Contents

Editorial

Geography of Rationality

Polysemy as a Way to Create Nonlinear Text in the Chinese Language Culture
Maria Rubets
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-11-24
Abstract:

The article is devoted to the problem of polysemy in the Chinese language as one of the ways to expand the meanings of the written text. Polysemy as an integral part of any language is also widespread in Chinese. Characters become ambiguous under the influence of cultural, social, historical factors, due to metaphorical and metonymic transfer, etc. The situation with ambiguity in the Chinese language is further aggravated by the fact that the meaning of a syllable (written by a certain character) can be expanded not only due to the acquisition of new vocabulary meanings, but also new grammatical forms, since almost any syllable in the Chinese language can become both a noun, a verb, an adjective, a particle, etc. Chinese philologists were engaged in the interpretation of various meanings of hieroglyphs as far back as the pre-Qing era, this work does not stop to this day. The second part of the article provides an example of the polysemy of the character dào in modern dictionaries as a result of the expansion of the original meanings indicated in the etymological dictionaries of Sho Wen Jie Zi and Zi Yuan. The third part of the article provides concrete examples of the use of polysemic words by native speakers of the Chinese language in order to create nonlinear multidimensional texts. Examples of such texts are selected from ancient poems as well as from the couplets of duilian, such folklore phenomena as riddles, anecdotes, as well as examples of the creativity of modern Internet users (memes). Thus, the article shows that this technique is historically rooted in the written culture of China, which means that when reading texts in Chinese, it is necessary to consider not only historical, cultural, etc. realities and connotations, but also all derivative senses of words used in the text to identify additional senses in the text.

The Figure of Subject in the Proto-Categorical Representations of Ancient China
Natalya Pushkarskaya
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-25-37
Abstract:

This article is devoted to the analysis of the subject’s place in the proto-categorical language constructions of Ancient China. Fundamental conceptual schemas called basic classifications refer to such constructs. The key schemes include binary, ternary and quinary classifications, which defined the main features and further development of the entire Chinese mentality and civilization.

The main methodological technique used in conducting historical and philosophical research is the reliance on text primary sources. The most important and most reliable source of knowledge about the philosophical views of such a remote historical period (we are talking about the Zhou era, approximately 1045 – 221 BC) is the “Book of Changes” or “I-Ching”(易经). Structural analysis is used to identify the elements and numeral schemes in the considered figure of the subject.

According to the language picture of the world, reconstructed on the basis of texts from ancient Chinese sources, the position of the subject appears to be initially embedded in the worldview paradigm of archaic China. The main characteristics of a man that reveal themselves in the studied constructions of proto-categorical thinking are centrality and emptiness. These properties appear to be the most essential for understanding the role assigned to the man in the deployed model of the universe.

A dual image is formed from the predicates of the subject revealed as a result of the research. Man, from the point of view of the ancient Chinese, occupying a Central position in the vertical of the “three fundamental forces” of the San Cai (Earth-Man-Sky) and possessing, due to its dominant position, the features that are crucial for the successful knowledge of natural laws, appears to be devoid of his own, personal content. The initial emptiness of the subject of knowledge, which is its essential property, entails the absence of its individual content. The author makes a conclusion about the conditionally human position of the individual in the universe. Man turns out to be derived from natural, cosmic principles that form, according to the proto-categorical representations of Ancient China, not only the foundations of the world order, but also the principles of world relations.

