Who Gets What, When and How? Housing and Informal Institutions in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Kazakhstan

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-167
Author(s):  
Dina Sharipova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Housing Allocation ◽  
Gain Access ◽  
Post Soviet Period

Informal reciprocal exchanges continue to shape people’s interactions in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. State retrenchment from the social sphere and growing inequality has markedly limited citizens’, access to scarce resources including housing. This has stimulated people’s involvement in informal exchanges. The article analyzes housing policy during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods taking a closer look at the process of housing allocation. It claims that despite formalization of housing distribution, citizens continue using informal networks to gain access to that scarce commodity in the post-Soviet period. The article draws on data collected from interviews, textual analysis, and original surveys conducted in Kazakhstan in 2011 and 2013.

scholarly journals Architecture and attachment: Carceral collectivism and the problem of prison reform in Russia and Georgia

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Piacentini ◽  
Gavin Slade
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Prison Reform ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Collectivist Culture ◽  
Prison Life ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Cultural Attachment ◽  
Post Soviet Period

This article looks at the trajectory of prison reform in post-Soviet Georgia and Russia. It attempts to understand recent developments through an analysis of the resilient legacies of the culture of punishment born out of the Soviet period. To do this, the article fleshes out the concept of carceral collectivism, which refers to the practices and beliefs that made up prison life in Soviet and now post-Soviet countries. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 revealed a penal culture in notable need of reform. Less obvious, in retrospect, was how over the course of a century this predominantly ‘collectivist’ culture of punishment was instantiated in routine penal practices that stand in opposition to western penalities. The article shows how the social and physical structuring of collectivism and penal self-governance have remained resilient in the post-Soviet period despite diverging attempts at reform in Russia and Georgia. The article argues that persistent architectural forms and cultural attachment to collectivism constitute this resilience. Finally, the article asks how studies of collectivist punishment in the post-Soviet region might inform emerging debates about the reform and restructuring of individualizing, cell-based prisons in western jurisdictions.

POST-SOVIET CITY AS A PALIMPSEST

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-68
Author(s):  
Elena A. Kosovan ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
The Coordinator ◽  
Post Soviet Period

The author of the publication reviews the photobook “Palimpsests”, published in 2018 in the publishing house “Ad Marginem Press” with the support of the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The book presents photos of post-Soviet cities taken by M. Sher. Preface, the author of which is the coordinator of the “Democracy” program of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Russia N. Fatykhova, as well as articles by M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush, which accompany these photos, contain explanation of the peculiarities of urban space formation and patterns of its habitation in the Soviet Union times and in the post-Soviet period. The author of the publication highly appreciates the publication under review. Analyzing the photographic works of M. Sher and their interpretation undertaken in the articles, the author of the publication agrees with the main conclusions of N. Fatykhova, M. Trudolyubov and K. Bush with regards to the importance of the role of the state in the processes of urban development and urbanization in the Soviet and post-Soviet space, but points out that the second factor that has a key influence on these processes is ownership relations. The paper positively assesses the approach proposed by the authors of the photobook to the study of the post-Soviet city as an architectural and landscape palimpsest consisting mainly of two layers, “socialist” and “capitalist”. The author of the publication specifically emphasizes the importance of analyzing the archetypal component of this palimpsest, pointing out that the articles published in the reviewed book do not pay sufficient attention to this issue. Particular importance is attributed by the author to the issue of metageography of post-Soviet cities and meta-geographical approach to their exploration. Emphasizing that the urban palimpsest is a system of realities, each in turn including a multitude of ideas, meanings, symbols, and interpretations, the author points out that the photobook “Palimpsests” is actually an invitation to a scientific game with space, which should start a new direction in the study of post-Soviet urban space.

scholarly journals CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS OF THE MONOTOWN OF GUKOVO IN THE ROSTOV REGION: OPINIONS OF RESIDENTS

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Д. Челпанова ◽  
D. Chelpanova ◽  
Т. Гревцова ◽  
T. Grevtsova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Period ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
Rostov Region ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social And Economic Development ◽  
Local Residents ◽  
The Town ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Post Soviet Period

