6.2. New Elites and New Issues: from 'Kolkhoznik' to Farmers; Role of NGOs; Russian Regions

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Do curso por National Research University Higher School of Economics

Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication

41 classificações

National Research University Higher School of Economics

Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication

41 classificações

In the course “Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communications": we will: 1) Build skills in the analysis of the intercultural communication process using Russian-Western communication as an example. 2) Apply the knowledge of interrelations between different contexts of communication (cultural, institutional, professional, social, interpersonal, etc.) to the cultural history and national psychology of Russians. The purpose of the course is to provide the students with a broad overview of the basic principles governing the past, the present and the future interactions between Russia and the West, with a focus on the culture and national psychology of Russians and Western Europeans. For example, we will look at the cases when basic cultural values of Russians show up through the linguistic choices shaping language production which is consequently misattributed by Western partners. No matter what the language of intercultural communication is – Russian, or English – the meaning of many linguistic expressions may be reconstructed wrongly by the representatives of another culture. Some of the basic questions we will tackle are: • What are the concepts of culture that have the strongest influence on communication? • What are Russian basic cultural values and how they shape modern Russian consciousness? • What are the specific communication patterns of modern Russians, including those of public and electronic discourse? • What is important to know about communication with Russians in organizational contexts? Importantly, this course is NOT just a list of practical instructions of dos and don’ts of dealing with Russians. The course contains a substantial academic component introducing the key notions and concepts of the Theory of Communication, which will be extensively introduced throughout the first few modules of the course. These theoretical grounds will be further on used as a tool for analyzing the intercultural communications with Russians.

Na lição

Social Stratification and Occupational Cultures in Russia

he material covered in the remaining weeks of the class will contain less theory of intercultural communications and more information about contemporary Russia, its ways of life and their historic background. This week we will speak about the social stratification (plus the recent history of the social strata) in Russia, as well as the Russian professional and occupational communication (including the recent changes in it) – both domestically and in the context of international contacts. The lecture will be wrapped up with a case study in which Prof. Bergelson took part some time ago to demonstrate intercultural communications studies at work – in the analysis of an international educational program between a major Russian and a major US university. As in the previous weeks, we will have guest experts to enrich the lecture material with their first-hand experience of living and working in Russia: Margaret Sullivan will describe what it is like to work for an NGO in Russia; Dirk Meissner will speak about teaching students and doing academic work at our home university, the Higher School of Economics.

6.1. Social Stratification, 'New Russians' and what 'Oligarch' Means14:26

6.2. New Elites and New Issues: from 'Kolkhoznik' to Farmers; Role of NGOs; Russian Regions12:26

6.3. Old Russians and 'Old Russians'8:39

6.4. Middle Class14:14

6.5. Intelligentsia and Intellectuals11:18

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Mira Bergelson
Professor
Philological Faculty

[MUSIC]

So this division between new Russians and

new Russians actually, exactly separating this

oligarchs, tycoons, flashy very rich people.

People who became rich overnight,

separating them from the rest of the country.

And these new Russians were the ones who

actually were first seen by the West but

there were also other aspects of what was

going in Russia not only the early, but later.

And not only the early periods of its history, but later.

We are talking about the period that made itself clear,

starting at the end of 90s, beginning of 2000s.

So, not only new leads.

But first, probably it is important to mention that the huge population

in rural areas that was previously known as kolkhoznik has traveled

a certain way from kolkhoznik to potato-growers and then to farmers.

In the early 90s when life was really hard and people didn't have

money to support themselves, actually not agricultural workers,

but people of other professions were supporting themselves

through their plots in the land at the dacha places,

which is a summer country house in Russia where they would grow vegetables.

Mainly, potatoes and that's why the spirit of this

part of life of a significant number of people in Russia is called potato-growers.

It supposed many families in the hard days when the economy was not working well.

And of course, it wasn't although they say that they actually

produced a significant part of what was consumed in the food markets.

Still it was not yet the new economy, but

when later we've seen such a sector of societies of farmers emerged.

That was indeed a new development and

a new social group.

And here, more than for other categories.

This change of word from kolkhoznik to potato-growers, to farmers.

Here, this change of words really means change.

Because a the moment, the agricultural sector in Russia,

which is mostly farming and big agricultural holdings,

which also so are built on another model,

produce significant portion of what this country consumes.

There was one social and political decision that some went unseen and

unmentioned or that was not paid that much attention

at the time when this political decision was made though,

it was really a tectonic change in the course of Russian history.

