The State of the Physical and Social Sciences

The Soviet Union fostered the development of the physical sciences, and although hampered by the slow development of the computer industry and outdated laboratory equipment, many of its scientists and scientific institutions did important work. Fields with potential military application, such as physics, chemistry, and mathematics, along with other disciplines, were supported. Much of the money for the sciences has vanished. Where it exists, private or foundation funding can provide only minimal resources. Dozens of prestigious institutes are nearly closed, lacking funds even for essentials such as electricity and water.

The social sciences were organized around Marxist-Leninist theory and thus were forced to frame research in terms of dialectical materialism. Until the mid-1980s, social problems were not freely discussed and research that might portray living conditions or social attitudes in a negative light was restricted. Since the era of Gorbachev's reforms, the social sciences have flourished even though financing for pure research has been limited. Applied sociology has benefited, as polling has become a mainstay of business.

Bibliography

Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam. Russian Traditional Culture: Religion, Gender, and Customary Law, 1992.

Billington, James H. The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture. 1970.

Boutenko, Irene A., and Kirill E. Razlogov, eds. Recent Social Trends in Russia 1960–1995, 1997.

Boym, Svetlana. Common Places: Mythologies of Everyday Life in Russia, 1994.

Buckley, Mary. Redefining Russian Society and Polity, 1993.

Colton, Timothy J. Moscow: Governing the Socialist Metropolis, 1995.

Curtis, Glenn E., ed. Russia: A Country Study, 1998.

Cushman, Thomas. Notes from Underground: Rock Music Counterculture in Russia, 1995.

Dallin, Alexander, and Gail W. Lapidus, eds. The Soviet System from Crisis to Collapse, 1991.

Dukes, Paul. A History of Russia c. 882–1996, 1998.

Dunn, Stephen P., and Ethel Dunn. The Peasants of Central Russia, 1988.

Eklof, Ben, and Stephen P. Frank. World of the Russian Peasant: Post-Emancipation Culture and Society, 1990.

Fedotov, George P. The Russian Religious Mind, vol. 1: Kievan Christianity, 1975.

Friedrich, Paul. "Semantic Structure and Social Structure: An Instance from Russia." In Language, Context, and Imagination , 1979.

Gerhart, Genevra. The Russian's World: Life and Language, 2nd ed. 1994.

Gregory, James S. Russian Land, Soviet People: A Geographical Approach to the U.S.S.R., 1968.

Handelman, Stephen. Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya, 1995.

Hilton, Alison. Russian Folk Art, 1995.

Hubbs, Joanna. Mother Russia: The Feminine Myth in Russian Culture, 1988.

Humphrey, Caroline. Marx Went Away—But Karl Stayed Behind, updated edition of Karl Marx Collective: Economy, Society and Religion in a Siberian Collective Farm, 1998.

Ivanits, Linda. Russian Folk Belief, 1989.

Kaiser, Daniel H., and Gary Marker, eds. Reinterpreting Russian History: Readings, 860–1860s, 1994.

Khazanov, Anatoly M. After the USSR: Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Politics in the Commonwealth of Independent States , 1995.

Kingston-Mann, Esther, and Timothy Mixter, eds. Peasant Economy, Culture and Politics of European Russia 1800–1921, 1991.

Kotkin, Stephen. Steeltown, USSR: Soviet Society in the Gorbachev Era, 1991.

Laitin, David D. Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad, 1998.

Ledeneva, Alena V. Russia's Economy of Favours: Blat, Networking, and Informal Exchange, 1998.

Lincoln, W. Bruce. Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of a Thousand Years of Artistic Life in Russia, 1998.

Mandel, David. Rabotyagi: Perestroika and after Viewed from Below, 1994.

Markowitz, Fran. Coming of Age in Post-Soviet Russia, 2000.

Millar, James R., and Sharon L. Wolchik, eds. The Social Legacy of Communism, 1994.

Pesmen, Dale. Russia and Soul: An Exploration, 2000.

Pilkington, Hilary. Migration, Displacement, and Identity in Post-Soviet Russia, 1998.

Pipes, Richard. Russia under the Old Regime, 1974.

Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. A History of Russia, 6th ed., 2000.

Ries, Nancy. Russian Talk: Culture and Conversation during Perestroika, 1997.

Rose, Richard. "Getting by without Government: Everyday Life in Russia." Daedalus, 123 (3): 41–62, 1994.

Ruffin, M. Holt, et al. The Post-Soviet Handbook: A Guide to Grassroots Organizations and Internet Resources, 1999.

Rzhevsky, Nicholas, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture, 1998.

Shalin, Dmitri N., ed. Russian Culture at the Crossroads: Paradoxes of Post-Communist Consciousness, 1996.

Shlapentokh, Vladimir. "Bonjour, Stagnation: Russia's Next Years." Europe-Asia Studies, 49 (5): 865–881, 1997.

Smith, Kathleen E. Remembering Stalin's Victims: Popular Memory and the End of the USSR, 1996.

Sokolov, Y. M. Russian Folklore, translated by Catharine Ruth Smith, 1971.

Stites, Richard. Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution, 1989.

——. Russian Popular Culture: Entertainment and Society since 1900, 1992.

Thompson, Terry L., and Richard Sheldon. Soviet Society and Culture: Essays in Honor of Vera S. Dunham, 1988.

Toomre, Joyce. Classic Russian Cooking, 1992.

Tumarkin, Nina. The Living and the Dead: The Rise and Fall of the Cult of World War II in Russia, 1994.

—N ANCY R IES

Read more: Culture of Russia - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family http://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Russia.html#ixzz2B28imBmJ

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1115