Ideas and Ideals

The article analyzes the causes of the crisis of the modern history of Russian literature, the main reasons for which is the crisis of the Russian language in general and the crisis of the academic language in particular. The ideological pressure experienced by Soviet literary criticism as a science of the history of literature influenced not only topics and interpretations of the literary process, but also generated a specific language - a language “infected with Soviet meanings”. The analysis of the language of literary texts of the Brezhnev era of the 1960-1970s implies that the Soviet studies of the history of Russian literature were based on two concepts: “struggle” and “fallacy”. That allowed Soviet literary scholars to describe the literary process in the framework of Soviet ideology, when Soviet literary criticism considered the natural process of democratization of Russian literature in the 19th century as the main stream of revolutionary struggle. The proclamation of “struggle” and “fallacy” as the main engines for the development of literature led to extreme degree of pathos of Soviet literary criticism, which is especially noticeable in the example of studies of the work of 19^th-century satirists. A typical example is the Soviet literary scholars’ research on M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. On the one hand, the satiric pathos of his works helped Saltykov-Shchedrin to go through the ideological selection of Soviet official literary studies. At the same time, Soviet literary criticism passed by the main feature of Shchedrin's satire: clichés of the official language of any ideology gives many opportunities to play on changing the meaning of the official formula, which leads to its destruction from the inside. The limited set of research topics did not allow deviating from the “general line” of interpretation or broadening the range of problems, which predetermined the results of research in advance. As a result, Russian literary criticism inherited the language from the previous Soviet era, in which it still writes. Even out of external ideological pressure, the Soviet language continues to communicate acquired ideological meanings.

The article presents an analysis of the narrative strategy used by F.M. Dostoevsky in The House of the Dead. The presence in the text of the diegetic narraror and the readers' lack of awareness of the realities of hard labor allowed Dostoevsky to create an artistic world that is perceived by the readers as “real”. It is shown that this method was deliberately used by the writer for the “censorship” of the text and the preservation of the distance from the material. The incompetence of the narrator justified the apparent compositional disorder of the text (Goryanchikov is not a professional writer), the subjectivity of his assessment and the lack of understanding of what is happening in hard labor. The text that compares the world of penal servitude, described in The House of the Dead with the real one, is Sakhalin (Katorga) by V. Doroshevich (first publication - 1903). Doroshevich and the heroes of his story, convicts, relate their experience with the experience presented by Dostoevsky. The sequential confusion in readers’ minds of the narrator (Goryanchikov) and Dostoevsky's personality created an indicative figure – “writer in penal servitude” – and gave impetus to the emergence of many imitators, especially from among intellectuals who found themselves in penal servitude. The literary-centric culture of the 20th century allowed Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to continue using the strategy of the “writer”; having subdued stories told by the victims of Stalinist repression to the author's intention and deprived them of the individual assessments. The article shows that the Shalamov's witness strategy contrasted precisely with this tradition originating in the false perception from the narrative strategy used by Dostoevsky in The House of the Dead.

The role of research libraries in investigation process of their users – researchers and specialists is actively discussed after the transition to digital culture that is especially important for scientific and technical information. Under these conditions, in the system of scholarly communication, the concept of the library as an intermediary that receives and provides users with the necessary information has virtually ceased to exist.

Libraries have lost their social function as the only source of information providing access to documents and information. Accordingly, they have practically ceased to be communication channels between the author and publisher on the one hand and the user on the other (especially for users working in the field of natural and exact sciences. The Internet has become the most relevant communication channel here. In order to understand the importance of the academic or research library, a number of the most important factors determining its activities are considered: internal changes in science, changes in the means of scholarly communication, the development of linguistic means of information retrieval. The authors conclude that this transition is unlikely to be complete, and that the viability of academic libraries largely depends on their rapid response to the information needs of science, changes in communication tools, etc.

