Ideas and Ideals

  In the article the author makes an attempt to close one of the "white spots" in the history of Novosibirsk Opera Theatre. Materials gathered for this purpose were the documents from the archives of the Novosibirsk Region and the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Using rare publications, memoirs of the People's Artist of Russia Zinaida Didenko as well as personal memoirs the author managed to recreate several scenes from the life of the outstanding figure of musical culture of the XX century, Honored Artist of Russia, laureate of the Stalin Prize, Chief Director of NSATOB Margaret Ozhigova. The years of her studies at the Petrograd Conservatory are associated with the names of A. Glazunov, D. Shostakovich, G. Rimsky-Korsakov, N. Malakhovski, I. Musin, N. Amosova and the forgotten history of the Society of quarter-tone music. After graduating from the Conservatory in three specialties as a harpist, a composer and a director of a musical theatre M. P. Ozhigova (from 1941 to 1945) served as a soldier of the Red Army during the Leningrad blockade. She introduced Stanislavsky principles into the system of work with the actors being a director at the Opera theatres of Saratov, Novosibirsk, Ivanovo. The same principles of work according to the Stanislavsky system she applied working with young singers of the Opera Studios at the music universities of Kazan, Gorky and Rostov-on-Don. The article presents documentary evidence of obstruction towards M. P. Ozhigova, which she experienced at that time at the Novosibirsk Opera Theatre and which forced her to leave the theatre.

The author considers creative work of Vladimir Magar, who was a director of the Sevastopol theatre named after A. V. Lunacharsky for fifteen years, and this creative work hasn't been studied yet and the study is continued in the series of publications about him. The study of his manner of directing may be indicative for identifying the patterns specific to regional theatrical life and may restore some pages of the history of Russian theatre, which have been out of the scope of research so far. The activities of the director can be divided into several periods – from light comedies to romantic works involving basic questions of human existence. His performances have always been characterized by complex and multi-literary foundation. The article examines such performances as “Empire of the Sun and the Moon”, “Talants and Admirers”, “Don Giovanni”, “Othello”, “The Cabal of Hypocrites”. They are based on substantial principles of Magar's directing such as multi-piece basis, montage construction, complexity, transmission of the main lyrical expressions of the director. The role of scenographic solutions, plastic, music and other components of dramatic action are also examined in the article. The article is based on using of the comparative-historical method, personal audience experience of the author, analysis of different literary sources, revised by the director, and reviews which are not numerous. The principles of creation which are studied in the paper testify about the successful application by the director V. Magar of a great variety of expressive means of modern theatre and lead to the development of theatre art in the Russian province.

  The article considers social and socio-psychological prerequisites of Eurasianism coming on the stage. Eurasianism emerged in the early twenties of the last century as an ideology and a political movement. But its social origin dates back to the earlier period. Eurasianism is a consequence of the world war and the revolutionary situation. The active participation of Caucasian and Asian peoples of the Russian Empire as well as some features of the revolutionary everyday routine formed a part of the Russian intelligentsia`s perception of the revolution as the Eurasian matter. This was facilitated by the complex nature of the Russian identity which comprised two hearts of the Russian peoples – European and Asian. The specificity of the Eurasian perception of the revolution was the reassessment of the European and Asian components of the Russian identity. In the Russian public consciousness of the nineteenth century the Asian component was perceived negatively, but the European one - positively. A group of writers and poets, who in 1917 and 1918 called themselves “The Scythians”, under the influence of Nietzsche and Vladimir Solovyev and under the influence of tragic experience of the First World War, re-evaluated the two components of the Russian identity. The result of this re-evaluation was the birth of a Eurasian myth as an artistic reflection of the experience of the world war and the revolution. This myth was used as the basis for the creation of Eurasian ideology by a group of Russian emigrant scholars.

The author considers the opportunity of management activities optimization, which has been the subject of numerous scientific studies during a long period time. Today this area is still of the utmost importance. The structure of management activities is complex and it is built on multilevel psychological, socio-psychological and other phenomena. This article presents the data of modern studies aimed to support its distinctive features in perception, information processing, cognitive, emotional-volitional sphere of the right- and leftlateral respondents. This article is devoted to the study of individual styles of management activities of the executive educational team (school principals, head teachers). The study (n=140) proves that an individual management style is predefined by the peculiarities of lateralization of prefrontal lobes hemispheres of the brain. The significant differences are defined between individual management style of school principals and head teachers with different lateral organization of the brain. The study uses psychological tests (n=6) and statistical methods of data processing. It is proved that superintendents with left lateral and right lateral organization of the brain use different management tools. For example, in the activities of the left hemisphere superintendents stronger organizational skills are expressed, the authoritarian management style is used more often and motivation for success is expressed greater than motivation to avoid failures. The right hemisphere superintendents express stronger communication skills at a lower intensity of managerial skills, the democratic style of management is used more frequently, this type of individuals often focuses on avoiding failure than on achieving success. The main methodological principle laid down in the program of the study is the system approach. This study is in the "mainstream" of theories of individual differences that are explained by the features of braking force of regulatory unit in expression of the general properties of the CNS. This article contains recommendations that provide an opportunity to optimize managerial activities of individuals engaged in educational supervision. These recommendations are aimed at expansion of the components of management style.

