The Organization and Objectives of Soviet Science

This report was delivered before the first USSR Conference of Scientific Workers by the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences. It deals with the reorganization of the work of Soviet scientific establishments in the areas of planning and coordination and discusses the fundamental tasks of science in its major branches. The introduction to the report, omitted here, indicates that the USSR Academy of Sciences has become that country's largest scientific establishment, supplemented by a widely ramified network of industrial research institutes and laboratories and by Republic Academies which have become independent centers of research. Observing that scientific investigation repeatedly results in decisive economic and technical changes, the introduction cites the work of a number of leading Soviet scientists who have made outstanding contributions in their fields. "Soviet Science and Communist Construction," Pravda, June 13, 1961. Slightly abridged.     

Expressionism in Music—Real and Imagined

At the Congress of Soviet Musicians in April, 1960, there was considerable heated debate on modernist—and more specifically expressionist—tendencies in Soviet music. The debate was sparked by critical discussion of the recently published Volumes II and III of A History of Russian Soviet Music. During the debate Iosif Ryzhkin, musician, critic and musicologist, took sharp issue with the author of this article over the latter's defense of Prokofiev, whose work at one time was under indictment as "Western-influenced" and "decadent." Specifically the clash centered around the last opera written by the dean of Soviet composers, the monumental War and Peace. Ryzhkin and Danilevich disagreed sharply on the way this work was evaluated in Volume III of the History.     

The Relinquishment of Newborns and Women's Reproductive Rights

This article by People's Artist of the USSR Georgi Tovstonogov, chief director of the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater and a Lenin Prize winner, is the author's summary of his address to a conference of the Leningrad branch of the All-Russian Theatrical Society, called to discuss the problem of artistic expressiveness of productions on a contemporary theme. Sovetskaya Kultura, (Soviet Culture), December 9, 1961.     

What factors may assist social workers to promote life satisfaction and personal growth among first‐time grandfathers?

Drawing on positive psychology and the perception of families as systems, the current study examined the contribution of variables regarding first‐time grandfathers and their sons, who have become first‐time fathers, to grandfathers' life satisfaction and personal growth. In addition, the association between the frequency of meetings between grandfather and grandchild to grandfathers' life satisfaction and personal growth was examined. The sample consisted of 106 pairs of first‐time Jewish Israeli grandfathers and their sons (n = 212). The grandfathers completed questionnaires relating to personal variables such as narcissism, family relations and frequency of meetings with the grandchild, and reported on their sense of life satisfaction and personal growth. The fathers completed questionnaires relating to personal variables, narcissism and family relations. Higher levels of grandfathers' life satisfaction were associated with their own perception of good family relations; higher levels of grandfathers' personal growth were related to their narcissism. The grandfather's perception of the frequency of meetings with the grandchild was found to moderate between the father's narcissism and the grandfather's life satisfaction and personal growth. The findings point to the crucial role social workers may play in enhancing life satisfaction and enabling personal growth through dedicated intergenerational interventions.     

Parent-Teacher Cooperation

Cooperation between teachers and parents is a sine qua non of any properly functioning educational system. This article shows Soviet teachers what they must do to have parents reinforce the influence of the school. It appeared in an elementary school journal published by the RSFSR Ministry of Education ("Basic Features of Work with Parents of 1st to 4th Grade Pupils," Nachal'naia Shkola, 1960, No. 3.)     

Prognosis for the Novel,East and West

Form and content in art are an all-absorbing subject for discussion among Soviet artists who like all artists everywhere are trying to formulate their thinking and apply it to their work. For the writers the central problem is the novel in its various aspects. M. Kuznetzov, a ranking member of the Soviet Writers' Union, makes the following contribution both as writer and as critic. ["Paths of Development of the Modern Novel," Novyi Mir, 1960, No. 2—abridged.]     

Empire and Federation

American newspaper and magazine readers have often sought advice on personal and family problems by submitting questions to these publications. Soviet parents, similarly concerned with the proper rearing of their children, also seek expert advice. These questions and answers, taken from a journal published by the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the RSFSR, reveal the character traits which Soviet educators strive to have parents instill in their children. ("Answers to Parents' Questions," Semia i Shkola, 1960, No. 3.)     

