Ideas and Ideals

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.

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.

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 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 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 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 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 problem of self-identification of small ethnic groups are becoming more threatening because of the importance of globalization processes. All small ethnic groups are now subject of the ethnic identity assimilation destructive processes. Karaites occupy an important place in this, because their language and religion disputes about the origin of the people many years. This uncertainty of self-identification was the cause of our field research. There are some results of the preliminary analysis. I have carried out a case study of ethnic self-identification of the Crimean Karaites. 15 expert interviews with the Karaites in Feodosia, Simferopol, Evpatoria, and 48 focused interviews with residents of 12 cities and rural areas were conducted. Information from experts and ordinary residents of Crimea proves the ambiguity and uncertainty of a significant identity of the Karaites, as well as poor awareness of non-Karaites inhabitants about Karaites neighbors. Experts which claim about their Karaite origin, deny kinship with the Jews. They see themselves as ethnic Turks on the basis of language, which none of the respondent does not own the required extent. They believe Karaism independent religion. Experts who speak Hebrew and Karaite, in contrast to other, recognize such links. We note the significant socio-political diversification and atomization formal public activity the Karaites throughout in the Crimea. Karaites public NGO-organizations compete for budget funds and for the expected state support. Their social activity is not include the Karaites countryside in any way. Our survey of residents in the streets showed that many of them are not aware of the Karaites as a people, or have no idea of them all. Only those who is a neighbor, or a kinship with Karaites know about them. Crimean Karaites have by now almost completely assimilated ethnos. although many Karaites are still an ethnically pure. The socio-political, cultural and religious activities of active representatives Karaites people are not conducive to any ethnic consolidation, preservation, and revival of a small ethnos.

  The article considers the experience of the Republic of Korea in formation of the world-class universities, reflecting the specificities of the Asian educational model. The development of world-class universities, which meet the requirements of national governments in the context of international competitiveness and economic globalization, becomes a priority in the policy of many countries. Universities are successfully integrated in the world economy; they satisfy national requirements and become the dominant part in interaction between the government and business. Such Asian countries as the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Japan have taken a huge leap forward in modernization of higher education and today universities of these countries rank at the top of the best international surveys. This result has been achieved by introducing the Western model of education, based on Asian societies’ traditional elements of hierarchy in the educational system and the pursuit of knowledge. The South Korean universities have become the major leaders of international rankings among Asian countries due to the programs realized by the South Korean government. These programs have enhanced research practices and increased the universities’ prestigiousness and competitiveness. The world-class university model of Jamil Salmi permits the analysis of modernization of the South Korean higher educational system according to three main factors: high concentration of talent, abundant resources and favorable governance. Attracting foreign experts and collaboration with foreign academic staff have contributed to the creation of research networks, the quality of education has increased and the main universities of South Korea have become the centers of technology and innovation. No less important is the fact that modernization of universities is based on cultural values of Korean society.

The study deals with the mechanisms of perception of the Japanese culture in the works of Russian symbolists, Valery Bryusov and Fyodor Sologub. The Japanese culture came to Russia at the turn of the 20^th century not directly but by mediation of the European culture; the visual code and the modeled image of Japan were formed as a paradise lost/found, as a country populated by the “artist folk” due to fusion of arts and crafts and to the idea of artistic skills acquired not as an elitist but mass phenomenon. This mythological model was built basing on the mechanism of substitution, when the Japanese culture was compared to the culture of ancient Greece, to the medieval and Renaissance art. In Russian symbolism, creating the image of Japan as new Hellas became the main principle, including transformation of the concept of Dionysism. In their works and in critique as well, Valery Bryusov and Fyodor Sologub included Japan into the framework of the symbolist myth. In this regard, materials from “Vesy” (the Scales) literary magazine, the “Contemporaneity” cycle of poems by Bryusov, letters, essays, and articles by Sologub, and a fragment from his novel “The Petty Demon” are considered. For Sologub, the concept of the “natural man” raised in the spirit of antiquity and the cult of the beautiful human body were dominant. His attitude was integral and did not change during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which was a rare phenomenon in the society. The attitude of Bryusov was ambivalent, and the aesthetic and political realia generated a certain antithesis in his thinking: the nation of “sophisticated aesthetes” turned into a nation of barbarians threatening the European civilization. According to Bryusov, Russia had a messianic role, and it was destined to rescue Europe from the “yellow hazard”. In his understanding, Russia itself was like a new Roman Empire. It is evident that in the early 20^th century the Japanese culture assimilated with the existing mythological models in the symbolist milieu, and the yearning for an ideal became embodied in the creation of an existent /non-existent topos of a miraculous country according to the images of the past cultures. The alien was perceived as the beautiful, to be soon replaced by the contraposition of the dangerous/demonic. This antithesis is archetypal. At that time in Russia, the Japanese studies were in the initial phase of knowledge, and comprehensive cultural dialogue, not implying ready-made answers and clichés, was unfathomable.