Ideas and Ideals

The work of Alan Garner (b. 1934), one of the most significant contemporary English writers, consistently ranks the local myth of the writer's birthplace, Alderley Edge in Cheshire East. The evolution of the plot development can be seen well in the trilogy that began in 1960 (translated into Russian novel "The Magic Stone Brezingamena" and "Moon on the eve Gomrata") and completed in 2012 (untranslated novel «Boneland»). The story follows the adventures of a brother and sister who settled on a farm Alderley Edge. At an early stage story is built like a fairy tale, with contrasting humanized space truss wild woods and the hollow hill. Borrowing characters, motifs and themes of the epic tales leads to fragmentation and imposition of functions of heroes guarding different places. Chief among them, the magician fron the traditional fairy tale, Cadellin works within the boundaries of the Arthurian myth, protecting the cave with a sleeping king, the role of guardians of other places assigned to other heroes. In searching for the future integrity the author refuses to use ready-made fairy tale and epic models. In the final part of the trilogy keeper of the place becomes an "ancestral character" whose existence lasts until there is a race. The leading method of constructing the plot becomes a parallelism of events that occur with the personifications of the ancestral hero. Writer refuses to opposite locales (humanized and wild, positive and negative, and so on) and eras (ancient and modern, old and new magic, etc.), fusing them together and saying peculiar to primeval consciousness syncretism of perception, the only correct view of the world. Ancestral hero, shaman, guardian and creator of the myth controls all habitats, making all living space cultured at its mythological development. Bearing structures of the local myth becomes a kind of continuity, mastering the same place over successive eras.

The article aims to identify the details of the internal structure of the Russian civilization in the aggregate of its constituent elements: the East Slavic, the Finno-Ugric, the Turkic-Mongol, etc. We correlated the analysis of provisions of the civilizational and geopolitical concepts with the specific character of historical experience of the development of Russia as a local civilization. The author highlights three stages of understanding the ethnic diversity role in the development of the Russian civilization: 1) Pre-Eurasian (1703-1907), 2) Eurasian (1907-1968), 3) Post-Eurasian, or contemporary. The article reveals the structural-genetic role of ethnic diversity in the development of the Russian civilization. The development of civilizational processes is connected to the qualitative complication of civilizational self-organization mechanisms. It implies transition from civilizational symbiosis to synthesis, which is accompanied by strengthening economic ties among ethnic groups, and transformation of less developed economies into more developed ones (preserving mixed economy). We propose the model of civilizational synthesis in which the ethnoses are "structural elements", stable interethnic interactions are "connections", and civilization itself is "substance". Two stages of genesis of the Russian civilization are highlighted: 1) Slavic-Finno-Ugric symbiosis under the political dominant of the eastern Slavs (pre- and early- civilizational stage, VIII-XV centuries); 2) Synthesis of two compounds, Eastern-European (Slavic-Finno-Ugric) and Turkic-Mongol (nomadic) under demographic, political, and cultural domination of Russians (XVI-XX centuries).

The author considers spatial forms of everyday culture of Siberian merchants. The aim of the article is to show the possibility of applying research tools of environmental approach in cultural studies. The article is based on the materials of investigations of the Russian urbanists, historians of architecture and design, art and cultural studies, as well as photographs, which preserved the image of Siberian trade arcades. The author analyzes the shopping passages in Siberia from the point of view of urban interior categories. Passages vertically stood out from the surrounding buildings of commercial organizations. They dominated other buildings in size and architectural design. The formation of the visual image of the passage as a special space contributed to the architecture of the building, and the angular accents of the main entrance, and substantive design of urban parterre. The interior method was used to create the atmosphere of homelike place. The size of the windows corresponded to the size of the flight of the building, that created the image of arcades. Different signs in the form of labels, names and emblems of small shops shaped the perception of a definite business establishment in its integrity. Thus, shopping arcades of Siberian merchants in the context of cultural studies are treated not just as a professional space, but also as an open space for buyers, their everyday interactions in the structure of everyday routine of the Siberian merchants, where there was space for a merchant city, merchant's house etc.

The article continues the earlier begun research in «Ideas and Ideals» (№ 19, 21, 23, 27). Now the author examines the aesthetic aspect of the function. The particularity of its study is to define the object of the transforming process, not the logic mechanism of action (like in other aspects). The object is music taste. Transforming of music taste implies the development of abilities to understand and to value the beauty in music. It is absolutely possible, Russian scientists have proved this thesis. Transforming goes either individually or with the help of more effective social means (enlightenment, education and mass media). The aesthetic aspect includes two subaspects – aesthetic (referring to music itself) and aesthetizing, which means “working” for the final purpose – to lead people to the world of Beauty through music taste development. Understanding of beauty in music morally transforms a man, who is perfecting the surrounding life. “Beauty will save the world” (Dostoyevsky). Aesthetizing subaspect is close to the ethical one – vectors of their functioning are parallel. Aesthetic subaspect represents the unity of means and purpose. The actions of two subaspects may be simultaneous and separate. In the final part of the article the author sums up the results of the research of the music transforming functions.

