Ideas and Ideals

This paper deals with the post-war period (late 1940s – mid 1950s) in the development of Soviet digital electronic computational tools and formation of the USSR science and technology policy in this field. The authors studied how well the Soviet scientists and managers were aware of the new aspects of this policy, detected its primary application area – the Soviet Atomic project and considered the conditions of its formation. Evidently, information about the new computational tools came to the Soviet Union from abroad. One of the sources of such information was academic and science and technical journals. Possibly, intelligence agencies played a certain role in obtaining this information. It was then that some contradictions between approaches to computer hardware appeared. On the one hand, leaders of the Atomic project realized its benefits and planned to produce and apply it, though in a limited scope. On the other hand, advocates of the development of computer hardware affiliated with the USSR Academy of Sciences and Ministry for Machine Building and Instrument Making were in favor of a more comprehensive approach, which implied the creation of new types of computers, increasing their capacity and extending prospective applications beyond the military-industrial complex. Participation of the two establishments in the development of computer hardware was highly competitive, with each body pursuing its own goals and lacking resources. The fact that the developments by S.A. Lebedev got ultimately higher priority testifies to the deep insight of the USSR Academy of Sciences into scientific and engineering problems. Ideological pressure, characteristic of the late period of Stalin’s rule with respect to some areas of science, did not have any serious implications for the development of computer hardware. The general situation with electronic computational tools confirms the fact that Soviet engineering in the period of late Stalinism was of the catch-up nature.

The article identifies the social-philosophical roots of neoliberal ideology, which as a project is in a very strong position in today's globalizing world. Classic authors of the neo-liberal approach are Western scholars Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek, who developed the concept of "open society" ("extended order"), where the reference methodological designs are hard anthropocentrism, evolutionism and market relations. According to theorists of neoliberalism, the meaning of the historical process as a movement from "closed society", support for which was made by the collectivist structure, to the "open society", where relations of exchange based on individual aspirations and initiative are at the forefront. From this follows the introduction of a number of concepts, turning into a neo-liberal ideology – individual freedom, a market. The article shows the limited explanatory possibilities of the theory of Karl Popper and Friedrich Hayek, as well as the abstractness of the mentioned ideologies that often forces neo-liberal leaders to resort to double standards in the course of political practice. However, the strength of neoliberal tenets are not in scientific, but in their class nature that makes them useful as expressions of the interests of leading social groups.

In the article, Russian regions are the classified in terms of cultural capital  development by cluster analysis method. Inside the allocated clusters, generalized factors are defined by the method of principal components; the effect  of indicators  of  cultural capital on the level of economic activity of the population is measured. The obtained multiple regression equation was used for forecasting the level of economic activity of population in 2016-2018 years.  

The Government of the Russian Federation in the "Strategy of innovative development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020" sets ambitious targets of long-term development. It plans to achieve a high level welfare of the population, strengthening the country's geopolitical role as one of the global leaders. The only possible way to achieve these goals is considered to be the transition of the Russian economy on an innovative socially-oriented model of development. The article is devoted to the statistical study of the innovation potential of Russian regions. Provide comparison of methods for the study of innovative activity and innovative potential of the territories. Developed methodological apparatus of statistical research of innovative potential of regions of the Russian Federation for a series of years. Held typology of the Russian regions in terms of innovation potential.

Scientific and pedagogical activities during the period of 1998-2001 are considered in the article. The author describes the work of the Siberian Transport University (STU) of that time as well as students and lecturers of the Economic Theory Department and the World Economy Department and he also recollects his work with postgraduate students. The author spells out the most significant conclusions he made while writing his book “The Economic History of Russia in Modern Times”, its gaps and inaccuracies. An important place is given to the content of the discussion at the Russian-American conference on the economic history of the Soviet Union in Zvenigorod in the summer of 2000 as well as the description of its participants. The author speculates upon the reasons for his resignation from the Siberian Transport University (STU).

