The Reign of Alexander I

2019 ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
Paul Robinson

This chapter shows how Russian conservativism in the reign of Alexander I was multifaceted, often in opposition to state policy, and far from united. But there was a common core among its various strands. Men such as Aleksandr Shishkov, Fyodor Rostopchin, Sergei Glinka, Aleksandr Sturdza, and Nikolai Karamzin fused reason and faith to support a form of enlightened autocracy unlimited by law but firmly bound by morality. They also shared a concern with creating a modern Russian culture and a strong state that would be able to unite the country and provide stability in the face of internal and external pressures. In these ways they set the tone for Russian conservatives of future generations.

2020 ◽  
pp. 030981682098238
Author(s):  
Miloš Šumonja

The news is old – neoliberalism is dead for good, but this time, even Financial Times knows it. Obituaries claim that it had died from the coronavirus, as the state, not the markets, have had to save both the people and the economy. The argument of the article is that these academic and media interpretations of ‘emergency Keynesianism’ misidentify neoliberalism with its anti-statist rhetoric. For neoliberalism is, and has always been, about ‘the free market and the strong state’. In fact, rather than waning in the face of the coronavirus crisis, neoliberal states around the world are using the ongoing ‘war against the virus’ to strengthen their right-hand grip on the conditions of the working classes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 125-149
Author(s):  
K.Yu. Burmistrov

The acquaintance of Maximilian Aleksandrovich Voloshin (1877–1932), one of the central figures in the history of Russian culture in the first third of the twentieth century, with the tradition of Western European esotericism, as well as with the concepts of Jewish Kabbalah, is still poorly understood. At the same time, it is known that they played an important role in his worldview and creativity. The article offers an analysis of several topics related to Kabbalah, which had a noticeable impact on the work of Voloshin. Particular attention is paid to the problem of establishing written sources of borrowings and interpretations of Kabbalistic ideas, clarifying concepts, as well as ways of transmitting elements of Kabbalah among European and Russian esotericists. Through the study of various works of Voloshin, his diary entries, drafts and correspondence, the names of esoteric authors who are especially important for the study of this topic have been identified (E.P. Blavatsky, A. Fabre d'Olivet, A. Franck, Eliphas Levi and etc.). Through a thorough analysis of the methods of perception and transmission of the ideas of Kabbalah among European esotericists, it was shown that, strange as it may seem, the result of studying such sources and their interpretation by Voloshin was a fairly accurate and adequate use of Kabbalistic concepts both in theoretical works and in poetry.


1968 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Piker

Ongoing cultures, by virtue of the personalities they produce and the social arrangements they embody, create tensions or strains for their individual members; and they provide as well for the institutionalized expression and alleviation, if not complete reduction, of these tensions in culturally approved channels. In this view, cultural stability refers not to the absence of persisting conflict on the individual or social level; but rather to a high degree of complementarity between institutionalized sources of strain or conflict for the individual, and institutionalized arrangements for tension reduction or expression. This conception of stability does not assume that all relatively stable cultures are equally productive of psychological well-being, even assuming this nebulous condition could be specified. Nor does it assert that all stable cultures are equally adaptive in the face of external pressures. It does imply, however, that sources of conflict and channels for its expression will be sufficiently balanced to insure perpetuation of culturally standardized social arrangements and beliefs over many generations.


1969 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Kay

The United Nations at its present stage of development is a political system of formally coordinate Members, each able to place before the Organization the demands that flow from its own environment. One can hypothesize that a stable environment will yield a stable pattern of demands on the United Nations political system. Similarly it can be hypothesized that a change in the environment—the major components of which are the Member States—will change the pattern of demands made on the political system of the Organization. It is on just such a change that this article proposes to focus. In the period between 1955 and the end of 1968, 37 African states, largely devoid of experience in the contemporary international arena and struggling with the multitudinous problems of fashioning coherent national entities in the face of both internal and external pressures, joined the United Nations. The admission of these states substantially altered the Organization's environment and the demands being made upon it. It is suggested here that these changes have been so substantial as to alter the nature of the political process of the Organization. Concern will be focused successively upon the nature of the entry of the African states into the United Nations, a determination of the areas in which the African states have made demands upon the system, the constitutional structure of the Organization as it has evolved under the impact of the African states, the impact of the African states on the handling of major issues, and finally on trends and implications of the role of African states in the United Nations.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document