Back to the Future: A New Reality in Old Texts
Marina Burgete Ayala
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-38-58
Abstract:

The article proposes to consider the concept of nonlinearity as a metaphor performing the function of acquiring new knowledge, using this concept as a tool in the strategy for reading, understanding and interpreting texts, regardless of their national, language or temporary affiliation. The current situation of uncertainty and unexpected changes that affect all walks of life form challenges that make us look at the future of mankind in a new way. The questions, set today, inevitably make you wonder if today’s events are so unique. Has mankind previously encountered something similar? Namely: were there in the history such situations, the era, in which people had to react to the fact that “overnight”, by historical standards, rebuild and change radically their life, break the habitual foundations of society, revise them on a global scale? Similar events to the contemporary ones were observed in the first century after the discovery of America, in which epidemics were one of the “actors”, causing irreparable damage to the indigenous people of the New World and practically destroyed it. This process was reflected in the texts of the chronicles, as it was understood by contemporaries, both winners and losers. Is it possible to learn from this experience and how to project this knowledge onto a new possible reality? The author considers texts, fragments from chronicles of the XVI century, which describe epidemics that erupted in New Spain at the height of the conquest and the first decades after it. The purpose of the article is to show the relationship of processes between the predicted end of globalization nowadays and the technogenic civilization transformations. Various aspects of this relationship identified through the application of non-linearity metaphors allow us to reconstruct and interpret the historical reality as a complex continuous process. This, in its turn, gives an opportunity to formulate and set new tasks for research in various areas of knowledge.

Mystical Experience of Eternity as a Limit of Time Experience
Andrew Paribok,  Ruzana Pskhu
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-59-76
Abstract:

This article aims to clarify two traditions of understanding time, namely the rationalistic, which includes the scientific (in the West, going back to the ‘Physics’ of Aristotle) and philosophical (going back in the West to Augustine), and mystical (the most methodically sustained is the Yogic tradition of Classical India and Sufism). The article contains several sections:

Introduction raises the problem of time and sets the subject boundaries.

The main part is comprised of the following sections: 

1. Time as found in objects: a brief summary of the rational scientific and quasi scientific trend of time interpretation from Aristotle’s Physics to Reichenbach’s “Philosophy of Time and Space”.  The physical one-sidedness of the consideration of time is completely immersed in the object domain.

2. Time as associated with the ontological subject: essential points of purely philosophical understanding of time beginning with St. Augustine via Kant up to Heidegger. This philosophical approach is no less one-sided, and comprehends time almost exclusively as a subjective phenomenon (memory, contemplation, desire, one’s own nature etc.)
Both trends lack any discrimination between the initial indication of the phenomenon of time (the answer to the question ‘what is time as a phenomenon?’) and the interpretation of the meaning of this phenomenon (the answer to the question ‘how to understand the phenomenon of time?’).

3. Interpretations of the time phenomenon are implicitly based on the everyday mode of awareness. The problem of time is one of the most difficult problems to comprehend. The main thesis of the article is that the pra-phenomenon of time is revealed to consciousness from the necessarily occurring switching and comparison between two processes: orientation in the external world and attention to cogitation, i.e., between the external and internal. This duality coincides with the duality that is realized in the elementary unit of rational thought - judgment, the subject of which is recognized as belonging to the external world, and the predicate – to the internal. Separately, it is planned to consider the understanding of time in the mystical tradition. We will focus on two ways of understanding time - the rationalistic (philosophical), represented by the teachings of Kant, and the mystical, represented by the Sufis and Yogis (with an indication of the fundamental difference between them). Note that these two methods are not opposed by us, although in a sense they exclude each other.

4. Lapse of time and the notion of a mode of awareness. The ordinary mode of awareness called  vikṣipta  ‘dispersed’ in Yoga philosophy is characterized by a fundamental dualism of inner and outer worlds’ events. Both are processes and the non predicative comparison of their pace constitutes the ordinary experience of the lapse of time. This mode is the most habitual one and the very mode within which it is possible to speak and compose texts, however it is not unique. There exist other possibilities.

5. One-pointed awareness mode and the atemporal process. Voluntarily achieved one-pointedness has no distinction between the outer and inner world and is therefore ‘out of’ or ‘above’ time. It is well known in mystical literature (exemplified by the text by eminent Sufi author, Niffari). In European rational philosophy this position was explained by Hegel, but not in his ‘Philosophy of Nature”, usually associated with the concept of time, it was in the ‘Science of Logic’ (in the timeless unfolding of absolute knowledge).

