The evolution of policing in post-soviet Russia: Paternalism versus service in police. Officers’ understanding of their role

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Semukhina
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Early Period ◽  
The State ◽  
Retention Rates ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Institutional Identity ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Second Period

This paper examines two interrelated issues: the role of police as an institution of Russian society and their role during the past 25 years. This research is based on a series of indepth interviews conducted by the author in 2014–2016 with former and current police officers in three Russian cities. The paper traces changes in the perceived institutional roles of the Russian police by comparing police officers’ views during three periods: early through mid-1990s, late-1990s through mid-2000s, and mid-2000s through 2010s. The study reports that, during the early period, Russian police were disfranchised from the state and this abandonment was a source of institutional identity crisis for law enforcement officers who remained on the job. This process was coupled with high levels of job dissatisfaction and the overall feeling of “abandonment” of police by the state.At the same time, it was during this post-Soviet period, when ideas of policing as a service to the society were introduced and sometimes entertained among the professional circles of police officers and other government officials. Furthermore, this period was marked by continuous, though often sporadic, institutional reforms and anti-corruption measures.In the second period, the Russian police were slowly engaging back into the state-building process, which caused increased job satisfaction and better retention rates. At the same time, the second period signified a decline of the “police as service” ideology and the comeback of paternalistic views on policing. During this time, the government’s efforts to reform police and anti-corruption measures became systemic and better organized. Also, in the second period, members of the civil society became more active in demanding public accountability and transparency from the Russian police.Finally, the modern period of police development presents a case in which the institutional identity of the Russian police has been clearly connected to the state’s capacity. This process is coupled with increased paternalistic views among police officers and a failure of “police as a service” doctrine. In such an environment, the efforts by a maturing civil society to demand public transparency and accountability of the police are often met with hostility and anger. The paper concludes that further development of the Russian police depends on the role that they will play within the modern Russian state.

MAIN APPROACHES TO INTERACTION BETWEEN THE STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 133-139
Author(s):  
E. A. GRIBENNIKOVA ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Advisory Councils ◽  
Public Advisory ◽  
The Russian Federation

The article considers the issue of interaction between the state and civil society, analyzes the main approaches and models of such interaction. The author notes the important consolidating role played by public and public Advisory Councils under state authorities in Russian society.

scholarly journals Institute of Oriental Languages (Lazarevsky Institute) in the works of the Soviet historian and orientalist A.P. Baziyants

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-185
Author(s):  
Vladimir Rudolfovich Avetisyan
Keyword(s):  
Educational Institution ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
First Person ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
European Culture ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Comprehensive Manner ◽  
State Archives

The author of the paper examines the contribution of the Soviet historian-orientalist Ashot Patvakanovich Baziyants to the study of the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages. In the Soviet period, historians repeatedly touched upon this topic. However, they carried out the studies of the educational institution exclusively from certain aspects: financial and economic, pedagogical, educational, etc. The first person in historiography, who studied the subject in a comprehensive manner, was A.P. Baziyants. The result of his work was the writing of a number of works based on the study of a significant layer of archival materials from the state archives of the USSR. In his works he was one of the first to analyze the problems of Russian-Armenian relations on the example of an educational institution in the context of rapprochement of Russian and Armenian cultures, familiarizing Armenian youth with the advanced European culture and adaptation to Russian society. The historian touched on this topic in all his key works. Subsequently, all subsequent studies of the activities of the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages were based on the results of scientific works by A.P. Baziyants. In addition, the experience of the educational institution in the processes of adaptation of migrants to Russian society, disclosed in his works, at the present stage acquires a particular urgency.

scholarly journals Historical memory of the Great Patriotic War: reasons for pluralism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Galina S. Shirokalova
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Young People ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Emotional Reaction ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Network Resources ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Great Patriotic War

The article analyzes the results of a sociological study of the historical memory of students about the World War II in general (and the Great Patriotic War in particular), conducted by the Russian Society of Sociologists in 2020, as well as materials from surveys of other research teams. The author comes to the conclusion that historical memory is formed, first of all, by the information field, set by state institutions or encouraged by them (school, mass media, network resources). Contradictory assessment of the events of the twentieth century led to the rupture of the historical memory of generations and the formation of a large group of people ready to accept the revision of the geopolitical results of the war from the standpoint of history falsifiers. The attitude of young people to the past, without taking into account the cause-and-effect liaison of the events of that time, is explained not only by the extinction of communicative memory for the departure of war generations, the desacralization of their life, deed, death. The range of factors is much wider. Since there is no integral picture of the history of the USSR, there is no value core for assessing events of the Great Patriotic War either. In the absence of historical hygiene in the Russian Federation, the entire Soviet period turns into historical antiques for new generations. They treat this in different ways: with reverence, condescension, aggressiveness, indifference, but it is excessive for the daily life of the majority. The slogan “If required, we repeat / can repeat”, replicated on May 9, is nothing more than a short-term emotional reaction, including to PR management, but not the readiness / mindset / promise of action in a real war. The opposition of the state to the country, that is reflected in the popular among young people song of the group Lumen, actually testifies to alienation from both the state and the country, since there is no one without the other. Questions are inevitable: how adequate are the methodologies and techniques based on which social scientists choose the range of factors that form the portrait of modern youth and predict the direction of further socialization of its individual groups? How many meaningful collaborators should there be to lose / win a civilizational battle in which historical memory is only one of the components? According to the author, the conditions and opportunities for the realization of the desired worldview values ​​in modern Russia adjust the attitude to the present and the life strategies of young people to a greater extent than historical memory.

