Ideas and Ideals

  In the article the author makes an attempt to close one of the "white spots" in the history of Novosibirsk Opera Theatre. Materials gathered for this purpose were the documents from the archives of the Novosibirsk Region and the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Using rare publications, memoirs of the People's Artist of Russia Zinaida Didenko as well as personal memoirs the author managed to recreate several scenes from the life of the outstanding figure of musical culture of the XX century, Honored Artist of Russia, laureate of the Stalin Prize, Chief Director of NSATOB Margaret Ozhigova. The years of her studies at the Petrograd Conservatory are associated with the names of A. Glazunov, D. Shostakovich, G. Rimsky-Korsakov, N. Malakhovski, I. Musin, N. Amosova and the forgotten history of the Society of quarter-tone music. After graduating from the Conservatory in three specialties as a harpist, a composer and a director of a musical theatre M. P. Ozhigova (from 1941 to 1945) served as a soldier of the Red Army during the Leningrad blockade. She introduced Stanislavsky principles into the system of work with the actors being a director at the Opera theatres of Saratov, Novosibirsk, Ivanovo. The same principles of work according to the Stanislavsky system she applied working with young singers of the Opera Studios at the music universities of Kazan, Gorky and Rostov-on-Don. The article presents documentary evidence of obstruction towards M. P. Ozhigova, which she experienced at that time at the Novosibirsk Opera Theatre and which forced her to leave the theatre.

The author considers creative work of Vladimir Magar, who was a director of the Sevastopol theatre named after A. V. Lunacharsky for fifteen years, and this creative work hasn't been studied yet and the study is continued in the series of publications about him. The study of his manner of directing may be indicative for identifying the patterns specific to regional theatrical life and may restore some pages of the history of Russian theatre, which have been out of the scope of research so far. The activities of the director can be divided into several periods – from light comedies to romantic works involving basic questions of human existence. His performances have always been characterized by complex and multi-literary foundation. The article examines such performances as “Empire of the Sun and the Moon”, “Talants and Admirers”, “Don Giovanni”, “Othello”, “The Cabal of Hypocrites”. They are based on substantial principles of Magar's directing such as multi-piece basis, montage construction, complexity, transmission of the main lyrical expressions of the director. The role of scenographic solutions, plastic, music and other components of dramatic action are also examined in the article. The article is based on using of the comparative-historical method, personal audience experience of the author, analysis of different literary sources, revised by the director, and reviews which are not numerous. The principles of creation which are studied in the paper testify about the successful application by the director V. Magar of a great variety of expressive means of modern theatre and lead to the development of theatre art in the Russian province.

The article is devoted to the problem of development of a new project of reality that has overcome the post-nonclassical stage and faced difficulties in understanding human-like technoobjects in the present. The authors associate the emergence of "new structures" with transformation of human selfness, its practices of "disintegration", alienation from oneself. The beginning of this process launched by the medieval culture of thought, in which real, conceptual and nominal have appeared. They are recorded in the practices of discovering sinful within yourself; cashing out itself in contact with similar (other); revealing a formal (name). In the period of New European philosophy, a cognizer, tied to contemplation and will, begins to practice. He focuses on experience of reflection – a repeated inspection, control over the self, through which its "property" or aggressive withdrawal of irrational opportunities is established. The authors claim an idea that practice of a cognizer with ever-increasing estrangement from oneself generates a new reality in our time – the objects of kogito (virtual, conceptual, linguistic), objects that "complete" the embodiment (biotechnical structures). They are practitioners standing within the boundaries of will-kreacio, aimed at rational extension, transformation of cognizer. A purposeful will that has a rational intention, collects its own reality from the fragments or "traces" of the expressed, described, everyday, etc., constructs it from fragments of social action, text, experience. A methodology, built on the framework of mathematical and natural sciences, is gradually replaced by an activity-practical, hermeneutic, engineering-sociological approaches. Comprehension of science through spiritual experience of cognizer makes it possible to assess it not as something external, civilizationally fateful but as a conscious action, a choice, relying in a special fixation, self-examination.

