Russian Question Research Articles

The Foundations of Russian Statehood

The content of Russian educational material on moral-cultural issues has gradually shifted over the Putin tenure toward a standard that emphasizes state patriotism, syncretic pride in the achievements and heroes of the Tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods, and traditional sociocultural values, including respect for religious authorities. The onset of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War has caused a shift in debates over national pedagogic inculturation among domestic Russian elites, with many calling for the return of “ideology” to properly ensure the formation of future, regime-loyal generations. This article analyzes the first official document of the wartime period that deals with questions of Russia’s ideology—the educational curriculum guidance packet titled “Foundations of Russian Statehood” (FORS) and promoted by the Presidential Administration for use in Russian universities. The article typifies the state of pre-war Russian moral-cultural pedagogical material within its shifting, illiberal ideological context, compares this pre-war setting with the FORS document and the concomitant discursive shift among key Russian officials, and provides a descriptive analysis of FORS itself. In doing so, the article identifies the evocative “pentabasis” framework of the FORS document as a potential core of a crystallizing, official ideology in modern wartime Russia.

Normative study of 500 general-knowledge of true-false questions for Russian young adults.

The main aim of this study was to validate 500 true-false general-knowledge questions in Russian. These norms are valuable to researchers in many fields, as is shown by the impact and relevance of similar norms available in other languages. Although the Russian language is widely spoken, there are no norms available in this language for this type of questions. True-false questions are very useful for measuring semantic memory, among other topics, in neurocognitive studies where there is a trade-off between experimental time and the need for many trials. These types of experimental materials are heavily rooted in cultural background knowledge, making the mere translation from one language to another insufficient. The present research aims to fill this gap. One hundred fifty-five participants answered 500 true-false general knowledge questions split over several consecutive days and three topics: Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Culture & Sport. The participants' task was to indicate whether the statements were true or not, as well as the confidence they had in the correctness of their answer. Despite obtaining questions on each of the topics covering all difficulty levels, grouped analyses showed that Social Science's accuracy was higher than for Natural Science's or Culture & Sport questions. In relation to confidence, the grouped perceived difficulty was higher for questions about Culture & Sports when compared with the other two topics. Thus, this study reports and makes available a large pool of Russian true-false general knowledge questions covering different levels of difficulty.

The Impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on Farmer’s Income: Evidence from Sverdlovsk Region

The purpose of this study is to Economic impact of the Belt and Road initiative on agricultural business and the role of the Russian government, in the case of the Sverdlovsk region, Russia. This study is based on quantitative research methods where primary data was collected through questionnaires while secondary data was obtained through verified data from a related project. The study was conducted for 6 months in the Sverdlovsk region, Russia, and included 120 participants. The researcher had previously compiled and considered 60 key questions in Russian in Sverdlovsk region. Demographic analysis of agro-entrepreneurs in the Sverdlovsk region shows that the majority are experienced people, mainly women and married, which indicates a family-oriented approach to agriculture. The outcomes also showed the region's attraction to foreign investors which shows Chinese investments in various economic sectors of the Sverdlovsk region, particularly in the machinery and equipment sector, which may have further boosted agricultural growth. BRI has played a crucial role in boosting the agricultural economy in the Sverdlovsk region and Russia as a whole by facilitating productivity, market access, and technological advancement, thereby driving the sector's growth and competitiveness.

The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR by Jonathan Brunstedt (review)

The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR by Jonathan Brunstedt (review)

The “Specialist for Russian Questions”

The “Specialist for Russian Questions”

Legal analysis of electronic government in the Russian Federation

This article deals with the concept of electronic government in the Russian Federation and abroad. The authors focus on the relevance of the topic due to the fact that the rapid development of information and communication technologies in the world and digitalization of the economy of most countries requires rapid implementation of e-government project. The article identifies several approaches to defining the concept of “e-government”. The authors formulated the main goal of implementing this concept in Russia, which is to create close inter action between the state and society, and highlighted the priority tasks set to achieve the previously mentioned goal. It also refers to the fact that the formation of the institution in question in Russia began in 2002. Foreign experience in the formation of e-government is also taken into account. The comparative analysis is based on the report compiled by the UN Department of Economic and Social Development, which shows the rating of countries by the level of e-government development in 2022. It is stated that according to this rating Russia has taken 42nd place, in this connection the authors draw attention to the urgent need to analyze the principles of e-government concept of some leading countries. Thus, the article identifies the characteristics of some of the countries in the top 15 states by the level of e-government development. In conclusion, the gaps that create obstacles in improving the level of e-government in Russia are indicated.