   The article analyzes two pictures by the Dutch artist Arent de Gelder (1645-1727) “Edna Entrusting Tobias with Sarah” (circa 1690, Leiden Collection, New York) and “Tobias Welcomed by His Mother Hanna” (circa 1705, Museum of the Monastery of St. Catherine in Utrecht). The subject of these paintings is associated with the book of Tobit written in Palestine in the II century BC. This book is a part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canons; in Protestantism and Judaism it is considered to be apocryphal. The central role in these paintings (by de Gelder) is played by mothers - Edna and Anna, which is uncharacteristic of the works by other Dutch artists who turned to the book of Tobit. It seems that the interest of Arent de Gelder in these female images is related to his (or his unknown patrons) comparison of the texts of the book in the Vulgate of 1592 and the Dutch Bible, published in 1637, and based on the part of the book of Tobit on the Septuagint. In the text of the Vulgate, where there is a difference between the behavior and feelings of the father and mother, the closeness of the position of the spouses is emphasized, that is, the feelings and actions of the fathers of the family are shared by their wives. In the text of the Septuagint, on the contrary, in several places there is a juxtaposition of the behavior of men and women. A careful reading of the Bible in the 17th century Holland was dictated by the idea of reformers that every believer had to read the Scriptures and interpret them to the best of their understanding. The image of the Old Testament characters during this period gained great popularity in the visual arts. The interpretation of biblical scenes and individual images was notable for its direct perception and individual approach to the depiction of the theme of work.

The paper analyzes the problems of interpersonal relationships such as matchmaking, the relations between men and women; in other words, the authors describe manifestations of the biological “axioms” in human behavior. Besides, domination can also be viewed as an expression of the biological in interpersonal relationships. The object of study of the present research includes the problems of matchmaking, gambling games, entertainment, and feasts.

As empirical material for the given description, the authors consider literary texts from the Armenian literature of the XIX-XX centuries (M. Nalbandyan, S. Shahazis, G. Sundukyan, A. Ayvazyan and others). The paper is an essential part of the “Tbilisi Text of Armenian Literature”, which adds something new to the “Tbilisi Text of the Georgian Literature”. Those two discourses, in their turn, show a certain commonality with the “Caucasian Text of the Russian Literature».

The authors apply a semiotic meta-language; implicitly, they use the theory of the French sociologist P. Bourdieu together with a typological approach, since the analysis is conducted on recurrent motifs, aiming at the identification of general semantic units.

The main thesis of the present paper is the “elevated” Armenian literature of Old Tiflis (XIX c.), which represents one of the central discourses for the critical presentation of the biological in the middle and the lower class of Old Tiflis. The biological and the principles of “wild capitalism” were destroying the families of small and medium tradesmen not only in the horizontal, class dimension (family, interpersonal), but also in the vertical dimension (inequality of social roles).

The analysis of the empirical material demonstrated that money-hunger guzzles spiritual and social values, such as national identity; the idea of statehood is lost, and the center of aspirations of city inhabitants becomes idle lifestyle: food, feasts, building houses, entertainment (home carnivals), matchmaking, etc. Of course, in the paper, the biological is contrasted to the cultural as well. The Armenian society of Old Tiflis had strategically thinking cultural figures, Armenian princely families, patrons, philanthropists (the Bebutovs, Tumanovs, Arguntinians, Alikhanovs, Yevangulyans, Mantashevs, Tamamshevs), who invested enormous financial means for the multiplication of national values (Nersisyan Seminary of Tiflis). Noteworthy is also the investment by great Armenian philanthropists (the Mantashevs) in the education of gifted Armenian minds abroad (Germany, Russia, etc.), who already in the 1920-ies formed the intellectual basis for the establishment of a national university in Yerevan (1919). 

Modern Russian youth have a consistently high percentage of positive attitudes toward interethnic marriages. The vast majority of young people react positively towards interethnic marriages as marriages by love. However, only half of them allow the possibility of a nationally-mixed marriage for themselves personally. On the one hand, we are dealing with a declaration that love is above all, and on the other hand, there is a reason why half of the respondents understand that they are not ready to follow it in their lives. Fear can keep three quarters of young people from mixed marriages because they will have to change their habits, stereotypes, and behavioral patterns. Meanwhile, they do not care that their children can be carriers of another religion or culture. Almost none of the young people express such concerns. We try to explain these seeming oddities in the article. We analyze the world view of Russian youth, including their families and national aspects, based on a closed interview conducted with the help of the author’s methodology.

