Russian early period of sociology

predecessors and first professionals

pp. 15-31

in: Larissa Titarenko, Elena Zdravomyslova, Sociology in Russia, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

The first sociological works appeared in Russia in the 1860s. This fact means that the image of Russian sociology as a very young discipline born in the Soviet time is wrong. The main Russian schools of thought (positivist, neo-positivist, subjective, Neo-Kantian, Marxist, and Christian) reflect the variety of theoretical approaches that were applied to the understanding of social life by Russian thinkers. Each school puts forward its own leaders, Lavrov and Sorokin, among them. However, there were no departments of sociology or special journals in the country until the beginning of the twentieth century. Sociological education was introduced in Russia also with a delay. Therefore, institutionalization of sociology was not complete during this period.