The Conclusion presents a summary. The crucial point which enables a thinker to overcome the traditional scientific and philosophical one-sidedness of the conceptualization of time is the notion of a mode of awareness and comprehension of the fundamental duality of outer world processes and cogitations’ succession. A non-ordinary awareness mode is methodologically elaborated in Yoga philosophy, witnessed in mystical Sufi texts, and finally, grasped in Hegel’s concept of a speculative proposition.

Problems of science and education

University Management in Russia: Goals, Culture, Criteria
Vladimir Diev
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-77-84
Abstract:

The paper presents a response to the article by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov, which was devoted to the various problems of Russian higher education and science. As far as we agree with the main message of this article, we are trying to look at the exposed problems from the point of view of management theory. We think that our view seems relevant and methodologically justified, since most of the exposed problems require serious management decisions. It is shown that sometimes absurd reforms and reorganizations pursue very specific goals, which, at the same time, are not reported to the affected entities. In this context, the metaphor of the carnival fits perfectly, and P. A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov use it well. We show the importance of organizational culture within university management. Culture is not an object of manipulation. It is created by people and sometimes controls the leader even more than vice-versa. This is especially important because most of the elements of effective management (task setting, evaluation, monitoring, feedback, etc.) in each organization are to a certain extent determined by culture. It is proposed to return to a system of appointing university rectors, as this will increase the rector’s responsibility for decisions made, as well as eliminate elections, which are often formalities. The pyramidal structure of decision making means a critical dependence of the effectiveness of the organization on the qualities and abilities of the central unit, which, as a rule, consists of one senior official. If that official makes ineffective decisions, then even a perfect hierarchy will idle or even begin to self-destruct. The main flaw of such a structure is that all the information necessary for making decisions is concentrated at the bottom of the hierarchical pyramid (among the subordinates), and all the responsibility and the right to make decisions are at the top (among the senior officials). Our own position presupposes the justification of the transition from the current vertical hierarchical management model within the Russian higher education institutions to a subsidiarity model, according to which decision-making should be carried out at the lowest or least centralized level of government.

Education as Phantasmagoria
Konstantin Kurlenya
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-85-98
Abstract:

This text discusses the argumentation of the authors of the article “Carnival Time: Russian Higher Eductaion and Science in the Postmodern Era” by Doctor of Economics, Professor P. A. Orekhovsky and Doctor of Philosophy, Professor V.I. Razumov, where they analyze the situation in modern Russian higher education. It is noted that the desire to expand the boundaries of scientific discourse on this urgent topic leads researchers to search for non-traditional methods of analysis of the current situation in education. In this case, the author considers the modern problems of domestic education through the prism of the literary theory of the carnival developed by M.M. Bakhtin for the analysis of artistic phenomena of a completely different order.

It is argued that the experience of a critical understanding of the problems of education in the artistic works of various authors and eras leads to obvious parallels both among themselves and with the current situation in the domestic higher education, which is confirmed by a comparison of P.A. Orekhovsky’s and V.I. Razumov’s observations and conclusions, with texts by Lao She, Jean Baudrillard, Yuval Noah Harari, with the statements of the President and Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia G.O. Gref and Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, previously the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, A.A. Fursenko.

On the basis of multiple comparisons of a number of texts and statements, it is concluded that the progressive stratification and destruction of the system of domestic education reflects a global trend due to a change in the global social assessment of the meaning of truth and the scientific knowledge needed to find it, and the practical use in the interests of all mankind, or part of it. The author supports the forecasts by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov about the upcoming change in the types of institutions of science and education, as well as about imminent changes in the field of goal-setting and the organization of intellectual activity in states with developed scientific and educational potential.

