Ideas and Ideals

Computer engineering became a reality in the USSR in the mid-1950s. Capabilities of this new branch, demonstrated in the Soviet Atomic Project, generated an urge to expand the production of computers not only in the defense industry but in the civilian economy as well. Since the USSR’s economy developed in confrontation to the capitalist world, the political cliché “to catch up and outdo” introduced by V.I. Lenin back in 1917 was reiterated by other Soviet leaders in different situations. In particular, it was popular after the Second World War and, among other things, was applied to computer engineering. The comparative production of computers in the USSR and in the West was not in favor of our country. Our modest success was primarily attributed to the general slippage in this area. The situation with computer engineering is an example of the catching-up nature of the Soviet technological development during the period of late Stalinism. Nevertheless, since computer production was launched, there emerged a need for specialists both in industrial production and maintenance. Hence, appropriate disciplines were introduced in the Soviet higher educational institutions. Computer specialists were trained in Moscow, Leningrad, Gorky, Kiev, Penza, and in other leading universities of the USSR. Dating back to this period, until the mid-1950s, there are three out of the four principal academic programming schools, based in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.  At the same time, A.A. Lyapunov laid back the foundations of the theory of programming and L.A. Lusternik organized, in 1950, a workshop on programming at the Institute of Precise Mechanics and Computer Engineering, USSR Academy of Sciences. Computer design was improved simultaneously with software development. From the very beginning, the civilian applications of computers took computer engineering beyond mathematical calculations, to automatic translation, and with time this tendency grew stronger. The new industry developed in the conditions of severe competition between the two establishments: the USSR Machine-Building Ministry and Academy of Sciences, each promoting their own project. Various means were used in this struggle, up to classifying information about computers in academic and mass media. The ideological pressure on some scientific areas of biology, genetics and physics, characteristic of the late Stalin’s period, did not have any serious consequences for computer engineering. Yet, computer advocates intentionally distinguished themselves from the “bourgeois” theories of computer animation. Computer applications in civilian branches of economy were artificially held back: no small share in this had the authorities’ stance to strengthen, above all, the national defense potential.

  The article is devoted to the problematic character of the relations of Christianity with other cultures as one of the brightest features of European civilization. Attempts to understand it were made throughout the History of Christianity. It is necessary to consider continuous penetration into Europe of the most diverse cultures from the other continents which entered into the existential conflict with this religion. At the same time it is necessary to consider the problem relations of Christianity with the European mental and cultural arrangements. They naturally came into conflict with Christianity which had been created outside the continent. It is especially vividly seen in the period of early Christianity when Christianity was more presented by a set of ideas, than the sum of artifacts. Besides, Christianity was formed not due to the evolution of a certain initial paradigm, but as a result of synthesis of elements of almost all known at that time cultures. The author gives a general characteristic of the history of interaction between Christianity and the European cultural streams, and also he considers some forms and methods of fight, which Christianity used against those cultural streams. The Church played a special role in this fight, and сhristianization might be presented as the movement of the Church, not a religion. At the same time сhristianization is an information gain of new space. Simultaneously, it is necessary to highlight the role of this religion in preservation of the European information unity and also in the fight against cultural interventions from the outside.

The author considers melancholy and its companions "anguish and fear", which play an important role in the formation of personality. He also examines melancholy as a state of mind, not a diagnosis, which affects the human perception of the world, when a number of opportunities for self-actualization are open before a person. Each historical period has its own emotional ways of expressing feelings in the state of melancholy either by one person or a society as a whole. Also the article analyzes the historical problems of the appearance of melancholy, its symptoms, feelings, which at one time was considered to be a depression, in another time - hopeless despair, anguish, grief, sorrow of mind, in today's world it is considered to be "the twenty-first century plague."

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon "aestheticization of politics". The authors present political aesthetics within the boundaries of "symbolic politics" concept. "Symbolic politics", as a special kind of political communication, fits into the modern context of political life "virtualisation". The aesthetic mode of politics perception is viewed by the authors as socio-cognitive practices that are relevant to modern standards and principles of rationality. The paper studies the discourse of an "information war" in the context of correlative coherence of aesthetic and pragmatic elements of symbolic politics.

