Russian Social Research Articles

Formation and evolution of the Party Ideology of the Russian Social Democrats/Bolsheviks as the basis of the future state ideology of the Country of Soviets

Formation and evolution of the Party Ideology of the Russian Social Democrats/Bolsheviks as the basis of the future state ideology of the Country of Soviets

Dynamics of the event structure of the life course in Russia

The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the life-event structure of generations of Russians based on empirical data from the Russian Social Survey (RSS) wave 9, comparable with ESS. The analysis showed that the life calendar of currently living generations of Russians is quite strongly structured - events occur in certain and rather narrow time intervals and in a certain sequence. A feature of the life calendar in Russia is a high concentration of all the basic events of the first phase of adult life in a narrow time interval, a short period of entry into adulthood. Events of the late stage of life show greater chronological diversity and scenario variability. Significant differences in the life-event matrix of generations in Russia were found, including an increase in the average age of onset of almost all basic life events, an expansion of the boundaries of age-related life stages, an extension of the path of growing up and the transition from maturity to old age, as well as diversification of life scenarios in the professional and family-marital spheres. When comparing the indices of standardisation of the main events between generations, a trend towards destandardisation of life paths was revealed: in older generations, the level of similarity is significantly higher than among younger generations. The main changes occurred in the generation of 1970-1979 and accelerated in the next generation of 1980-1989. Macro-demographic factors, as well as changes in socio-economic and historical conditions, the transition to a post-industrial society might be named among possible reasons. The trend towards destandardisation of life paths in older generations primarily affected people with a higher level of education, while in younger generations it acquired a broader social and class character; gender differences began to appear in the generation of the 1980s. The authors suggest that the increase in destandardisation of life paths may have multidirectional social and individual consequences. On the one hand, new opportunities for development, building a life path taking into account individual characteristics, talents and desires, greater flexibility of life trajectories, a decrease in normativity and social pressure. On the other hand, this may lead to increased uncertainty, social tension, increased inequalities, and a deepening conflict between “fathers and children,” which will increase social risks in the foreseeable future.

विश्व राजनीतिमा वैज्ञानिक समाजवादी चिन्तनको विकास {The Development of Scientific Socialist Thought in World Politics}

This article examines the development of scientific socialist thought in world politics. Key milestones considered include the formation of the Communist League, the publication of the Communist Manifesto, the establishment of the First International, the Paris Commune, the Second International, the October Socialist Revolution, the Third International, and the Cominform. Scientific socialist thought began with the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels in 1848 and developed gradually over time. This evolution is marked by a series of significant historical events. The study traces the formation of the Communist League, the creation and dissemination of the Communist Manifesto, the establishment of the First International under Marx's leadership, the Paris Commune revolution by workers and the proletariat, the formation of the Second International under Engels' guidance, Lenin's leadership in the Russian Socialist Revolution and the formation of the Third International, and the establishment of the Cominform under Stalin's leadership. The article uses an inductive method to explore these developments and aims to illuminate the progression of scientific socialist thought in world politics.

Disinformation against Crimean Tatars in Russian Social Media

This article examines the persistence of Tatarophobia against Crimean Tatars in the Russian segment of social media during the first year of the full-scale invasion (24 February 2022–24 February 2023). A total of 4,435 posts from various social media platforms, including Facebook, Odnoklassniki, Telegram, Twitter, and Vkontakte, were analysed. The discourse predominantly echoes Russia’s imperial and Soviet-era narratives, along with xenophobic and oppressive rhetoric exacerbated by the full-fledged invasion. The propaganda seeks to cultivate a negative perception of Crimean Tatars as an ethnic community, manipulating cultural and historical aspects related to them. Additionally, it endeavours to construct an adversarial image of relations between Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars, as well as of Ukraine’s current policies. Russian special services perceive the capacity of Crimean Tatars to self-organize, establish volunteer units, or organize blockades as a threat. The propaganda effort not only fosters harassment and hate speech but also encourages peninsula residents to view them as “unreliable elements” deserving of suppression.

