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

2021 ◽  
pp. 089692052110645
Author(s):  
Natalia Yakovleva

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.

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-167
Author(s):  
Dina Sharipova

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-350
Author(s):  
Maxim A. Simonov

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Inggs

This article investigates the perceived image of English-language children's literature in Soviet Russia. Framed by Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and Bourdieu's philosophy of action, the discussion takes into account the ideological constraints of the practice of translation and the manipulation of texts. Several factors involved in creating the perceived character of a body of literature are identified, such as the requirements of socialist realism, publishing practices in the Soviet Union, the tradition of free translation and accessibility in the translation of children's literature. This study explores these factors and, with reference to selected examples, illustrates how the political and sociological climate of translation in the Soviet Union influenced the translation practices and the field of translated children's literature, creating a particular image of English-language children's literature in (Soviet) Russia.


Author(s):  
N. D. Borshchik

The article considers little-studied stories in Russian historiography about the post-war state of Yalta — one of the most famous health resorts of the Soviet Union, the «pearl» of the southern coast of Crimea. Based on the analysis of mainly archival sources, the most important measures of the party and Soviet leadership bodies, the heads of garrisons immediately after the withdrawal of the fascist occupation regime were analyzed. It was established that the authorities paid priority attention not only to the destroyed economy and infrastructure, but also to the speedy introduction of all-Union and departmental sanatoriums and recreation houses, other recreational facilities. As a result of their coordinated actions in the region, food industry enterprises, collective farms and cooperative artels, objects of cultural heritage and the social and everyday sphere were put into operation in a short time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-123
Author(s):  
Catherine Schuler

A war of history and memory over the Great Patriotic War (WWII) between the Soviet Union and Germany has been raging in Vladimir Putin’s Russia for almost two decades. Putin’s Kremlin deploys all of the mythmaking machinery at its disposal to correct narratives that demonize the Soviet Union and reflect badly on post-Soviet Russia. Victory Day, celebrated annually on 9 May with parades, concerts, films, theatre, art, and music, plays a crucial role in disseminating the Kremlin’s counter narratives.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-292
Author(s):  
Victoria I. Zhuravleva ◽  

The article focuses on the debatable issues of Russian-American relations from 1914 until the fall of Tsarism, such as the degree of the two countries’ rapprochement, ethnic questions, the positive dynamics of mutual images and the intensified process of Russians and Americans studying each other. Based on primary and secondary sources, this work intends to emphasize that the conflict element in bilateral relations did not hamper cooperation between the two states. The author’s multipronged and interdisciplinary approach allowed her to conclude that the United Sates was ready to engage in wide-ranging interaction with the Russian Empire regardless of their ideological differences. From the author’s point of view, it was the pragmatic agenda that aided the states’ mutual interest in destroying the stereotypes of their counterpart and stimulated Russian Studies in the US and American Studies in Russia. Therefore, the “honeymoon” between the two states had started long before the 1917 February Revolution. However, Wilson strove to turn Russia not so much into an object of US’ “dollar diplomacy”, but into a destination of its “crusade” for democracy. The collapse of the monarchy provided an additional impetus for liberal internationalism by integrating the Russian “Other” into US foreign policy. Ultimately, an ideological (value-based) approach emerged as a stable trend in structuring America’s attitude toward Russia (be it the Soviet Union or post-Soviet Russia).


nauka.me ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Ilya Volostnov

The discussion about the development of democracy in Russia does not lose relevance 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Constitution proclaims the formation of a democratic regime, but political scientists note the development of autocratic tendencies in post-Soviet Russia. It's necessary to study its origins, consider the process of formation for a deeper analysis of the modern political system. it will be possible to study the factors that hindered the development of democracy in our country. It was at that time that the trends of authoritarian development were laid.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vittorio Hösle

AbstractThe essay begins by discussing different ways of evaluating and making sense of the Soviet Revolution from Crane Brinton to Hannah Arendt. In a second part, it analyses the social, political and intellectual background of tsarist Russia that made the revolution possible. After a survey of the main changes that occurred in the Soviet Union, it appraises its ends, the means used for achieving them, and the unintended side-effects. The Marxist philosophy of history is interpreted as an ideological tool of modernization attractive to societies to which the liberal form of modernization was precluded.


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