Chechnya

The roots of the conflict between Moscow and Grozny lie in the history of Chechnya's relations with the Russian state. When Russia conquered Chechnya in the second half of the last century, the Chechens were, in terms of civilizational development, in a pretraditional stage characterized by the absence in practice of a stable state form capable of subordinating clan and tribal relationships to itself. The expansion of the Russian Empire was directed at regulating local conflicts among various clan and tribal groups and individual princes; however, this "civilizing mission" contained an incipient conflict between the center of the empire and these peoples. The Russian Empire's policy of annexation, implemented in a highly traditional country, predetermined the rise of conflict, manifested in the Caucasian war between Chechnya and Russia in the nineteenth century and the state of oppression that followed, in which Chechnya has now lived for more than a century and a half. Along with conflictual relations, a certain collaboration also developed and groups neutral to the conflict began to appear. This, in turn, stirred up conflict among the Chechens themselves.     

In This Issue

We open this issue of The Soviet Review with a roundtable on the introduction of the "rule of law" in the USSR. Students of Russian history will recognize this discussion as one having century-old precedents; in this case, the topic was posed in the Theses of the CPSU Central Committee mandating the goal of "complet[ing] the creation of a socialist law-governed state." As the participants freely acknowledge, it will require a "revolution of consciousness" for the idea to take hold that law is not a tool of the state, but rather, the state is subordinate to the law. Readers should pay particular attention to the discussants' views on the appropriate roles and relationships of state, party, and society, as well as their comments on rights and on the law.     

俄罗斯的市民社会诉求与"法治国家"定位

俄罗斯"法治国家"的理论路径是与俄罗斯社会结构转型进程相回应的,并以市民社会为其逻辑起点,即认为市民社会构成了法治国家的社会基础;市民社会的自由、权利和秩序诉求提供了法治国家的价值原则;公民法律意识是法治国家的重要条件和保证.这不仅反映了俄罗斯社会结构转型条件下的法治要求和特有关怀,也反映了俄罗斯国家控制能力衰弱和市民社会"畸变"背景下的法律秩序要求.文章指出,要推进法治,不仅要推进国家和市民社会二元化进程,更重要的是确立二者良性互动关系,而不可简单移植和照搬西方.     

All-Encompassing Paranoia

The Russian state has over the last five years gradually increased its ability to control the Internet. Russian Internet companies recognize that in order to continue to work in Russia they have to be willing to help state security and to exert pressure on foreign IT companies. The ability of the Russian government to secure the Internet is limited by the openness of Russian society and of the Russian Internet itself. While the government has so far not succeeded in countering this openness, it is likely to continue to try, as the priority is now on securing the regime against external and internal threats rather than ensuring the personal security of Russians.     

论俄罗斯思想的语言维度

俄罗斯思想作为俄罗斯民族意识的表达存在多个维度。潜藏于俄罗斯文学之中的俄罗斯思想为人们提供了认识生活秘密的视角;而对于历史文本而言,俄罗斯思想隐藏于"莫斯科-第三罗马"的话语之中。但构成上述维度的源文本是语言,所以语言维度是打开俄罗斯思想作为哲学思维之门的一把钥匙。文章通过对俄语"思想"一词的词源和意义的深度探索来分析俄罗斯思想的哲学叙事和日常生活叙事两种功能。     

The Community's Role in the Prevention and Study of Crime

Vladimir S. Malakhov outlines state-sponsored efforts to create a civic nation-state, which Gleb Pavlovskii and others have called "The Russian Project." The author points out that the multicultural, multiethnic, and multiconfessional legacies of "Rossiia"^* [Russia] make it extraordinarily difficult to change the meaning of the ethnonational term "Russian." Based on diverse United States and European histories, and despite their mixed experiences of immigrant incorporation, he advocates a return to the credibility of the term "multicultural." Toward this end, he suggests that the multiethnic meaning of "Rossiia" is being restored as the best defense against Russian chauvinist nationalism.     

Marxism and Russian Philosophy

Until quite recently, Russian philosophy was studied mainly from the standpoint of its development "along the path to Marxism." Understandably, attention was mainly devoted to "the solid materialist tradition," which overshadowed all other currents of Russian thought. However, the question arises of whether this "materialist tradition," i.e., the philosophy of the Russian revolutionary democrats, is so consonant with Marxism. One need only examine the facts to persuade oneself of the untenability of such an assumption.     

Welfare State Developments in the Russian Federation: Oil-led Social Policy and 'The Russian Miracle'

This article investigates the main welfare state developments of the Russian Federation that have occurred since the fall of communism. It argues that the contemporary welfare expansion strictly depends on high oil and gas prices, and that this oil-led social policy makes the future of the 'Russian miracle' highly volatile. The main conclusion is that the Russian welfare state will be able to function properly and to ensure social integration and solidarity only under conditions of sustained oil-led growth. The article also identifies a variety of different, but equally important, endogenous, as well as exogenous, factors that have influenced the social policy developments in the Russian Federation since 1989. These correspond to the existence of few veto points present in the political arena, the lack of a well-structured system of interest representation, the presence of informality in the welfare state organization, but also to the presence of national economic vulnerabilities and/or strengths in the now open global economy, as well as to non-contingent decisions taken in strategic sectors of the state, such as those related to the energy or defence sectors.     

The Taming of the Internet

The Russian system of state internet censorship has been steadily expanding in recent years. The Russian government has succeeded in placing under its control both domestic and foreign internet companies operating in Russia and in establishing a system that can be used to conduct mass surveillance of internet users. However, the state censorship regime remains incomplete, as it is focused on countering small numbers of dissidents and is not designed to prevent the spread of information among thousands of users.     