The law that created private property for

the land was the first one for the thousand years of Russian history.

And actually, this Issue of private property for

the land was the central issue of all the revolutions that happened in Russia and it

was the issue of much pain and sufferings in the whole of the 20th century.

At some point, this law was adopted and

Russia now has modern style laws regarding the land and

that's why actually the modern farming systems and

agricultural production could start to evolve.

Eventually, new elites were forming both in government area and

in society in general.

In society in general, absolutely new thing that also went through a certain

period of development was so-called NGOs, non-governmental organizations.

It's a new profession, but it's also a new discourse system,

a very distant discourse system.

When we talk now about NGOs, probably the buzzwords

[COUGH] would be the notorious law on so-called foreign agents,

which is related to the political situation where

very many defensive actions are taken against

Western influence on the political life in Russia.

But [COUGH] initially, NGOs and

people who were working there were associated with someone who is not so

much interested in material goods, but is working to make the history,

to create the society, to help people in need.

Because a lot of what NGOs were doing in the 90s was actually helping

people who found themselves in hard life circumstances not just to survive,

but to keep doing what they were doing.

Like teachers at schools and professors at the universities

at the moment when they were paid really low salaries,

which pushed many people out of the professions to go

outside of those successful businesses.

Start working in the markets selling things.

So to keep the people in their professions,

there was a lot [COUGH] done by [COUGH] NGOs.

At the same time, people who were working in NGOs found themselves

in the circumstances where they working for Western organisations.

In a way, they are also among those who had to acquire the new Western

organizational culture.

It's not a corporate culture, it's a western organizational

culture of the NGO sector, but it was still very new and

imposed certain standards and induced certain influences.

As I said, later, because of these political issues for many Russians now,

the word NGO is associated not with someone who is working for

high public issues, but just simply working for

another system of values and so on and so forth.

Still as I understand in the localities, in the regions where people

really feel this work by local NGOs, they do understand the difference.

Anyway, [COUGH] for this discourse community such

issues in the public discourse as development,

as human rights, as environmental issues, as protecting,

as being an interface between the person, the individual and

the state are very important and very topical.

Another issue to be covered by this new certification of

society is the regional aspect of it.

Regional disparity.

Regional disparity, of course, depends on pure economical issues.

Oil and and gas regions are of course, earn a lot of money and

a lot of taxes go from them to the federal budget, but not only this.

And we have a vast country where climate, geography,

history, the infrastructure really means a lot and

influence the life of people, Far East Daghestan and the North Caucasus.

Kaliningrad, which is the enclave or

Russian enclave separated from the main part of

Russia by the Baltic Republics is special issue.

Southern borders in Central Asia, all these regions have their own issues and

their own topics.

For instance, southern borders where the Russian regions

going to contact with the former Soviet Republics,

now the State and Central Asia.

Of course, the issues for them are the Gastarbeiter coming from these places and

also the drug trafficking and presence of the border guards.

At the same time, it is also across [COUGH] a regional

trade that goes across the borders.

And the mix of populations that were not so long ago,

just one country where a lot of connections exist

between these transregional borders.

Far East is now one of the central issues in the Russian economic politics,

because the region was very scarcely populated and

has been depopulating since the beginning of the 90s,

because life is hard there, not much infrastructure.

And when the economy was in the poor state, it was really hard to survive.

So, a lot of improvements have

been taking place recently.

A lot of effort was made not only to keep people there by

some economical issues, but also by creating this feeling

of the common space between the European part of Russia and

the Asian, Siberia and especially Far East.

It's interesting that mentality of the people there has

certain regional aspect when they talk about us and them.

They usually mean us as in the Far Eastern them, as in the western part of Russia.

And there are feelings of I hope, it's being now kind of repaired, but

the olds have this feeling that they in the West, they forgot about us.

They don't care.

Their history is not our history and so on, and so forth.

That happens in countries with large areas that feel separated from each other.

So, this is one problem for the Russian mentality.

Still with all these regional specifics,

if you ask people in Sakhalin [FOREIGN] about who they are,

they would definitely call themselves Russians.

And also if you look at certain cultural values

at certain traditions, ways of behave or

I don't know what, hospitality, food.

We'll see that this is Russia with all its specifics.

Next issue we'll talk about relates probably

more to our next big topic, but we need to touch up on it here,

because it determines the really social certification issues and

this is about so-called old Russians and old Russians.

[MUSIC]

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