Ideas and Ideals

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 economy 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 paper is devoted to the peculiarities of the venture capital industry in the Russian Federation. The authors analyze statistical indicators of Russian private equity and venture capital market and reveal its key features. Statistical data provided by the Russian Venture Capital Association (RVCA) was used. The analysis demonstrates that in the private equity and venture capital market in Russia, investments in companies at the late stages (expansion, restructuring) predominate, and innovative companies at the earlier, so-called “venture stages” (sowing, start-ups, initial stage), remain underfunded. Among the funds involved in investing in companies at the venture stages (sowing, initial stage, and, in some cases, expansion), i.e. VC funds, the largest share is accounted for private funds.

The largest volume of venture capital investments in Russia is made in the sector of information and communication technologies. Venture investments in the so-called “real sectors of economy” (in the terminology of the RVCA), which produce tangible and intangible products, occupy the smallest share in the industry preferences of venture capital funds. In other words, innovative projects in these sectors of the national economy remain underfunded. It is concluded that VC funds with the participation of state capital are the dominant source of venture capital investments for non-IT companies: the largest share of these funds is focused on venture capital investments in real sectors or have mixed industry preferences. The analysis of the venture capital market in the Russian regions shows that most venture capital investments are directed to the Central Federal District. The remaining regions do not take an active part in the formation of the national venture environment.

The authors make recommendations for improving the infrastructure of venture financing of innovative projects at the regional level. It is concluded that at present the activities of various structures that provide assistance to the innovation process at the level of the regions of the Russian Federation are not coordinated. It is necessary to create a single center coordinating innovation in a specific region, including activities related to attracting venture capital funds and investing their resources in the projects of this region.

The rationale for the sustainable development strategies of the subjects of the Russian Federation with vast territories should include monitoring of the state and socio-economic analysis of the development factors not only of the regions as a whole, but also of territories of lower hierarchical levels of these systems. Often, groups of municipalities have common essential features and characteristics of economic development, similar interests. It is necessary to form a subregional approach to the analysis of the problems of such territories and forecasting their further development. Involving the mechanisms of spatial and inter-territorial interaction requires the correct solution of problems of strategic goals coordination and the ways to achieve them.

The article presents a brief overview of approaches to the analysis of regional processes. We chose the SWOT-analysis as the main tool for research. It allows us to identify and systematize the factors that contribute to the achievement of the chosen goals of the long-term socio-economic development of the territory. Special attention is paid to the integrative function of this technique.

We performed the analysis of strategic compliance of the available domestic resources and opportunities with external conditions and influence factors for one of the eastern subregions of Russia - the central economic zone of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The integrative function of the SWOT-analysis and cognitive modeling allowed to reflect the interaction between the factors and to assess the degree of their influence on the feasibility of the strategic development targets of the territory.

Managing actions aimed at stimulating the development of industry and infrastructure, at eliminating the lag in social development, at using integration opportunities and weakening the role of negative effects for the region caused by corporate policies and the federal center, have the greatest impact on the achievement of the strategic goal. The results of an aggregate estimate of the effectiveness of actions confirmed the assumption that the formation of the favorable institutional environment and the inflow of financial and investment resources to the territory may be most significant.

The article is devoted to the problem of the development of human capital in the conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution 4.0 for the development of international trade of the Russian Federation. The authors consider the impact of human capital on improving the competitiveness of Russia in world markets in the digital economy. The development of the digital economy is directly related to the educational process. Great attention has to be paid to training personnel that will contribute to the development of infrastructure. Without quality staffing, development is impossible. The components of human capital were chosen as the object of study.

The article analyzes the dynamics of the level of development of human capital of the Russian Federation, relative to other countries. The authors describe the significance of investments in the components of human capital. The theoretical and methodological materials of this article are the legislative acts and normative documents of the Russian Federation, domestic and foreign publications and publications on the subject under study. HSE statistical compilations, data from the Federal State Statistics Service and the World Bank Data, information materials published in periodicals and posted on the Internet were used as a database.

