Revival, partial institutionalization, stagnation and final recognition of Soviet sociology

pp. 43-77

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

Abstract

Soviet sociology was legitimized and partially institutionalized during the period of thaw when USSR positions itself as modernized industrial socialist society. Political and ideological intentions of Soviet sociological project were manifest. Under rigid party-state control, this realm of knowledge production had to balance between the ethos of science and the ethos of ideology. The consequences of such a situation were negative for sociologists and sociology. Nonetheless, serious professional achievements were made by the pioneer Soviet sociologists who enthusiastically used the opportunities for scholarly community building and achieved empirical results. The second wave of sociological enthusiasm swept down with the Perestroika politics of glasnost and democratization and its aftermaths.