High School Crisis or Stagnation? From Humanitarian Metaphors and Journalism towards Weberian Political Sociology
Nikolai Rozov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-99-112
Abstract:

This is a response to the article by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov, “The Carnival Time: Russian Higher School and Science in the Postmodern Era”. Treatment of the negative phenomena of modern higher education in Russia using such humanitarian metaphors as “carnival”, “postmodern”, “the society of spectacle” is not productive, as well as journalistic invectives such as “spiritual prostitution”. The Weberian paradigm of political sociology as more adequate approach includes four areas of analysis: 1) politics, administration; relations of power within the university and around it, 2) economy, monetary and other resource relations in higher education, 3) culture, symbolic sphere, status, prestige, reputation as social relations. 4) solidarity and conflict; violence and violence control. The usual qualification of what is happening in Russian higher education as a “crisis” is also doubtful. A real crisis is a condition that has ceased to be acceptable while the usual ways and means of correcting the situation are useless. With this understanding no “crisis” is observed in modern higher education in Russia. The dissatisfaction of certain groups does not at all lead to an unacceptable state, to the subsequent intensive search for reasons and adequate ways to rectify the situation. Indeed, higher education in Russia is gradually leaning toward greater bureaucracy, simulation, virtualization-distance, and segregation. This state is not referred to as a “crisis”, but as a relatively stable equilibrium, getting into the attractor with vicious “stability” i.e. stagnation with slow but steady degradation. An exit from this state is extremely difficult, fraught with great alarms and threats. In order to switch to the “successful dynamism” attractor the discontent of involved social should lead to productive discussions with the indispensable participation of management practitioners, administrations of different levels, potential employers, resources holders. These groups on the basis of solidarity and trust then should realize pilot reforms with monitoring, promotion and incentives for the dissemination of successful experiences.

Modern University Education: Administrative and Bureaucratic Pressures and Their Consequences
Andrey Ivanov,  Irina Fotieva
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-113-128
Abstract:

The article considers two interrelated problems of modern Russian higher education: the strengthening of administrative coercion and control as well as the introduction of distance education. As a theoretical and methodological basis of the study, the authors rely on the socio-philosophical analysis of the problems of education in the famous S.I. Hessen’s work, where three basic principles of the effective functioning of the university are highlighted: the completeness of scientific knowledge, the freedom of teaching and learning, and self-government. The authors substantiate the view that at present all these principles are violated. Violation of the first of them is manifested in a decrease in hours devoted to the teaching of fundamental disciplines and in a general orientation toward the graduation of a “narrow” specialist; the second principle is incompatible with the extremely increased reporting of universities and overly formalized indicators of the quality of their work. Violation of the third principle is manifested in the gradual elimination of university autonomy, in particular, free election of rectors. The most negative manifestation of administrative pressure, according to the authors, today is the forced introduction of distance learning. The authors critically analyze the main arguments put forward in favor of this project: saving university budgets, ensuring a higher quality of teaching, the need to follow the general logic of modernization of education as a whole. The solution to financial problems, according to the authors, should not be based on forced economy, but on the competent organization of the country’s economic life. An appeal to a higher quality of teaching, which, it is argued, must be provided by teachers from the country’s central universities, is based on biased and unproven ideas. In addition, for mastering critical and systematic thinking skills, conducting scientific discussions, direct communication between teachers and students is necessary, which is not feasible in the conditions of online teaching with a very large number of students. In addition, the authors highlight the idea that nobody takes into account the need for close knowledge of a particular audience by a teacher to choose an adequate style of lecturing or conducting practical classes. The article concludes that the current administrative-bureaucratic style of managing higher education, in which not only the basic principles of the successful functioning of the latter are violated, but also destructive reforms are carried out, is destructive not only for education as such, but also for the state itself.