Sentence to serfdom. Review of the book: Dolgikh A. N. "Tinderbox under the state": ways of solving the peasant question in Russia in the epoch of Nicholas I. Historiographical essays. Lipetsk: lgpuim. Semenovtyan-shansky, 2022. 478 p.

Introduction. The article is devoted to the review of the book of Doctor of Historical Sciences Professor Arkady Dolgikh about the history of serfdom. Today, the agrarian theme is one of the most important topics for understanding the historical process that has taken place on the territory of the Russian state since the formation of the Muscovite state in the 15th-16th centuries. and up to the 20th century.Materials and methods. The technique of the article is connected with the analysis of the article from general historical positions. The fundamental importance of the question of serfdom lies in the fact that this phenomenon has dragged on considerably. Obviously, it interfered with the full development of Russia, turning most of its population into a mass, devoid of any interest in the results of their own work, which means that it formed entire generations of people deprived of an active life position with a low level of political culture and education.Results. There is no doubt that the reforms carried out by Peter I, which almost completely subordinated all the estate groups of the country to the interests of the state, needed to be adjusted after the end of the Northern War and the introduction of a new poll tax. The ruling circles of Russia, for the most part, were aware of the importance of this adjustment and the danger of stagnation of the serf regime, but until 1861 no one dared to do this due to various subjective and objective reasons. As a result, literally every year a real ―powder magazine‖ grew and increased in size under the building of the House of Romanov, which not only interfered with the full development of their state, but also doomed it to death.Conclusion. The author of the review comes to the conclusion that the new book on serfdom shows the importance of this problem and once again reminds the reader of this phenomenon as a terrible evil hindering the development of Russia.

Practical aspects of using chatbots for learning the Russian language in intercultural communication

Сhatbot based on artificial intelligence is a comprehensive research and educational tool for Russian language teachers and Chinese students studying Russian language and culture. This article is devoted to the issue of integrating a chatbot into the educational process as part of the study of the Russian language by Chinese students. The possibilities of using a chatbot in the aspect of RFL in face-to-face and remote formats are considered, and its advantages and disadvantages in acquiring specific practical skills, in particular, when studying Russian numbers, are identified. The purpose of this research is to study the possibilities of using a chatbot to identify the meaning of language units and the correctness of grammatical structures, as well as cultural characteristics in the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language. The research method is to analyze the correctness and usefulness of the chatbot's (ChatGLM) responses to questions related to the Russian language and culture. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the consideration of practical aspects of using a chatbot for studying the Russian language and culture. The results of this study show that the chatbot is a useful tool and allows you to practice language, ask questions in Russian and Chinese and receive answers from the system. To a limited extent, the chatbot can correct errors, suggest correct phrases and help students improve their foreign language communication skills. Machine learning methods and technologies, such as the chatbot, can be used to improve foreign language skills in the context of cross-cultural communication if treated judiciously. The results can be used to create methodological developments in the field of Russian-Chinese intercultural communication, as well as in the process of learning relevant languages.

The search for a solution to the peasant question in Russia in noble projects of the late 18th - mid 19th century

The article is an analysis of quite mass sources - noble projects of solving the peasant question in Russia during the reign of Paul I, Alexander I and Nicholas I. It examines trends in the development of ideas related to the existence of serfdom in the country and the search for a way out of the status quo, undertaken by representatives of various factions of the ruling class of the empire. The conclusions of the article significantly complement the picture of the noble public opinion of this era.

