Book
Lexikon der russischen Kultur
A dictionary of the main categories of Russian culture from the beginnings until the 20th century; Absolutism, Antichrist, Aristocracy, Army, Bolshevism, Orthodoxy, Intelligentsia, Lenin, Metro, Tsar etc.
Ideas of the creation of the new human being (новый человек) in Russian history and culture from the 10th century until the homo sovieticus.
The study aimed to test measurement invariance of the Russian-language EmIn questionnaire (by D. Lyusin) for emotional intelligence assessment in two samples, from Russia (n = 275) and Azerbaijan (n = 275). Exploratory factor analysis on pooled sample revealed a 4-factor structure with dimensions interpreted as understanding of one’s own emotions, management of one’s own emotions, understanding of others’ emotions, management of others’ emotions. Using confirmatory factor analysis, strong factorial invariance (equivalence of factor loadings and intercepts) was established, which allows to compare means scores in two cultures. Russians, compared to the Azerbaijani, report better understanding of one’s own emotions and management of one’s own emotions. Russian males report better management of their own emotions, compared to Russian females (in all age groups). Azerbaijani females report better understanding of others’ emotions, compared to Azerbaijani males (except for the senior age group). The results are interpreted based on existing knowledge of cross-cultural differences between Russian and Azerbaijan in cultural values, such as individualism and masculinity.
This paper discusses the genesis of a basic concept of moral discourse – the concept of “justice” [spravedlivost’] – in Russian culture. This study was inspired by the lack of Russian and foreign research of the evolution of the concept of “justice” in the Russian language. The methodological basis of this work is the late Wittgenstein’s philosophical principles of interpreting social phenomena through the real word usage. This paper presents historical study of “justice” on the basis of sources from the late 11th through the 20th century. The analysis consists of two stages: 1) Identifying the time of the appearance of a given word-concept in the Russian language and explaining its origins in its socio-cultural con- text; and 2) tracing the semantic evolution of the concept in connection with social and cultural dynamics.
Review of Isaiah Berlin's The Soviet Mind. Russian Culture under Communism
The book presents a collection of articles dedicated to the typological characteristics of the Russian culture in its historical development. Some articles deal with the specific Russian cultural concepts (such as "intelligentsia") other with interpretation of certain concepts (such as "Europe" or "monarchic power") in the specific Russian context. All the articles has a theoretical character with particular illustrations from Russian cultural texts. They are intended to demonstrate a general model which could be applied to other material. A large part of the book is devoted to the semiotic approach to icons. The same approach as a matter of principle can be applied to a different material and this is demonsrtated by all kinds of typological comparisons.
Students' internet usage attracts the attention of many researchers in different countries. Differences in internet penetration in diverse countries lead us to ask about the interaction of medium and culture in this process. In this paper we present an analysis based on a sample of 825 students from 18 Russian universities and discuss findings on particularities of students' ICT usage. On the background of the findings of the study, based on data collected in 2008-2009 year during a project "A сross-cultural study of the new learning culture formation in Germany and Russia", we discuss the problem of plagiarism in Russia, the availability of ICT features in Russian universities and an evaluation of the attractiveness of different categories of ICT usage and gender specifics in the use of ICT.