Science and Technology

In this review of the genetics controversy the author restates the basic criticisms levelled at the so-called "classical" school of genetics by leading Soviet scientists in this field. He maintains that the theory advanced by Lysenko and his followers has proven itself correct over the past years and that it emerges as the only scientific theory of heredity. The journal from which this article is translated states that it is an expanded and edited stenographic report read at the All-Russian Conference of Chairmen of Departments of Social Science, November 1960, and is published for purposes of discussion. Nauchnye Doklady Vysshei Shkoly, Filosofskie Nauki (Scientific Reports of the Higher School, Philosophical Sciences), 1961, No. 2.     

The Soviet 'wife-activist' down on the farm

Parties independent of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) were not formally permitted and non-party groups and movements needed the CPSU's approval to be allowed to form and survive. This was the situation up to Gorbachev's process of democratization. However, the CPSU had occasionally allowed the existence of social organizations which served the party and socialism and were perceived as ideologically non-threatening. One such was the 'movement of wives' ( dvizhenie zhen ) formed in the 1930s but not part of the party structure, but at best the wives could work within the boundaries of party policies. They tried to make daily life better for themselves, their husbands, children and the local community. Analyses have focused mainly on the movement as an urban phenomenon but they spread to farms and the rural sector. This article discusses their role in this context.     

Towards a social history of suffering: Dignity,misery and disrespect

ABSTRACT

This article examines the working-class audience in Soviet Ukraine and the changes in its reading appetites during the 1920s. Under the Soviet nationalities policy of korenizatsiia introduced in 1923, the print-runs of Ukrainian-language literary products increased significantly. Nonetheless, as this article argues, those numerous publications often did not reach Ukrainian readers and if they did, they could hardly satisfy the interest appetites of an ever-growing Ukrainian audience. As the book reviews collected in the second half of the 1920s showed, the worker readers were interested in a certain type of literature – entertaining, easy to comprehend, dealing with contemporary issues and characters – that was not yet available in Ukrainian. Nevertheless, once that literature began to emerge in the late 1920s, the interest in contemporary books in Ukrainian increased. By examining every aspect of reading in Ukrainian – production, dissemination and consumption of the printed word – this article highlights the decisive role of Soviet readership in determining future official Soviet Ukrainian literature. The case of Soviet Ukraine emphasizes regional specifics and introduces an important language component to the Bolshevik reading revolution of the 1920s to early 1930s, largely ignored in the scholarship.     

The Role of Social Contact in the Experience of Discrimination: Implications for Subjective Health Among Marriage Migrant Women in South Korea

Several studies have found that various social contexts could serve a protective role for minorities facing discrimination. One of these contexts is frequency of social contact, which is known to be positively associated with health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of social contact with various social groups as a protective factor against the negative association between perceived discrimination and subjective health. Using data from the 2009 Korean National Survey of Multicultural Families, a total of 27,083 marriage migrant women were analyzed via hierarchical multiple regression. After controlling for socio‐demographic factors and Korean proficiency, the experience of discrimination was found to be significantly associated with lower levels of subjective health (B = ?0.22; P < 0.001). More frequent meetings with one's family of origin (B = 0.02; P < 0.01) and in‐laws (B = 0.06; P < 0.001) were associated with higher levels of subjective health, while more frequent meetings with neighbors were negatively associated (B = ?0.02; P < 0.001). More frequent contact with one's family of origin (B = 0.03; P < 0.05), rather than with other groups, such as friends from their country of origin, in‐laws, and neighbors, seemed to reduce the negative influence of discrimination on subjective health.     

