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Sociology in Russia has developed since the beginning of the 20th century, despite an official ban on sociology in the Soviet Union from 1929 to 1956 [1] and the dominance until recently of Marxist sociology. Despite sharp divisions since the breakup of the Soviet Union, the field of sociology in Russia now includes over 300 university departments, approximately 30 academic journals and several professional associations.
The first sociological thinkers in the Russian Empire were significantly influenced by utopian thought. [2] The first Department of Sociology in Russia was opened in 1907, at the Psychoneurological Institute, and was headed by Maksim Kovalevsky and E.V. De Roberti. [2] Other Russian sociologists of that period included Nikolay Danilevsky, Nikolay Mikhaylovsky, Mikhail Tugan-Baranovsky and S.N. Yuzhakov. [2]
After the Russian Revolution, sociology at first continued to thrive, with notable works by Pitirim Sorokin, K.M. Takhtarev and Nikolai Bukharin, who was a major representative of the shift towards Marxism. [2] After about a decade of relatively free research, [2] sociology was gradually "politicized, Bolshevisized and eventually, Stalinized". [2] [3] Pitirim Sorokin was expelled from Russia in 1922, [4] and K.M. Takhtarev' lectures at the university were banned in 1924. [5] Sociology was declared to be "bourgeois pseudo-science" in direct opposition to Marxism, and its practice – and the very name – were banned. [2] A 1929 ruling from the Institute of Philosophy of the Communist Academy for Problems of Philosophy and Sociology declared that "sociology is a false science concocted by the French reactionary August Compte [sic?], and the word itself sociology is not to be used in Marxist literature". [2] Subsequently, from 1930s to 1950s, the discipline virtually ceased to exist in the Soviet Union. [3] During the period when sociology was banned, its de facto replacement was "Historical Materialism" which was a component of Marxist theory. [6] Even in the era when its practice was allowed, and not replaced by Marxist philosophy, it was always dominated by Marxist thought; hence sociology in the Soviet Union and the entire Eastern Bloc represented, to a significant extent, only one branch of sociology: Marxist sociology. [3]
With the death of Joseph Stalin and the 20th Party Congress in 1956, restrictions on sociological research were somewhat eased; the formation of the Soviet Sociological Association was allowed in 1957; and finally, after the 23rd Party Congress in 1966, sociology in the Soviet Union was again officially recognized as an acceptable branch of science. [2] [7] [6] 1962 saw the establishment of the first Russian English-language journal in the field, Soviet Sociology . [2] In 1968 an Institute for Concrete Social Research (later renamed the Institute of Sociology) was created at the Soviet Academy of Sciences [2] where Yuri Levada, founder of the Levada Center, attracted a small group of followers. [8]
Even throughout the Soviet period, there was a major split among Russian sociologists on whether to focus on Marxist-Leninist sociology (see also Soviet Marxism) or the more general sociology of science. [2] The Marxist-Leninist approach, often supported by the Party, usually triumphed – until the fall of the Soviet Union. [2] Since then, lacking institutional support, it has begun to lose its dominant status, leading to increasingly visible splits and conflicts within Russian sociology. [2] [9] According to Romanovsky and Toshchenko, sociologists in Russia have since broadened their study, in terms of both topics and geography. [10]
In 2009 D. G. Podvoiskii noted that "in today’s Russian society, the status of sociology is extremely low", noting that neither the general public nor policymakers know much about sociology, nor do they care for sociologists' input. [11] In 2012, Russian sociologist Victor Vakhshtayn published an article in which he argued that Russian sociology is in crisis, and in the process of reinventing itself. [9] Russian sociologists N.V. Romanovsky, Alfredo Gotsky and Zh.T. Toshchenko countered with a less pessimistic view of sociology in Russia. [10] They note that the largest problem facing Russian sociology is the existence of poorly educated "pseudo-sociologists" who nonetheless grab the attention of media and politicians with their poorly researched claims. [10]
As of 2012 [update] , Russia has over 300 university departments of sociology, with about 110 conferring sociology degrees. [10] Between 1989 and 2003, 20,000 students graduated from departments of sociology in the country. [2] Major sociological conferences in Russia are the All-Russia Sociological Congress and Russian Pathways. [9] The Russian Society of Sociologists was founded in 1999, although according to G. V. Osipov, as of 2009, there were several alternate organizations (such as the Society of Sociologists and Demographers, the Kovalevskii Sociological Society and the Society of Professional Sociologists,), and it is not clear what is the proper successor to the Soviet Sociological Association (disbanded in 1999). [2] Two major centers of sociological research are the Institute of Sociology and the Institute of Sociopolitical Research, both at the Russian Academy of Sciences. [2] The M. Kovalevskii Prize is the most prestigious modern Russian award for sociological research. [2] There are about 30 sociology journals published in Russia, two of which are published in English: Sociological Research and Society and Education . [10] Between 1998 and 2006 more than 1,000 sociological books and monographs, including several dictionaries and encyclopedias of sociology, were published in Russia. [2]
Russian Public Opinion Research Center (RPORC) is a state-owned polling institution established in 1987, known as the All-Union Center for the Study of Public Opinion until 1992.
Many fields of scientific research in the Soviet Union were banned or suppressed with various justifications. All humanities and social sciences were tested for strict accordance with dialectical materialism. These tests served as a cover for political suppression of scientists who engaged in research labeled as "idealistic" or "bourgeois". Many scientists were fired, others were arrested and sent to Gulags. The suppression of scientific research began during the Stalin era and continued after his death.