<p>The town of Gukovo is an average city of the Rostov Region with a population of about 65 thousand people. Its industry is connected with coal mining. When the local coal mines were closed in the post-Soviet period, many people lost their jobs and began to seek employment in other regions. Today the local residents work mainly in the social sphere, trade and agriculture. They associate the prospects for the development of the urban industrial and social infrastructure with the creation of the priority social and economic development area (PSEDA) “Gukovo”. At present, the enterprises of PSEDA have already begun operating: they are mostly oriented to<br />engineering, manufacturing of reinforced concrete structures, carbonaceous materials, sunflower oil, and textile products. The goal of the study is to highlight the current social and economic problems of the municipal entity “Gukovo City” – PSEDA “Gukovo”, represented through the prism of the opinions of its residents. The study is based on the materials of depth interviews</p>

China’s Relations with Russia

2020 ◽  
pp. 233-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei D. Voskressenski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
Post Soviet Period

Russia’s relations with China (and vice versa) have evolved steadily during the post-Soviet period. Leaders on both sides have proclaimed, for a number of years now, that their bilateral relations are at their best point in history. How did the China-Russia relationship reach such a stage, especially given their long (and largely discordant) history? This chapter traces the evolution of China-Russia relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It identifies the commonalities and common purposes Moscow and Beijing have in world affairs, as well as their bilateral economic, cultural, and military relations. The China-Russia relationship has important implications for the United States, as well as American allies in the world.

Where did all the men go? The changing sex composition of the Russian North in the post-Soviet period, 1989–2010

Polar Record ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Heleniak
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Male Population ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Russian North ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
External Causes ◽  
Oriented System

Abstract Like the northern periphery regions of other Arctic countries, the Russian North had a higher male–female sex ratio than the rest of the country. During the two decades following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the male sex ratio in the Russian North declined considerably, from 101 males per 100 females in 1989 to 92 in 2010. The regions and population of the Russian North were greatly impacted by the shift in northern development approaches from the centrally planned system of the Soviet Union to the market-oriented system of Russia. This paper examines the decline in the male population in the Russian North based on data from the 1989, 2002 and 2010 population censuses. The paper finds that only one quarter of the decline in the male sex ratio in the Russian North can be attributed to higher male outmigration and that three quarters are the result of significantly higher and widening gaps between females and males in life expectancy. The conclusion is that men in the Russian North coped with the social and economic upheavals by dying prematurely not by migrating. The leading causes of death for men were cardiovascular diseases and external causes such as murder, suicide and accidents.

Reading Evgeny Messner

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-74
Author(s):  
Ofer Fridman
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Russian School ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Post Soviet Period

This chapter explores the works of Evgeny Messner, an Imperial Russian émigré officer whose books were prohibited in the USSR due to his strong anti-Communist views. After the Cold War, however, his works have become increasingly popular, taking a more central place within the Russian school of military thinking. After a short introduction of the author and his career, the chapter explores the concept of “Subversion-War” (Myatezhevoyna), developed by Messner during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Due to his anti-Communist views and alliance with the White Movement, and later with Nazi Germany, Messner remained generally unknown in the Soviet Union. In the post-Soviet period, however, Messner’s works have become available to a broader range of military thinkers, and there has been a growing revival of Messner’s concept of subversion-war to analyze the contemporary geopolitical situation and political, military and economic confrontations.

Education in Post-Soviet Russia: Marketisation, Financialisation and Bureacratisation – The Case of Universities

2021 ◽  
pp. 089692052110645
Author(s):  
Natalia Yakovleva
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
University Education ◽  
State Universities ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Administrative Structures ◽  
Market Relations

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, market relations and institutions have begun vigorously penetrating not only the fields of production and services, but also the social sphere. In this text, the author reveals the contradictions implicit in the transformations that over 30 years have occurred in post-Soviet Russia in the field of education and that have seen the total marketisation of this area. As an example, the article examines Russian universities. The process of marketisation of university education has taken the direct forms of the establishment of private universities and the introduction of paid tuition in state universities, and also of changes to the administrative structures of universities, to the content of instruction programmes, and to assessment of the quality of the education received by students as well as of the outcomes of the activity both of university teachers and of the institutions as a whole.