We have revealed a very high importance of family for the young people, including their parental family. The vast majority of young people do not position themselves outside of family. Almost all respondents intend to marry once and for all. More than half of them believe that the family is a source of comfort and protection and is intended only to meet their various needs. But for this they are not going to trouble themselves. A significant number of young people admitted that the family may be not traditional, if only it would bring comfort. Although no one called an unconventional family desirable for themselves. The requirements of protection and comfort are the basic requirements of the family. The young do not care who the family consists of, if it meets those requirements. And in this context, an interethnic family is only one of the options for an unconventional family. And almost the only obstacle to an interethnic marriage is that the clash of different cultures can bring some discomfort in everyday life.

If the family value is growing among youth, then the national value is dramatically falling. Interethnic marriages are perceived by young people from the point of view of interpersonal relationships only. Interethnic marriages are outside the context of interethnic relations, they remain in the sphere of a person’s private life. And the point here is that a person is perceived not by his nationality, but as a personality outside an ethnic group. Therefore, interethnic marriages are rather non-ethnic, as Russian youth see them.

The article analyses the book written by the English economist Thane Gustafson “Wheel of Fortune. The battle for oil and power in Russia”. The author of the book is known for his deep works on the oil industry of the USSR and the state of post-Soviet Russia. In a peer-reviewed book, Gustafson analyzes Soviet and post-Soviet Russian society through the prism of the Russian oil industry. The author of the article supplements Gustafson’s analysis with his own assessments of the state of the oil industry of the USSR and the Russian Federation, taking into account the replacement cost of fixed assets. Gustafson, paying tribute to the achievements of the Soviet oil industry, shows the inevitability of its crisis in the 80s due to defects in the command economy. Thane Gustafson analyzes the crisis of the oil industry of the late 80s and early 90s as a consequence of the weakness of state power, the capacity of which in Russia he assesses as the most important factor in its economic development. He considers the privatization of the oil industry, with all its shortcomings, as a condition for the beginning of the revival of the oil industry. Another factor, he believes, is the attraction of foreign capital, technology and Western management practices. The strengthening of state power with the advent of Putin and the successful operation of private oil companies, along with rising world oil prices, ensured a rapid increase in oil production in the Russian Federation, which allowed Gustafson to assess the period 2001-2004 as an oil miracle. He associates the subsequent slowdown in oil production with the depletion of old oil fields with poor development of new ones. At the same time, Gustafson attaches considerable importance to this slowdown in the nationalization of the oil industry and the growing hostility in Russia towards foreign capital in general and the West in particular. The author supplements this analysis with calculations showing the limited financial resources of oil companies and their poor use. Gustafson predicts a crisis in the Russian oil industry and recommends liberalization of the industry and increased integration of the Russian oil industry into the global economy.

The article analyzes the financial market as a driver of economic growth in Russia. The problem of accelerating growth is a key problem in the formation of sustainable development of the country. In scientific literature and in recommendations of representatives of business, state and municipal authorities discuss methods and measures to accelerate economic growth. They name one of the trends. It is the search for and justification of mechanisms, sources and tools to accelerate economic growth. The financial market is a recognized mechanism for attracting investment as a necessary condition for financing growth. In turn, the implementation of national projects, according to the presidential Decree No. 204 “On the National Goals and Strategic Objectives Development of the Russian Federation for the Period up to 2024” (07. 05. 2018), requires an analysis of their sources of funding, including not only budgetary financing but also financing through the financial instruments of the external capital market.

The article describes the national projects, their structure in terms of funding and identifies budgetary and extra-budgetary sources of funding. The authors define the place and role of extra-budgetary sources of financing, including the instruments of the external capital market. It is emphasized that the full use of financial market instruments is possible only if the regulatory and legal framework of market participants (issuers, investors, financial intermediaries, infrastructure, regulatory authorities) is created and the status of financial instruments is determined. The article shows the created normative-legal base as well as the directions of its improvement. One can find these directions in the documents of the Government and the Bank of Russia. In particular, it was investigated that the Bank of Russia chose the trajectory of the financial market formation aimed at increasing the importance in the competitiveness rating of the World Economic Forum, replacing the previous targets for the formation of international financial centers in Russia. In fact, the Bank of Russia replaced the idea of forming a financial center with the idea of forming a financial services industry. The authors of the article substantiate the point of view that a financial center can include both the financial services industry and perform other functions related to the concentration of financial market participants.