The article focuses on the modernism/postmodernism terms definition. The author conceptualizes the two terms in the three theoretical frames. Firstly the dichotomy of modernism/postmodernism is described in the context of artistic practice and aesthetic programs. Secondly the two notions are analyses as the stages of cultural evolution. Thirdly the dyad is comprehended as the two ways of world understanding. The core issue in the differentiation between modernism and postmodernism, in the author’s opinion, is the category of integrity. The article is addressed to philosophers, specialists in cultural studies and aesthetics, cultural scientists and educators.

The article focuses on research of the language of architectural forms. The author considers the language of architecture as the artificial language living under the same laws of syntax and semantics as a natural language. The researcher’s attention is paid to simultaneity of the language of architecture perception as its characteristic feature, in contrast to linearity of natural language, which is perceived sequentially. The author considers the interdependency of the language dynamics of architectural forms and the historical period of their existence as well as social and political structure of the society. It is highlighted, that the language of architecture serves as a tool of a person’s orientation in space and as one of the forms of practical activities organization. Architecture is the art which combines not only decorative and esthetic functions, but primarily the pragmatic one.

The article is devoted to identifying the lessons of national history in the context of the processes of transformation of history education in the XIX-XX and XX-XXI centuries. Their relevance is linked with the development of modern historical culture and the problem of formation of historical consciousness and self-consciousness of youth. The theoretical foundation of the study is the results of a comparative analysis of undertaken investigations on the issue of school history education in the conditions of social transformations. The empirical basis is the results of research performed by the author on the problem of historical consciousness and self-awareness of school youth in 2014-2015. Theoretical and practical importance of identifying the lessons of history is being revealed during the process of reforming and further development of national history education, which is a factor of historical culture and socialization. The author presents the identified trends of the historical culture formation, historical consciousness and self-consciousness of the post-Soviet generation, philosophical, methodological principles of teaching history in schools in accordance with the contents and the condition of historical consciousness and self-consciousness of modern students.

The authors consider the quality of education, its structure and content and how they meet the demands of an individual and the country's economy. The article highlights the idea about the restructuring of the Russian economy as a priority task and a necessary prerequisite ensuring the quality of education. The role of education is shown in achieving the economic growth and reducing social inequality in the country. The article identifies the "bottlenecks" in the modern Russian educational system, secondary and higher educational systems are among them. The authors offer to take into account the international educational activity, its positive and negative effects, as well as to preserve education in Russia as a public good, not a commodity.

  The article studies cultural processes of immense complexity at the turn of the millennium on the example of academic musical practice. In Western philosophy this period is specifically described as 'a farewell to the era of New time'. The author emphasizes the dominant character of shocks and losses in modern culture and scarceness of positive, creative tendencies. In artwork it has resulted into open rejection of the foregoing tradition, at the basis of which there is an understanding of discrepancy between the traditional conceptual and technical framework and the demands of the modern age. In the article the author attempts to single out, describe and evaluate a positive vector of searches in the sphere of musical art, confronting powerfully destructive tendencies of the era. It is shown that this vector appears at the intersection of mythological and reflective impulses of modern cultural self-consciousness. The author shows how close it is towards the phenomenon of 'non-classical rationalism' (M. Mamardashvili's term) and, basing on the concept of 'new mythologem', analyses the process of formation of adequate tools in art. Finally, on the example of different genre layers (symphony and 'new ritual') the non-classical patterns of the newest academic music are demonstrated. The article defines the essence of the 'new mythologem' as a special testing of classical rationalism by a new myth giving a new aesthetic result. The variants of its artistic repetition unfold in different genre conditions. Kancheli's Symphony No. 4 is a mythopoetic allegorical novel containing genetic memory of classical drama-symphony in its 'intonational consciousness'. A different algorithm of mythologem connected to the author's understanding of a ritual element is formed in the scores of the 'new ritual' dramas. As a result, two modes of mixing modernization and archaization become apparent; they are: archaic modern (symphony) and modern archaics ('new ritual').

The authors present the main statements of the original Mongolian religious and philosophical doctrine – Аrga bilig, which means the unity of two opposites. This doctrine is considered as the culture constant. The authors analyse the Mongolian fine-art works on the basis of Arga bilig. The article substantiates the hypothesis of the universal character of the doctrine for the world view of Mongolians. The analysis and interpretations are made on the basis of works of art.