Ideas and Ideals

The paper continues the author's series of publications on the history of colonization and development of Siberia and analysis of its current socio-economic situation and development prospects. The author reveals the influence of institutions on the dynamics of demographic and socio-economic processes. Having compared the development of Siberia and Canada in the long-term retrospective, the author shows how formal governance institutions influence on the population migration and success of socio-economic development in these countries. The processes of development and colonization in Siberia and Canada observed in the early twentieth century were mostly determined by natural resource factors and their economic and geographical location. This is why these processes took place on a parallel track. Siberia was a leader in the speed of colonization, especially in agricultural development of the territory, since it had an overland route and fewer alternatives for migration. In the twentieth century the development models of these mega-regions varied, and this has affected all aspects of their life. The development of natural resources in Siberia in the time of the Soviet Union went through several stages, some of which were accompanied by a sharp drop in living standards and resulted in human losses. The periods of the forced industrial development were followed by periods of stagnation and out migration. The specifics of the Siberian institutional and governance patterns have repeatedly led to the centralization and monopolization of its economy. In the post-soviet time this resulted in a spot character of the development of natural resources and in the strengthened raw material specialization of Siberia. Such a model of development of Russia and organization of its budget have brought negative demographic consequences and stagnation of domestic market in this megaregion. These challenges are advisable to be considered in forming development programs for Siberia and its parts.

This article discusses the demographic, ethnic and religious aspects of the life of megaregions of Canada and Siberia. Canada actively continues to attract migrants, while Siberia, on the contrary, after Perestroika, is experiencing a steady decline in population, and the more to the East, the more noticeable this process is. The important factor determining the ethnic diversity of both Siberia and Canada is the presence of indigenous peoples who inhabited these lands before the arrival of the Europeans. In the market economy, the processes of transformation of lifestyle and mentality of various ethnic groups are underway. The vectors of these processes are quite different - from assimilation with more numerous groups of the population and gradual dissolution in a market economy with the assimilation of the corresponding mentality to the formation of a new way of life with preservation of ethnic identity. A significant role in Canada is also played by new ethnic groups formed by migrants who have recently arrived from Asia. In both megaregions Christianity played a large role in spiritual life, and missions were formed for the conversion of the indigenous people. But if in Canada the Catholic Church was under severe pressure from Protestants, in Siberia Orthodoxy faced not only pagans, but also Muslims and Buddhists. However, during the Soviet era, Orthodoxy lost its significance and was forced to revive its influence, but traditional forms of religiosity has increased.

The main object of imagological research is perception of the ‘other’ by representations of various cultures. The question is ‘what’ and not ‘who’ represents a culture. The key concept in imagology is that of ‘archetype’, which is fixated through centuries in folklore (fairytales, mythology and epics). It is exactly the archetype which predetermines the images dominant in this or that folk. Imagologists presume that an image is not static and constantly changes. The change in the spiritual condition of a folk, stipulated by certain events, triggers the respective archetypes. A phenotype, just like an image, does not remain unchanged, either; it changes under the influence of natural forces, such as genetics and environment. An image, on the other hand, evolves under the influence of three main characteristics of sapiens: the capability of creative thinking, speech, and creative activity (the capability of creating essential objects). In the self-consciousness of every nation, there are certain elements of nature (landscape types, rivers, mountain peaks, steppes etc.) which represent an integral part of archetype. They occupy a particular place in songs, poems and legends (e.g. Rhine for the Germans, Volga for the Russians or the Carpathian basin for the Hungarians). The individual and collective perception of the ‘other’ is often selective, i.e. when only a certain part of the whole is scrutinized, which naturally results in the appearance of prejudices and stereotypes, even given a careful study of this isolated element. The ‘other’, is, according to imagology, not synonymous to ‘hostile’, it all depends upon the individual characteristics (content) of the ‘other’. Realization of the contours of one’s own and foreign cultures allows better communication with the ‘other’. In his article, the author illustrates the potentially useful nature of imagological applications, in order to clarify the inalienable discrepancy between interests and values in the field of inter-ethnic and inter-national relations.

The nature of Western civilization has been interpreted in many ways in the majority of non-European societies, which faced it. This process was mostly pronounced in British India. The representatives of the new, colonialist-built elites had to reflect upon not only their own and European living principles, but also to discuss the topics concerning their submissive and fairly complicated position in that political system. The paper analyzes the personal views of a famous Bengali writer of the XIX century Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. He was not only a famous writer, but also an extremely successful person in the Bengali society of those times. After getting a perfect education, he achieved the highest point of his career. Then he started sharing his opinions in public, which, considering his social status and Bengali social structure of that time, was fairly venturous. Entering a public epistolary intercourse with one prominent European figure, he began to protect the Hindu religion from the outside attacks and he even questioned the well-known idea of Europe’s intellectual supremacy. With the help of his satiric writers, e.g. «Kamalakanta», he actually poured ridicule not only on the colonial position of his country, but also on the Western system of International Law. Remaining a bearer of Western world view and values, he did not challenge the key achievements of the European world, Bankim Chandra tried to reveal its various problems. Thereby the writer proposed his own way of overcoming one of the most essential colonial state questions – the dilemma between westernization and the drive for their own identity.