The authors consider the transformation of the role of scientific knowledge in society, the formation of a single scientific and educational space that led to an increase in the importance of science in the development of the states. Today, China is one of the most promising countries in the world, while the leading positions in key economic indicators are largely determined by the impressive scientific and technical potential of the People’s Republic of China. The article carries out a comparative study of the legal regulation of scientific activity, strategic documents in the field of science and education, approaches of state regulation of innovative activity of Russia and China. The choice of Russia and China as objects of study is due to the fact that, firstly, in both states, the continuity of the socialist experience in managing science and education is traced; secondly, the scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and China has long historical roots. In the course of the study, the authors analyzed the statistical data, including the percentage ratio of investment investments, the size of state budget expenditures to support the development of science and innovative technologies, rating indicators, etc.); identified the problems of financing the scientific industry and the implementation of the results of intellectual activity and they also highlighted the prospects for international cooperation of these states. The authors come to the conclusion that modern science faces global challenges aimed at ensuring national priorities through competent state regulation of international scientific and technical cooperation. Thus, the recognition of the importance of commercializing the results of intellectual activity and, as a consequence, the interest of state authorities in the international integration of science and business, encouraging the inclusion of scientific organizations in the production process, and attracting foreign investment in scientific activity seems significant. Thus, for the vitality of modern science, it is necessary to use the best practices of foreign countries in the management of scientific activities in order to obtain the necessary industrial and commercial effect from the use of innovative scientific technologies.

The author considers the development and implementation of the current public policy and gives its evaluation. The inclusion of the prospects of social innovations in these processes makes it possible to better and better adapt them to social needs, and also provides more reliable tools for their theoretical and methodological evaluation. In various areas of production and social management, interest in studying the processes of planning social innovation is growing. This is an important resource in solving many social problems, therefore, it is necessary to understand and give a detailed classification of the social innovations principles and characteristics in order to create a justified model, which is flexible in application for various areas of production and geographical areas. The mechanism for using this model assumes transparency for assessing its effectiveness by socio-political experts in each case.

The article proposes a systematization of parameters that must be taken into account when planning social work so that the processes of social innovation will arise and proceed in a guided direction. Using strategic modeling, the characteristics of the production process of social innovations are systematically revealed, its stages and the requirements of each of them are specified, so that it can serve as the basis for subsequent procedural instructions.

The author analyzes and criticizes long-term strategies and plans for the development of the Russian economy and increasing regional inequality in the light of the theory of public choice. The paper confirms and highlights the fact that according to this theory power and politics are tradable goods, which are rather profitable to trade.

The article raises the problem of a methodologically correct variable description of sociocultural transformations models as the basis for effective models regulating the corresponding processes. In the paradigmatic field of sociocultural research, there is a whole range of interpretations of the sociocultural approach put forward in connection with the analysis of the socio-cultural dynamics and sociocultural transformations of various world regions. On the basis of highlighting various interpretations of the sociocultural approach, the authors explicate different models of sociocultural transformations. The importance of the methodological heritage of P.A Sorokin for the analysis of this process is emphasized. The authors offer their vision of this prominent Russian-American sociologist’s research on the description of sociocultural transformations, and an assessment of its possible use in relation to contemporary Russia.

According to the authors, in the terminology of P.A. Sorokin pre-revolutionary Russian and Soviet cultures should be identified as ideational cultures that developed in the paradigm of Orthodoxy and its reformation. The history of Russia can be viewed as a series of successive and growing tides of ideational culture that were occasionally held back by the temporary rise of sensual culture. The post-Soviet period is viewed as a controversial process of planting sensual culture. In the future, another tide of ideational culture is possible.

It is concluded that in the diagnosis of the sociocultural dynamics of modern Russia, it is possible to use various interpretations that provide an empirically-specific description of the course of sociocultural transformations. The use of competing methodological interpretations and model typologies can provide a diverse and panoramic analysis of sociocultural dynamics, which is an important theoretical prerequisite for determining the optimal models for its regulation at different levels of social organization in the perspective of sociocultural integration of Russia. Taking into account its wide regional and ethnocultural diversity, it is possible to implement various phase models of sociocultural transformations depending on the type of region, characteristics of the ethnocultural and ethno-confessional landscape.