#22'2019

CONTENTS 

E. Chernolutskaia and A. Vaschuk. Introduction

Angelina S. Vaschuk

Russia’s Far Eastern Vector in the Context of Dialogue between Authorities and Scientific Community (the 20 Century and Nowadays)

The author examines the history of the Far Eastern policy in the evolution context of scholars’ points of view on the problems of the Far East development during more than 100 years. There is carried out the analysis of the mission of politicians and intellectuals (part of society that most actively expresses its reflection on regional policy) which largely determined the fate of the territory and the living conditions of the Far Eastern population. A synthesis of post-factum paradigm of knowledge (the term of Alain Badiou) and methods of intellectual history are used. Scientific conceptions demanded by politicians for reasoning documents on territorial placing industries and their change factors are characterized. The role of politician and a scientist personality in the regional historical process in the period of reforms and in a stable time is shown. The main lines in the dialogue of scientists and politicians on the Far Eastern problems at the present stage are defined. There is made the conclusion about the complication of scientific community reflection over the results of the Far Eastern policy in the early 21 century, about the emergence of new factors of the scientific knowledge evolution in this area. There is analyzed the significance of the new scientific platform (spatial economics) which became in demand by political community in the early 21 century during the formation of development institutions as the main product of reforming activity of a new bureaucracy generation that is the social base of modern political elite.

Keywords: Russia, regional policy, the Far East, political elite, scientists, expert community, history of studying ideas, territorial location of production, reforms.

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Svetlana G. Kovalenko

Andrei V. Popovkin

Transformation of Sources of Social Power in Russia During the Collapse of the USSR (Late 1980s — Early 1990s): Central and Regional Level

The article deals with the transformation of the sources of social power at the time of Russia’s choice of the further development path after the collapse of the Communist system. Of the four sources — ideological, economic, military and political — the most significant is the first, in the opinion of the authors. In the era of perestroika, initiated by M. Gorbachev, the line separating the transformation of ideology from its break was crossed, that led to uncontrolled changes in the other three sources and to the crisis of society as a whole in the “dashing 90s”. It was the change that pushed the beginning of the social disasterfollowed the collapse of the USSR and led to new processes with extremely severe social consequences, systemic disintegration, stagnation of the national economic complex, change in the geopolitical situation for the worse for the state and the actual rollback in the development of the country for many decades. Three other sources of social power began to change actively only after the first one. The authors analyze the ongoing processes based on the theoretical constructions of M. Mann and the concept of legitimation developed by P. Berger and T. Lukman. The article uses empirical materials obtained by the authors during in-depth interviews with representatives of the Far Eastern managers. It is concluded that the real situation in the country and in the region depended on these four sources of social power, which are not autonomous, but are closely interrelated as well as their impact on the internal regional space is considered.

Keywords: social power, the Russian Far East, transformation, management, region, the Yeltsin era, crisis.

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Nikolay S. Vorontsov

The Fate of Party Property during the Dissolution of the CPSU Structures in Primorye

The article is devoted to the problem of property of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on the territory of Primorye after the suspension of the functioning of the party in August 1991. The article analyzes the issues that arose during the execution of a series of decrees of the President of the RSFSR aimed at resolving the problem of the former party property by transferring it to the authorities. This process, launched in late August 1991 by a series of Decrees of the President of the RSFSR, required considerable work from local authorities, since the Communist party had financial assets, movable and immovable property of considerable interest for the authorities and administrations of regional, city and district level. Based on the analysis of the documents, it is shown that this solution of the issues of party property in some cases led to conflict situations between the executive committees of the Soviets of Primorsky Krai and Vladivostok. On the example of Primorye, documents and methods for implementing the decisions taken that allowed the executive authorities to take over the management of former party property are considered. Special attention is paid to the implementation of the Order of the President of the RSFSR “On urgent measures to improve the work of the RSFSR courts”. The analysis of the activities of the regional authorities on the transfer of real estate of the party to the people’s courts in the cities and districts of Primorye is carried out. The author analyzes the legal mechanisms for the transfer of CPSU property, excluding informal practices that require separate study. The study was conducted using materials from the State Archive of Primorsky Krai. The relevance of the study is due to the interest in the problems of the formation of various types of property at the initial stage of the formation of modern Russia and the need for a comprehensive analysis of the accumulated experience in the redistribution of property during the transition period.

Keywords: CPSU, 1991, State Committee on the State of Emergency, Primorye, party property.