Bottom Up and Top Down? Community Development in Post‐Soviet Armenia: The Social Fund Model

The main objective of this article is to discuss the effectiveness of bottom‐up, community‐driven approaches in promoting community participation and building local capacity within the post‐Soviet social, institutional and political context of Armenia. In exploring this issue, the article examines the nature of local participation and social relations in rural communities in Armenia and the impact of the World Bank‐supported Armenia Social Investment Fund (ASIF) project on the existing forms of local social organization. One of the objectives of the ASIF project was to promote the participation of local communities in their own economic and social development. The research finds that the project did not change the existing patterns of local social organization and had no significant impact on the nature of participation in the beneficiary communities. Bottom‐up, capacity‐building interventions that mainly focus on changing patterns of interpersonal social relations may not be effective in fostering sustainable civic institutions without changes in the nature of a country's governance.     

Film Trends: East and West

A leading Soviet film director (The Young Guard) recounts his discussions with Hollywood film executives and directors, indicates some aspects of the organization of the Soviet film industry, and presents his views of recent French, Italian and American films. ("Films and Man in the 1960's," Izvestiia, August 12-14, 1960.)     

Abstract Humanism and Socialist Humanism

This article, taken from a leading Soviet literary journal, elaborates the concept of "social humanism" as applied to literature. It is also concerned with a frequently discussed question in Soviet literary criticism — the nature of the hero in Soviet and other modern literature. The authors are researchers at the Gorky Institute of World Literature. Voprosy Literatury (Problems of Literature), 1960, No. 12 — slightly abridged.     

The Study and Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency

This article, taken from a law journal, presents the findings of several Soviet investigations of juvenile delinquency and reveals the manner in which law-enforcement agencies enlist the efforts of Soviet citizens in meeting this problem. (Sovetskoe Gosudarstvo i Pravo, 1960, No. 12.)     

A Word About the Change of Title

With the final disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the title Soviet Review suddenly belonged to history. After considering all the unsatisfactory alternatives, we have decided to rename the journal Russian Social Science Review, which at least has the merit of conveying more clearly the journal's editorial profile. Although most of the articles appearing in the journal will, as in the past, be drawn from Russian-language sources, translations from other languages will certainly not be excluded, and we will make a positive effort to present work from, and about, all areas of the former Soviet Union.     

A Critique of Critics

In recent months a number of articles in the Soviet press have appealed for a change in the tone and function of literary and cultural criticism. Two examples of such appeals are printed below. The first is a brief statement by outstanding members of the Soviet musical, theater and film worlds and by its leading physicist ("For Effect," Izvestia, September 7, 1960). The second article is directed to literary critics (Searchingly But Without Prejudice," Izvestia, September 19—abridged).     

Maternal Discipline and Children's Adjustment: The Role of the Cultural and Situational Context

This study examined how the cultural and situational contexts can jointly shape the consequences of discipline strategies. Israeli mothers who grew up in Israel or in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) (overall N = 110) reported regarding their use of psychologically controlling and punitive discipline with their seven‐years‐old to 10‐years‐old children, and teachers reported regarding children's behavior problems. We assessed both mothers' overall general use of the discipline strategies, and their use of the same strategies following transgressions in the academic domain, an area which the two groups emphasize to differing degrees. Consistent with hypothesis, controlling discipline in academic situations had more positive consequences in the FSU group compared with the Israeli‐origin group. In contrast, and as predicted, cultural group was not a moderator of mothers' overall, general use of the same discipline strategies. The findings illustrate how taking the situation into account can inform examination of the moderating role of cultural group.     

A Leap to the Realm of Freedom: A Brief Essay on the Most Recent Period in the History of Contemporary Russian Journalism

Many centuries of mankind's history and modern world practice teach us that no civilization in any country can develop in full measure and exist without a firm rear guard [tyl] in the form of a viable countryside providing a reliable food front. It is highly regrettable that the present state of our society confirms this truism. As repeatedly emphasized at congresses of people's deputies and sessions of the USSR Supreme Soviet not only by rank-and-file deputies but also by the country's principal leaders—work superintendents [proraby] of perestroika— roughly 70 percent of the realization of all the tasks of perestroika (political, economic, and social) hinges on the existing state of the food supply and on the agrarian sector as a whole.