Apriorism as the Basis of Spirituality in the Philosophical Heritage of Europe and Russia: An Ethical Aspect

Статья призвана определить значение нравственного компонента априорности в философском наследии И. Канта, В. С. Соловьева и М. Шелера и выявить потенциал соответствующих концепций в аспекте совершения нравственного выбора. Исследование основано на трудах перечисленных мыслителей и результатах научных изысканий современных философов. Для каждой из рассмотренных концепций установлено значение чистых априорных категорий и чувственного опыта в нравственном выборе. Эволюция осмысления априорных форм в европейском и отечественном философском наследии заключалась в движении от кантовского формализма к пониманию априорности как целостной установки, определяющей предпочтение человеком одних ценностей другим. Подчеркнута актуальность проанализированных произведений философского наследия для современной моральной практики. Моральный выбор должен осуществляться личностью, нравственно-априорные основания которой актуализируются посредством чувственно-эмоционального переживания этических ценностей. The article aims to establish the meaning of the moral component of apriorism in the philosophical heritage of Immanuel Kant, Vladimir Solovyov, and Мax Scheler, and to determine the possibility of using appropriate conceptions when choosing the moral position of a person in modern culture. The research material was writings by the mentioned thinkers and research analysing their heritage by modern scholars. The methodology is based on the principles of philosophical comparative studies and an axiological approach, which allowed comparing the values and ideas inherent in the conceptions of the three philosophers. The author examines Kant’s heritage in the aspect of the analysis of ideas related to a priori forms and pays special attention to Kant’s theses related to the practical activities of a person as basic apriorism and the importance of moral law in this activity. The author next turns to the philosophical heritage of Solovyov and identifies his views on the elements of an ethical nature that make up the ontological basis of the philosopher’s personality. She further analyses works by Scheler, which allowed comparing his view with Kant’s ethical ideas by the criterion of revealing a person’s attitude to the surrounding world. The value of pure a priori categories and sensory experience in moral choice is established for each of the considered conceptions. The author concludes that the comprehension of the meaning of a priori forms in the European and domestic philosophical heritage during almost three centuries demonstrates a sufficiently clear evolution based on Kant’s formal law of duty, which later received a critical assessment in the works of Russian and foreign thinkers. The main content of this evolution was a departure from Kant’s formalism towards understanding apriorism as a holistic attitude, which determines a person’s preference for some values to others and thus contributes to the formation of a hierarchy of personal values. The three thinkers emphasised the importance of apriorism and a priori forms as fundamental foundations of human morality; however, the philosophical meaning and specific characteristics of the forms changed noticeably throughout the three centuries. Based on her research, the author emphasises the relevance of the examined works for modern moral practice. The individual must be not only a subject of cognitive activity but also a person, whose moral and a priori foundations are actualised through the sensual and emotional experience of ethical values.

Red Sanitary Enlightenment: Medicine, Culture and Society during the 1920s

Статья посвящена специфике санитарного просвещения в 1920‑е гг. как гибридного феномена на стыке истории медицины и истории общества. Вслед за Д. Биром и Л. Энгельштайн рассматривается соединение «социально-инженерных» подходов части медицинской интеллигенции с радикальными преобразовательными планами большевиков под знаком науки о человеке и его здоровье. Особенностями нэповского общественно-медицинского дискурса были прогрессизм, борьба с религиозными суевериями, атака на социальные болезни (туберкулез, алкоголизм, венерические заболевания) и их причины. В статье рассматриваются стилистические особенности и жанровое многообразие этой пропагандистской продукции: пьесы, агитационные материалы, псевдо-фольклорные тексты (М. Утенков, С. Заяицкий и др.), а также деятельность институтов: музеев медицины и гигиены, Домов санитарного просвещения. Особенное внимание уделяется «национальным» и региональным версиям этого дискурса, его трансформации и формализации уже в 1930-е гг. The article examines the specificity of sanitary education and propaganda in the 1920s as a hybrid phenomenon between the history of medicine and the history of society. To understand the specificity, one must refer to the history of cultural ideas and of mass sentiments in the post-revolutionary times, to the study of professional examinations, scientific conventions and academic as well as literary circles. Following D. Beer and L. Engelstein, the authors consider the combination of “social engineering” approaches of a part of the medical intelligentsia with the radical transformative plans of the Bolsheviks – under the sign of the science of man and their health. The features of the NEP social medical discourse were progressivism, the fight against religious superstitions, the attack on social diseases (tuberculosis, alcoholism, venereal diseases) and their origins. The authors analyse (1) the stylistic features and genre diversity of this discourse: plays, propaganda materials, pseudo-folklore texts (M. Utenkov, S. Zayitsky, et al.); (2) the activities of institutions: museums of medicine and hygiene, houses of sanitary education; (3) the biographies of the psychiatrist Lazar Sukharebsky (1899–1986) as the editor of a catalog of educational and scientific medical films and Alexander (Aetius) Ranov (1899–1979), a prominent enthusiast of sanitary education in the Ural region and in Ukraine. In the early 1920s, at the dawn of the NEP, both Sukharebsky and Ranov belonged to a short-lived yet assertive group “Nichevoki”, which was close to the experience of European Dadaism. The recipient’s activity was stimulated in every possible way and was not limited to a simple assimilation of the finished image - the literary tradition, stage techniques and visual innovation were attracted as allies. Mass publications of sanitary education plays often included guidelines on the desirable format of the stage version, “tips” for the director, advice to avoid exaggeration and stiltedness. The authors pay particular attention to the “national” and regional versions of this discourse, its transformation and flattening already in the 1930s. After the end of the NEP, the activities of the Red Cross Societies were maximally nationalized – participation in collective production, and especially defence, rather than the fear of illnesses of a person or their family, became the engine of sanitary propaganda. “Red sanitary enlightenment” still seems to be a characteristic “hybrid” manifestation of the complex, multidimensional and instructive, though relatively short, NEP period.