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Larisa A. Krushanova

Influence of the Reforms of the 1990s on the Dynamics of Labor Resources in the Russian Far East

The article examines the influence of liberal-radical reforms on changes in the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the labor resources of the Far East in the late 1980s — 1990s. It was revealed that this dynamics developed both under the influence of residual phenomena of the Soviet era, and post-Soviet processes. A significant factor in the impact on the state of labor in the region in the 1990s was the preservation of the sectoral specifics of the economy — the dominance of the mining industry and the military-industrial complex. By the end of the Soviet period, labor potential with sufficiently high quality characteristics was concentrated here. For example, the level of education of the population exceeded the general indicators for the RSFSR. The author examines in detail the implementation of the conversion and the development of cooperatives that have become the forerunners of privatization and private property. The reforms have made significant adjustments to the socio-economic development of the Far East, led to a sharp decline in the quality of life of the Far East residents, as well as to the redistribution of labor resources from the public sector of the economy to the private, actively mastered the sphere of trade and services. Intermediary firms began to occupy a special place in the economy.

The negative consequences of the reform course in the sphere of employment in the region, as well as in the narrowing of the production of goods not only military, but also civil purposes, were revealed. It is concluded that the program of region development of the reform period was difficult to implement, partly due to the redistribution of labor resources from one sector of the economy to another, as well as to the outflow of population to other Russian regions.

Keywords: Russia, Far East, labor resources, conversion, reforms, 1990s.

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Elena N. Chernolutskaia

State Development Programs of the Far East and Demographic Dynamics in the Far Eastern Border Territories in the Late 20 — Early 21 Century

The article analyzes the effectiveness of state development programs of the Russian Far East (1987, 1996, 2013, 2015—2016) in the demographic sphere with an emphasis on the border areas. In each of the programs, the target indicators of the population numbers on the Far Eastern regions having border areas are allocated, their comparison with the real situation is given. It is shown that the goals of demographic dynamics laid down into the projects were clearly overestimated and did not correspond to objective patterns. As a result, the projects were repeatedly adjusted for a decrease. Nevertheless, the actual results were not only far from the intended goals, but always worse than the situation at the initial stage of the programs. The author pays special attention to the regional Development programs of the Far Eastern border territories adopted in 2016 by the administrations of the Primorsky Krai, Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast. The specific characteristics of these documents affecting the effectiveness of their implementation are determined. The conclusion is made about the high degree of political engagement and declarative nature of these programs. The nature of their financing and the responsibility of local administrations for the implementation do not allow us to speak about the self-value and priority of Development programs of the Far Eastern border territories among other projects of different levels implemented in the regions. Population dynamics in the Far Eastern border territories is developing not under the influence of purposeful policy, but in line with the spontaneous trends that emerged in the 1990s: while the overall population of the surveyed regions is declining, there is population increase in the administrative centers and surrounding areas and the simultaneous outflow from other areas.

Keywords: border territories, state development programs of the Russian Far East, demographic dynamics.

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Yulia N. Kovalevskaya

The Crisis of Everyday Life in the Far Eastern Periphery in the 1990s

The purpose of the article is to determine the main directions, objective and subjective sides of the crisis of everyday life in the Far Eastern periphery in the 1990s. The scientific novelty consists in the contamination of objective statistical, sociological and economic data with local empirical material, which makes it possible to reveal the Far Eastern specifics of the passage of market reforms. The article uses for the first time a new biographical source — family correspondence over the 1990s. Analysis of scientific literature and field materials shows that the market reforms resulted in a crisis of production and redistribution of resources in favor of the Center, which led to the depletion of not only the external (remote from the capital of the state), but also of the inner periphery (remote from the region centers). In the Far Eastern periphery, the crisis of everyday life in the 1990s was particularly pronounced. The reasons for it were the production reduction, unemployment and labor precarization in the sectors of regional specialization — mining, fishing, forestry and agriculture. This led to the depopulation of rural and remote areas, their extinction and degradation of the socio-cultural sphere, the involution of social space and everyday practices. It is concluded that in the 1990s, the commercialization of production and the social sphere without taking into account the objective conditions of the Far East caused not only de-industrialization on the periphery, but a reduction to the pre-industrial lifestyle. The main source of survival became the use of nature in the most primitive forms: fishing, hunting, gathering wild plants, subsistence farming on homesteads. This lifestyle change was accompanied by the destruction of a civilized habitat — roads, housing and utilities, health care, education and culture. Population reduction is both a consequence and the most important factor in the crisis of everyday life in the Far East. Population escape from the periphery, being a rational individual choice in the conditions of the involution of the environment and the strengthening of the extractiveness of institutions, reduces the chances of the Far East for development in the future.