The research results are based on the results of statistical analysis, which confirm the availability of an extensive review of the literature and a comparative analysis of international indicators and indices. Study period: 2000s –2018s.

The article is devoted to the interrelation between the epoch and music creation, basing on the experience of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR during 20–30s of the XX century. These geographical and time frames give us significant material for studying the problem. The establishment of Soviet power determined colossal changes in life, including art and culture. The essence of new features is the method of socialist realism. Mass character and collectivism are the most important peculiarities of that time. It is a direct response to the new economic relations. The research of the phenomenon “we” begins in Azerbaijan music – especially in mass, popular songs. The accent in the opera genre is shifted to the concept of people’s victory. The main tendency in Azerbaijan art before 1920 was the humanity tendency, after 1920 the Communist party ideals. We must mark the birth of a new musical style in Azerbaijan as the main result of the development of composers’ music after 1920. The Azerbaijan music came out on the world stage at that time.  It became a heroic one, whereas before 1920 it had been lyrical. The heroic line is expressed mainly by march intonations. We must also notice the concrete historical line instead of legendary character of music before 1920. The chief heroes of Azerbaijan music theatre are Medjnun and Kerogly, the opposites: contemplation and action, unresistance and struggle, makam and ashug genres. But in spite of differences there is continuity between the first epoch and the second one in such genres as: Russian folk songs and Azerbaijan tunes.

Based on the analysis of the obituaries of the revolutionaries belonging to different political parties of the socialist camp, the article attempts to reconstruct the “ideal” of the revolutionary figure. The author proceeds from the fact that the analysis of the complex of obituaries of a certain social or public group allows to identify those values that are most important for a particular group at the given time, to carry out the reconstruction of its moral and ethical ideas, which are important system-forming factors of its subculture. According to the author of the article, the similarity of the revolutionary obituary to the lives of saints is lawful, firstly, by virtue of the identity of functions - the creation of an image of a “hero”, which  served as an example to follow and the formation of a “pantheon”; secondly, because although the revolutionaries were largely nonreligious people, the revolutionary conviction sometimes took a religious connotation, became a kind of confession of a new faith, in which their “saints” and “martyrs” appeared. The term “obituary” is understood quite broadly, and not only short notes about a person's death were analyzed, but also memoir materials, biographical essays, having a character of an obituary, which were published in sections such as “Memory of the Departed” and / or had other features peculiar to this genre. On the basis of the analysis of obituaries published in the illegal newspapers “Znamya Truda” and “Proletariy”, in the journal “Penal Servitude and Exile”, as well as in the emigrant press (“Socialist Vestnik” and “Noviy Zhurnal”), the author highlights a complex of traits of character and properties of the human personality, perceived as undoubtedly positive, as well as a complex of actions and behavioral patterns that are characteristic of a true revolutionary and are positioned as an example to follow. The author also comes to the conclusion that the hypothesis of similarity of hagiographic literature and obituaries originating from the revolutionary camp has proved to be true.

This article is devoted to some theoretical and methodological, as well as applied aspects of imagology, associated with the use of its conceptual and categorical tools to study the cinematographic “hyperreality”. The latter is considered as a source-reservoir of media imagams as leading constructs of the binary opposition of the type “own” / “alien” –  “us” / “them”, performing the function of continuous cognitive mobilization, leading to the creation of long-term, universal, supratextual allusions and therefore popular for the modern process of political stereotyping and the formation of identification codes.

The predominant type of research sources were film documents, films of English and American production of various genre affiliation. An attempt was made to evaluate the information potential of the imagosphere of the studied films on the quality of the representation of the specific humor of the “Cold War”, features of the means of artistic and visual expressiveness to reproduce the image of the other. The study concludes that there are differences in the morphology of the political-satirical imagosphere of English and American cinematography.