Sociology as a scholarly discipline emerged, primarily out of Enlightenment thought, as a positivist science of society shortly after the French Revolution. Its genesis owed to various key movements in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of knowledge, arising in reaction to such issues as modernity, capitalism, urbanization, rationalization, secularization, colonization and imperialism.
Yuri Alexandrovich Levada was a well known Russian sociologist, political scientist and the founder of the Levada Center.
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and social transformation. Marxism originates with the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought, and as a result, there is no single, definitive Marxist theory. Marxism has had a profound effect in shaping the modern world, with various left-wing and far-left political movements taking inspiration from it in varying local contexts.
Scientific communism, is one of three major elements of Marxism. The communist literature defines it as "the science dealing with general socio-political laws and patterns, ways, forms and methods of changing society" along communist lines, according to the historical mission of the proletariat ; in other words, it is the science regarding the "working-class" struggle and the social revolution, about the supposed "laws behind the building of socialism and communism, and about the world revolutionary process as a whole." In a broader sense, "scientific communism" can mean Marxism–Leninism as a whole; the "scientific expression of the radical interests and objectives involved in the struggle of the working class." In other words, it was the Marxist-Leninist school of sociology.
Maksim Maksimovich Kovalevsky was a jurist and the main authority on sociology in the Russian Empire. He was vice-president (1895) and president (1905) of the International Institute of Sociology. He also held a chair in sociology at the Psycho-Neurological Institute. Kovalevsky was elected into the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1914. The Russian Sociological Society adopted his name in 1916.
Leon Petrażycki was a Polish philosopher, legal scholar, and sociologist. He is considered an important forerunner of the sociology of law.
Michael Burawoy is a British sociologist working within Marxist social theory, best known as the leading proponent of public sociology and the author of Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism—a study on the sociology of industry that has been translated into a number of languages.
The Levada Center is a Russian independent, nongovernmental polling and sociological research organization. It is named after its founder, the first Russian professor of sociology Yuri Levada (1930–2006). The center traces back its history to 1987 when the All-Union Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) was founded under the leadership of academician Tatyana Zaslavskaya. As one of Russia's largest research companies, the Levada Center regularly conducts its own and commissioned polling and marketing research. In 2016, it was labelled a foreign agent under the 2012 Russian foreign agent law.
Gennady Vasilievich Osipov is a Russian scientist, sociologist and philosopher, Ph.D., Professor, full member (academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences /RAS/ since 1991; scientific leader of the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences ; President of the Russian Academy of Social Sciences (RASS); member of RAS Social Sciences Department Bureau; President of the Eurasian International Association; member of the Scientific Council of the Russian Security Council; Honorary President of the Russian Sociological Association. Osipov graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University) in 1952.
Sociology in Poland has been developing, as has sociology throughout Europe, since the mid-19th century. Although, due to the Partitions of Poland, that country did not exist as an independent state in the 19th century or until the end of World War I, some Polish scholars published work clearly belonging to the field of sociology.
Tatyana Ivanovna Zaslavskaya was a Russian economic sociologist and a theoretician of perestroika. She was the prime author of the Novosibirsk Report and several books on the economy of the Soviet Union and in sociology of the countryside. She was a member of the Consulting Committee to the President of Russia from 1991 to 1992 and also a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Zaslavskaya was the founder of RPORC and also its director in the years from 1987 to 1992. In 2000 she was the Laureate of the Demidov Prize and the honorary president of the Levada Center.
Lev Dmitrievich Gudkov is a Russian sociologist, director of the analytical Levada Center and editor-in-chief of the journal The Russian Public Opinion Herald.
Marxist sociology refers to the application of Marxist epistemologies within the study of sociology. It can often be economic sociology, political sociology or cultural sociology. Marxism itself is recognised as both a political philosophy and a social theory, insofar as it attempts to remain scientific, systematic, and objective rather than purely normative and prescriptive. This approach would come to facilitate the developments of critical theory and cultural studies as loosely distinct disciplines. Marx himself has been considered a founding father of sociology.
Pitirim Sorokin Syktyvkar State University is a public university in the city of Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic (Russia). With over 9,000 full-time students and more than 600 faculty members, it is the largest institution of higher education in the Komi Republic.
Peter Pitirimovich Sorokin was an American Russian physicist and co-inventor of the dye laser. He was born in Boston and grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, receiving a BA degree in 1952 and a PhD in Applied Physics in 1958; his PhD thesis adviser was Nicolaas Bloembergen.
Robert Bierstedt (1913–1998) was an American sociologist who wrote about sociological theory, culture, and constitutional law. He was from Burlington, Iowa, and graduated in philosophy from the University of Iowa in 1934. He received a master's degree in philosophy in 1935 and a doctorate in sociology in 1946 from Columbia University.
Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin was a Russian American sociologist and political activist, who contributed to the social cycle theory.
Sociology of Revolution is a 1925 book by Russian American sociologist Pitirim Sorokin. Sociology of revolution as a branch of sociology was developed by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan. to a certain extent earlier than Sorokin. Hobbes lived and created in the period of the English Revolution. In the opinion by Hobbes, "the war of all against all" begins in the period of revolution and of Civil War, when all men threaten by each man, when each man has the right to all things by right of strong man, when "Man Is Wolf to Man" Sorokin had generalized the data about the new revolutions, unknowns for Hobbes – French Revolution, Russian Revolution (1917), etc.
