russian Emigration in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th — Early 17th Centuries

The article describes the ways of transformation of the personal names of the émigrés from the Russian state in the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and during the first decades of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The family names could undergo transformations in nine possible ways. The peculiarities of integration of the patronyms and personal names are also studied, along with the rare and unique names, untypical for the Russian cultural context. The author extends the onomastic databases by Nikolai Tupikov and Stepan Veselovsky and elaborates on the means of personal identification based on the forms extant in the sources.

Education for children in the formation context of Russian culture

The article discusses some details of education for children in Russia in the 18th century. The author examines pedagogical principles of A.T. Bolotov and N.I. Novikov. The worldview goal of writing "Children's Education" as the first book for children in Russia. Clarified practical educational purposes such as «understanding faith» for personal happiness. The biographical contexts of Bolotov, which motivated him to write a book in the genre of moralizing dialogue, are characterized. The goals of creating the first children's magazine "Children's reading" are determined. The practical importance of the journal in the teaching and education of Russian youth is noted. The author makes an attempt to reconstruct the main didactic line of the journal. The research materials make it possible to characterize the influence of “Children's Education” and “Children's Reading” on the formation of intellectual culture in the 19th century.

Нормы и их нарушение: от научного мышления к обыденному (поисковое исследование на выборке российской молодежи)

Problem. The problem of norms and norms violation has a long research history in scientific thinking. Lay thinking analysis rests in the shadow of this research line; although in the modern world people are actively involved in the construction of lay theories about various phenomena and they use this knowledge in daily life. Aim. Following the ideas of the social representations theory, the aim of the exploratory study was to analyse the lay theories developed by young Russian adults about norms and norms violation. Method. 134 young adults participated in the study, 26.12% males (aged 18 — 28 years, M=21.01years, SD =2.23). 71.6% participants were students of social sciences from Moscow Universities. A free-association technique was used. The data were analysed by using prototypical analysis. Results. The particularity of lay thinking about norms and norms violation was revealed. Conclusion: It is possible to conclude that norms are not equated with laws, while norms violation is identified with crimes (laws’ violation). The framework of the social representations theory allowed us to analyse the lay thinking about norms and norms violation as a matter of Russian cultural context.

Education for children in the formation context of russian culture

The article discusses some details of education for children in Russia in the 18th century. The author examines pedagogical principles of A.T. Bolotov and N.I. Novikov. The worldview goal of writing "Children's Education" as the first book for children in Russia analyzes. Clarified practical educational purposes such as «understanding faith» for personal happiness. The biographical contexts of Bolotov, which motivated him to write a book in the genre of moralizing dialogue, are characterized. The goals of creating the first children's magazine "Children's reading" are determined. The practical importance of the journal in the teaching and education of Russian youth is noted. The author makes an attempt to reconstruction the main didactic line of the journal. The research materials make it possible to characterize the influence of “Children's Education” and “Children's Reading” on the formation of intellectual culture in the 19th century.

CОЦИОКУЛЬТУРНЫЕ КООРДИНАТЫ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ СТРАТЕГИЙ СОВРЕМЕННОГО ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСТВА: РОССИЙСКИЙ КЕЙС

The article examines the value foundations of entrepreneurial activity in Russia, reveals the national specifics of interaction between the state and business. In this regard, the authors analyze the causal mechanisms and socio-cultural prerequisites for structural deformations of classical forms of entrepreneurship in Russian society, the stereotypes of articulation of political and ethical justifications by entrepreneurship of economic strategies in their relationship with the characteristics of national human capital. Based on the methodological premises of W. Baumol's concept, the authors describe the patterns of transformation of entrepreneurial values, paying special attention to the sociocultural and political factors in the development of productive, unproductive and destructive (destructive) entrepreneurship in modern Russia. Productive entrepreneurship develops due to the generation of innovative rent, unproductive entrepreneurship makes a profit due to the redistribution of the state treasury and assets, and destructive entrepreneurship develops due to the use by political actors of their capabilities to force entrepreneurs to pay political rent. Historical examples demonstrate the role of private Russian capital in creating a system of "political rent seeking" unproductive for society and creating political preferences for the realization of economic interests. The focus of the article is also concentrated on the study of the correlation of the value attitudes of Russian business with the resource-oriented economy and the peculiarities of the Russian political regime, the historical and cultural context of the political discourses of Russian business entities, which creates, establishes or imposes rules and norms not only economic, but also political, social, legal behavior. The manifested values, meanings and political and ethical substantiation by Russian business of everyday economic practices and their movement into the political sphere are revealed; historical forms of expression of political positions by entrepreneurship are decoded. On the other hand, the article analyzes the political mechanisms of the state's construction of the institutional design of entrepreneurship and its management.

