Philosophical and Cultural Interpretations of Russian Modernisation

223 Pages·2016·2.509 MB·English

by  Arto Mustajoki, Katja Lehtisaari

Philosophical and Cultural
Interpretations of Russian
Modernisation
In this book the expert international contributors attempt to answer questions such
as: How far is it possible to attribute change in contemporary Russia to cultural
factors? How does the process of change in cultural institutions reflect the gen-
eral development of Russia? Are there certain philosophical ideas that explain the
Russian interpretation of a modern society?
This edited volume elaborates on processes of Russian modernisation regard-
ing a wide range of factors, including: the use of modern technology; elements
of civil society; a reliable legal system; high levels of education; equality among
citizens; and freedom of speech, religion, and trade. The main focus is on the
Putin era but historical backgrounds are also discussed, adding context. The chap-
ters cover a wide spectrum of research fields from philosophy and political ideas
to gender issues, language, the education system, and the position of music as a
constituent of modern identity.
Throughout the book the chapters are written so as to introduce experts from
other fields to new perspectives on Russian modernisation and de-modernisation
processes. It will be of great interest to postgraduates and scholars in philosophy,
politics, IR, music and cultural studies, and, of course, Russian studies.
Katja Lehtisaari is a postdoctoral researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, Univer-
sity of Helsinki, Finland. She holds a Doctor of Social Sciences degree from the
University of Tampere and she has published articles and co-authored or edited
books on, for example, the development of journalism, the press market structures
and media convergence, focusing mainly on Russia and Finland. She is currently
also involved in research on the role of media in civic unity and unrest in Central
Asia. Lehtisaari is the editor-in-chief of Idäntutkimus, The Finnish Review of East
European Studies.
Arto Mustajoki is Professor of Russian language and Dean of the Faculty of
Arts at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has published books and arti-
cles in Russian, English and Finnish on functional syntax, corpus linguistics,
linguistic theory, miscommunication, Russian mentality, research ethics and sci-
ence policy. A recent co-edited book was entitled Understanding Russianness
(Routledge, 2012).
Studies in Contemporary Russia
Series Editor: Markku Kivinen
Studies in Contemporary Russia is a series of cutting-edge, contemporary studies.
These monographs, joint publications and edited volumes branch out into various
disciplines, innovatively combining research methods and theories to approach
the core questions of Russian modernisation: How do the dynamics of resources
and rules affect the Russian economy and what are the prospects and needs of
diversification? What is the impact of the changing state-society relationship?
How does the emerging welfare regime work? What is the role of Russia in con-
temporary international relations? How should we understand the present Russian
political system? What is the philosophical background of modernisation as a
whole and its Russian version in particular?
The variety of opinions on these issues is vast. Some see increasingly less dif-
ference between contemporary Russia and the Soviet Union while at the other
extreme, prominent experts regard Russia as a ‘more or less’ normal European
state. At the same time new variants of modernisation are espoused as a result of
Russian membership in the global BRICS powers. Combining aspects of Western
and Soviet modernisation with some anti-modern or traditional tendencies the
Russian case is ideal for probing deeper into the evolving nature of modernisation.
Which of the available courses Russia will follow remains an open question, but
these trajectories provide the alternatives available for discussion in this ground-
breaking and authoritative series.
The editor and the editorial board of the series represent the Finnish Centre of
Excellence in Russian Studies: Choices of Russian Modernisation.
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/
ASHSER-1421.
Paganism, Traditionalism, Nationalism
Kaarina Aitamurto
Authoritarian Modernization in Russia
Ideas, Institutions, and Policies
Vladimir Gel’man
Philosophical and Cultural Interpretations of Russian Modernisation
Edited by Katja Lehtisaari and Arto Mustajoki
The Other Russia
Local Experience and Societal Change
Leo Granberg and Ann-Mari Sätre
Philosophical and Cultural
Interpretations of Russian
Modernisation
Edited by Katja Lehtisaari
and Arto Mustajoki
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business.
© 2017 selection and editorial material, Katja Lehtisaari and Arto
Mustajoki; individual chapters, the contributors.