The artcile considers the Max Weber's interpretation of the interrelations between economy and religion. The concept of «elective affinities» which played one the central roles in explaining complex correlations between the material culture and the religious experience is in the focus. The article argues that Goethe's famous novel «Die Wahlerwanschaften» (1809) and various critical replies do help to understand better the logic of Weber’s essay “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1905). In addition, this interpretation gives an opportunity to show the formal similarities and the content differences of the role of Protestantism and Old Belief (Schism of the Russian Orthodox Church) in the economic modernization of Europe and Russia.

The article considers the theoretical views of French monetary economists of the second half of the XVI century in connection with the price revolution of the period. The usual explanation of this inflation is based on the quantity theory of money, which was first propounded by Martin de Azpilcueta Navarro (1492-1586) in Spain and by Jean Bodin (1529-1596) in France. According to this theory, the precious metals, arriving in Spain from the New World, increased the quantity of metallic currency in the state. This in turn led to the increase in prices in Spain and to a balance-of-payments’ deficiency, as the demand for foreign merchandise, including goods supply from Spain to America, exceeded the Spanish own export abroad. This deficiency was financed by metallic currency which, respectively, affected price increase in foreign countries. However, the French theorists, besides the increase of precious metals in circulation, emphasized also other reasons for the inflation, such as a population growth, the actions of monopolists and the increased demand for luxury goods. In their works, they also offered a number of measures for a stabilisation of national currency. Their conclusions promoted the preparation of the monetary reform which was carried out by the government of France in 1577.

After the collapse of the USSR the Post-Soviet republics had to build foreign policy connections actually from scratch. First of all the young states sought to establish the relations with the most developed countries. In the article are shown the main directions of economic cooperation of the Federative Republic of Germany and Republic of Belarus at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. Germany having the most developed industrial base in the European Union and RB which preserved the economic potential of the Soviet period, actively collaborated in the trade and economic sphere. It was important for Germany to learn the earlier closed market, and for RB to find the partner in Europe for promoting their production, attracting investments and technologies. The basis of the economic relations of the parties was formed by arrangements of the first half of the 1990th. Thus diplomatic interaction of two countries was complicated because of criticism by the leadership of Germany of an internal political course of Belarus. Economic cooperation had asymmetric character that was reflection of specifics of economic development of two countries. Germany delivered to Belarus high degree products of processing, and in exchange received semi-finished products and resources which went, including transit from Russia. The German firms succeeded in questions of investment cooperation and in formation of joint ventures on the territory of Belarus. Opening the market, RB couldn't resist the companies from Germany. The balance of trade surplus was always in favor of Germany that also points to unequal character of the bilateral relations and to a set of problems which don't allow the Belarusian economy to compete with the German.

This article focuses on the causes of inflation emergence in Russia and the factors causing its growth and decline. The inflationary process in Russia can have a dual effect, as in any other country. If inflation grows without any control then it can lead to economic chaos. On the other hand, if the inflation is under control, it may intensify the economic state of the market. Every country uses its own methods of money circulation regulation. Russia also uses special methods to influence the inflationary process at the current moment. These methods are based on the instruments of monetary policy.

The author analyses the tendencies of the discipline formation such as philosophy of economy. The author hypothesizes that it was impossible to form autonomous philosophical-economic knowledge in Russia of the 18-th century. The prerequisites of philosophical and economic trends in Russia were investigated in the article as well as the history of scientific rational thinking formation within the framework of religiously-utopian discourse in the 18-th century Russia. According to the basic thesis of the article the philosophical-economic discourse could not be formed in Russia of the 18-th century because of the absence of cultural pre-conditions. The economic aspect was included into the religiously-utopian context, the author states the fact, that cultural space was not prepared to accept the economic ideas and concepts. Nevertheless, there was a need in scientific economic thinking able to specify the way of modernization of economy inspired by historical transformations of Peter I, who generated competition with the European states in such areas as: trade, military business and shipbuilding.