Smolensk nobility against the government: from the history of the abolition of serfdom in Russia

The article analyzes the participation of the Smolensk nobility in the discussion of the peasant question in Russia in 1847-1859. The author focuses on the perception of government initiatives by the Smolensk nobility, its reaction to plans to abolish serfdom before the rescripts and during their discussion. The article shows that the local «program» of the abolition of serfdom in general was formed during the work of country meetings, before the opening of the provincial committee; that the government, involving the provincial nobility in the preparation of the reform, saw in him only an unquestioning executor of the orders of the center, that it was the clash of state and local interests that led to consolidation of Smolensk landowners, who defended the possibility of preserving farms even after the abolition of serfdom.

The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR, written by Jonathan Brunstedt

The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR, written by Jonathan Brunstedt

ՆԱՀԱՏԱԿ ԱԶԳԻ ԱՌԱՔԵԼՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ

Key words – mission, opportunity, Russian question, Turkish question, creativity, the meaning of the ark, new Ukraine, ferment.

Ukrainian intellectual Trokhym Zinkivskyi and preservation of historical memory of Taras Shevchenko

The personality of Trochym Zinkivskyi (1861–1891) remains little known and insufficiently developed in modern Ukrainian historiography. The purpose of the article is to study the figure of Trokhym Zinkivskyi in the context of the problem of preserving the historical memory of Taras Shevchenko. Research methods are personalistic, historical-genetic and historical-systemic. Sources: published epistolaries of T. Zinkivskyi and his addressees, memories of contemporaries, biographical articles in the Ukrainian press of the beginning of the 20th century etc. The main results consist in elucidating the peculiarities of the formation of T. Zinkivskyi's worldview under the conditions of the oppression of the Southern Ukrainian lands by the Russian imperial regime, in particular in Berdyansk, Feodosia and Odesa, the establishment of his Ukrainian national-democratic views during his studies and military service in Smila, Shpola and Uman, in Kyiv and St. Petersburg. It is noted that an important factor in the development of his Ukrainian consciousness and identity was his family upbringing, which instilled love for his native language and formed Christian, religious values. A prominent role was played by the reading circle, which included Shevchenkov's «Kobzar» along with other literary works of Ukrainian and foreign writers; as well as Ukrainian folk art. V. Kravchenko, L. Smolenskyi, B. Grinchenko, M. Komarov, and a number of representatives of the Ukrainian colony in St. Petersburg were included in the closest circle of persons who significantly influenced the formation of the worldview of the Ukrainian figure. The article traces the main stages of the intellectual and public activity of the Ukrainian figure in the matter of preserving the historical memory of Kobzar. It is noted that already in the middle and second half of the 80s of the 19th century. T. Zinkivskyi began work in the field of Ukrainian literature, took care of translation activities. In St. Petersburg, he was able to begin wider work for the benefit of Ukrainianism and became an ideological leader of young Ukrainians. The powerful vital energy of the activist was organically combined with consistent and convinced actions in the name of the Ukrainian cause. In the youth group at Shevchenko's anniversary, T. Zinkivskyi read a number of essays, such as «The National Question in Russia», «Shevchenko in the Light of European Criticism», «Young Ukraine» and others. His essay «Taras Shevchenko in the Light of European Criticism», which was read in Ukrainian on the evening of February 25, 1889 in the capital of the empire, was of exceptional importance. This speech, prepared mostly on the basis of French, Austrian, German, and Polish historiographical sources, presented Kobzar as a figure of global poetic scale and destroyed the perception of the Russian metropolitan public about Ukrainians and the Ukrainian language as something provincial and inferior. Conclusions.T. Zinkivskyi became one of the brightest representatives of the «Young Ukraine» generation. The short-lived but important intellectual activity of the ideological leader of young Ukrainians, in particular, speeches at the Shevchenko anniversary, publication of abstracts, epistolaries, drew the attention of contemporaries to the figure of Taras Shevchenko, to his poetic heritage; actualized the issue of preserving the historical memory of Kobzar as a leader of the national values of Ukrainians. It has been proven that during the 1880s and early 1890s, T. Zinkivskyi's intellectual activity contributed to the progress of Ukrainian public affairs and national science, the establishment of Ukrainian national consciousness among the generation of young Ukrainians. The practical significance of the article is that the given material will be of interest to specialists in the context of studying the ethno-national history of Ukraine in the second half of the 19th century. The originality of the article lies in the understanding of insufficiently studied aspects of the activity of the Ukrainian intellectual, who stood at the origins of the idea of «Young Ukraine». Scientific novelty in updating the intellectual activity of T. Zinkivskyi in the matter of preserving Ukrainian national memory and forming national consciousness and identity.