Carnival of Education: between McDonald’s and Traditionalism
Grigory Illarionov,  Vyacheslav Kudashov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-129-144
Abstract:

The article by P.A. Orekhovsky and V.I. Razumov expresses the attitude of the Russian professors to the processes of transformation of domestic science and education and the search for their foundations, one of which was the concept of the carnival of M. Bakhtin. The applicability of this concept in relation to postmodern social reality is questionable, since the carnival involves the inversion of the “triumphant truth”, relativized in the familiar form of “buffoonery and debunking”. Modern reality no longer contains the “triumphant truth” that could be subjected to inversion; in this regard, only buffoonery remains from the concept of the carnival. We offer our own view on the foundations of the transformation of science and education in Russia, in a postmodern manner suggesting the duality of reality. The first is bureaucratic reality, described by the metaphor of McDonaldization (D. Ritzer), focused on the goal-oriented market relations of “educational services”, quantitative calculation of ratings and controllability of the system. The second reality is the collective unconscious of Russian teachers, whose position is not close to the carnival inversion of M. Bakhtin, but to the traditionalist mystical and religious inversion of R. Genon. Modernity appears to be a distortion of the primordial Tradition, the sacred initiation, in the role of which the Soviet system of science and education most often appears. Each phenomenon becomes the opposite of its true meaning - “servants” teachers, “athletes” scientists, “clowns” experts, while “true” science and education are presented as something self-evident. Both realities are not capable of dialogue, since the former is oriented towards market-oriented rationality and social opportunism, while the latter is oriented toward implicitly or explicitly sacred ethical values of the “cult of science and progress”. Under these conditions, it is naive for scientists to wait for an understanding of their intentions from the reality of the bureaucracy, but it is pointless and destructive to conflict with it. A more realistic way of developing science and education is the self-organization of the scientific community through the formation of circles and dialogue between them, which can be a real discussion.

Social philosophy

Sociality of Modernity and the Phenomenon of the “Left”
Vadim Rozin
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-145-161
Abstract:

The article analyzes the views of the “left” and criticism of these views by the famous journalist, writer and analyst Yulia Latynina. In addition, the author cites the objections by Latynina from other journalists and political scientists: Andrei Loshak and Evgenia Albats. The author does not consider the disputable arguments to be solid and undertakes his own analysis. It offers a concise outline of the genesis of the modernist culture, starting from the crisis of antiquity and the Middle Ages. Several prerequisites of this culture are highlighted: the need to obtain funds for warfare and at the same time establish order in the territory under control, the processes of reform and counter-reformation, the transfer of the center of power from heaven to earth and, as a result, the formation of a new semantic project, the formation of a new European personality, the development of the economy and cities, the invention and the formation of the state, the struggle of citizens for their rights and ideals. The causes of the crisis of modern culture itself are also discussed: social life has become much more complicated (as a result, it has diverged from the initial ideas of modernity) and technologies have been created that allow the state, society and law to be used differently than intended. As a result, a need arose to build a new semantic cultural project. Such a project was formed by the “left”. It contains two basic principles: the requirement of social justice for all and the socialist organization (distribution, redistribution, taxation, benefits, pensions, etc.) as a way to implement these requirements. In addition, the “left” insist that the rich should share with other citizens. The author shows that the “left” see and think in the framework of the new cultural project that they have created, and therefore do not accept criticism of them. In conclusion, he discusses the anthropological conditions of a possible future culture. On the one hand, it is culture and sociality that determine the value orientations of people, and on the other hand, since a person makes a contribution to sociality, partly depends on his activity whether good prevails over evil.