The article deals with the social and socio-political processes taking place in Central Asia. The new understanding of social solidarity in the traditional Eastern society and the emerging transition to the model of national statehood of Uzbekistan based on the principles of interaction with civil society are discussed. The problem is that social solidarity in the modern era of democratic freedoms is built in the context of finding a balance between the need to strengthen the national state and the natural process of development of civil society, but for the Eastern States this “balance” has always had its own specifics. The aim of the study is to analyze the opportunities and barriers of social and socio-political processes based on the appeal to solidarity as a social mechanism that allows effective integration of society. At the same time, there is a political and ideological component of social solidarity, which is often used as a slogan. The authors analyze the factors and conditions of social solidarity development. Social solidarity itself is interpreted as a factor in the development of national statehood. At the same time, Uzbekistan is increasingly becoming the initiator of unification and solidarity of states and societies throughout Central Asia and the East. On the basis of the conducted interview data, the authors present the assessment of social changes by the expert community, and show how the intelligentsia accepts the concept of solidarity. Social solidarity, from the point of view of the intelligentsia, will allow: to reduce social tension in the multicultural/multi-ethnic Uzbek society, with the territorial designation of the borders remaining from the Soviet era, as well as the remaining clan system; it will lead to the growth of civil society institutions: non-profit, non-governmental organizations, and, accordingly, it will reduce the role of power structures. Finally, it will benefit the socio-psychological atmosphere in the society, support positive social attitudes. The authors have come to the conclusion, that there is a new scientific problem related to the search for criteria of social solidarity (or the state of the process), and the need to conduct a survey of public opinion, to understand what different social groups think on this issue.

The article considers the problem of modern terrorism, which has been attracting the attention of researchers for several decades. Despite the worldwide actualization of this issue, the number of terrorist attacks is becoming more and more every day. The failure of counter-terrorism activities rests, first of all, in misunderstanding of the essence of this social phenomenon.The usual estimation of different sorts of actions in terms of “good” or “bad” distracts researchers from understanding the deeper causes of the origin of this phenomenon. The author pays special attention to the fact that terrorism, in its basis, is a complex phenomenon, which includes the elements of other events close to it. The paper provides a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of terrorism, which allows to identify its various aspects as well as to show the interrelation between them (violence, fear, etc.). The author also draws an analogy between terrorism and such phenomena as terror, war and extremism. This interdisciplinary analysis allowed to expand the understanding of this “violence of the XXI century” without demonizing its main actors. The paper draws special attention to the problem of mutual influence of the mass media system and terrorist organizations. Is it possible for terrorism to exist outside the media? This issue affects a huge layer of modern problems: from the journalism ethics to the legitimacy of restrictions in the use of the Internet. The answers to these questions will help us to look at terrorism not just as a negative phenomenon of modernity, but as a self-regulating social symbolic space existing in the context of globalization.

The article deals with the history and current state of land relations in the agricultural sector of Russia, analyzes the land legislation of Russia, the problems and specifics of land ownership and land use in three sectors of the agricultural economy: agricultural organizations, peasant (farmer) economy, household farms. It is noted that in the process of economic reforms of the 1990s, the institutional framework and legal framework for all types of business activities in rural areas and the formation of a diversified agricultural economy were created. The author considers the institutional conditions of functioning, specialization and efficiency of agricultural production in all categories of farms. It is noted that the market transformation of the agricultural sector of Russia in the 1990s, aimed at adapting agricultural organizations to market conditions, was successful. This is evidenced by a significant reduction in loss-making farms. Peasant (farm) economy as an independent segment of the agricultural economy contrary to the expectations of the reformers did not become a leading sector of the agricultural economy. However, it has occupied a niche and produces about one tenth of the total production. The private sector remains a significant producer of agricultural products, although there is a decrease in its share. The paper considers land relations in historical retrospect. Legislative regulation of land relations is analyzed in the context of the “Land Code of the Russian Federation”. It provides for the rationality of the use and protection of land in the interests of the whole society, while ensuring the guarantees of each citizen for the free possession, use and disposal of land belonging to him. The author comes to the conclusion that the informal agrarian economy has become a form of survival of the rural population in the period of radical socio-economic reforms. The methodological and theoretical basis of the study was the fundamental research of agricultural problems of domestic and foreign authors. The study is based on the analysis of a wide range of statistical data, as well as materials of sample surveys characterizing the specifics of land relations in modern Russia.

