Russia at the Crossroads

1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonid Gordon
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social System ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Constructive Approach ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Dead End ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Time Of Troubles

THE CURRENT CRISIS IN RUSSIAN SOCIETY HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT of all manner of scholarly investigations, essays and editorials. But the clear economic reverses, distinctly felt by all, have caused analysis to focus almost exclusively on this aspect of the crisis. A more constructive approach to the problem might be to examine it as a process, as an objective result of all aspects of the country's development and contemporary civilization as a whole.This approach presupposes that the rejection of socialism in Russia and Eastern Europe, the major reforms in China and Vietnam, and the dead-end situation in Cuba are not chance, but form a pattern. In each case, the crisis is a function of the transition from one social system to another. This transitional crisis is all-encompassing; its economic component is no more important than the political, social, ethical, cultural, or that of daily life. A transitional crisis is the harbinger of a Time of Troubles when all of society — not just isolated elements — is thrown into turmoil.

Democracy and Political Culture

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross McKibbin
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Social System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of

This book is an examination of Britain as a democratic society; what it means to describe it as such; and how we can attempt such an examination. The book does this via a number of ‘case-studies’ which approach the subject in different ways: J.M. Keynes and his analysis of British social structures; the political career of Harold Nicolson and his understanding of democratic politics; the novels of A.J. Cronin, especially The Citadel, and what they tell us about the definition of democracy in the interwar years. The book also investigates the evolution of the British party political system until the present day and attempts to suggest why it has become so apparently unstable. There are also two chapters on sport as representative of the British social system as a whole as well as the ways in which the British influenced the sporting systems of other countries. The book has a marked comparative theme, including one chapter which compares British and Australian political cultures and which shows British democracy in a somewhat different light from the one usually shone on it. The concluding chapter brings together the overall argument.

Nationalism in Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages

1972 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitri Obolensky
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
General Definition ◽  
The Political ◽  
European Politics ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

The divergent views held by historians and sociologists as to what does and does not constitute nationalism will, I hope, provide me with some excuse for not attempting here a general definition of this phenomenon. Nor will I presume to adjudicate between the opinions of scholars like Hans Kohn who, confining their attention to Western Europe, will not hear of nationalism before the rise of modern states between the sixteenth and the eighteenth century, and of historians like G. G. Coulton who, after surveying the policy of the Papacy, the life of the Universities, the internal frictions in the monasteries and the history of medieval warfare, concluded that nationalism, which had been developing in Western Europe since the eleventh century, became a basic factor in European politics by the fourteenth. My paper is concerned with the medieval history of Eastern Europe: an area which I propose to define, by combining a geographical with a cultural criterion, as the group of countries which lay within the political or cultural orbit of Byzantium. The subject is vast and complex, and I can do no more than select a few topics for discussion. These I would like to present as arguments in support of three theses.

scholarly journals Problems of Integration of Belarus and Russia: prerequisites, trends, consequences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Тaras Polovyi
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Economic Influence ◽  
In The Beginning

The article is devoted to the problem of Belarusian-Russian integration. The author attempted to analyze the nature and specifics of the Belarusian-Russian rapprochement. We determined that in the beginning of the 1990s it was the Belarusian side that initiated the integration processes. However, starting from the 2000s, Russian initiatives did not coincide with the interests of the Belarusian leadership, which led to further contradictions in bilateral relations. It is proved that at the present stage neither Belarusian nor Russian society is interested in unification into the Union State. It is noted that the current crisis in relations between Minsk and Moscow is not economic but political in nature and can threaten the destabilization of the situation in Belarus and can lead to further escalation. It is established that in parallel with integration, processes related to the expansion of cooperation with other countries are taking place in Belarus, the search for investments that are aimed at decreasing the political and economic influence of Russia. Key words: Republic of Belarus; Russian Federation; Belarusian-Russian integration; the Union State; Belarusian sovereignty; deepening of integration; crisis of integration.

Escape from arbitrariness: Legitimation crisis of real socialism and the imaginary of modernity

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843102090858
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Świrek ◽  
Pavel Pospech
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Social System ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Social Imaginaries ◽  
East European ◽  
Real Socialism ◽  
Late Socialism

The 1989 revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe and the subsequent transitions have commonly been interpreted in political terms, as movements towards democracy, or in economic terms, as escape from the command economy towards the free market. We revisit the problem to suggest a different reading. We argue that in the legitimization crisis of real socialism, a pivotal role was played by the burden of social oversaturation and bureaucratic arbitrariness, which met its desired alternative in social imaginaries of impersonal, objective social system. For the citizens of Central and East European countries, this fantasy was matched by the promise of the free market, which was morally contrasted to the experience of daily life under late socialism. We argue that this desire to escape from arbitrariness to objectivity is a particularly strong motive in the imaginary of modernity which found one of its historical manifestations in the disappointment with real socialism.

scholarly journals Colonialism and Emasculation of Political and Religious Institutions in Northern Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Usman Sambo ◽  
Babayo Sule ◽  
Muhammad A. Bello ◽  
Misbahu Sa’idu
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Content Analysis Method ◽  
The Subject

Purpose: Colonialism, a phenomenon which has long gone remains an interesting subject of debates especially among the African scholars. This is perhaps, due to the aggressive nature in which colonialism violently altered the evolutionary destiny of the African states. Any study that carefully dig deeply can easily come up with an area of contribution regarding the subject matter of colonialism in Africa. This study specifically explored how colonialism emasculated the political and religious institutions of Northern Nigeria with a view to ascertain the current crisis of identity that the region is facing. Design/Methodology/Approach: Descriptive analytical design was adopted, thematic analysis and a qualitative content analysis method was used in this study which analyzed critically the various views and dimensions on the role played by colonialism in the emasculation of political and religious institutions in Northern Nigeria. Findings: The results revealed that Northern Nigeria had a well-articulated and functioning political and religious institutions prior to the emergence of the exploitative colonialism. The British colonialist supervised the destruction of these heritages and replaced them with the alien ones that failed to function well leading to crisis of identity.  Implications/Originality/Value: So it is concluded that colonialism succeeded in damaging the Northern Nigerian heritage and that there must be a reversal towards that indigenous culture and social settings for Northern Nigeria to record a meaningful progress in the 21st century.