Legal Challenges Surrounding Participation of Big Tech Companies in the Russian Social Networking Market

Legal Challenges Surrounding Participation of Big Tech Companies in the Russian Social Networking Market

George Orwell's Animal Farm: Power Hunger leading to Depravation

George Orwell's novella Animal Farm, published in 1945, is a masterpiece of political satires. The book is a fable which sets in the animal farm of Mr. Jones of England. The book is symbolic as it targets the socialism in Russia under Stalin's leadership. The animals of the Manor Farm inspired by the words of Old Major the oldest boar, revolt against the tyranny of Mr. Jones and expel him out of the farm. After the rebellion, the hold of farm comes in the hands of two senior boars Snowball and Napoleon. Snowball is a vivacious, quicker in speech and more inventive while Napoleon is large, fierce-looking and with habit of getting his own way. Napoleon being more ambitious rears puppies secretly. At every point he shows his disagreement with Snowball. In the matter of windmill, the hostility reaches on the highest point when Napoleon lets his dogs to attack over Snowball and compels him to leave the farm forever. With the help of Squealer and dogs, Napoleon becomes the dictator. He including other pigs enjoys luxury and distorts all the commandments that were established just after rebellion. Thus, the power that was at first in the hands of one tyrant i.e., human being now transfers into the hands of another tyrannical dictator i.e., Napoleon, the boar. The paper analyses how power hunger leads to the depravation and subjugation of fellow beings.

Письмо из темноты: Рец. на кн.: Сергей Кан. Лев Штернберг: этнолог, народник, борец за права евреев / Пер. с англ. А. Глебовской. СПб.; Бостон: Библиороссика; Academic Studies Press, 2023. 694 с. (Современная иудаика)

The present review of the Russian translation of Sergei Kan’s book Lev Shternberg: Anthropologist, Russian Socialist, Jewish Activist constitutes a literary experiment. It endeavors to engage in a dialogue, presented in the form of a letter, with the central figure of the book, Lev Shternberg, the co-founder of Soviet and Russian anthropology, regarding the significant transformations it has undergone throughout the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st. The author pays close attention to the social and political contexts of these changes and how they affected the interpretations of Shternberg’s persona and ideas in Soviet times and today. This experiment extends the author’s reflections on the necessity of revisiting the history of anthropology and reintegrating it into the field itself. As American anthropologist Alfred Irving Hallowell suggested in the 1960s, we should conceptualize “the history of anthropology as an anthropological problem.” By this, the author intends to reconstruct a dialogue between the history of anthropology and the communities with whom anthropologists have engaged, as well as to foster connections between the history of anthropological ideas and ongoing discussions both within and beyond the discipline. These changes, as the author argues, have the potential to significantly expand the styles of anthropological writing and reveal new genealogies of anthropological knowledge.

Убийство В.В. Воровского и процесс Конради–Полунина 1923 года в восприятии российской социалистической эмиграции

The article dwells on the assassination of V.V. Vorovsky, head of the Soviet delegation at the international conference in Lausanne, on May 10, 1923 and on the trial of M. Conradi and A.P. Polunin as viewed by Russian socialist émigrés, i.e. members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and social democrats (Mensheviks). This paper aimed to study the attitude of the socialist community of Russian émigrés towards individual political terror during the 1920s. The methodology is based on the principles of intellectual history, which allow us to shed some light on the perception of the 1923 Lausanne trial by analysing the confrontation and ideological struggle of certain political figures and civic groups for attention. The paper provides a brief description of the main works of Russian and foreign historians who studied the assassination of Vorovsky and the trial of his murderers. The context of the trial, the reaction of different émigré camps and the organization of Conradi and Polunin’s defence are analysed. The official response of the Foreign Delegation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, reflected in the Revolutionary Russia journal, is noted. Particular attention is given to the unpublished article “Both Are Worse” (1923) by leader of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party V.M. Chernov on the results of the trial in Lausanne. Chernov’s argumentation and his views on the fundamental differences between the pre-revolutionary Socialist Revolutionary terror and the assassination of Vorovsky are analysed. Chernov points out that Socialist Revolutionary and Narodnaya Volya’s terror stayed within a strict moral and ethical framework that forbade political assassinations on the territory of free democratic countries. Socialist Revolutionary terrorists had never followed the path of least resistance, proclaiming the idea of selfsacrifice. Chernov emphasizes that only those not involved in the White Terror can hold others accountable for the Red Terror. The paper considers the response of Russian social democrats abroad, in particular, leader of the émigré Mensheviks F.I. Dan’s article dedicated to the Lausanne trial. His thesis about the exclusive right of socialist parties to fight the Bolshevik dictatorship, without involving the White movement, is emphasized. A conclusion is drawn that Russian socialists abroad held a fundamentally unified position on resisting political terror.