Problems and Unproblems in Soviet Social Theory

Slavic Review ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewis S. Feuer
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Intellectual Community ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Mathematical Sciences ◽  
The Government ◽  
Life Work

The status of sociology and philosophy in the Soviet Union is radically different from that of the physical and mathematical sciences. The sociologists and philosophers are still regarded by the government as ideologists, whereas the mathematicians and physicists are considered scientists; and the ideologist is in low repute in the Soviet intellectual community. Thirty years ago, Nikolai Bukharin observed in a remarkable essay that the cultural style of the current Soviet period would be technicism, and that the humanities and historical sciences would be relegated to the background. He believed that this “one-sidedness“ was founded on the economic requirements of the time. Probably, however, the hollowness in the life of the Soviet ideologist is equally responsible for his low estate. The sociologists and philosophers are not regarded as independent thinkers; their job as ideological workers is to provide a documentation and footnoted commentary on the decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Young men of ability consequently tend to avoid choosing a life work in the social sciences and philosophy. Why, they say, should they sacrifice their intellectual independence at the outset of their lives?

Renegotiating Stability, Security and Identity in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Experience of Russian Communities in Uzbekistan

2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moya Flynn
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Regions ◽  
Physical Movement ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Analysis Of Narratives ◽  
Post Soviet Period

In 1991 the ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking communities, who had migrated to and been resident in the non-Russian regions of both the tsarist empire and Soviet Union, found themselves located beyond the borders of the newly independent Russian Federation. Despite an absence of actual, physical movement, the communities experienced a form of stationary or figurative displacement as the Soviet Union broke up and political borders demarcating their homelands moved over them. This displacement was furthered in subsequent years due to the nature and security of the environment where they lived and their often secure sense of ethnocultural and socio-economic identity being challenged through processes of political and economic transformation and increased levels of instability and uncertainty. This article focuses on members of those Russian communities who are living in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Through an analysis of narratives of their everyday lives it explores how they perceive and understand the “displacement” which has occurred, and how they are responding and actively renegotiating relationships with both their physical homeland—Uzbekistan—and their “historical” homeland—Russia. Furthermore, the article assesses how through these processes of displacement and renegotiation they are reshaping their own identities in the post-Soviet period.

scholarly journals Development of the Social Sphere of the Soviet Union based on the Materials of the General Economic Plan of the USSR for 1951–1970

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-350
Author(s):  
Maxim A. Simonov
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Economic Plan ◽  
Social Sphere ◽  
General Plan ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

Introduction. The research considers the planned trajectory of development of the social sphere of the Soviet Union in the General economic plan which was developed after the end of the World War II for the period from 1951 to 1970. Materials and Methods. The Research is based on materials from the archives of the USSR state planning Committee, the Central statistical office of the USSR, Congresses and Plenums of the Communist party. Results. The main part of the document was devoted to the creation of new heavy industries. However, to a large extent, the plan also describes building the social foundations of a Communist society: increasing the production of consumer goods, improving educational and medical services. Based on this, the General economic plan assumed the implementation of fundamental social changes that would lead to the disappearance of differences between mental and physical labor, as well as between urban and rural areas. According to the statements of the plan, the elimination of differences between mental and physical work was supposed to be achieved by further improving the level of education in society, which would eventually lead to an increase in productivity. The disappearance of the difference between urban and rural areas was considered as a gradual increase in the standard of living in the rural area to urban one, although certain differences between them should have remained at the time of the supposed victory of communism. Discussion and Conclusions. An obvious disadvantage of the General plan was that it did not take into consideration the changing needs of society in the long term and the emergence of new technologies. The analyzed General economic plan was not adopted for implementation during the life of I. V. Stalin, but this document influenced the main directions and guidelines of social policy in the second half of the 1950s and early 1960s.

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