The article analyzes self-management as a science of rational construction of one’s own life. The authors highlight the most important resource – the resource of time. The culture of using one’s own time and the time of other people is the most important aspect of the general culture of a person. The authors show that up to now self-management has been mainly considered as a set of some positive recommendations, or ready recipes of life. This is how it is mostly presented in modern literature. However, building your own life is a creative process, and these ready-made recipes do not work here. They do not take into account individual qualities of a person, as well as many other circumstances. The article presents another approach to self-management, which can be referred to as “inversive self-management”. It mainly deals with errors and difficulties (limitations) in self-management. Limitations in self-management are shown not as insufficiently developed skills, but as independent destructive stereotypes of behavior. In contrast to the methods of self-organization that require an individual approach, the limitations of self-management are quite stereotypical. In order to study them, the inverse relationship analysis is used. Inversion is a form of intra-system relationships in which the lowest element in the hierarchy actually becomes dominant in it, formally remaining in the same subordinate position. Hierarchical relationships are provided by the work of several organizational principles in the hierarchy. Inversion appears when there is a conflict between these organizational principles. So there are many limitations to self-management. Some components of human behavior that have adaptive significance begin to work against human productivity when the importance of these components is too great. The article examines a number of such examples. This article is an abstract of a more extensive study, which provides an analysis of the particular manifestations of restrictions in self-management, where the authors consider the difficulties in the formation of their own lives, caused by dependencies, adverse life scenarios, time orientation, etc. A number of these limitations are deeply rooted in culture.

The author considers complex systems and problems of their management highlighting the problems in the public sector. The purpose of the study is specification of its complexity as an independent object of management, which requires acceleration of the coordination role and improvement of coordination mechanisms in a complex system management. The paper considers different options of complex systems and elements of their complexity, and then, defines four main types of them: multiplicity complexity of affine components, their behavior and communication and also cognitive difficulties. The object of the research is the public sector having several perspectives of consideration, each of which forms certain specifics of functioning and the corresponding problems, approaches and elements of its management. The author puts forward a hypothesis of the need of an independent vector in administrative activities for the solution of problems of system complexity in the public sector which includes the following functions: modeling and design, coordination, estimation, intellectual analysis and “clever” regulation. In its turn, coordination (the most important complexity management component) represents a difficult mechanism of administrative actions which are implemented at three levels (macro-, meso- and micro-) and three types of interaction (horizontal, vertical and displaced interactions). The methodology of research is based on cross-disciplinary interaction of the economic theory and the system analysis which allows to increase integrity of consideration of the public sector, to unite knowledge for the purpose of formation of new ideas and concepts. The result of research is system representation of the phenomenon of the public sector as a complex system requiring a corresponding set of measures for managing its complexity. The results of the research can be used both in the theory and practice of management, as well as in the development of the public sector economy.

The article deals with the formation of the Chinese banking system and its current state. The subject of the research is the Chinese banking system and its current state. The methodology of the research includes monographic, vertical and horizontal analysis. As a result of the research the genesis of the formation of the Chinese banking system was considered, the departments of the People’s Bank of China were designated and its functions were studied. The regulation of the People’s Bank of China is carried out by the law called “On the People’s Bank of China” and adopted on March 18, 1995. The latest changes were adopted on 12/27/2003. The list and the main stages of the development of joint-stock Chinese commercial banks were presented. The main requirements for foreign banks and the share of Chinese banks in the capital of foreign financial institutions were considered. The guidance of the People’s Bank of China is fulfilled by the manager and his deputies, who are appointed or removed from their post by the chairman of the PRC. Today, the People’s Bank of China performs two main functions: regulating the financial sector and conducting the monetary policy. The basis of the banking sector are large commercial banks. In 2003, the Standing Committee of the All-China Assembly of People’s Representatives adopted a row of amendments to the law, according to which the People’s Bank of China received a number of additional powers to ensure the overall financial stability and to conduct the country's monetary policy. Foreign currency transactions dominate in the activity of the People’s Bank of China. Chinese commercial banks are divided into two types: four banks with the state capital (“Big Four”) and joint-stock banks. The four largest banks with the state capital are: the Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Commercial and Industrial Bank of China, and the Construction Bank of China. The aggregate amount of their assets was 53% of the total assets of the Chinese banking system in 2005. The country rating is determined by international agencies. The rating of China in the long term, both in the national and in the foreign currency is “A”.