Отечество в философских построениях И.А. Ильина: литературные проекции

This is the first attempt at analyzing philosophical works about Motherland by Ivan Ilyin (written in the 1920s) as the solid ideological structure, which influenced literature of the Russian emigration of the 1920s as well as Russian émigré selfawareness. The article describes the system of Ilyin’s thought in its dynamics: from his first speeches, delivered in Berlin in 1922, towards the speeches (and articles) of the second half of the 1920s. It highlights certain changes in the definition of the Motherland: in the beginning of his philosophical career, Ilyin understands Motherland as related to the Civil War and the interests of the White Army; later, he moves this concept to religious sphere; by the end of the 1920s he relegates Motherland to the context of world history and Russian culture. Several examples show how Ilyin’s philosophy influenced (or sounds in consonance with), main ideas of the early émigré literature (including novels and political articles by Ivan Bunin, Nina Berberova, Vladimir Nabokov, and Marina Tsvetaeva). That Ivan Ilyin, a former professor of law turned into the greatest ideologist of Russia Abroad is a typical sign of the time and the proof of politicization of Russian philosophy.

Владимир Набоков и трансатлантические контексты в СПБГУ

The review traces papers of the International conference V. Nabokov and Transatlantic Relations in American and European culture hosted at Saint Petersburg State University on May14–16, 2021. Scholars in various fields of humanities traced the routes of intercontinental cultural contacts of the XX-th century to construct a global context to understand Vladimir Nabokov as a paradigmatic transatlantic figure. The main direction which was discussed in papers of D. Ioffe, T. Venediktova, G. Kruzhkov, O. Panova, A. Astvatsaturov, O. Antsyferova, I. Golovacheva, A. Shvets, O. Sokolova, traditionally turned out to be American and British. The Russian cultural context viewed through the transatlantic prism was outlined by E. Penskaya, V. Feshchenko, A. Rodionova, A. Masalov, Y. Probstein, C. Bernstein and by Marjorie Perloff. The issues of transatlantic transfer in Romanesque literatures were presented in the papers of L. Muravieva, A. Petrova, V. Popova and I. Khohlova. The speakers discussed Franco-American autofiction, the images of Americans in the works of G. Apollinaire and the history of Soviet-Latin American and Portuguese-American poetic contacts, German and Scandinavian contexts viewed the in light of transatlantic problems. Discussion of Vladimir Nabokov works summed up a kind of outcome of the conference that brought together linguists (A. Kretov, Zh. Gracheva), historians of literature and culture (D. Tokarev, A. Bolshev, N. Shcherbak, A. Stepanova, N.A. Karpov ), scholars of poetics and narratology (F. Dvinyatin, V. Schmid, E. Kazartsev, D.Yu. Dovzhenko, N.I. Emelyanova).

CONTEXTUALIZED PRAGMATIC CHARACTERISTICS
 OF INVITATION SPEECH ACTS IN THE RUSSIAN LANGUАGE
 CULTURE

Due to methodological and theoretical variety in approaches as well as in contingences while investigating invitation speech acts, the findings concerning their pragmatic characteristics have turned out to be different. This paper is an attempt to determine sociocultural features, pragmatic implications and representation
 in the dialogue corpus of various types of invitations in Russian culture using contextual interpretation and pragmalinguistic analysis The findings demonstrate a frequent usage of addressee-oriented declaratives, followed by imperatives, questions and addresser-oriented declaratives with the meaning of a command. All these invitations are in fact direct obligatory impositives.
 However, within the context of Russian culture they reveal the use of positive politeness strategies. The speech act of invitation cannot function on its own – it is semantically
 and pragmatically connected to pre-invitation sequence, which makes it a complex speech act. The benefactive status of the addresser is enhanced due to the obligatory nature of the invitation which also ensures the speaker’s confidence about the successful outcome of the interaction, therefore there is no need for the inviter to resort to indirectness and negative politeness strategies. There are cases of self-invitations where an invitee takes the initiative, hereas an inviter has to perform a speech act with a weakened illocutionary force.