In conclusion, the author asserts the importance of Anglo-American cinematic humor and “laughter technologies”, portraying expressive immanent mobilization mechanisms that have turned into self-sufficient driving forces leading to the formation of “cold” political-ideological existentialism as a special type of thinking action.

The aim of the article is to reveal and reconstruct the hierarchy of values in rock-culture. The author’s hypothesis is that rock-culture is an important instrument of forming post-industrial axiology. This fact implies exaggerated manifestation of values. In the author’s opinion rock-culture is characterized by the system of relations, a set of values, norms, identities, practices, symbols that surround social context of rock-music. The methodology of the research is based on principles of structure and functional analysis. The main methods are: an included non-formalized narrative interview and included observation. The axiological model of rock-culture is formed around the value dichotomy: collectivity, unity – individualism, self expression. One of the variants of this dichotomy is a contradiction between family values, profession and non-limited self expression. Agents of rock-culture are influenced by this contradiction and they understand the need to change their axiological model. They are forced to adapt an alien lifestyle. It correlates with the values of activity and innovation. Another important for rock-culture value is that of a riot, confrontation. It is in dialectical interaction with the value of creativity. Creativity in rock-culture has a complex and multi-level structure that includes excess versatility and existential strive for the transformation of reality. These values comprise the main group of rock-culture values. Freedom is the leading value in the system. And at the same time it provokes the appearance of some secondary values. They are: laziness, excessive hedonism, household deviations (in the value aspect, not as practice). So the core of axiological rock-culture system includes the values that correlate with post-industrial culture. Laziness and hedonism have traditional connotation. Family and profession are connected with responsibility. This element of rock-axiology is a part of industrial culture. These values are on periphery of rock-culture. On the basis of the above it is possible to conclude the following. Axiology of rock-culture is subject to the transformations of its culture during post-industrial period. Sometimes it can be associated with strengtheting of certain value positions, with the acquisition of hypertrophied qualities.

The article deals with the problem of studying the cultural meanings of literary and painted landscape in postmodern discourse, which is relevant for modern cultural knowledge. It is noted that the polyphonic content characteristic of postmodernism, the “rhizomatic” structure of texts, their playful nature, intertextuality largely determine the fact that the boundaries of traditional types and genres of art become conditional, because the very concept of “boundaries” as a kind of “demarcation line” is replaced by the idea of relativity of intraspecific differences. In the “postmodern situation”, for which the paradigm is the installation on the “heteromorphism of language games”, dynamic stability, giving importance to pluralism, randomness, the assumption of different ways of development and its description, the landscape goes beyond the independent genre form, creating multicomponent intertext structures, organized on the principle of citation, collage, free construction of semantic relations. The tendency of leveling intraspecific boundaries in postmodern art leads to the transformation of the content core of the landscape in the direction of mechanical copying, deconstruction, ironic play on the “usual” norms of classical or, to a greater extent, modernist artistic strategies, which always performed a certain teleological function, that is, represented the articulated author's idea. Landscape (both literary and pictorial) in this context is an act of expression, communicative event, “consistency plan” (G. Deleuze), where polysemantic internal bonds leading to permanent indentation in the cultural layers of the text. On the basis of the analysis of the works of J. Fowles, M. Pavic, A. Kiefer it is concluded that in postmodernism, the traditional understanding of the landscape as a holistic artistic image of the natural world is replaced by its interpretation as a mosaic, multi-layered structure, parts of which are connected variatively, have polyassociative and polysemantic interpretations, since their semantic reading is not regulated by the author's intention, but is in dialogical interaction with the reader or viewer. The revealed tendencies of genre synesthesia in postmodern discourse fill the landscape with practically unlimited possibilities in the construction of a complex polysemantic structure, in which semantic levels are not hierarchically invariant, but are in dynamic interaction, forming places of “assemblies” and “distribution” of information in accordance with a certain cultural context.