scholarly journals POLITICAL AND CIVIL ACTIVITY OF RUSSIANS

2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-10
Author(s):  
Юрий Говоров ◽  
Yuri Govorov ◽  
Борис Невзоров ◽  
Boris Nevzorov
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
The State ◽  
Significant Part ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
The One ◽  
The Masses

The authors of the current paper have analyzed data obtained from opinion polls among Russian citizens (including those conducted among students and staff of various Russian universities). The surveys have revealed significant coincidences in the results obtained by different research centers regarding the reduction in the level of political and civic engagement of Russians in recent years. According to the surveys, this is largely due to the alienation of the significant part of the population from the government and the state. These people believe they are not able to influence the state decisions, which, in their turn, have little effect on the improvement of their everyday life. In the post-Soviet period, practically all the elective procedures were designed in such a way that they allowed the officialdom to be self-sufficient and independent from public opinion. As a result of formalized elections, the society in general, as well as separate communities, legitimizes this situation as democratic, since the governing structures are formed in the course of a multistage procedure involving a significant part of the population (employees). Thus, as sociological studies show, "the attitude of the population towards the authorities is greatly influenced by the discrepancy between the perception of the value of democracy and its implementation in real political practice. On the one hand, democracy values have rooted quite firmly in the society. On the other hand, the processes of democratization in public perception are of a nominal nature, i.e. they do not correspond with their purpose ". In a situation like this, management assumes a bureaucratic form, and the dominant type of political behavior in modern Russian society is paternalistic and subject-imposed. Individual liberties and democratic rights, although important, are not decisive and get diminished by other considerations, e.g. the interests of the community. It is obvious that everyone’s aim is adaptation and maintenance of the today’s status quo, because things might get worse tomorrow. It applies both to the behavior of the so-called political power and to the behavior of the so-called “unsinkable” officials on different levels, who belong to the top of the new nomenclature, as well as to the behavior of their subordinates. The situation described above indicates ritualization of political life, which is connected, on the one hand, with the divergence between the power elite and the masses, and, on the one hand, with the mutual interest of the authorities and the electorate in preserving the currently stabilized political and psychological situation in the country.

scholarly journals Social Role and Peculiar Features of Military Veterans Social Organizations in the Political Space of the Russian Federation . .

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-30
Author(s):  
N. N. Kulakova
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
The State ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Military Veteran ◽  
The Military

The study of the problem of the formation of the Russian civil society is accompanied both in practical and theoretical terms by a whole complex of contradictions and complexities that originate in the ambiguous history of this phenomenon and as well in its equally multivariate interpretation by the scientific community and the general public. Admitting as a fact the common weakness of Russian non-governmental relation, the author considered, practically as an exception, the work of military veteran communities as an example of the successful civil activity of the significant part of the population of the Russian state. Social, military veteran organisations act as a social  institute created by the citizens apart from the state based on solidary interests of their members. At the same time, functioning as a structural element of the civil society they simultaneously represent the mechanism of political socialisation of veterans. Modern veteran organisations are founded and presented in the social and political space of Russia widely enough. It is movements, committees, unions, funds, associations. They have an extensive ramified network the local and regional levels, co-operate with similar communities in the countries of CIS and international organisations. Veteran organisations act as intermediaries between an individual and a group on the one hand and between society and the state from the other, contribute to the strengthening of the mechanism of their interaction, and form new systems of partnership. The issue of social protection and adaptation of military personnel, in particular, the combatants, will remain urgent  for the Russian society in the longer term. Modern political practice, mainly counting on the military force in international affairs, promotes further growth of the number of veterans of wars and military service. Over the last few years, more than 50 thousand soldiers and officers participating in the military campaign in Syria became the members of Russian veterans. The quality of interaction of social organisations of military veterans and state structures has a determinant influence on th participation of the former soldier in socio-political processes. Today, powerful potential of these organisations, capable effectively influence state politics, is used by state structures in an insignificant degree. It can be explained by the unwillingness of the Russian elite and Russian business to interact with civil society.

scholarly journals Power and Ideology: Vladimir Putin and the Russian Political System

2008 ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred B. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political System ◽  
International System ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Core ◽  
Vladimir Putin ◽  
The Relationship

This paper explores the ideas that have been offered by the Putin leadership in Russia to justify the concentration of power achieved since 2000. Though Vladimir Putin has said that Russia does not need a state ideology, since early 2006 some officials associated with Putin, including Vladislav Surkov, have called for an ideology for the dominant United Russia Party, and have asserted that Putin’s speeches provide the core of that ideology. This essay discusses Putin’s position on Russia’s commitment to democracy, the relationship between Russia and Europe, and the nature of the international system in which Russia fi nds itself. The author sees the concept of “sovereign democracy” that has been offered by Surkov and endorsed by United Russia as summarizing ideas that already had been articulated by Putin. Putin’s words strongly emphasize the importance of a consensus of values in Russian society and politics. That theme has important implications for the relationship between the state and civil society in Russia. Evans argues that the ideological pronouncements of the Putin leadership refl ect tension between apparently inconsistent principles resulting from a combination of inherently contradictory themes. Putin identifi es the main danger facing Russia in the contemporary period as disintegration rather than stagnation.