Cultural Context of Modern Theatre Education in Russia

Modern theatre education in Russia is influenced by a number of factors that determine the process of replenishment of the theatrical world, implemented in theatre schools. The main factors include the formalization of the higher education system as a whole, the erosion of the boundaries of the traditional theatre school associated with the departure of the older generation of teachers, and the search for new forms of theatrical expressiveness in culture. The contextuality of theatrical education presupposes both the influence of external sociocultural factors on the educational and creative processes, as well as direct textual decisions expressed in publications, stage acts, and theatre events. The materials presented in the article combine the analysis of theoretical sources and the practice of theatre education in terms of their relevance to the contemporary Russian cultural context. As a result of the study, the most urgent problems of the higher theatre school in Russia are identified — its target orientation, qualitative characteristics of the learning outcome and the combination of traditional and innovative in the modern theatre space.

Employee proenvironmental behavior in Russia: The roles of top management commitment, managerial leadership, and employee motives

Despite Russia’s large ecological footprint, there has been limited examination of environmental sustainability initiatives in Russian corporations. Drawing on research on the importance of employee-level behaviors for the success of corporate sustainability initiatives, we focus on the proenvironmental behaviors (PEBs) of Russian employees. We integrate scholarship on employees’ PEBs and the Russian cultural context to offer theory regarding three potentially important antecedents of employees’ PEBs: top management commitment to sustainability, the immediate manager’s environmental leadership, and the employee’s motivation. Using self-report data from management development program attendees in Russia (N = 165), we examined the links between these factors and employees’ PEBs. We also tested whether top management commitment moderated the impact of immediate managers’ leadership on employees’ PEBs. We found that the immediate manager’s active environmental leadership (i.e., transformational, contingent reward, and active management by exception) was positively related to employees’ PEBs. Managers’ passive-avoidant environmental leadership (i.e., passive management by exception and laissez-faire) was negatively related to PEBs, but only when top management was committed to sustainability. Employees’ motives were linked to PEBs, but the nature of the relationship varied across motives. External motivation was negatively related to PEBs, suggesting that using rewards to motivate PEBs may be detrimental. Motivation that came from a desire to fulfill one’s values or avoid feeling bad about oneself was positively associated with PEBs. Our work provides a foundation for future research on PEBs in Russia, and suggests new directions for research on employees’ PEBs in other settings.

Russian Translations of Writings of J.R.R. Tolkien as the Stage of their Cultural Reception in Russia

<p>This article identifies problems of translation of J.R.R. Tolkien`s works to the Russian language. Due to complexity of their reception in the Russian literature and culture, these problems continue at the present time. The purpose of this article is to consider the translational interpretations as a form of reception of J.R.R. Tolkien`s works in Russia and perform analysis of relevant stages of the receptive process. The leading approach to the study of this problem is the methodology of receptive aesthetics; this takes into account the development trends of the method. This research shows that it is the translation, in many respects, that sets trends for further understanding of writings by J.R.R. Tolkien in Russia and includes them in a Russian cultural and literary context, as well as set their level of systematic perception. Contents of this article may be used for readings in general and special courses for Western literature at universities, and may be useful to a wide range of readers interested in the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.</p>

Духовно-ориентированный диалог в контексте отечественной культуры

Духовно-ориентированный диалог в контексте отечественной культуры

Runaway behavior among children in residential care in St. Petersburg: A qualitative study

Background. Runaway behavior among children in residential care is a serious social problem in all countries of the world. Existing scientific data on risk factors and motives of runaway from out-of-home care may not be absolutely relevant to the Russian cultural context.

The mediating role of parenting in the relation between personality and externalizing problems in Russian children

The aim of the current study was to explore the extent to which parenting practices mediate the relation between child personality traits and externalizing behavior in Russian cultural context. Participants were primary caregivers of 370 primary caregivers of preschool-age children. Parenting practices was measured by the Russian version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire - Preschool Revision (APQ-PR), child personality was measured by the Inventory of Child Individual Differences-Short version (ICID-S), externalizing problems were measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The results show that the effect of child personality on externalizing problems is partly mediated by parental discipline practices. The additional direct effects of personality traits was also found indicating that dysfunctional parenting practices do not provide a complete account of relations between child personality and externalizing problems, whereas positive parenting does not contribute to problem behavior when child personality is taken into account. The pattern of relationships between child personality, parenting practices, and externalizing behavior is similar for boys and girls. The findings are in accord with previous empirical evidence on the mediating role of parenting in the relationship between child personality and externalizing behavior found in western cultures.