ss1-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 06.02.2012 17:20 Страница 252 E D I T O R I A L C O U N C I L V. MAKAROV A. GUSEYNOV Chairman Editor-in-Chief Academician of RAS Academician of RAS A. GRIGORYEV Deputy Editor-in-Chief M E M B E R S O F T H E C O U N C I L L. ABALKIN, Academician V. STEPIN, Academician A. DEREVYANKO, Academician V. TISHKOV, Academician T. ZASLAVSKAYA, Academician Zh. TOSHCHENKO, Corr. Mem., RAS V. LEKTORSKY, Academician A. DMITRIYEV, Corr. Mem., RAS A. NEKIPELOV, Academician I. BORISOVA, Executive Secretary G. OSIPOV, Academician Managing Editor: Oleg Levin; Production Manager: Len Hoffman SOCIAL SCIENCES (ISSN 0134-5486) is a quarterly publication of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). The articles selected by the Editorial Council are chosen from books and journals originally prepared in the Russian language by authors from 30 institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Statements of fact and opinion appearing in the journal are made on the responsibility of the authors alone and do not imply the endorsement of the Editorial Council. Reprint permission: Editorial Council. Address: 26, Maronovsky pereulok, Moscow, 119991 GSP-1, Russia. SOCIAL SCIENCES (ISSN 0134-5486) is published quarterly by East View Information Services: 10601 Wayzata Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55305, USA. Vol. 43, No. 1, 2012. Postmaster: Send address changes to East View Information Services: 10601 Wayzata Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55305, USA. Orders are accepted by East View Information Services. Phone: (952) 252-1201; Toll-free: (800) 477-1005; Fax: (952) 252-1201; E-mail: [email protected] as well as by all major subscription agencies. Subscriptions: Individuals, $61.00 per year; institutions, $435.00 per year. Back issues: Please send your inquiries to East View Information Services. Electronic subscriptions: indi- viduals, $61.00/year; institutions, $435.00/year. SOCIAL SCIENCES is indexed by PAIS International Information Service, American Bibliography of Slav- ic and East European Studies (ABSEES), International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Sociological Abstracts, Social Planning Policy & Development Abstracts, Linguistic & Language Behaviour Abstracts, and UnCover. It is abstracted by the Journal of Eco- nomic Literature. It is listed in the Ulrich's International Periodical Directory. Copyright © The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), RAS Presidium, 2011. FOUNDED IN 1970 ss1-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 06.02.2012 17:20 Страница 253 RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES S OCIAL S CIENCES VOLUME 43 NUMBER 1, 2012 C O N T E N T S In This Issue 1 ECONOMICS Prolegomena to the Next Modernization of Russia G. Satarov 3 HISTORY “The Great Game.” Russia and Great Britain in Central and Eastern Asia (the latter half of the 19th century—early 20th century) E. Sergeev 18 Ideological Control and KGB’s Fifth Directorate in 1967-1989 A. Smykalin 30 PHILOLOGY The Plot of Chekhov’s Comedy The Cherry Orchard As a Model of History N. Razumova 43 Chekhov and the Polemic about the Art of His Times M. Odesskaya 51 PHILOSOPHY Ancient Greek Atomism: Hypotheses of Its Origin and Types of Atomistic Theories M. Solopova 60 POLITICAL SCIENCE Universal and Corruption Norms of Interaction in Russian Politics V. Rimsky 74 PSYCHOLOGY Does Activity Theory Have a Future? E. Sokolova 85 ss1-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 06.02.2012 17:20 Страница 254 SOCIOLOGY “Friendship of the Peoples” in the USSR: A National Project or an Instance of Spontaneous Interethnic Self-Organization? S. Lurye 98 BOOK REVIEWS I. Economics Ye. Preobrazhensky. Archival Documents and Materials (2006), The New Economics (2008), Money and World Capitalism (2011) M. Pokidchenko 114 II. History V. Malkov. Russia and the US in the 20th Century: Essays on the History of Interstate Relations and Diplomacy in the Sociocultural Context N. Kalmykov 117 III. Philology V. Keldysh. On the “Silver Age” of Russian Literature: General Features. Prose S. Kormilov 126 IV. Philosophy Phenomenological Philosophy Yearbook N. Artyomenko 136 V. Political Science A. Zheleznyakov. The Mongolian Pole of the Political Order of the World V. Rodionov 143 VI. Psychology V. Petrenko. Multidimensional Consciousness: the Psychosemantic Paradigm Yu. Aleksandrov 148 VII. Sociology Yu. Rastov, D. Shcherbinin. Siberian Separatism: Sociological Studies of Its Contemporary Manifestations A. Ivanov 152 ACADEMIC LIFE Academic Journals 156 ss1-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 06.02.2012 17:20 Страница 1 In This Issue 1 In This Issue: G. Satarov: “A strong civil society is inconvenient and burdensome for any authorities, but it diminishes the chances of power turning into a rigid suicidal monster.” E. Sergeev: “… an analysis of the complex of factors that triggered “the Great Game” suggests that while for St. Petersburg geostrategic ambitions pre- vailed over cultural and civilizing aspirations