Financing Russian Science

The financing of Russian science is a problem that has been written about quite frequently and voluminously and already long ago become a triviality in the sequence of countless difficulties of the transitional period. Most arguments and appeals boil down to the premise that the state must improve its financing of science, that the scientific-technical potential is being catastrophically reduced, and that the country may simply fall into a state of technological dependence on the leading industrial powers. In approximately 1992, the authors of such forecasts began to warn that, if prompt measures were not taken, Russian science would completely perish in six months, or a year at most. The paradox is that science (abridged, condensed, and constrained) is still alive. Some of its directions are even developing. Proof of this is demonstrated by the attempt of the foreign community to collaborate with Russian scholars, as well as the high marks scored by much Russian research.     

现代东北文学中的俄罗斯人形象

现代东北文学中出现了众多的俄罗斯人形象,东北作家们对俄罗斯人形象的描摹,一方面显示了近代以来由于种种历史政治等方面的原因俄罗斯文化对现代东北文学的深刻影响,为现代东北文学增添了几许异国风味,另一方面也折射出生活在东北这块黑土地上的人们所演绎的独特的社会人生景观.现代东北文学中的俄罗斯人形象反映了近代以来东北地区战乱频仍的历史现实和多元文化杂糅、儒家文化传统薄弱的文化状态.     

George Reavey's "Treatment" of Soviet Poetry

Two large anthologies of Russian Soviet poetry have appeared in New York in rapid succession. The texts are given parallel in the Russian and English languages. Recently this has become an established procedure in the West in editions intended for readers who love poetry and understand that verse has to be read in the original. The number of people in the world who have some knowledge of Russian is constantly increasing, and enthusiasm for Soviet poetry is growing along with an interest in our country and in the language "spoken by Lenin." The advantages of "bilingualism" to the reader are readily understandable. It enables him to evaluate or at least to deepen his sense of the authenticity and artistic success of the translation, which gives the Russian poem life in another language.     

The “Question of the Ethnic Russians” in the Context of Ethnic Relations in the Russian Federation

The author examines the current and likely future position of the Russian ethnic group within Russia's systems of interethnic and ethnofederal relations. He also examines the meaning of the term nationalism as used in Russian politics and warns about the danger of growing imbalances in state regulation of federal and ethnic relations. He proposes a new federalism that would eliminate asymmetries in relations between ethnic Russians and other ethnic groups inhabiting the Russian Federation.     

College Students' Attitudes Toward Religion

Data on Russian students show that there is a large gap between declaring oneself a believer or identifying oneself with a religion and actually participating in it. Students are in favor of keeping religion and politics separate, and so in general show very weak support for recent statements about making Russian Orthodoxy the new state religion.     

神圣与神秘主义:俄罗斯文化的主要维度

在当前“去魅化”的科学时代,非理性的情感与不可言说的心灵体验越来越被边缘化,作为精神世界最高体验的神圣与神秘主义通常被仅仅从理性的角度进行理解,神秘主义甚至被等同于迷信而受到批判.正是在这样的背景下,20世纪的俄罗斯宗教哲学家力图恢复神圣与神秘在人的生命存在中的位置.文章认为,神圣与神秘主义不仅是俄罗斯宗教哲学的灵魂,同时在俄罗斯文学、民间艺术以及俄罗斯民族的性格中都有着深刻影响.应该明确的是,俄罗斯思想家的目标不是恢复宗教的地位,而是指出神圣与神秘主义作为人的内在体验是克服现代人之存在的物化状态的一个主要途径.     

Corporate Governance and Gazprom: Problems and Prospects

One of the most remarkable phenomena in the complicated life of contemporary Russian academe is the mass departure of scholars for politics. Although this kind of "brain drain" cannot compare in scale with other types, such as the emigration of Russian researchers and their entry into business, it is comparable to them in importance, for it has an appreciable effect on both academics and politics.     

俄罗斯20世纪90年代法学思潮述评

俄罗斯 90年代的法学思潮 ,集中表现在对法的理解上 ,伴随着前苏联改革及其解体后俄罗斯的社会转型展开和演进。总体上说 ,俄罗斯法学界在对待法的问题上 ,主要有三种思潮 :自然法 (道德 )的、社会学的和规范主义的。前期注重法的内容 ,忽视法的形式 ,夸大国家权力的消极方面 ,强调法与法律的区别 ;通过法与国家关系的探讨和实践总结 ,后期兼顾法的内容与形式 ,正视国家作用的观点成为主流。文章拟从 90年代前期和后期俄罗斯法学研究的不同侧重来揭示这一时期的法学思潮。     

俄罗斯联邦行政程序制度述评

行政程序制度是俄罗斯联邦行政法学体系中正在形成和完善的一部分内容 ,相对于前苏联的行政程序制度已经有了较大的发展。俄罗斯行政法学者从研究行政程序的基本概念入手 ,从理论上和词语规范上理清了行政程序、行政司法程序、行政诉讼程序等基本问题 ;以 2 0 0 1年制定的《俄罗斯联邦行政违法法典》为范例 ,行政程序的原则经历了由维护国家管理向规范行政权、保障公民权的回归 ;与俄罗斯联邦建设法治国家的目标相统一 ,必将尽快结束行政诉讼与民事诉讼程序合而为一的状况 ,制定独立的行政诉讼法典 ;建立具有特色的行政法院体系或在普通法院体系中建立相对独立的行政法庭 ,是未来俄罗斯联邦行政程序制度的发展趋势。     

entropy.net: (Op-Ed on the Net)

Research on the opinions of Russian and French college students reflect different national views as to the qualities of personality that are necessary for the head of a modern state.