Южнорусские города на исходе Смутного времени (1611–1613 гг.)

2014 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 84-97
Author(s):  
Александр Владимирович Воробьев
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Central State ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Local Problems ◽  
Time Of Troubles ◽  
State Breakdown ◽  
The One

This article examines the political and socioeconomic situation in the southern territories of Russia at the beginning of the seventeenth century, during the final years of the Troubles. The crisis of the Time of Troubles disrupted the usual patterns of life in South Russia. The central state breakdown on the one hand forced local communities to be self-sufficient in the socioeconomic and military spheres and on the other hand constrained them to be conservative in the political sphere. The resulting focus on local problems contributed to a growing awareness of the urgent need for unification of all strata of Russian society. In fact, both trends were useful for saving Russia and overcoming the Troubles. Notwithstanding the negative estimation of them by their contemporaries, the population of the south Russian frontier played an important role in overcoming the most perilous crisis of Early Modern Russia.

Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminists Tackle Islamic and Jewish Oral Law: Maintenance and Rebellion of Wives

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-63
Author(s):  
Ruth Roded
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Parallel Case ◽  
First Time

Beginning in the early 1970s, Jewish and Muslim feminists, tackled “oral law”—Mishna and Talmud, in Judaism, and the parallel Hadith and Fiqh in Islam, and several analogous methodologies were devised. A parallel case study of maintenance and rebellion of wives —mezonoteha, moredet al ba?ala; nafaqa al-mar?a and nush?z—in classical Jewish and Islamic oral law demonstrates similarities in content and discourse. Differences between the two, however, were found in the application of oral law to daily life, as reflected in “responsa”—piskei halacha and fatwas. In modern times, as the state became more involved in regulating maintenance and disobedience, and Jewish law was backed for the first time in history by a state, state policy and implementation were influenced by the political system and socioeconomic circumstances of the country. Despite their similar origin in oral law, maintenance and rebellion have divergent relevance to modern Jews and Muslims.

John of Kronshtadt and Leo Tolstoy

2020 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 471-478
Author(s):  
Peter A. Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Leo Tolstoy ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Common People ◽  
Religious Consciousness ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Main Components

The article provides a comparative analysis of the influence of L.N. Tolstoy and I.I. Sergiev (John of Kronstadt) on the formation of personal worldview in Russian society. The analysis is based on the testimonies of the contemporaries and the previously not reissued publication of “Novy Put” (“New Way”) journal on the subject. In the context of the declared problematics, special attention is paid to the question of transformation of religious consciousness in the course of the personality formation in relation to the period under consideration (the beginning of the 20th century). The author reveals and analyzes the main components of the life stand of Tolstoy and Father John of Kronstadt in the context of their influence on contemporaries. The results of the study allow to reveal the following antitheses that characterize Tolstoy and John of Kronstadt, respectively: doubt - faith, search for oneself – following the once chosen path, preaching of non-resistance as part of the philosophy of not-doing (not doing evil) – preaching of active upholding of faith (doing good), “simple living” – real life with and for common people.

TARP DVIEJŲ KOLONŲ: XVIII A. PABAIGOS – XIX A. PRADŽIOS VILNIAUS MASONŲ KASDIENYBĖ SIMBOLIKOJE

2018 ◽  
pp. 144-163
Author(s):  
Daiva Milinkevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
The Past ◽  
Secular World ◽  
National Characteristics ◽  
Conservative Christian ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Craft Guilds

The Age of Enlightenment is defined as the period when the universal ideas of progress, deism, humanism, naturalism and others were materialized and became a golden age for freemasons. It is wrong to assume that old and conservative Christian ideas were rejected. Conversely, freemasons put them into new general shapes and expressed them with the help of symbols in their daily routine. Symbols of freemasons had close ties with the past and gave them, on the one hand, a visible instrument, such as rituals and ideas to sense the transcendental, and on the other, intense gnostic aspirations. Freemasons put in a great amount of effort to improve themselves and to create their identity with the help of myths and symbols. It traces its origins to the biblical builders of King Solomon’s Temple, the posterity of the Templar Knights, and associations of the medieval craft guilds, which were also symbolical and became their link not only to each other but also to the secular world. In this work we analysed codified masonic symbols used in their rituals. The subject of our research is the universal Masonic idea and its aspects through the symbols in the daily life of the freemasons in Vilnius. Thanks to freemasons’ signets, we could find continuity, reception, and transformation of universal masonic ideas in the Lithuanian freemasonry and national characteristics of lodges. Taking everything into account, our article shows how the universal idea of freemasonry spread among Lithuanian freemasonry, and which forms and meanings it incorporated in its symbols. The objective of this research is to find a universal Masonic idea throughout their visual and oral symbols and see its impact on the daily life of the masons in Vilnius. Keywords: Freemasonry, Bible, lodge, symbols, rituals, freemasons’ signets.

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