This article analyzes a number of social and anthropological implications of the sharp increase in the flow of information, which have acquired since the mid-20th century the character of "information explosion". The authors analyze the postmodern concepts by identifying major characteristics of post-industrial society that brings these concepts together with the theories of the information society. The authors substantiate the hypothesis that, on the basis of the convergence of certain postmodern concepts with the theories of the information society there can be conceptual synthesis. The authors show that the informational approach, which is not used explicitly, is present in the works of post-modern artists as the concept of a special type of society, a society living and reproducing itself mostly in virtual reality based on mass production of sign-symbolic artifacts - signs, symbols, values and meanings, aggregated into streams of information. Information flows are the main "building material" and a resource for the construction of symbolic information and communicative space. The authors identified the following characteristics of the society after the "information explosion": there is a change in the content of communication; the symbolic world becomes increasingly unrecognizable for a human being; there is depersonalization of social codes; virtual strata appear; people experience information trauma of consciousness; human existence becomes fragmented; "information schizophrenia" sets in; "intellectual extinction" of mankind syndrome shows up; and then comes "normal anomie".

The article examines the role of a social ideal in history on the example of evolution of the perfect man image. The ideal is understood as a due thing, which allows to assess the present existing nature and to determine the direction of its development. Aspiration to the ideal, which is an essential intention of a person necessary in acquiring ideal traits of a man, is one of the driving forces of history. Every historical period constructs its own image of an ideal person and strives to get closer to it. Ideas about the perfect man have been regularly formed throughout history, this fact proves that there is a permanent innate human sense of dissatisfaction with him/herself (and with the whole world), the lack of self realization, the intention to discover their own inner identity. The first "perfect man" was a beast. In the primitive societies people conquered the “outer” beast, in Antiquity – the “inner” one. There appeared the first identity crisis as a consequence of inadequate self-esteem ("man as the measure of all things"). God was a "perfect man" of the Middle Ages. If a beast turns out to be in the inaccessible past then God is in the eternal unattainable future. So, the second identity crisis comes into existence. A Man becomes an ideal in Modern Times. There appeared a concept of a perfect man (as a real possibility). However, depriving a person of metaphysics leads to the third identity crisis. Nowadays the "perfect man", increasingly, appears to be a machine resembling a "man", devoid of human weaknesses with improved human qualities. The analogy between a human and a machine leads to the fourth identity crisis. "The new perfect man" is a man as a unique result of the development of all human culture, the synthesis of the unique and the universal.

This article is dedicated to Bulgarian Bogomils’ ideology research. Bogomilism is one of the most popular and influential Christian heresies, appeared in mediaeval Bulgaria in 10^th century. Ideology, interpreted in terms of Louis Althusser and Roland Barthes as a structured sign-expressed world image, is divided into different levels. There are the Bogomils’ ideas of politics, economy, corporeality and mysticism. Bulgarian heretics’ world-view was based on religious dualism – a concept of existence of opposite fundamentals (spiritual and material in that case), with a human as their battlefield. Negation of everything material, based on religious dualism, thereby is Bogomilism’s world-view basis. The Bogomils’ revolutionary character, noted by some scholars, appeared not only in politics (denial of authorities) – this religious movement tended to a social ideal, that supposed a much deeper changes of society (created by Sathan) and human nature. The process of making of this “new human” presents as a consecutive negation of everything, connecting him with material world: from social position, property and family till his own body.