Query Generation for Answering Complex Questions in Russian Using a Syntax Parser

Query Generation for Answering Complex Questions in Russian Using a Syntax Parser

Andrzej Walicki i jego triada: Rosja – Polska – marksizm

This article is dedicated to the memory of Professor Andrzej Walicki, who died in August 2020 – an outstanding Polish historian of ideas and Russian scholar. It is an attempt to summarize the enormous scientific achievements of a representative of the Warsaw school of the history of ideas. His scientific activity has gained wide recognition in the West, being an prominent Polish contribution to world Russian studies. The subject of the scientist’s research were Russia, Poland and Marxism. Andrzej Walicki explained to a wide audience in the West, Poland and Russia issues related to the formation of Russian ideas and philosophy, the development of various ideologies in Russia: imperialism, Marxism, liberalism, or the shaping of the platform and the main problematic network of intellectual relations between Poland and Russia. He also researched Polish thought in response to the Russian question, and tried to participate in debates on Polish-Russian relations after the fall of communism and the collapse of the USSR. He devoted much attention to the reception of Marxism in Russia – to what extent it was an ideological import from the West, and to what extent it was based on the native ideological and religious tradition. In the context of Russia’s strong utopian predispositions, Andrzej Walicki showed Marxism as a utopia that transformed Russia into its tragic testing ground and whose goals turned out to be unattainable. As a result, his led to the collapse of the moral legitimacy of the communist system and became the fundamental premise for the disintegration of the Soviet empire.

Тональные контуры русских да-нет-вопросов в условиях болгарской интерференции

The prosody of the Russian language is the most difficult aspect even for Bulgarian university graduates in Russian language studies. The aim of this paper is to determine the pitch contours Bulgarian students use when asking yes-no questions in Russian. The materials include samples of mini dialogues in Russian and Bulgarian. Six Bulgarian native speakers were recorded reading the dialogues. The pitch accents and intonation patterns in the recording of each Bulgarian student were compared with dialogue readings by native speakers. The sound files were analyzed acoustically and labelled manually in Praat using ToRI. The results allow to predict possible deviations from the norms of the prosodic system in a non-native language.

The Russian Question at the Entente Conference in Cannes

This article aims to explore the significance of the “Russian question” at the Entente conference in Cannes, putting it into the European political context of October 1921 – January 1922. The author pays special attention to the two important rounds of the international negotiations, i. e., to the Anglo-French discussions in London in December 1921 and to the meeting of the Entente Supreme Council in Cannes itself (6–13 January 1922). The “Russian question” was one of the three key topics of these conferences; however, to the other matters (German reparations and Anglo-French security pact), it is under-researched. Besides the published diplomatic documents, the author refers to new evidence drawn from the national archives of France, Great Britain, and Belgium. The article concludes that the negotiations in London and Cannes mirrored the “Russian question”, as it stood in European politics at the end of 1921 and the beginning of 1922. D. Lloyd George, UK prime minister and initiator of the Genoa conference, was eager to use the “Russian question” as a means to further British interests, transform the Soviet regime, and reconstruct and appease Europe. It involved reducing tensions as a result of a non-aggression pact that did not impose any obligations on the UK in Eastern Europe. From the trade and economic points of view, the emphasis was put on the international consortium aimed at consolidating Western business in Russia, giving German industry leadership in the field. Nevertheless, an important part of eventual German profits in Russia would go to France and the UK as reparations. The development of the Cannes conference, which resulted in the resignation of the French cabinet led by A. Briand, showed that the “Russian question” was not only a topic of high politics, but also directly concerned the wider public and elites. Accelerating Briand’s dismissal, Lloyd George found a more stubborn opponent in his successor, R. Poincaré. As the prologue to Genoa, the Cannes meeting outlined some of its future problems as well.