This article is about the rationality concept in the Ernst Cassirer philosophy of culture. The need for such understanding was made conditional for the philosopher upon the modern project (Enlightenment project). One of the key ideas around which the project was built is rationality. However, it is this concept that begins to be rethought and criticized at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. Narrow sense of rationality raises the problem of substantiating humanitarian knowledge and embedding it in a scientific paradigm. A number of philosophers have attempted to resolve this issue. Two ways were outlined – a categorical break with the established tradition (for example, the intuitive approach) and work within the framework of the tradition (expanding the concept of rationality with the intention of including more cultural phenomena in it). The neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer belongs to the followers of the second approach.

The concept of symbolic form, that he developed, allows us to build a new plural idea of the rationality. In his opinion, each cultural phenomenon has its own rationality. This view of the problem makes it possible to talk about humanitarian knowledge as scientific, that is, fit into the framework set by the New Time. Cassirer did not develop a complete system, but outlined important guidelines for cultural research. In particular, he especially singled out two categories of the humanities, such as form and style. In addition to them

The article is devoted to the image of a woman constructed by the government discourse in the early Soviet period. The government’s propaganda imposed the social role of a woman as a social controller in addition to the social role of a worker, a social activist and a mother. In particular, this study is dedicated to the transformation of a female image in the anti-alcohol policy. The author uses content analysis investigating this complex image and the ways of its reflection in the mass literature. The sources of the study were articles showing the editorial Board ideas and “the reader’s letters” published in the “Rabotnitsa” magazine dated from 1925 to 1936, the articles from “Revolution and Culture” magazine dated from 1928 to 1930 and the propaganda brochures.

The study showed that soviet propaganda began to change their messages recipients during realization of “cultural alcohol-drinking program”. This anti-alcohol propaganda turned its attention from the men’s to the women’s audience. The anti-alcohol articles’ characters appeared as innocent victims of their alcoholic husbands. But at the same time the propaganda stressed the idea that women had great potential to fight against alcoholism. Gradually, the woman’s image began to acquire more and more positive features. Often female fates stories evoked compassion and pity or even admiration. Along with this tendency their husbands’ images turned more and more pathetic, helpless and infantile.

The governmental discourse of the 30-s strived to transfer the family responsibility and social control to women considering them to be a reliable support for the propaganda projects implementation. Consequently, the constructed working and mothering woman’s image was enriched with socio-educational and socio-regulating functions. Thus, anti-alcohol propaganda caused the change of the previously existing gender order when a man played a dominant role in a family and put a woman to the priority position implying that she is more conscious than a man.

The article discusses the individual’s right to privacy in his/her private space. The right to privacy does not imply complete loneliness and lack of social contacts, but the ability to independently regulate the degree of intimacy and distance in relations with other people. A person as a social being needs both communication and rest from other people in his private space, which provides an opportunity for leisure and personal self-development. One’s own home is closed from the objectivizing gaze of the Other; there is no need to wear a social mask, take into account the opinions of others, be subjected to someone’s assessments. The need for privacy is also due to the bodily nature of man, because according to public regulations, many actions related to body care should be closed to the public.

The degree of need to be outside of society varies in different times and cultures. In the traditional society of the Middle Ages, being alone was regarded as a state of danger, an experience of failure, which was caused by the weakness of state structures that did not provide the individual with protection. With the growth of individualism associated with the strengthening of the state, as well as an increase in the well-being and literacy of the population, the life of the individual becomes more complicated and the need for privacy increases. In modern times, there is a differentiation of home space: there are such types of rooms as a library, a study, a room where a person could indulge in relaxation, thought, or reading alone. For a long time, only wealthy people could afford private space. However, from the second half of the 20th century, such an opportunity arises for the majority of the population of developed countries.

For a modern person, the presence of his private space is a psychological need, the absence of which causes a state of deprivation, anxiety and irritation. Violation of private space is characteristic of totalitarian regimes seeking to exercise total observation and control over an individual. The right to privacy is constitutive of human dignity and is fundamental to the modern concept of personality, its freedom and autonomy.