Musical Folklore of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash of Astrakhan Oblast as a Marker of Ethnocultural Identity

Основная проблема исследования: анализ влияния общих и особенных жанровых и стилевых характеристик этномузыкального наследия юртовских татар и ногайцев-карагашей на этнокультурную идентичность этих народов. Автором использованы собственные полевые данные и материалы, собиравшиеся на протяжении последних десятилетий исследователями культуры народов Нижнего Поволжья, а также результаты исследований этномузыкологов, этнографов, этнологов, лингвистов и литературоведов. Раскрыты этноисторические аспекты изучаемой проблемы, проведены этномузыкологические изыскания. Установлено, что общие моменты в музыкальной культуре изучаемых народов и проявляющиеся на собственно жанровом, музыкально-лексическом и исполнительском уровнях, выступают в качестве этнообъединяющего признака, возникшего в ходе тесного межэтнического взаимодействия. Локальные же образцы произведений, их сюжеты и содержание носят уникальный характер для каждой рассмотренной этнической группы, выполняя этнодифференцирующую роль. The study aims to describe the common and unique genre and style characteristics of the ethnomusical heritage of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash, peoples similar in ethnolinguistic terms, and to analyse the influence of these common characteristics on their ethnocultural identity. The basis for the research was the field materials collected over the past decades by researchers of the traditional culture of the peoples of the Lower Volga region and the results of research by ethnomusicologists, ethnographers, ethnologists, linguists, and literary scholars. Of great importance are the field data the author collected in Astrakhan and in settlements previously traditionally considered villages of the Yurt Tatars. The methodological basis is an approach within a constructivist framework where ethnic identity is seen as a construct formed under the influence of numerous factors, including traditional musical culture. Another methodological basis directly related to the objective component of the problem under study is transcultural diffusionism. The research consists of two successive stages: the first reveals the ethnohistorical aspects of the problem, the second presents the ethnomusicological research. At the first stage, the author (1) reconstructs the process of settling the Lower Volga region from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 19th century, (2) reveals the features of contacts between the ethnic groups inhabiting the region, (3) determines the features of the peoples’ ethnic self-identification, which intensively developed in the last quarter of the 20th century, and (4) identifies the modern level of the development of the ethnic identity of the Yurt Tatars and the Nogai–Karagash. At the second stage, the author carries out ethnomusicological analysis of two genres characteristic of both the Yurts Tatars and the Nogai-Karagash: the epic khushavazand the instrumental sazda soyleshu genres. The comparative analysis of the genres shows that the common features at the genre, musical-lexical and performing levels are directly related to the ethnic identity of these peoples and are ethno-uniting features that developed during close interethnic interaction. Local samples of works, their plots and content are often unique for each ethnic group and thus play an ethno-differentiating role.