E-GOVERNMENT AS A NEW PROCEDURAL WAY OF DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY

2018 ◽  
pp. 106-115
Author(s):  
A.D. Zolotukhin ◽  
A.S. Kiselev
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
State Management ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Government Work ◽  
The Government

The relevance of the topic is based on the fact that in the last time in juridical literature attention is paid to issues of development of doctrinal origins of e-government. E-government opened opportunities of more effective cooperation of the state and civil society, gave new ways of integrating citizenry in the processes of production and realization of the state policy. The description of the term of e-government is given, according to it: e-government is a new technology of the state management that is based on principles of information acceptance and the state accountability to the citizenry. It is noticed the necessity to use information technologies in the court procedure. We also notice the peculiarities of e-government formation in different countries taking into account that it is impossible to create a unified model for work of this structure. So transformations in different spheres of life of the Russian society forced radically new approaches to the law, legislation and state policy. In its turn civil society gets new stage of development because of opportunity of free discussion of the issue and democratic involvement of all concerned party in the deciding process. Information about state structures activity gives the citizenry control and opportunity to inform themselves about the government work. We understand as important the openness and readiness of government to the bigger level of efforts in providing state services in the electronic form.

scholarly journals SCHOOL - A TOOL OF CONSOLIDATION

THE BULLETIN ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (387) ◽  
pp. 226-232
Author(s):  
О. Artemenko ◽  
◽  
S. Аnzorova ◽  
P. Gasanova ◽  
М. Nikitina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
State Level ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Reconstruction Period

In modern conditions of the world economy's monopolization, sanctions, the flow of external migration of the labor force is an urgent problem of the necessity at the state level to preserve the cohesion and unity of the multiethnic Russian society. The article examines the historical development of Russia, where the school as a social institution performs not only an educational function but also the role of consolidating the multiethnic composition of the state. Russian language and culture fulfill this role through the school. Russian is historically considered as the language of integration of nations who have passed their ethnoge- nesis on the territory of Russia, their spiritual and cultural rapprochement with the Russians by the method of N. I. Ilminsky while preserving the native languages of students. Performing the function of consolidation, the Russian language acted as an integrator of nations, not their assimilator, as evidenced by statistics on the actual existence of more than 230 languages and dialects of nations. The article notes that in Russian politics before the reconstruction period, the school, performing a conso-lidating function, was a tool for leveling the ethnic characteristics of students, through unitary language training, forming national-Russian bilingualism. The analysis of scientific sources shows that such conditions before the reconstruction period led to objective facts not manifestations of interethnic conflicts. Also, during the entire Soviet period, literary languages were created and developed, and dialects were preserved to some extent, but, unfortunately, the functions of native languages were narrowed in social spheres. Describing the post-soviet period, cultural and linguistic diversity is noted, which is a significant source of social conflicts and political discussions. Under these conditions, cultural and linguistic state homogeneity becomes a subject of dissatisfaction in the public life of speakers of minority languages. The problem arises as to how to guarantee the participation of each language group in the life of a multilingual society with their socio-cultural integration, without violating international human rights legislation.

scholarly journals Volunteering in Preservation of Material Patrimony in Soviet Russia: Pages of History: Materials from the State Archive of the Russian Federation

2021 ◽  
pp. 193-204
Author(s):  
Natalya I. Gorlova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
The State ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
First Time

The article draws on extensive sources discovered by the author in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) to reconstruct the history of volunteering in preservation of material patrimony of Russia in the 1960–1980s under the auspices of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture and to investigate forms and methods of public conservation activities. The relevance of the problem is connected to the development of national volunteer movement in preservation of historical and cultural monuments, which coincided with a rise in the scholars’ interest to volunteering in general. The author has identified archival documents, many of which are being introduced into scientific use for the first time. The article reviews the composition of archival documents in the GARF fond, substantiates the possibility of integrated approach to studying of documentary materials on the history of volunteering in conservation and restoration. Documents differ in their content and quite adequately cover the multifaceted activities, forms and methods of work of voluntary activists. The first group is associated with organizational and administrative documents. The second group includes sources of reporting documentation. Office correspondence is the third group of sources. The information potential of various types of documents has been investigated. The value of these materials for studying organization and substantive aspects of voluntary public participation in the conservation activities (restoration and conservation work, identifying, photographing, assessing the condition and usage of historical and architectural monuments, patronage work, inspection, etc.) differs greatly. The author has revealed the names of participants in restoration volunteer groups and associations. The article takes on a special meaning in the context of development and replication of public activities in the field of preservation of material patrimony, while taking into account the historical experience.

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