Keywords: Far East of Russia, crisis of the 1990s, everyday life, survival practices, precarization, involution, depopulation.

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Elena S. Volkova

The “Criminal and Graveyard” 1990s in Literary Works of the Russian Far Eastern Writers

One of the markers of the state of Russian society in the 1990s is the high level of crime, as well as the intensive involvement of representatives of different social strata, who still did not have such experience, in criminal activity. The Far East occupies a special place on the criminal map of Russia. The focus of our attention is the criminogenic situation in the region and the main trends in the development of crime in the mirror of fiction. The subject of the analysis are the literary works of Russian Far Eastern authors, which were published from the beginning of the 1990s to 2017 inclusive. Literary texts provide an opportunity to see the criminality of the post-Soviet period in persons and to track the impact of the criminal sphere on everyday structures. The study found that writers pay great attention to the motivation and socio-economic background of crimes, criminalization of everyday life, transformation of the social system of values, erosion the boundaries between good and evil. The literary texts reflect the new types of criminal activity that became widespread during the period under review, including economic crimes, the activities of organized criminal groups, the merging of crime with legal business and power structures. The writers state the decrease of confidence to the guards of order and the degradation of the police system, describe the resistance practices of the inhabitant to criminal lawlessness in the conditions of powerlessness of law enforcement agencies. At the same time, the image of the policeman in the Far Eastern literature of the post-Soviet period is ambiguous: it is possible to find in works not only “werewolves in shoulder straps”, but also conscientious employees of internal affairs bodies who honorably perform their duty in any situation.

Keywords: Russia, 1990s, Russian Far East, criminality, social differentiation, everyday life, criminalization, police, fiction literature.

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Oksana P. Fedirko

The Problem of State-Confessional Relations in the History of Russia: Short Historiography Review of the 1990s

The article analyzes the historiography of the 1990s, devoted to the problem of the history of Russian state-confessional relations. On the example of scientific publications of leading scientists, researchers of the history of religion in our country, the author examines the interpretation of key concepts and terms introduced to the scientific circulation in this period, the main approaches to chronology and periodization of the Russian religious policy. The object of the research are the articles, monographs, defended dissertations by M. Odintsov, V. Alekseyev, O. Vasilyeva, A. Gorbatov, T. Chumachenko, S. Dydaryonok, Yu. Bakayeva, L. Kuzhevskaya, M. Shkarovsky, V. Tsypina, S. Ivanenko, A. Luukkanen and other scholars whose scientific works were written in the 1990s. Having examined various interpretations of the notions characterizing religious policy, the author argues that the terms “state-confessional relations”, “state-religious relations”, etc. are used by scientists as equivalent and characterizing the process in which the State and religious associations participate. Terminological discrepancy, preserved in the works of modern researchers of the history of religion, most often indicates the researcher affiliation to a particular scientific school. The approaches proposed by historians of the 1990s to the periodization of state-confessional relations in Russia, which are based not only on changes in the political system of the state, but primarily on approaches to making the religious policy of the state, are basic for modern researchers.

Keywords: historiography, Russia, state-confessional relations, public-church relationship, periodization.

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Anatoliy E. Savchenko

Regional Policy in Russia and Brazil as the Matter of Comparative Research

What questions should the researcher of the modern history of the Far East has to answer, so that the received answers will have meaning not only for the regional, but also for the national and world historical science? In the text below we try to outline a number of such areas for a future research. Our choice is based on the coincidence of the theoretical significance of the problem, its relevance for the interpretation of the regional history and practical significance for managing the development of the Far East. As an object for a comparison we chose Brazil — a state being in the same typological row with Russia, a state that went through similar stages of transformation: economic liberalization, decentralization of government, democratization of politics. Like Russia, Brazil has gigantic space, with a strong socio-economic differentiation between the South and the North, the coastal and inland areas of the country. For the most of the twentieth century both countries used the model of an authoritarian state of catching-up development, which by the end of the 1970s in crisis in the second half of the 1980s, was dismantled. In the context of creation of a comparative history of the Far East of the USSR/Russia and the Northeast of Brazil, it is important for us to draw attention to two aspects. First, part of these political and macroeconomic changes was the transformation of regional policy: in both Russia and Brazil, the bureaucratic principle of choosing priority regions gave a way to a game of market forces and competition between regions for attracting national and foreign capital. Secondly, Brazil, in comparison with Russia, has not only similar problems, but also several decades more experience (since the late 1950s) in creating special structures for managing regional development in a capitalist economy.

Keywords: Russian Far East, Brazilian Nord-East, regional policy, centre, region.

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