The Graphic Heritage of the Russian Avant-Garde as an Object of Acquisition in the Tretyakov Gallery in the 1920s–1930s

Статья посвящена выявлению особенностей комплектования фондов Третьяковской галереи произведениями графики русского авангарда в 20–30-е гг. ХХ в. в контексте изменения тенденций государственной культурной политики того времени. Исследование выполнено на основе данных Книг поступлений Третьяковской галереи и документов, хранящихся в Отделе рукописей музея. Проанализирована политика приобретения художественных произведений в музейные коллекции, изучена деятельность Музея живописной культуры, произведен анализ поступлений в Третьяковскую галерею. Прослежено изменение вектора культурной политики в первые годы советской власти, взявшей на вооружение реализм в качестве основного идеологического инструмента. Установлено, что графические произведения русских художников-авангардистов стали достоянием фондов Третьяковской галереи в результате двух больших поступлений – после расформирования Государственного музейного фонда (1927 г.) и вследствие ликвидации Музея живописной культуры (1929 г.). The study aims to (1) answer the question about the time and circumstances in which works of Russian avant-garde graphics appeared in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, and (2) determine how the efforts of the national museum aimed at acquiring its funds correlated with trends in the state’s museum policy. The study was carried out based on data from the Tretyakov Gallery’s inventory books and documents stored in the museum’s Department of Manuscripts. In the process of work, the author turned to the books of the Tretyakov Gallery acquisitions kept during the period under study, documents stored in the Department of Manuscripts of the museum, materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as results of research by specialists in art and museum studies who examined the legacy of the Russian avant-garde and its reflection in Russian museum collections. The author mainly used methodological tools inherent in historical research: a historical-systems approach and methods of historical-comparative studies. The author analyzes changes in the state museum policy in managing the acquisition of art museum collection funds after the revolutionary events of 1917. She also investigates the work of the Museum of Pictorial Culture, whose collection included works of avant-garde artists. The author determines the moment of change in the orientations of the young Soviet state’s cultural policy; the predominant use of realism in art was the main ideological instrument of this policy. She analyzes the works of art the Tretyakov Gallery received, reveals the avant-garde works the museum obtained in the late 1930s, identifies the trends that influenced the acquisition of the gallery funds in the subsequent period. The author has established that the works of avant-garde graphics became the property of the Tretyakov Gallery funds after two large-scale acquisitions – after the dissolution of the State Museum Fund (1927) and after the liquidation of the Museum of Pictorial Culture (1929). In the 1930s, there was a deformation of all museum activities, including the acquisition of funds. In relation to the collection of modern graphics at the Tretyakov Gallery, this deformation, in particular, manifested itself in the narrowing of the subject matter and directions of acquisition, and the withdrawal from the collection of works that contradicted ideological attitudes and political dogmas.

Certain Results of an Axiological Analysis of the Russian Heroic Epic

Целью статьи является формирование представления о ценностном наполнении русского героического эпоса, основанном на результатах последствий поступков героев. Методология опирается на аксиологический анализ, механизм которого включает исследование мотивирующих героя ценностей, совершенного им поступка и последствий этого поступка. Различимые в былинах ценностные категории (слава, честь и др.) предполагают два сюжетно маркированных инварианта. На основании последствий (положительных или отрицательных) поступка героя, мотивированного, в свою очередь, той или иной вариативной ценностью, она либо утверждается, либо, наоборот, подвергается девальвации. Подобная закономерность позволяет осуществить классификацию былинных сюжетов и вынести общую содержательную оценку национальному эпосу. Учитывая, что девальвируемыми ценностями оказываются ценности «ветхого человека», совершенно оправданно говорить о том, что русская героическая поэзия является глубоко христианской по своему духу. The research aims to form an idea of the value content of the Russian heroic folk epic based on the consequences of the actions folk heroes undertake. The research method is an axiological analysis, which examines the values motivating the hero, the deed he commits, and the consequences (positive or negative) of this deed. Russian folk epics – despite their variability and no well-established scholarly opinion on their content and conception – reveal characteristic integrity and coherence when given an axiological interpretation. The latter implies that the following elements should be analysed: the values that motivate the hero, his deed, and its consequences (positive or negative). In Russian bylinas, one can easily discern such value categories as fame (slava), honour (chest’), fortune–fate (talan-uchast’), strength (sila), knightly heart (serdtse bogatyrskoe), and anger (gnev). Each category implies two plot-accentuated invariants: positive and negative. For example, the word ‘fame’ (or the phrase ‘great fame’ (slavushka velikaya)) may indicate both personal fame (almost inevitably pernicious for the hero) and the so-called common fame of all Russian knights (bogatyrs), service to which enables the character to save his life and freedom. Analogically, the word ‘honour’ may imply both personal material-symbolic ‘honour’ (i.e., valuable property, signs of public recognition, etc.) and ‘honor’ as related to some ‘external’ – from the hero’s perspective – realities: sacred objects, religious institutions and principles. Based on the positive or negative consequences provoked by the hero’s deed – the deed motivated by a certain variational value – this value is either strengthened or rejected. This regularity allows formulating an ‘axiomotif’ (a semantic or plot element, in which, via a cause-and-effect relationship of spiritual-psychological nature, the hero’s motivation, his deed, and the natural – from the perspective of an epic consciousness – consequences of this very deed merge into an inseparable unity), classifying different bylina plots (the author suggests distinguishing four plot types), and generally describing the semantics of Russian folk epics. Given the fact that, in Russian bylinas, the rejected values are conditionally non-Christian (particularly, personal fame and personal honour – as compared with the categories of Kievan knights’ common fame and the ‘honour’ of Orthodox sacred objects and principles, which are strengthened as bylina plots progress), it is only natural to assert that Russian epic poetry is profoundly Christian.