For the survival of Homo sapiens, joint efforts and a strong desire for expansion were of the utmost importance. Our today's emotions and instincts are a relic of the era of hunters and gatherers. External expansion against rival communities and internal expansion, aimed at a closer social organization, gave birth to a mass man, a man of the crowd, who dominated the world until the 19th century. The modern mass man, Homo billionis, whose global civilization covers the entire planet, appeared only in the twentieth century. His archaic craving for expansion gave birth to industrial civilization as the dominant form of life. Today Homo billionis encounters natural boundaries, which are perceived as a hindrance, but he fails to understand that destruction of self-regulating nature is caused by his activities. Behind both world wars, there was a belief in the need to maximally expand the exploitation of nature and other people for the sake of one’s own freedom. This expansion and the freedom won at someone's expense have come to their logical end. For the last two generations, the planet of unlimited possibilities has turned into a closed market, where everyone seeks to displace the other, and where not only individual freedom but also national identity fades away steadily. The mass man as a modern version of Homo sapiens and monotheistic ideological constructions are closely connected with each other. They have to be overcome in order to avoid the death of civilization as the result of further exponential growth. This requires two conditions: the rejection of the expansionist idea of the state and the recognition of differences between people.

The article examines theoretical development of the idea of a Russian University in the XVIII-XIX centuries. The author considers the ideas of outstanding scientists and thinkers of the time. She also analyzes the charters of Russian universities and their role in the development of University education and considers the attitudes and influence of society on the development of universities. It is highlighted in the article that relations between the state, society and universities are well-defined in the University statutes. Four University Charters were adopted in Russia in the XIX century: 1804, 1835, 1863, and 1884. If the first Charter granted relative autonomy to the universities, the Charter of 1835 strengthened the power of Trustees, thereby limiting the previously given autonomy. The third Charter of 1863 restored the universities in their rights granting them broad autonomy, while the Charter of 1884 abolished them altogether. The author studies both points of view: the Russian and the foreign ones on the topic of University autonomy from the government. The article shows that Russian universities couldn’t even think about any autonomy, because they were created by the state with the aim to strengthen and preserve the monarchy. The author presents a comparison of missions of the first University and the already reformed University. While the mission of the first university was training of officials for the state service, the reformed universities focused on the development of science within its walls. The article considers development of the Russian University within one hundred years frame from the utilitarian to the classical one.

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of political power as it is depicted in the artistic world of Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov”. The concept of Tzar Boris is analyzed in the context of contemporary view on the nature of power elaborated by Eugen Fink. The author of the article focuses on the dialogue of historical truth and artistic credibility. The article shows that the complexity of Godunov’s character gives way to a wide range of interpretations in nowadays theatre and movies. Boris Godunov is comprehended by stage directors as the “actor” (acting subject) of modernity capable to struggle through the problematic current reality. In addition to the problems of the relationship between power and an individual, the authorities and the people in Boris Godunov, the author raises the most important topic of relations between Russia and the West. The author draws attention to the most famous performance of "Boris Godunov" in new Russia, the play, staged in 2000 by the British producer of Irish descent, Declan Donnellan, and expresses the opinion that this very performance solves the problem in the context of the "unhealed present" at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The study is addressed to theatre professionals, philologists, specialists in cultural studies and aesthetics, cultural scientists and educators.

This article deals with analyzing traditions from archaic societies to the modern society going through the hard crisis period being full of different risks. Speedy changes over the world are continuing to increase rapidly herewith to multiply risks for speedy achieving favourable future. The growing needs have been aggravating the destruction of harmony between a human and his mental, social and native world. The unbridgeable gap between a man and a tradition has been becoming obvious. The origin of Latin word "traditio" pays attention to education which implements continuity in society developing, and maintains culture. The analysis of examples of forming the traditions in ancient Israel, India and China, in ancient Greek policies and in Rome has revealed the importance of attitude for preserving the values keeping harmony between man’s inner world and society, and providing the balance between privacy and social life. Preserving tradition is carried out in conditions supported by culture which is certain to be the stronghold of any state. A tradition is focused on values and their transference mechanisms, and language is sure to have the priority among them. Language as a means of communication in time and space plays the paramount role keeping universal and professional knowledge for using by humanity. The etymology of loan words pays attention to the cultural and historical conditions of their emergence in a language and emphasizes the successive nature of knowledge. The tradition has been gaining the status of the basis allowing both person and society to get out of crisis.