and economic considerations, for London the two last groups of motives for interaction with Russia in Eurasia after the Crimean War were no less important. However, the desire of Britain’s Victorian elite to bring Central and Eastern Asia into the system of the world economy proceeding from its own interests was by the mid-19th century limited by two chief circumstances: little knowledge of the Eurasian spaces and the potentially colossal cost of bringing them into the world economy.” A. Smykalin: “The KGB’s ‘preventive measures’ boiled down to a state security official lecturing a person identified as someone who was engaged in undesirable activities and warning that person against acting in that manner in the future. That was more than a formal lecture: the person in question signed a paper stating that the KGB had officially warned him/her about the impermissi- bility of anti-Soviet behavior; on occasion ‘negative’ actions were censured by the person’s workmates at an open meeting. Sometimes the media chipped in. Then a state security official assigned an agent to report the person’s behavior after ‘prophylactic’ work with him.” N. Razumova: “The Cherry Orchard is the most ambitious presentation of Chekhov’s idea of history, which with him is not an attribute of society’s life, but an inherent qualitative characteristic of being.” M. Odesskaya: “The Seagull is the most metatextual and metatheatrical of Chekhov’s plays. An argument about art leads to the destruction of idealistic ideas of life and creative work. A stuffed body of a seagull is the symbol of the collapse of Nina’s idealism. After using the stuffed body of a seagull as a model in his plot for a short story where the girl is an embodiment of purity, beauty and freedom, the writer (Trigorin) felt like representing her in the shape of a stuffed seagull, a dead bird that preserves its external beauty but is empty inside. Hav- ing done its bit the model ceases to be of any interest to the artist. Nina the actress has played the part realistically and put Trigorin’s plot into life. The artist acts as an antipode of Pygmalion. Purity is ruined.” M. Solopova: “...the linguistic hypothesis on the origin of atomism implies that the shaping of atomistic perceptions was influenced by the alphabetic letter- ss1-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 06.02.2012 17:20 Страница 2 2 SOCIAL SCIENCES ing. Since we have no reasons for asserting that the Greeks borrowed their atom- ism, the same problem can be formulated in a different way: If we cannot estab- lish how Indian atomism influenced its Greek counterparts and vice versa, it is fair to assume that both these cultures generated atomism independently of each other ... Could the alphabet have been that common generating model?” V. Rimsky: “Under the existing conditions, neither the groups of bureau- crats, nor the political parties, nor the leaders of various social groups in Russia are able to shape some universal norms for regulating the political process. All of them, as for that matter other political entities, are engaged in promoting their particular interests. Following any universal norms will always lead them to a defeat in political rivalry.” E. Sokolova: “Russian psychologists embraced the view that the activity theory was extremely impractical because, unlike psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, existential psychology, etc., which have truck with the real, ‘con- crete’ man, it only considered ‘man as such,’ the ‘abstract’ man ... it is the activ- ity theory that contains an immense practical potential, if ‘practice’ is understood as something other than hurriedly organized training or the use of some unthink- ingly acquired ‘competences’ ... practice is the practice of life ...rather than the use of ready-made tools developed by someone else.” S. Lurye: “It took for nations to implement the ideologem of international- ism, not to speak of the fact that from the point of view of Soviet ideologists a developed society invariably consists of nations the models of relations among which had to be developed and an image of ‘the Soviet man’ committed to inter- nationalism had to be created. Thus the project sought to implement two opposite goals. On the one hand, a deliberate attempt was made to awaken national con- sciousness... On the other hand, as soon as national self-consciousness became more or less discernible it was subject to repression as ‘petty bourgeois national- ism’... The intricacy of such a dual policy and ideology generated excessive atten- tion to interethnic relations and a cult of the ‘friendship of the peoples.’” ss1-2012:Ss4-2009.qxd 06.02.2012 17:20 Страница 3 Prolegomena to the Next Modernization of Russia 3 Prolegomena to the Next Modernization of Russia Georgy SATAROV What Is at Issue The term “modernization,” if understood literally, means bringing something in line with the modern state of affairs. The latter, of course, refers to that mod- ern state of affairs—of which there is always a multitude—, which is interpreted as the most advanced and effective.