Russian President is both a political institution of key importance and a distinctive individual of a specific manner of behaviour in his authoritarian rules. In this article I would like to present the role of the President in society with reference to historical heritage and the modern political culture of Russian society. Taking into consideration the fact that public opinion and the media, in conditions of democracy or democratization, constitute basic social mechanism that forms bases and formulas of legitimacy, I have decided that it is merge to join the issues into one. It is the President that I aim my examination at, not the Russian media themselves, the history of their development after 1991, or their ownership structure that governs them. The media will be of interest as long as they are necessary to understand how the President legitimizes his powers, to what extent he is successful, and what scope of success or failure depends on in the legitimacy efforts.
A sense of unity in any society is a great value. United society is a strong support for rulers and their policies. Public support often legitimizes the actions of rulers. Social unity is built on the basis of shared values and beliefs. The assumed goal of the research is focused on analyzing these categories in the context of their importance for building social unity. Such a goal has led to a question: What is the importance of these categories in building social cohesion for Russians? To solve the indicated problems, theoretical methods were used. Russians are convinced of the uniqueness of their society. This sense of uniqueness affects the sphere of security. It gives rise to their unwillingness to take part in formal alliances and international organizations, if Russia is not in a dominant position. Such views are deeply rooted in the consciousness of Russian society. Simultaneously, Russia airs grievances against the West, claiming that it does not notice its uniqueness.
It is difficult to characterize the Russian society as completely active or passive due to the high voter turnout, but simultaneously, a low level of involvement in political life. The research focuses on determining the extent of activity/passivity of the Russian society in the years 2000 – 2012. Results of the analysis revealed a degree of participation of the Russian citizens in the electoral decision-making process and their involvement in political life. It was answered to the question: to what extent Russian legislation allows society to participate in the political life, by estimating a political activity index (Wap(ap)). Additionally, the political activity correlate index (Wap(k)) was checked, that enable to correct the obtained result on the basis of legal provisions according to the real dimension of the Russian political activity.
The present article refers to a free associative experiment and its results. The author tries to determine what values are represented with the term “woman” in Russian and Polish societies. The article is focused on similarities as well as differences between the Polish and Russian respondents. In order to achieve this, the author classified and divided the lexis proposed by the respondents into groups. Those groups were thoroughly discussed and analyzed. By doing this, the author tries to look into the subconsciousness of a young modern person. Thus, in the article the answers to the following questions can be found: do stereotypes concerning women still exist?; what do Poles and Russians think about that?; is their way of thinking convergent or not? The experiment described in the article was conducted during 2011–2013 among 100 Poles and 200 Russians under the age of 30. It was carried out by means of series of surveys; in these surveys respondents were asked to provide words and expressions they associate with the term “woman”. Classified lexical units were then analyzed, the conclusion was drawn on the basis of this analysis. The text is divided into parts. Every part revolves around classification of responses of both groups: first group - Russians (both men and women), second - Poles (men and women). The assignment comprises four diagrams that picture the percentage of responses in the groups.
Artykuł porusza problem przemian wartości we współczesnym społeczeństwie rosyjskim, których nośnikami stają się literackie, artystyczne, społeczne i polityczne „tołstyje żurnały”. Autorzy badają ten proces, analizując poznawczo-narracyjne mechanizmy realizacji pojęć „sumienie” i „dobro”, przejawiających się w dyskursie tychże czasopism.
EN
The article deals with the problem of value transformations in modern Russian society, the translator of which are “thick” literary and social and political journals . The authors explore this process by analyzing the cognitive and narrative mechanisms implementing the concepts of “conscience” and “good” in magazines.
The article features an analysis of the ideas of Yurij Levada, an eminent Russian academic, sociologist dealing both with theory and with practice of sociology, a founder of a research institution in Moscow known as Levada-Centre. Levada gave a special place to culture within sociology and he himself called his project on theoretical sociology an “attempt at culturally justified sociology” (grounded in a perspective orientated to culture). The project was based on structurally complex, culturally conditioned and symbolically indirect social actions. In his opinion, such knowledge of culture required to be looked at retrospectively, which provides for tackling the issue of social system reproduction while enabling to understand contemporary culture at the same time. This way of thinking was a basis for Levada’s analyses of the surrounding social reality, e.g. his analyses of intelligence or the concept of “simple Soviet man”.
Celem opracowania jest próba sformułowania odpowiedzi na pytanie jak prowadzoną na Ukrainie wojnę i konflikt z Zachodem oceniają wpływowi geopolitycy rosyjscy. Empiryczną podstawą są artykuły zawarte w czołowym rosyjskim czasopiśmie geopolitycznym „Russia in Global Affairs” w okresie od maja 2022 do maja 2023. Opinie ich autorów są zróżnicowane: od dezaprobaty w stosunku do działań Rosji na Ukrainie, poważnych obaw przed zerwaniem relacji z Zachodem i popadnięciem Rosji w izolację, po pełną akceptację tych działań traktowanych jako walka „światowej większości” pod przewodnictwem Rosji z hegemonią Zachodu. Jedni badacze doszukują się pozytywów sytuacji Rosji, co sprawia wrażenie „robienia dobrej miny do złej gry”, podczas gdy inni wyrażają obawy o katastrofę, czyli załamanie się władzy państwowej i rozpad Rosji.
EN
The purpose of the study is to try to formulate an answer to the question of how the war waged in Ukraine and the conflict with the West are assessed by influential Russian geopoliticians. The empirical basis of the conducted research is provided by the articles contained in the leading Russian geopolitical journal "Russia in Global Affairs" in the period from May 2022 to May 2023. The opinions of their authors range from disapproval of Russia's actions in Ukraine, serious fears of a break in relations with the West and Russia's descent into isolation, to full acceptance of these actions treated as a struggle of the "world majority" led by Russia against the hegemony of the West. Some researchers look for the positives of Russia's situation, which gives the impression of "putting a good face on a bad game," while others express fears of disaster, i.e. the collapse of state power and the disintegration of Russia.
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