Новые книги

The collective material of the employees of RAS Institute of Philosophy (A. Vakulinskaya, K. Vorozhikhina, A. Kuksyuk, A. Makarova, V. Sidorin) describes the book novelties of 2023 related to topics of Russian philosophy. Brief summaries present the main content of the books - thus, the reader is able to get acquainted with the most important and interesting publications, including: “Civilization: The Polyphony of Meanings. Memoria”; “Solowjew” by H. U. von Balthasar; “We will be Faces/Persons… An Analytical-Synthetic Reading of Dostoevsky’s Works" by T. Kasatkina; Volume 7 of E. Ilyenkov's Collected Works ; Volume 5 of S. Frank's Collected Works; “My Zinoviev” by A. Guseinov; “Nikolai Berdyaev: an Epistolary Conversation. Archival Materials” ed. By T. Shchedrina; collective monograph "Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy”; “Eurasianism: Logos. Eidos. Symbol. Myth” by R. Vakhitov; Anthology “The Сement and Body of Russian Socialism”.

Problematic aspects of the normative regulation of modern Russian accounting

Currently, a widely discussed topic is the future directions of development of Russian accounting and the extent to which the regulations of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) will continue to be used in the development of the rules of Russian federal accounting standards (FSBU). The article explores these issues. To understand the trends in the future development of Russian accounting, its evolution from the beginning of the transition of the Russian socialist economy to a market economy to the present time is examined. The regulatory documents that determined the directions of development of Russian accounting since the early 90s of the 20th century are considered. until now. Scientific discussions regarding the directions of development of Russian accounting are studied. The degree of use of IFRS regulations in the new Russian Federal Accounting Standards (FSBU) adopted in recent years is investigated. A significant degree of convergence of the methodological approaches of the new FSBUs with the regulations of international standards, which are analogues of these federal standards, is revealed. The innovation of the new FSBU regulations is a direct reference to the use of certain international standards for accounting in certain situations. Based on the conducted research, the conclusion is substantiated about the continuing trend of convergence of Russian accounting regulations with the rules of IFRS, as well as the expansion of the scope of use of international standards, which are approved for use on the territory of the Russian Federation in accordance with Orders of the Ministry of Finance of Russia.

Новые книги

The collective material of the employees of RAS Institute of Philosophy (A. Vakulinskaya, K. Vorozhikhina, A. Kuksyuk, A. Makarova, V. Sidorin) describes the book novelties of 2023 related to topics of Russian philosophy. Brief summaries present the main content of the books - thus, the reader is able to get acquainted with the most important and interesting publications, including: “Civilization: The Polyphony of Meanings. Memoria”; “Solowjew” by H. U. von Balthasar; “We will be Faces/Persons… An Analytical-Synthetic Reading of Dostoevsky’s Works" by T. Kasatkina; Volume 7 of E. Ilyenkov's Collected Works ; Volume 5 of S. Frank's Collected Works; “My Zinoviev” by A. Guseinov; “Nikolai Berdyaev: an Epistolary Conversation. Archival Materials” ed. By T. Shchedrina; collective monograph "Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy”; “Eurasianism: Logos. Eidos. Symbol. Myth” by R. Vakhitov; Anthology “The Сement and Body of Russian Socialism”.

Church Conceptualization of Socialism in Russia of the Second Half of the 19th and the 20th Centuries

The article is a refl ection and review of the “The Orthodox Church and Socialism. The second half of the 19th–20th centuries» anthology, published by “Vladimir Dal” publishing house in 2023. The anthology consists of a large number of texts, the importance of which can’t be overestimated. The texts are arranged in chronological order and provided with succinct comments, thus representing a chronicle of church attitude to socialism evolution in the second half of the 19th and the 20th centuries: from perception it as an alien alternative to church spiritual values, to the half-way consent with the 20th century cultural life thesis of principally “social” orientation of Christianity in its ethics of love and mercy. The analytical component of the article allows us to focus on the anthology texts that are most important for understanding not only issue of the “Orthodox Church and socialism” itself, but also its evolution over the one and a half century of our state existence. The author of the article considers the anthology especially relevant these days then Russian society begins to think and concentrate of social justice. The variety of the views demonstrated by the authors of the anthology give us a good understanding of the socialism signifi cance in the past and in our time

Unveiling the War and Constructing Identities: Exploring Memes in Ukrainian and Russian Social Media during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The article examines the generation and deployment of visual narratives in Ukrainian and Russian digital participatory cultures, with a specific focus on internet memes in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It analyzes the form, content, and functions of these memes and highlights their similarity in mobilizing and conveying political messages despite variations in their visual components. The study indicates that Ukrainian memes are used not only to promote political agendas but also serve as trauma coping and collective identity construction mechanisms in times of crisis, helping to promote new war narratives that are engaged in the construction of the self and the other.

