Unity of goals and actions

“Democracy, society and modernization in modern Russia: unity of purpose and action” - a conference under this title was held on October 25 at the Russian State University for the Humanities. The conference was jointly held by the university, the Public Chamber represented by a member of the EP Council, Chairman of the EP Commission on Interethnic Relations and Freedom of Conscience, as well as the director of the Institute of Mass Media of the Russian State University for the Humanities (and the author of the Daily Journal) Nikolai Svanidze and the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights represented by its chairman Mikhail Fedotov.

After the opening remarks by RSUH Rector Efim Pivovar, Mikhail Fedotov spoke, his report was titled “Modern Russian Society: A Request for Democracy”: the essence of his speech boiled down to the need to overcome the stereotypes of the totalitarian past (he admitted that he had encountered the legacy of the Soviet mentality among students). Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin spoke about historical Russia in the modern world: he noted that if in, relatively speaking, traditional Russia (before the 20th century) democracy was predominantly European, now the country, with its oscillations between stability and change, turns out to be more backward, than many others. Then Efim Pivovar took the floor again, his report was devoted to history and modernity in the public consciousness of Russians. The report of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, on the moral imperative of Russian democracy was read by a representative of the department. The director of the German Historical Institute in Moscow, Nikolaus Katzer, spoke about the strategy of his institute’s activities in the field of studying history. Chairman of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva spoke about the state of civil society in Russia, pointing out that in conditions when the opposition and the media cannot influence the government, and business cannot develop normally, representatives of all three spheres of activity should also be considered as representatives civil society along with civil activists. Nikolai Svanidze spoke about the democratic space of Russian modernization: according to him, today’s Russia does not have the capabilities for modernization in the spirit of Stalinist industrialization, and for modernization that meets current needs, Russia lacks the necessary institutions - a court, free small and medium-sized businesses, otherwise what is being imposed (including the Public Chamber) cannot replace these institutions. Researcher at the Institute of Public Design, director of the November 4th Political Action Club, Grigory Gerasimov, explained that the government and the people in today’s Russia are united only by the fear of the collapse of the country. Professor at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jerzy Borejsza, discussed authoritarian and democratic traditions in Central-Eastern Europe: according to his speech, some countries are traditionally more accustomed to authoritarianism, so it is more difficult for them to go through democratic transformations.

Vladimir Kozlov, professor of the Department of Source Studies of the Faculty of Archival Affairs of the Historical and Archival Institute of the Russian State University for the Humanities, spoke about archives and politics. Professor of the Department of Post-Soviet Countries of the Russian State University for the Humanities, head of the Center for the Study of Interethnic Relations at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Leokadia Drobizheva spoke about the principles of interethnic harmony in the conditions of Russian reforms. Director for Humanitarian Projects of Rusnano OJSC, former co-chairman of the Right Cause party Leonid Gozman invited the audience to answer the question of whether Russia has a choice between predetermination and freedom: he noted that many conversations about the possibility or impossibility of democratic transformations in Russia come down to to the thesis “Nothing will work out in this country,” however, he pointed out that a person is able to get rid of a variety of stereotypes and in the conditions of the modern world with much greater ease than before - why, they say, in this case, Russia cannot get rid of predetermination and indeed can't it? President of the Foundation for Effective Politics Gleb Pavlovsky noted that there is a need not only for presentations similar to those heard at the conference, but also for a full discussion, because only in this way will it be possible to cope with the existing problems. The plenary session ended with an emotional report by the head of the department of personality psychology of the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, Alexander Asmolov, “Tolerance and risk management of xenophobia in a risk society”: he strongly emphasized that salvation lies in tolerance as a system offering diversity and the idea of ​​mutual assistance, as opposed to xenophobia as a system offering primitive solutions and reducing everything to conflicts.

The conference also included sessions of sections devoted to the historical and civic worldview of Russian youth, tolerance as a tool for strengthening democracy in Russian society, problems of reformation and modernization of Russia in the educational discourse of the Russian State University for the Humanities and the information space of social innovation in Russian education.