Ukrainization in North Caucasus Krai of the RSFSR (1923–1932): Plans, Public Reaction, Results

Автор статьи определяет причины и цели украинизации в Северо-Кавказском крае РСФСР и анализирует реакцию населения на реформы и результаты такого политического курса. Исследование выполнено в рамках конструктивистской парадигмы, основано на документах Центров документации новейшей истории Ростовской области и Краснодарского края, Государственного архива Ростовской области, материалах Всесоюзной переписи населения 1926 г. Украинизация была составной частью этнополитики «позитивной дискриминации» («коренизации»), принятой РКП(б) в 1923 г. Она включала в себя задачи распространения в Северо-Кавказском крае, Центрально-Черноземной области РСФСР и других макрорегионах украинского литературного языка, формирования украинской идентичности, обеспечения представительства украинцев в партийных и государственных органах власти, общественных организациях. Реформы встретили сопротивление местных чиновников и населения, были оправданно прекращены в условиях коллективизации и военной угрозы. The author of the article aims to determine the plans of Ukrainization in relation to North Caucasus Krai of the RSFSR, the reaction of the regional community to the reforms, and the results of the course of Ukrainization. The work is prepared within the framework of the constructivist paradigm of ethno-historical research. The main directions of the problem analysis in historiography are determined: analysis of the goals of the party-state course, Ukrainization of the government apparatus, educational and language policy, comparative analysis of processes in the districts of North Caucasus Krai. The article is based on the documents of the Centers for Documentation of Contemporary History of Rostov Oblast and Krasnodar Krai, the State Archive of Rostov Oblast, the materials of the All-Union population censuses of 1926 and 1939. The circumstances of the beginning of Ukrainization on the scale of the USSR are described; the interrelation of the reforms with the policy course “Face to the Village” is noted. The institutions, regulatory legal acts and resources for the implementation of modernization in North Caucasus Krai are considered. The reasons for the slow implementation of Ukrainization in the region are analyzed. The measures of Ukrainization adopted by the North Caucasus Regional Committee of the Russian/All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the district committees of the ruling party are described. The author has determined that the population, without objecting to the cultural policy in the Ukrainian language (the elimination of illiteracy, secondary education, libraries, theater), resisted the imposition of Ukrainian as an official language, mandatory for office work and employment in party and state agencies. Dissatisfaction was expressed with the introduction of the Ukrainian literary language (“Galician dialect”), residents preferred local dialects (“Kuban language”, “Balachka”). The author has established that Ukrainization was an integral part of the ethnopolitics of “positive discrimination” (“korenizatsiya” [indigenization]) adopted by the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1923 and was carried out until the end of 1932. Ukrainization included the tasks of spreading the Ukrainian literary language in North Caucasus Krai, the Central Black Earth Region of the RSFSR and other macro-regions; forming the Ukrainian identity; ensuring the representation of Ukrainians in party and state agencies, and in public organizations. The author has found that the reforms met the resistance of the local officials and the population, and were justifiably stopped due to collectivization, the military threat, and the imperatives of the integration of the state.