The article considers the iconography of Christian art associated with the rainbow motif. A rainbow is a beautiful optical phenomenon in the atmosphere that occurs when light is scattered on water droplets; it has the form of a multicolored arc or two arcs. The shining rainbow in Scripture is closely related to God's acts of communication with the chosen people such as Noah and the prophets. In such iconographic schemes as the Last judgment, the All saints’ Day and the Ascension of the Lord, the rainbow motif, based on the prophetic visions of Ezekiel and John the Apostle, is a symbol of the radiance of the Divine Glory and Majesty of God in His appearance to the prophets. In these iconographies, the rainbow is depicted with different degree of conventionality. Thus, it can be represented in one or two colors, but can also be made with expressive brightness in several colors of the spectrum. In these iconographies, the rainbow often represents the throne of the Lord within the mandorla - an oval or round frame around the figure of Christ or the Virgin, which has a complex symbolism associated with the image of a cloud, with the Divine Glory, as well as with the special nature of the image of Christ or the Virgin, which is outside the physical time and space. In a number of other iconographic schemes, the rainbow motif has the meaning of God's mercy. These are compositions associated with God’s Covenant with Noah, as well as with the Lord Covenant with the chosen people – the Church, which is reflected, in particular, in the compositions of Noah's Ark and the iconography of Our Lady of Mount Nerukosechnaya.

First appeared in the ancient world as the temple of the Muses, the museum became an expression of the idea to preserve the unique objects of the natural and artificial world necessary to satisfy the spiritual needs of a man. Historically, the reality of the museum has been repeatedly changing; it has been able to easily adapt to changing conditions. We find different ideas about the museum in antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the new and modern times. At the moment there are various approaches to understanding the museum as a phenomenon. The museum is presented as a symbol, sign, core, instrument, mechanism, intermediary, reflection, translator, generator, potential, center, project, producer, field, space, keeper, part, element, result, clipboard, value, category of culture. At the same time, the museum acts as a social institution, a social object of management, a form of social memory, social information, a mechanism for fixing social experience, achievements of the epoch. The museum has close relations with culture and society and it is considered to be their product and reflection, allowing to travel through centuries and territories. The author considers the museum as a category of thinking, basing on P. Findlen’s thought about a museum as a mental category (intellectual experience of collecting and preserving “the past in the mirror of the present”), the thought close to understanding of the museum by Z. Stránský as one of the forms of a person’s specific relationship to reality, and the author also applies categories of the system methodology and the theory of dynamic information systems of V. Razumov and V. Sizikov. The author considers the museum as a category of thinking; using the triadic method. The system of interrelated concepts has been formed, reflecting the basis for the creation and existence of the museum. The paper creates the foundation for further discussions on the essence of this socio-cultural phenomenon.

The article explores such a kind of musical genre – a Soviet lyric song, its place in the Soviet everyday life, aesthetic task, and its fate during the 70-year period of life. The author substantiates the reasons why this genre in the Soviet era turned out to be so popular that it became a part of folk culture. The author also studies the phenomenon of some songs of that period, heavily propagated, but not popular among people. The author highlights the idea that even pseudo-folk songs, such as V.G. Zakharov’s songs for the Pyatnitsky Choir, although actively propagandized and often performed from the stage and on the radio, did not really become popular. The article attempts to explain the reasons for this spontaneous mass ostracism by “popular censorship”. Thieves' lyrics as such are not explored, with the exception of the “anthem of prisoners” - the song “I remember that Vanino port.” The author analyzes the reasons for the sudden end of the “golden age” of the Soviet lyric song, which nature ceased to correspond to the commercial interests of post-perestroika Russian song variety.

The author focuses his attention on life and research activities in 1965-1973. He characterizes lecturing in Novosibirsk State University. The author draws special attention to a student research group and the conflict with the administration of the Institute of Economics and Novosibirsk State University because of a “wall newspaper” prepared by the student research group at the end of the 1960-s, which became the reason for his leaving the University. The author describes the content of a doctorate thesis (a dissertation for the degree of a candidate of sciences) on the problems of planning in the Soviet economy and also he shows its innovative character. The paper presents the discussion of the dissertation at the Novosibirsk State University and the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) and also gives the reasons for rejecting the dissertation by HAC. The author explains his motivation for turning to studying stock exchanges and presents the essence of his doctoral thesis on stock exchanges. The paper also examines the research climate at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the USSR Academy of Sciences at that period. The author outlines the content of work at the Systems Research Institute and describes the team of the Foreign Economic Relations Laboratory of the Systems Research Institute as well as the interaction with the State Committee on Foreign Economic Relations. Much attention is paid to the work of the Institute of Economics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, its leadership and team. The author also describes social atmosphere in the USSR and Academgorodok at that period, explains the reaction of the former government to 1968 events in Czechoslovakia and tightening of the political regime in the USSR after these events. The author touches upon the life conditions in Academgorodok at that period and describes his friendship with some researchers.