The XIX century is an era that gave birth to Genius not without a reason and praised him not without an intent. The article studies the phenomenon of Genius from the moment of formation and to the apotheosis point in Nietzsche’s works, he achieved in less than a hundred years.A starting point, is considered to be the aesthetic positions of Sturm and Drang era which signified artists’ interest to the human person and determined the difference of all 19-th century between ordinary people and chosen ones. The elite were seemed to be conducted by Christ’s prototype who was overestimated as a Genius living personification that is God’s and a person’s Oneness, or more precisely as a charismatic person. Finally, the Genius as the art creator and greatness as His representing point were “crowned” in Nietzsche’s philosophy, who raised up the Genius to the rank of a Superman. Christ’s prototype was rejected, God died and incarnated in the idea of a Superman. The Superman’s features which were endued by Nietzsche made Him just the idea which is incapable to exist in the real form of a specific person.

For this reason the Genius in Nietzsche’s philosophy transformed steadily into mythologem of his time.

The article analyzes the implementation of the control by the Party Control Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) over the political behavior of the Communists in the postwar period. The moral resistance of the members of the ruling party to the authorities’ policy is one of the brightest phenomena of the Soviet era. Documents of the Party Control Commission mostly consist of decisions on appeals of the punished Communists, which allow us to see the characteristic manifestations of dissent from both ordinary party members and the officials. These people denied the brutality of the regime and the limitation of themes available for criticizing. The PCC (the Party Control Commission) brought to justice those responsible for violations of party discipline and ethics. The dissent and perseverance in defending their views were considered to be particularly serious violations of party discipline. The article shows numerous examples of frequent disagreements with the official policy of the backbone of the Communist party: the officials, the old Bolsheviks, army officers, security officers, propagandists. The party punishment was often followed by the charge of a crime. It is obvious that in conditions of terror, the party members tried to hide their views. That’s why the information about different forms of open protest during the period of late Stalinism becomes more valuable, when the numerous controlling structures carefully suppressed intra-party dissent.

In the article the author shares his findings on understanding the uniqueness of Chinese culture. Understanding Chinese culture demands and deserves an innovative approach which helps us to shed light on Chinese culture’s “millions of truth”. And this approach is Yin Yang philosophy. The Yin Yang philosophy suggests that there exists neither absolute black nor absolute white; every universal phenomenon embraces paradox and change. Culture is perceived as possessing inherently paradoxical value orientations, thereby enabling it to embrace opposite traits of any given cultural dimension. Through the examination of eight pairs of paradoxical values in business and social contexts, the authors have argued that Chinese culture has undergone significant change. However, “change” occurs not in terms of old values being replaced by new values but rather that contradictory values coexisting more and more visibly in today’s Chinese society. The article analyses the modern communication characteristics.

This article examines the dynamics of the process of geographical perception of Siberia, in the aspect of the forming of the idea of Siberia as geographical and cultural unity. There are presented, in particular, quite legendary testimonies of foreign travelers who almost up to the end of the 17th century were getting pretty random information from Russian merchants; some data from the proper Siberian Chronicles is also given. Taking into account the idea of empire as a political structure that prevailed in the last 2,500 years of human history, author deals with the cultural and political factors which has determined the integrity of the idea of Siberia as a specific megaregion. Particularly the question of the nature of the development of Siberia in terms of the corresponding type of colonization is examined. It is concluded that the population of Siberia, despite the fact that it was used and even became in the first place famous as a region of exile, the consciousness of Siberians is not typical for colonial territory. Since the end of the 18th century the representation of a Siberian as a special group of the Russian population is firmly established.

In this article a reader can find the continuation of the offered in the previous publications the analysis of the concept Siberia as a megaregion. Understanding Siberia as the megaregion plays an exceptionally important role in contemporary geopolitics, taking into account the position of this megaregion, concerning China and South-Eastern Asia. No less significant appears to be the economic capacity of Siberia, taking into consideration it’s natural resources and also it’s industrial, scientific and educational levels. The concept of the megaregion allows to observe Siberia in it’s entity, from the Urals up to the Pacific Ocean. Such an attitude permits to get rid of the “fragment” approach, i.e. division into separate, weakly connected, regions and national territories. Popular in the Russian economic discourse the notion “macroregion” has purely economic character and in difference from “magerarion” doesn’t involve historic, social and cultural dimensions. In the case of New Industrial Revolution there are new opportunities for Siberia, depending on the rebirth of industrial production on the basis of modernization and innovations, and also launching the original projects. Siberia as Russia in whole needs this innovative impulse not only in the sphere of economics, but also in education and science. The positive results will be possible by saving and renewing basic values and cores of successful strategic projects. To reach ambitious aims it’s necessary to have highly-qualified specialists and investments in R&D. It’s important to shift social responses from the plain consumption to the authentic productive labor thru realizing such values as justice and equality.

The subject of analysis is the article by I.V. Zhezhko-Braun. It is useful to discuss the history of the Siberian city of science, taking into account the present state of the RAS. The author highlights the uniqueness of this historical phenomenon, where the appearance of certain structures of civil society could be even more important than scientific discoveries. The article is based on unique sources, the resources, used by the author, involved oral narratives, interviews with a number of contemporaries and participants in the events described. For further research it is recommended for the author to use more available sources, primarily documents of the party organs. The author has to deeper present the general context in which these events took place. It is very important to substantiate the application of the term «student movement» to the opposition phenomena in Novosibirsk Akademgorodok.