Alimentary Landscape of the Astrakhan Region: Stages and Specifics of Formation

Статья посвящена определению исторических этапов формирования алиментарного ландшафта Астраханской области, а также выявлению его специфики, во многом обусловленной влиянием различных этносов, проживающих на территории региона. В работе использованы заметки путешественников, результаты исследований российских и зарубежных историков, культурологов и естествоиспытателей. Алиментарный ландшафт исследуемого региона прошел длительный путь формирования и трансформаций – от традиционной культуры до новейших социокультурных практик – под влиянием объективных и субъективных факторов. К объективным относятся природно-климатические характеристики региона, к субъективным – его поликультурность и полиэтничность. Выделены два этапа трансформации алиментарного ландшафта – до и после Октябрьской революции 1917 года. Советский период трансформировал отношение жителей региона к еде, сделав его менее требовательным: важным стало количество, а не качество пищи. The article aims to identify the specifics of the formation and determine the stages of transformation of the Astrakhan alimentary landscape, which arose on the basis of a set of natural and cultural landscapes of the region. The materials of the research were travelers’ notes, the results of the studies of Russian and foreign historians, culturologists and naturalists. The research was carried out mainly in line with the historical and anthropological approach, which provided a holistic understanding of the natural and ethnocultural features of the region and made it possible to use a rich set of specific methods (comparative and systems analysis, problem-chronological and historical-genetic methods). The natural resources of the Astrakhan region of the pre-Soviet period were studied, the ethnic diversity that had developed in the region was characterized. Numerous economic activities of the population were analyzed as the basis of the Astrakhan alimentary landscape. Close attention was paid to the regional characteristics of the production and consumption of certain types of food products (fish and fish products, some flour products, tea). The transformation of the alimentary landscape of the studied region in the period after the establishment of Soviet power was analyzed. It was determined that the process of evolution of the Astrakhan alimentary landscape developed in two stages. In the first of them, it was mainly influenced by both objective (richness of natural resources, diversity of ecological zones) and subjective factors (polyculturalism and polyethnicity of the region, cultural exchange between different ethnic groups). The second stage of the transformation of the alimentary landscape began after the revolutionary events of 1917, its main content was the change in the attitude of the population to food (food preferences were simplified due to the influence of the socioeconomic upheavals of the first half of the 20th century) and the gradual unification of gastronomic practices throughout the country. It was revealed that the reorientation of the region to new types of agricultural products added new types of products to the population, but practically destroyed the already traditional ones, especially those that could act as a regional brand. It is emphasized that many regional practices, while slightly transforming, remained under the influence of national trends. At the end of the second stage, the preparation of products for a long time by drying, salting and pickling retained a significant role in the diet.

Archaeological Reconstruction of Ceramics in Museum Practice: Principles, Objectives, Opportunities

В статье выявляется потенциал археологической реконструкции древней керамики для решения задач, связанных с сохранением и экспонированием археологического наследия в музеях. Материалами исследования стали результаты научных изысканий в области археологии, теории и практики реставрационного дела, а также международные и российские нормативные правовые акты, регламентирующие различные аспекты сохранения и популяризации культурного наследия. Проведен анализ процессов музейной и археологической реконструкции, в результате чего выявлена тождественность их целей. Поэтапно модулируется процесс воссоздания древней керамики, изготовления памятников от идеи зарождения предмета до стадии использования. Сделан вывод о значении археологической реконструкции как инструмента, с помощью которого в условиях музея можно осуществлять изучение и популяризацию культурного наследия, сохраняя в неприкосновенности подлинники. The article reveals the functional possibilities of archaeological reconstruction of ancient ceramic products that are part of museum collections in the aspect of preserving and popularizing the archaeological heritage in museums. The main materials involved in the research were the results of scientific research in the field of archaeology, theory and practice of restoration work, as well as international and Russian normative legal acts regulating various aspects of the preservation and popularization of cultural heritage. The research methodology is based on a functional approach, while axiological and typological methods, techniques used in archaeological source studies, and methods of reconstruction of artistic and technical processes were important tools. The reconstruction of ancient ceramics, undertaken during archaeological research and carried out by means of experimental and technological methods, is analyzed. The functions of reconstruction in modern archaeological research are determined, and the essence of archaeological reconstruction itself as a process of modeling the corresponding artifacts is characterized. The significance of cultural stereotypes in this process is clarified. The stages of creating a ceramic product are consistently identified. The ceramic product (as, indeed, any thing created by people) is considered as a product of human creativity and at the same time as a source of information about a certain technology. It has been established that reconstruction methods in the field of preserving architectural monuments cannot be the only basis for studying its capabilities in a museum, since they do not go beyond collecting formal data about a monument and creating its analogue in the form of a graphic or three-dimensional model. The technological aspects of creating the material structure of the artifact remain undisclosed. Museum items are considered as elements of the informational text of culture. The modern practice of the reconstruction of ceramic products in museums by creating models using fragments of genuine artifacts has been studied and evaluated. The author concludes that archaeological reconstruction is an effective tool with which it is possible to study and popularize cultural heritage, keeping the originals intact. Conclusions are made about the identity of the goals of the museum and archaeological reconstruction, the set of educational and research tasks solved by archaeological reconstruction in a museum is revealed.