The New Upper Class: Revolutionary Elite Rotation in the USA
Irina Zhezhko-Braun
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-162-190
Abstract:

The article analyzes the emergence of a new political class or elite in the United States, which is called the minority elite. This article is the first in a series dedicated to this topic. The author formulates three interrelated prerequisites that have caused the emergence of the new elite: the spread of the Affirmative Action (AA) to all spheres of public life and, above all, to the education system; the phenomenon of “woke” capitalism; a long history of minority protest movements. Experts take the current protests for a revolution; the author proves the opposite statement: protests are a direct consequence and one of the stages of a step-by-step revolution. Its roots lie in the long-term training of personnel for the revolution and social technologies for it, in the creation of financial, informational and organizational infrastructures of protest movements, and in moral defeat and the surrender of the intellectual class. Over the decades, hundreds of protest movements of various sizes have been co-organized in the United States and dozens of professional protest organizations have been formed. One of them, Black Lives Matter, has its own program, strategy, tactics and a solid budget. The goal of the organization is to create its own ruling elite. The Protestant (WASP) elite ruled the country for more than two centuries, in the second half of the 20th century it was replaced by the so-called intellectual elite. Harvard University, by its decision to raise the level of acceptance tests in the 1960s, spawned new, intellectual elite, California universities, by abolishing tests in the 2010-2020s, bring to power a new social group – the beneficiaries of the AA. The black movement is confidently entering the final phase of its development – the placement of its representatives in state and federal authorities, political parties and other social institutions. Ideologues of identity politics, primarily racial, have arrogated to themselves the position of mentors and experts on social justice and the protectors of civil rights in society. Other protest organizations have joined the BLM, with socialist-oriented organizations in the lead. These organizations have effectively “hijacked” a wave of protests and are already working on a socialist agenda for the Biden-Harris administration, if elected.

Memory Field: Design and Fight of Narratives
Larisa Logunova,  Vladislav Rychkov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-191-213
Abstract:

The policy of memory is a strategy of interaction between power institutions and social groups in the public space on issues of national history. Images of social memory are used by actors to create narratives - complete, plot-complete narratives of past events. Social groups declare their identity and the right to their own interpretations of historical events through the creation of narratives. The clash of alternative interpretations of events leads to a mnemonic conflict, which is the reflection of the political struggle for the right to memory. Dialogue and mediation are tools of memory policy. The logic of this policy implies reconciliation and solidarity of all social groups that have survived a single historical fate, but have a differentiated social memory. People remember how these events reflected on the fate of their families.

The methodology of researching the politics of memory is based on sociocultural and historical-comparative analysis, combines phenomenological and constructivist approaches. In analyzing the problem, the article uses the theory of attraction fields of P. Bourdieu. Such a methodological construction helps to study the field structures of social memory, the specifics of constructing a narrative, and the possibilities of a political solution to the mnemonic problems of the nation. The policy of memory is presented as a tool for managing public consciousness in the mental structures of the community. It is contradictory, ideologically determined, involves the collision or coordination of alternative narratives. The structures of power that determine the rules of the “game” on the “memory field”, articulating “official narratives”, have the right to decide on the priority strategy of memory policy. But the influence on the formation of memory policy strategies is possessed by any social groups representing “unofficial” narratives. The construction of a memory policy is based on strategies — targeted, sequential actions that assert in the collective consciousness the version of national history as dominant. Strategies are embodied in variable scenarios - tactical measures of a situational nature that determine the moves and placement of acting characters for the implementation of strategies.

The authors identified the main types of memory policy strategies: reproach (realization of a “martyrdom”), oblivion of the tragic past (crowding out facts contradicting “heroic” interpretations from official narratives), conflict of interpretations (contradicting “official” and “unofficial” narratives), dialogue (discourse and coordination of interpretations) with the relevant scenarios of the development of the political situation - the chanting of “historical greatness”, silence, repentance, contradictory narratives, reconciliation and solidarity . The result of the analysis of the problems of social memory in Russia are the theoretical constructs of the narrative confrontation with the following options for scenario solutions that formulate memory policy strategies.

