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The paper focuses on the analysis of the creative work and the reconstruction of the biography of the Ural Old Believer writer Vladimir Georgievich Tokmenin (born in 1932, died after 2003). He worked under pen name of Irodion Ural'skii. The main work of Irodion is an interpretation of the Apocalypse according to the comments by Andreas of Caesarea. The writer made many efforts to 'alert' humankind about the plots of the devil. He spread his works in the form of manuscripts spread among the Old Believers of Russia. Some of them are kept in the Depository of the Laboratory for Archaeographic Studies of the Ural Federal University (Ekaterinburg, Russia). The most complete reflection of Irodion's views is in the book he gave the Laboratory in 2001. Appearance and spreading of communist and socialist ideas were signs of the strengthening of the Antichrist's power for Irodion. The main point of his theory is an explanation of Chapter 13 of the Book of Revelation by John the Apostle, where the latter writes about a 7-headed and 10-horned beast appearing from the water. Irodion considered that the beast was the Soviet power, its horns were the leaders of the communist party and government. Irodion interpreted the Antichrist as an evil divided into parts. Patriarch Nikon was the first Antichrist and the last one was Gorbachev. The most detailed description of political figures considered as heads of the beast was made for the following persons: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev. Irodion believed that Russia was the only preserver of the true faith. So he thought that events in Russia connected with deviation from the true faith initiated the end of the world. Irodion saw signs of the forthcoming end of the world in many realities of the present. Great influence on the formation of the views of the writer had the works by the English poet of the 17th century J. Milton, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Most part of the Old Believers' history passed under the sign of persecutions, including the period of the formation of Soviet power in Russia. The Old Believers, mostly quite wealthy people, were declared kulaki, their property' was confiscated, many of them were imprisoned or exiled. The author of the paper believes that this circumstance connected with large Soviet atheistic propaganda became the reason for the creation of such an essays as the Explanatory Apocalypse by Irodion Uralskii, where traditional Medieval forms of self-expression were used for speaking about the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was not before the end of 2016 that the governing elites of Russian decided how the Revolution should be remembered in the year of its 100th anniversary. According to the official line, the focal point of remembrance should be reconciliation. By the popularization of civil peace and national consolidation as dominant motifs the circles in power clearly favor a postponement of a real discussion about the revolutionary events of 1917. At the same time, there is a variety of controversial attempts in the contemporary Russian society to interpret the Revolution. The paper deals with the three most common views: the socialist, the national-conservative and the liberal one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on archival documents primarily from the Russian State Archiv (GARF) this paper studies the awarding of decorations to members of the Political Police (Cheka, OGPUNKVD). Decorations, indeed, played a major role in the formation of the new Soviet elite. Despite the organization of real campaigns to back their candidates for decorations, the Cheka poorly achieved in the years before the onset of the Great Purge in 1937. The main reason was that the Commission on Decorations of the Revolutionary War Council only deemed heroic feats accomplished in war-like action worth of special recognition. The Great Purge fundamentally changed this feature. This, in turn, opened the way to a great upswing in social advancement for high-ranking Cheka members into the emerging Soviet elite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first decade of the 20th century Russians enjoyed a predominant position on Mount Athos. There were more Russian monks than Greek, their monastic establishments had turned into flourishing economic enterprises, flooded with pilgrims, the mainstay of the venture. The intention of this paper is to study the origin and the social, cultural and political bases of this apparent success, to trace influences of governmental and ecclesiastic bureaucracies, and to find out, if there were attempts at transforming this position of soft power into a firm stronghold of imperial politics. The infrastructure organised for providing transport, shelter and food, as well as the pilgrims' temporal and spiritual experiences were points of equal interest. Besides the rich scholarly literature, the main sources used for this study were published correspondences, diaries and memoirs, materials from contemporary periodicals, and especially the travellers' and pilgrims' reports. After Russia's defeat in the Crimean War Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich had conceived the encouragement of pilgrimage to Mount Athos as part of a wider scheme for regaining lost imperial positions in the Christian East. Yet open hostility of the Greek, and more covert opposition of the Russian monks caused the failure of a program, fairly successful in Palestine, on Mount Athos. Instead, the Russian monks could develop a network of their own, satisfying the pilgrims' temporal and spiritual needs right from their starting points in Russia up to the "Celestial Queen's terrestrial appanage". According to the regulations of Mount Athos all these services were provided free of charge. With donations of the pious from all layers of Russian society, however, the "Russian Athos" turned out a to be tremendous economic success, independent of government subsidies and influences. Governmental offices and ecclesiastic hierarchy with few exceptions kept a distrustful distance from this achievement of Russian civil society, which Greek jealousy nicknamed "peasants' empire". Far from making use of this cultural asset in the Eastern Mediterranean, the bureaucracy of the established church, helped by official diplomacy, initiated the collapse of the "Russian Athos" even before World War I, and the Bolshevik seizure of power broke its lifeline connecting it with Russian society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the formulation, contents, and revision of a paper entitled "The Concept of a Russian Model of Democracy," first written in 2008, detailing how the Russian Federation might move forward toward democratic liberalization and political modernization under the regime of President Dimitri Medvedev. The plan outlines steps leading from central economic planning to a market economy, from a totalitarian system to a proto-democracy, and from a multi-national ideological state to a multi-party, modern nation.

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Copyright of Journal for Sociology of Education & Socialization / Zeitschrift für Soziologie der Erziehung & Sozialisation is the property of Julius Beltz GmbH & Co. KG Beltz Juventa and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Soziale Welt is the property of Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)