Legal Foundations of the Fight Against Illiteracy and the Formation of a New Ideology: Experience of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in the 1920–1930s

The scientific article analyzes the legal regime and organizational principles of the process of educating citizens in the 1920s and 1930s in the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. The enlightenment was based on public ideology. This study aims to determine methods for the effective integration of the educational component into the modern education system of citizens of the Russian Federation aimed at forming their moral and patriotic position. The author uses factual, historical, formal legal, and comparative methods of scientific cognition.

Perceptions of the Time of Troubles in Russian Social and Political Thought in the Late 18th — Early 19th Centuries

This article examines the changing perceptions of the Time of Troubles in Russian political culture between the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The author draws on the methods of the Cambridge school of ‘intellectual history’, represented by the works of J. Pocock and Q. Skinner, which allow the historical materials involved to be considered within the framework of the approach of ‘cultural glossaries’ and rhetorical strategies. The study focuses on debates about the ideal form of government, including historical plots of the Time of Troubles, in Russian socio-political thought of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including those based on historical plots of the Time of Troubles. The article demonstrates that the appeal to these plots was connected with the foreign and domestic political spheres relevant to the contemporaries, and with the attempt to change the form of government in Russia or the threat of its change from outside during the Napoleonic Wars in the early nineteenth century. The analysis shows that eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Russian authors reinterpreted the historical events and personalities of the Time of Troubles using the Aristotelian glossary of forms of government. The application of this glossary to the historical themes of the Time of Troubles in Russian social and political thought effectively ‘reinvented’ the history of the Time of Troubles. In this ‘invention of the Time of Troubles’, the themes of ‘tyranny’ and ‘tyrannicide’ and speculation about the most appropriate form of government for Russia emerged. It is concluded that the emergence of these rhetorical strategies in references to the Time of Troubles played the role of historical argument and evidence in favour of the Russian monarchy for eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century authors.

The Martyrdom of Illness: Mariia Spiridonova in Siberian Imprisonment, 1906–17

Abstract: In the summer of 1906 at the age of twenty-one, Mariia Spiridonova, a Russian Socialist Revolutionary (SR) assassin was transported with five other convicted female SR terrorists by railway from Moscow to the Nerchinsk prison complex in eastern Siberia. Only Spiridonova was known as a martyr-heroine to opponents of tsarism across the empire, however, because national newspapers had published her story of physical abuse by police and Cossacks at the time of her arrest. Patterning themselves after an earlier generation of populist terrorists in the 1870s and 1880s, male and female SR terrorists in the revolution of 1905–07 attempted to kill government officials whom the SR party accused of oppressive actions against helpless civilians. Although SR terrorists expected to sacrifice their own lives as compensation for committing political murder, the tsarist government commuted the women’s death sentences to penal servitude for life. In Siberian imprisonment, Spiridonova and her five terrorist comrades followed the tradition of preceding generations of revolutionaries by joining a ‘socialist collective’ or ‘commune’ of political prisoners with a code of conduct and a shared economy. Male and female socialist prisoners lived by such compacts to prepare themselves for the future revolution and to deepen the political consciousness of their fellow inmates by personal example. Only Spiridonova among the women ‘politicals’ took no visible role in upholding the prison commune but rather lived in semi-isolation as an invalid throughout her eleven years in the Nerchinsk complex. Suffering from tuberculosis, Spiridonova, who had anticipated a martyr’s death on the scaffold, seemingly succumbed to the martyrdom of chronic illness. Yet the fall of the tsarist autocracy in February 1917 did not just liberate Spiridonova from penal servitude but simultaneously restored her health, her energy and her drive to engage in radical politics. Her pattern of revolutionary behaviour thus alternated between active and passive self-sacrifice, the tuberculosis that enhanced her legend of martyrdom apparently waxing and waning according to the degree of her personal freedom.

