Pioneers of Soviet sociology and the nature of intellectual achievement under totalitarian secrecy regimenim.

This paper uses Goffmanian dramaturgical framework to account for emergence of a particular style of sociological work exemplified by sociology in the USSR. The history of Soviet sociology unearths several puzzles. It was rapidly institutionalized which in the Soviet times necessarily implied support from the Party authorities, but at the same time became target of frequent repressions; its leaders enjoyed wide popularity then and remain objects of worship afterwards although their particular texts from the Soviet era are scarcely remembered and their attempts at theorizing are disregarded; finally, its intellectual achievements prove not translatable to other cultural contexts. This paper presents the results of a historical research to argue that all of this could be explained by the fact that Soviet sociology had to deal essentially with social, rather than natural, secrecy - to struggle with intentionally created deficit of information. Any knowledge claim is embedded into a wider cosmological framework and the dominant framework of the Soviet society described it as a single formal organization designed according to an all-embracing plan of movement towards Communism. A study of any aspect of social life was essentially an evaluation of this plan and an assessment of its implementation. This vision of their research terrain charged sociologists with new intellectual mission of criticizing existing societal designs, inventing new ones and taking on tasks of assigning political blame. This explains repressions against them, vivid public interest to their work, and the fact that the Soviet era left many heroic figures but few intellectual legacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]