The right of Katja Lehtisaari and Arto Mustajoki to be identified as authors
of the editorial material, and of the individual authors as authors of their
contributions, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-4724-7212-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-60038-3 (ebk)
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Contents
List of figures and tables vii
Notes on contributors viii
Note on translation and transliteration xii
Introduction 1
KATJA LEHTISAARI AND ARTO MUSTAJOKI
1 Dimensions of Russian culture and mind 7
TATIANA LARINA, ARTO MUSTAJOKI AND EKATERINA PROTASSOVA
2 Kant and Russian idealism: A litmus test of modernisation 20
VESA OITTINEN
3 Soviet modernisation and its legacies from the perspective of
civilisational analysis 32
MIKHAIL MASLOVSKII
4 A morphology of Russia? The Russian civilisational turn
and its cyclical idea of history 44
KÅRE JOHAN MJØR
5 The Russian Orthodox Church today: Transformations
between secular and sacred 59
ELINA KAHLA
6 The end of the Russian intelligentsia? Conceptual changes in
the context of post-Soviet Russia’s modernisation process 75
JUTTA SCHERRER
Appendix: Intelligentsia and related terms in Russian mass
media 1991–2014 86
HANNA-MAARIA LUOTO
vi Contents
7 Universities for modernising Russia 89
YURY ZARETSKIY
8 Post-socialist Neoliberal? Education reform in Russia as a
socially interpreted process 102
ELENA MININA
9 Educating the new listener: Classical music and Russian
modernisation 118
ELINA VILJANEN
10 Cultural barriers of the Russian modernisation 136
NADEZHDA LEBEDEVA
11 ‘New women’ modernising Russia 149
KIRSTI EKONEN† AND IRINA IUKINA
12 Public discussion on information society in Russia 163
KATJA LEHTISAARI
13 Preconditions for Russian modernisation: A media analysis 175
VEERA LAINE AND ARTO MUSTAJOKI
Concluding remarks: Philosophical and cultural
interpretations of Russian modernisation 191
ARTO MUSTAJOKI AND KATJA LEHTISAARI
Index 205
Figures and tables
Figures
6.1 Intelligentsia and related terms in Russian mass media as a
whole, 1991–2014: terms with the highest frequency 86
6.2 Intelligentsia and related terms in Russian mass media as a
whole, 1991–2014: terms with the next highest frequency 87
6.3 Intelligentsia and related terms in Russian mass media as a
whole, 1991–2014: terms with the lowest frequency 87
12.1 Relative frequency of information society in the publications
in Integrum database, 2000–2014 168
13.1 The frequency of the use of the words modernizatsiia,
innovatsiia and tsivilizatsiia in 2000–2014 in Russian media 176
13.2 The share of the usage of the words innovation,
modernisation and civilisation in the Russian and Finnish
internet according to Yandex (1.3.2015) 176
13.3 The frequency of the usage of the expressions modernizatsiia
strany or modernizatsiia Rossii in comparison with
importozameshchenie in 2013–2105 in Russian media 186
C1.1 Factors and actors influencing societal processes 192
Tables
2.1 Kant and Russian idealism 28
10.1 Indicators of horizontality and verticality in Canada
and Russia 140
10.2 Distinctions between the real and preferred types of
corporate culture in Russian organisations 144
Notes on contributors
Kirsti Ekonen (1963–2016) received a PhD in Russian cultural studies at the Uni-
versity of Tampere in 2009. She worked and taught in several universities in
Finland, lately at the Department of History, Culture and Arts at the University
of Turku. She was a specialist in Russian Symbolism, Russian women’s writ-
ing, and cultural contacts between Finland and Russia and published widely in
Russian, Finnish, and English. She was the author of the book Tvorets, subekt,
zhenshchina (Creator, Subject, Woman, Moscow, NLO, 2011), co-edited and
co-authored the first Finnish-language history of Russian literature (Venäläisen
kirjallisuuden historia, Helsinki UP, 2011) and the volume Women and Trans-
formation in Russia (Routledge, 2014). Her last research project was on the
concept of the “new woman” in Russian history and culture.