Невыученные уроки истории сквозь призму биографии Валериана Осинского – человека и революционера

The article is a review of the monograph by historian O.A. Milevsky on the ideology of Russian political terror by revolutionary populist Valerian Andreevich Osinsky. Based on a thorough historiographical analysis, it is shown that the book is the first special comprehensive study of the life path of Valerian Osinsky in world historical science. The non-trivial title of the monograph, "Steps to the Scaffold", and the competent structural composition of the book are emphasized. The methodological basis of the monographic research is analyzed and its interdisciplinary nature is shown. Special attention is paid to the productivity of the psychohistorical concepts of Eric Erickson and Lloyd De Moze. Using the example of the hero of the monograph in four chapters-"steps", the author consistently analyzes the typical and specific ways of formation of the Russian youth of the 1870s, which turn it into an irreconcilable opposition to the autocratic regime. The main attention is paid to the generational conflict between the "fathers", the highest personification of which was the state, and the "children", that is, the radical youth. This conflict is shown as a reflection of the contradictions of two eras: the outgoing and the upcoming. The new data presented in the monograph once again emphasize the fact of uncompromising confrontation between the government and society in post-reform Russia. Attention is drawn to the fact that in Osinsky's life, as if in a mirror, the moral problems of the correlation of the purpose and means of political action were reflected in the absence of dialogue between the warring parties. When studying the activities of the Executive Committee of the Russian Social Revolutionary Party created by Valerian Osinsky, it is noted that the author raised a fundamental and urgent question about the permissibility of political violence in the struggle against the authorities in the absence of legal opportunities for citizens to protect human rights against administrative arbitrariness. Based on the biography of Osinsky presented in the monograph, the cruel lessons of history that have not yet been learned by Russian society are formulated.

Learning, Performance, Fatigue and Regret: Tales of Motherhood on Russian Social Media in the 2010s–2020s

The essay examines changes in the conceptualisation and practice of motherhood in Russia from the 1990s up to the 2020s. From the 1990s, a mother’s obligations towards a child rose sharply in comparison to the Soviet era. Motherhood has become individualised and isolating, while expectations of maternal work have intensified. In the relatively affluent 2000s, a Western model of ‘intensive mothering’ became popular among women who could afford not to work, but this dropped out of favour in the more straitened 2010s, as women were forced to return to work. However, by this point, right-wing ideologists were promoting ‘traditional values’, according to which women’s role was primarily caring for others. This research demonstrates, drawing on a special interest motherhood group, #Shchastyematerinstva, on the Russian social media website VKontakte, that motherhood is now, for many Russian women, a heavy and unwelcome burden.

The dilemmas of socialist education between 1918 and 1920 according to Krupskaya (1869-1939)

The present article has as general objective to analyze the differentiated access to education enjoyed by the bourgeois class and the working class in Russian socialist society between 1918-1920, according to N.K. Krupskaya (1869-1939). To achieve this goal, the theoretical framework was based on the work "General questions of pedagogy: organization of public education in the USSR", written by Krupskaya herself. A specific part of this work, especially in the chapter entitled "On the Question of the Soviet School", examines the distinctions between the bourgeois and working classes in terms of accessibility to education and pedagogical practice. The research problem is: What should a school capable of forming emancipated individuals look like from Krupskaya's perspective? To answer the question, we used bibliographical research. The results of the analysis showed that Krupskaya made it clear that education in socialist society was shaped by the influence of the wealthy class in society. She stressed the conversion to an emancipatory approach that recognized the importance of intellectual training and productive work equally.

The struggle of the gubernatorial Direction of the Independent Corps of Gendarmes of Bessarabia with the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP)

Among the existing institutions in the Russian Empire, responsible for the security of the autocratic regime, the Independent Corps of Gendarmes stood out. Its members were obliged to combat and annihilate various socio-political movements with a pronounced anti-government character. Among such movements and parties was the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, which was also active in Bessarabia. From the moment of its emergence until the abolition of the monarchy in February 1917, this party had some influence on the revolutionary movement in the region. Organizationally structured on two levels – legal and illegal (the Combat Organization of the Revolutionary Socialist Party), the party represented a real danger to the autocratic regime. The party’s activity was closely monitored by the Regional Directorate of Gendarmes, which managed to infiltrate inside the organization a number of secret agents, who reached positions of responsibility within the committee and who kept the authorities informed of all party movements and plans. With some rare exceptions, the indigenous population remained outside the Party’s sphere of influence.