Polish Question in Russia in the Assessment of A.S. Budilovich

The article discusses the main viewpoints of the Russian historian and philologist Anton S. Budilovich on the Polish question in Russia. Budilovich was a dynamic personality and, at the same time, a prominent philologist, historian, publicist, and above all, an excellent administrator of science and education. The name Budilovich was widely known in the educated circles of contemporary society. He spent his entire life working in educational institutions in St. Petersburg, Nezhin, Warsaw, and Yuryev. Budilovich acquired work in the Russifi cation of Warsaw and Yuryev universities. The scholar’s views are considered against the background of the position generally inherent in Russian historiography. The topics studied by Budilovich were closely connected with the history of the Orthodox lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Western Russian (Belarusian and Ukrainian) issue. The scientific and socio-political views of Budilovich were infl uenced by both the nature of his education and the socio-political environment of what was then Western Russia. In general, Budilovich’s historical polonistics fully corresponded to the fundamental ideas of Russian historical polonistics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: conservative and Slavophile in nature, and mostly anti-Western. The most important attribute of Slavic unity for Budilovich was the religious community of the Slavs and their common language. Orthodoxy seemed to him the foundation on which the Slavs exclusively could preserve their own identity. He explained Russia’s mission in Poland to be motivated by its desire to save the Poles from the Germanization that threatened them and to “bring to life” Polish moral and intellectual forces. The scholar was one of the last adherents of the Slavophile approach to history and a supporter of pan-Slavic ideas.

“Russian Question” in the History of Formation of the State National Policy of the Russian Federation

Russian national policy, which is being developed and implemented, inevitably presents its official vision to the society, firstly, of the place and role of the Russian people both in history and at the present stage of the development of national statehood, and secondly, of the correlation of Russian self-consciousness and Russian national identity. Throughout the entire post-Soviet period, the severity of the "Russian question" in the above-mentioned interpretation remains, which determines the relevance of the subject of the research. Based on the study of the development, adjustment and updating of the official narrative of the state national policy of the Russian Federation — the Constitution of the country, doctrinal documents (concepts and strategies), statements of the highest leaders of the state this article shows how the understanding of the Russian cultural dominant as the basis of the Russian national identity and the idea of the state-forming role of the Russian people were developed and refined. Theoretical approaches developed by Russian and foreign researchers (E. Smith, M. V. Remizov, V. A. Tishkov et al.), allowed to substantiate the regularity of cultural and value homogenization of a complex multiethnic society based on the culture of the dominant ethnic group in the process of forming and strengthening modern national identity. Noting the incorrectness of reducing Russian national identity to its purely civil component, the authors argue that the concept of Russian cultural dominant (a single cultural code) in the lexicon of modern state national policy of Russia indicates the cultural component of Russian national identity. In the last decade, the idea of the state-forming role of the Russian people has been firmly established in the official discourse of Russian politics. This is reflected in the 2020 constitutional amendment on the Russian language, which, as the language of the state-forming people, is the state language of the Russian Federation throughout its territory.

Quo Vadis Europe? The “Russian Question”

This article revisits the key factors that have reshaped European security to serve as a baseline for framing two distinct paths that will determine the continent’s security architecture in the coming decades. At the center of this discussion is Europe’s answer to the “Russian question”: the role that Russia wants to play in Europe as compared to the level of influence it may be able to achieve through economic pressure and military force. It posits that the answer is inextricably connected to how Germany’s foreign policy evolves going forward, especially the German-Polish relationship and military trilateral cooperation between the United States, Germany, and Poland. It will also touch on the issue of Brexit as arguably the most significant development that will continue to shape European security for years to come, and, by extension, America’s European strategy.