Irina Iukina (Yukina), PhD, works as an Associate Professor at the Department
of History and Political Science at the Saint-Petersburg State University of
Aerospace Instrumentation, Russia. She has specialized in the fields of social
movements, social policy and women’s history. She is an author of Russian
language books Russian Feminism as Challenge of Modernity (SPb, Aletheia,
2007), Women’s St. Petersburg. The Experience of Historical Guide (with
J. Guseva), (SPb, Aletheia, 2004), History of Russian Women: Women’s Move-
ment and Feminism in 1859–1920s. Materials to Bibliography (SPb, Aletheia,
2003).
Elina Kahla, PhD, is Docent in Russian Cultural History, University of Helsinki,
Finland, and director of the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her
research interests include contemporary Russian Orthodox Church and cul-
ture; modern vitae [zhitiia], revival and reconstruction of Romanov-dynasty
and Orthodox-Church-related memorabilia in connection to contemporary
memory politics; state, church and society connections.
Veera Laine (MSocSc) is a postgraduate student in the Doctoral Programme in
Political, Societal and Regional Change at the University of Helsinki, Finland.
Her master’s thesis dealt with glasnost as a political concept during the years
1985–1995. She is currently working as a research fellow in the EU’s East-
ern Neighbourhood and Russia research programme of the Finnish Institute
Notes on contributors ix
of International Affairs, where she concentrates on contemporary Russian
nationalism.
Tatiana Larina is a Professor of Linguistics at Peoples’ Friendship University
of Russia (Moscow) and Moscow State Linguistic University. She specializes
in Intercultural Communication, Intercultural Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics,
and Politeness Theory. As a visiting professor she delivered lectures at Delhi
University, India (2009) and L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University,
Astana, Kazakhstan (2013). She has published 5 books and over 160 articles in
Russian and English on Intercultural Communication, Intercultural Pragmat-
ics, Politeness in English and Russian Communicative Cultures, English vs.
Russian Communicative Styles, Language and Culture Acquisition. She is an
editor-in-chief of Russian Journal of Linguistics: Vestnik RUDN and a member
of editorial boards of various academic journals.
Nadezhda Lebedeva, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and
Head of the International Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research at The
National Research University ‘Higher School of Economics’ in Moscow, Rus-
sia. Her research interests are values, intercultural relations, culture and inno-
vations, social and cultural change. She is the author of 26 books and over 230
articles on social and cross-cultural psychology.
Katja Lehtisaari is a postdoctoral researcher at the Aleksanteri Institute, Univer-
sity of Helsinki, Finland. She holds a Doctor of Social Sciences degree from
University of Tampere and she has published articles and co-authored or edited
books on e.g. the development of journalism and the press market structures
and media convergence, focusing mainly on Russia and Finland. She is cur-
rently involved also in research on the role of media in civic unity and unrest
in Central Asia. Lehtisaari is the editor-in-chief of Idäntutkimus, The Finnish
Review of East European Studies.
Hanna-Maaria Luoto (MA) has studied Russian language and literature at the
University of Helsinki, Finland. In her master’s thesis, she looked at the func-
tioning of the system of continuous language testing (KARTTU) used at the
Russian language studies at the University of Helsinki in 2005–2013. She is
also the co-author of the publication “Longitiudnoe testirovanie iazykovykh
navykov finskikh studentov: nekotorye rezul’taty” (With Mikhail Kopotev in
Slavica Helsingiensia 45. Instrumentarii rusistiki: oshibki i mnogoiazychie.
Ed. A. Nikunlassi & E. Protasova. Helsinki 2014: Department of Modern
Languages).
Mikhail Maslovskii (Maslovskiy) is a Professor of the National Research Uni-
versity Higher School of Economics and a senior researcher at the Sociologi-
cal Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg. His research
dealt with Weberian and neo-Weberian approaches in historical sociology and
application of the multiple modernities perspective on Russian and Soviet his-
tory. His publications include “The Weberian Tradition in Historical Sociology