Violence in the Society of Symbolic Consumption
Yuliya Bodrova
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-214-229
Abstract:

The article considers violence in its symbolic form as a product of modern consumption and one of the attributes of mass culture. Despite the extreme urgency of the problem of violence in film and television, researchers in the field of psychology, sociology and pedagogy analyze this phenomenon by the impact of scenes of violence on various categories of the population, highlighting the possible relationship between violence on the screen and in life. This study focuses on the socio-philosophical analysis of violence consumption by modern people. The article considers various approaches to the study of consumption, as well as analyzes the symbolic essence of this phenomenon. How is the society of consumption associated with violence? What is the peculiarity of violence as a consumer product? Consideration of screen violence allows us to identify the main reasons underlying the demonstration of scenes of cruelty in films and on television. According to the famous American director Quentin Tarantino, violence is one of the cinematic techniques. If demand creates supply, what is the reason for the audience’s interest in acts of aggression on the screen? Forming of the information society is associated with the emergence of new technologies of violence included in the system of “producer-consumer” relations, through advertising. Violence is being democratized: it is now available not only to corporations and states. Each person can create their own reality according to their needs and ethical standards. In-depth consideration of these issues will allow us to look at violence as an element included in the system of symbolic consumption of the modern world.

Conditions of the National Elites Loyalty towards the Central Government in the Soviet Period of Russian History
Sergey Filippov
DOI: 10.17212/2075-0862-2020-12.4.1-230-248
Abstract:

The article deals with the analysis of the Soviet national policy from a historical perspective with a focus on investigating into conditions of the loyalty of national elites towards the central government in the last period of the USSR existence. The indicators of the low level loyalty are as follows: supporting the ideas of national sovereignty and independence, participating in the national movement by ruling cadres, influential intellectuals and population. The author shows low sympathy of both groups of representatives: elites and broad population to nationalist ideas. The analysis is based on comparing contrastive cases – the Soviet elites of the Baltic republics (Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia) and Belorussia in their interactions with the central government as well as local population in the period from 1945 to 1991. These republics, their population and elites were similar regarding some important aspects such as historical and cultural as well as demographic characteristics in the case of Belorussia and Lithuania; some important features of the industry (big export-oriented enterprises) regarding Estonia, Latvia and Belorussia. At the same time, these cases showed a different level of the loyalty towards the Union center, namely, relatively high among the Belorussian Soviet ruling cadres and population and relatively low in the Baltic republics by the end of 1980s.

The important aspect of the Soviet national policy was establishing new national elites, educational and cultural institutions preserving their native languages as well as the promotion of native cadres into the positions of power in the regional administration. In some respects, this policy was similar to the “indirect rule” implemented in the imperial period of Russian history and consisted in the cooperation between the central government and local elites as the main approach to administrating a multinational state. However, in comparison with the previous practice tending to include national elites in the imperial nobility, the post revolutionary approach considered the creation of national elites through promoting local cultural and educational institutions that offer quite prestigious but specific positions occupied mostly by representatives of the respective ethnic group.

Creating local elites reduced the competition for “universal” positions since socialization and career of “national staff” were oriented towards national institutes. However, increasing numbers of “national staff” with limited positions for them had negative social consequences (elite overproduction). Intra-elite tension increased due to the migration from other regions (in the case of Latvia and Estonia). The other reason of this phenomenon was pursuing socialization strategies oriented to the places of origin (in the case of Lithuania). The attractiveness of the Baltic republics both for local population and migrants from other regions of the USSR was caused by a relatively high level of living standards in these union republics.

Location of big export-oriented enterprises in the territory of Belorussia created conditions for preferring socialization strategies oriented towards integration with the Soviet Union economy and, therefore, enhanced loyalty towards the USSR center from both elites and population. Besides, the administrative apparatus of the Soviet Belorussia was recruited extensively among participants of the Soviet partisan movement 1941–1944 what explains the devotion of the Belorussian elite to the Soviet symbols and values. At the same time, the base of the legitimization of the Soviet Lithuanian elite was its ability to control the anti-Soviet (nationalist) movement as well supporting national culture and language.