The article examines the role of a social ideal in history on the example of evolution of the perfect man image. The ideal is understood as a due thing, which allows to assess the present existing nature and to determine the direction of its development. Aspiration to the ideal, which is an essential intention of a person necessary in acquiring ideal traits of a man, is one of the driving forces of history. Every historical period constructs its own image of an ideal person and strives to get closer to it. Ideas about the perfect man have been regularly formed throughout history, this fact proves that there is a permanent innate human sense of dissatisfaction with him/herself (and with the whole world), the lack of self realization, the intention to discover their own inner identity. The first "perfect man" was a beast. In the primitive societies people conquered the “outer” beast, in Antiquity – the “inner” one. There appeared the first identity crisis as a consequence of inadequate self-esteem ("man as the measure of all things"). God was a "perfect man" of the Middle Ages. If a beast turns out to be in the inaccessible past then God is in the eternal unattainable future. So, the second identity crisis comes into existence. A Man becomes an ideal in Modern Times. There appeared a concept of a perfect man (as a real possibility). However, depriving a person of metaphysics leads to the third identity crisis. Nowadays the "perfect man", increasingly, appears to be a machine resembling a "man", devoid of human weaknesses with improved human qualities. The analogy between a human and a machine leads to the fourth identity crisis. "The new perfect man" is a man as a unique result of the development of all human culture, the synthesis of the unique and the universal.

This article is dedicated to Bulgarian Bogomils’ ideology research. Bogomilism is one of the most popular and influential Christian heresies, appeared in mediaeval Bulgaria in 10^th century. Ideology, interpreted in terms of Louis Althusser and Roland Barthes as a structured sign-expressed world image, is divided into different levels. There are the Bogomils’ ideas of politics, economy, corporeality and mysticism. Bulgarian heretics’ world-view was based on religious dualism – a concept of existence of opposite fundamentals (spiritual and material in that case), with a human as their battlefield. Negation of everything material, based on religious dualism, thereby is Bogomilism’s world-view basis. The Bogomils’ revolutionary character, noted by some scholars, appeared not only in politics (denial of authorities) – this religious movement tended to a social ideal, that supposed a much deeper changes of society (created by Sathan) and human nature. The process of making of this “new human” presents as a consecutive negation of everything, connecting him with material world: from social position, property and family till his own body.

For the survival of Homo sapiens, joint efforts and a strong desire for expansion were of the utmost importance. Our today's emotions and instincts are a relic of the era of hunters and gatherers. External expansion against rival communities and internal expansion, aimed at a closer social organization, gave birth to a mass man, a man of the crowd, who dominated the world until the 19th century. The modern mass man, Homo billionis, whose global civilization covers the entire planet, appeared only in the twentieth century. His archaic craving for expansion gave birth to industrial civilization as the dominant form of life. Today Homo billionis encounters natural boundaries, which are perceived as a hindrance, but he fails to understand that destruction of self-regulating nature is caused by his activities. Behind both world wars, there was a belief in the need to maximally expand the exploitation of nature and other people for the sake of one’s own freedom. This expansion and the freedom won at someone's expense have come to their logical end. For the last two generations, the planet of unlimited possibilities has turned into a closed market, where everyone seeks to displace the other, and where not only individual freedom but also national identity fades away steadily. The mass man as a modern version of Homo sapiens and monotheistic ideological constructions are closely connected with each other. They have to be overcome in order to avoid the death of civilization as the result of further exponential growth. This requires two conditions: the rejection of the expansionist idea of the state and the recognition of differences between people.

The article examines theoretical development of the idea of a Russian University in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The author considers the ideas of outstanding scientists and thinkers of the time. She also analyzes the charters of Russian universities and their role in the development of University education and considers the attitudes and influence of society on the development of universities. It is highlighted in the article that relations between the state, society and universities are well-defined in the University statutes. Four University Charters were adopted in Russia in the XIX century: 1804, 1835, 1863, and 1884. If the first Charter granted relative autonomy to the universities, the Charter of 1835 strengthened the power of Trustees, thereby limiting the previously given autonomy. The third Charter of 1863 restored the universities in their rights granting them broad autonomy, while the Charter of 1884 abolished them altogether. The author studies both points of view: the Russian and the foreign ones on the topic of University autonomy from the government. The article shows that Russian universities couldn’t even think about any autonomy, because they were created by the state with the aim to strengthen and preserve the monarchy. The author presents a comparison of missions of the first University and the already reformed University. While the mission of the first university was training of officials for the state service, the reformed universities focused on the development of science within its walls. The article considers development of the Russian University within one hundred years frame from the utilitarian to the classical one.

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of political power as it is depicted in the artistic world of Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov”. The concept of Tzar Boris is analyzed in the context of contemporary view on the nature of power elaborated by Eugen Fink. The author of the article focuses on the dialogue of historical truth and artistic credibility. The article shows that the complexity of Godunov’s character gives way to a wide range of interpretations in nowadays theatre and movies. Boris Godunov is comprehended by stage directors as the “actor” (acting subject) of modernity capable to struggle through the problematic current reality. In addition to the problems of the relationship between power and an individual, the authorities and the people in Boris Godunov, the author raises the most important topic of relations between Russia and the West. The author draws attention to the most famous performance of "Boris Godunov" in new Russia, the play, staged in 2000 by the British producer of Irish descent, Declan Donnellan, and expresses the opinion that this very performance solves the problem in the context of the "unhealed present" at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The study is addressed to theatre professionals, philologists, specialists in cultural studies and aesthetics, cultural scientists and educators.