Nikolai Berdyaev, a prominent 20th-century existential and religious philosopher, critiques anarchism and socialism primarily for neglecting the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of human existence. According to Berdyaev, both ideologies represent a rational and scientific approach to understanding humanity and society, resulting in what he terms a “scientific religion”. He argues that anarchism's pursuit of absolute freedom and socialism's quest for universal equality are fundamentally flawed due to their unrealistic ideals and disregard for the spiritual essence of individuals. Berdyaev describes socialism's aim of complete equality as an empty utopia and anarchism's ideal of absolute freedom as equally hollow. However, Berdyaev's critique raises methodological questions regarding the legitimacy of applying religious-philosophical criteria to socio-political doctrines, suggesting a tension between materialistic and spiritual perspectives that may ultimately be irreconcilable.
The article analyses Ostrovsky’s novel, which was at the heart of Soviet youth’s civic education for decades. The return of the book to the school program, in the context of current events, allows us to discover a performative element of the text related to the phenomenon of “Russian quixotism.” In the creative history of the classic work of socialist realism are highlighted as key factors author’s charisma, high editorial culture, and also a special historical interval (1930−1934), from the year of the suicide of Mayakovsky to the First Congress of Soviet writers and the murder of Kirov, when in post-October Russia a party-independent initiative on the cultural front was last possible.
The article is an analysis of the problem of boycotting Russian culture in Poland as a reaction to the Russians’ attack on Ukraine that began on February 24th, 2022. The first part of the article identifies numerous examples of changes in repertoires of Poland philharmonics and theatres, as well as the abeyance of cyclical cultural events. The author also showcases the current trend in promoting Russian literature, using examples. The second part of the article reports on the discourse about the scale, the intent and the effects of boycotting Russian literature in Poland that is taking place in the pages of large-circulation Polish magazines.
This article provides a comprehensive account of the meeting between Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a former Gulag prisoner and author of The Gulag Archipelago, who was exiled from the USSR, and Vladimir Putin, the elected President of Russia since 2000, who has a background in the KGB. The meeting, comprising two personal encounters in 2000 and 2007, as well as mutual positive references to shared values, provoked “righteous indignation” from former Russian dissidents turned democrats, as well as numerous epigones of communism in Putin’s Russia, including apologists for the KGB. The former accused Solzhenitsyn of betraying the ideals of freedom, while the latter criticized Putin for meeting amicably with a man who had contributed to the collapse of the “glorious Soviet Union.” Nevertheless, the author of this article concludes that there are grounds for Putin’s imperialist invocation of the work of the late Solzhenitsyn, who had called for a revision of the “Leninist borders” with the now independent states of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Estonia. This perspective is further underscored by Andrei Sakharov’s reflection from 1974 that “ideologues have always been gentler than the politicians who follow them.” However, it must be emphatically noted that Solzhenitsyn — who advocated for those border revisions exclusively through diplomacy and economic pressure — would undoubtedly disavow the current war and likely condemn it as loudly as he had always courageously denounced criminal communism.
This article aims to analyze the presence of elements of magical realism in Dmitry Bykov's novel Justification and their influence on the construction of the narrative world. The author employs a deconstructivist method of text analysis, focusing primarily on the first two chapters, which describe the Stalinist period and the protagonist's life at the dacha near Moscow. The applied method highlights the hybrid nature of the novel, where elements of magical realism, realism, fantasy, history, and even historiosophy blend together. The author also examines the writer's craft, focusing on the techniques that allow for the fusion of various literary conventions, as well as the playful dimension of the text, which invites the reader into the interpretative process. This publication is the first part of a broader analysis aimed at exploring the presence and role of magical realism in the novel.
In contemporary Russia, the cult of Stalin is being revived. The process there was reflected on the stage of theaters. Kirill Serebrennikov staged a documentary performance, “Stalin's Funeral”, based, on the one hand, on the memories of historical witnesses who remember March 1953, and on the other hand, on the statements of cultural activists who warn against admiration for the dictatorship. Valery Fokine, trying to understand the nature of totalitarianism, staged a play about the birth of Stalin. The character of "Young Soso" on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater refers to the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
The analysis of social relations in the sphere of industrial production has been a presence in sociology since its inception, i.e., in the 1830s. In parallel, a literary genre developed- the production novel, presenting an artistic reflection on the everyday life of workers. The combination of these areas primarily occurs in the sociology of literature and the sociology of industry, as well as in other sociological subfields. Industrial literature can be a valuable data source for sociological research, and the Russian production novel is particularly interesting in this respect due to its ideologization and massification. The article presents examples of the reproduction of the cultural system through literary works, persuasive and educational techniques in the narrative and creation of the presented world, and the factual value of production novels from the Stalinist period.
Тhe proposed article explores the specifics of artistic semiotics in Olzhas Suleimenov's poem The Lame Kulan, which is one of the most famous works of Kazakh Russian-language poetry of the second half of the 20th century. The poetic text is deeply immersed in a historical and cultural context and is saturated with intertextual signs: allusions and reminiscences. The article models semantic fields of a general linguistic type (based on Russian and Kazakh) as well as the author's semantic field of the textual dominant “kulan”. The comparison of the general linguistic semantic fields of the dominant “kulan” with the author's semantic field demonstrates the transcultural specificity of the poem's semiosis, which results from the symbiosis of two national worldviews – Russian and Kazakh – in Suleimenov's artistic vision.
The article discusses the Russian subtitles for the Polish comedy series 1670 (Netflix), considering it an example of a “new generation series.” The translation strategy is analyzed, with particular emphasis on the rendering of humour, intertextual references, and cultural elements. The author notes the higher reading speed of subtitles on streaming platforms compared to traditional media, which allows for less modification of the source text (text loss at approx. 9%). As the analysis shows, the series’ translator adopted a strategy of faithful cultural transfer, preserving Polish realities, names, and language games, while refraining from adaptation. This approach is suitable for active viewers who independently seek context online. On the one hand, it allows for preserving the original style and some of the humour; on the other hand, it carries the risk of local allusions being misunderstood and some linguistic-visual gags being lost. The article thus highlights the evolution of audiovisual translation in the context of new media and shifting reception practices.
The field of issues concerning the interaction between science and religion encompasses both religious studies and linguistics, and consequently addresses the relationship between language and religion, which has a centuries-long research tradition. There has been a notable intensification of interdisciplinary research combining theology and other religious studies with linguistics, leading to the emergence of numerous research directions. The boundaries of these fields remain indistinct, and the classification of individual studies within a specific discipline is not always straightforward. In the present study, the author focuses on theolinguistics and its research problems within general scientific, linguistic, interdisciplinary, and specifically theolinguistic contexts. In accordance with the title of the journal “Przegląd Rusycystyczny” (“Russian Studies Review”) and the key term “review” in its name, the aim of the article is to provide a comprehensive overview of contemporary issues in theolinguistics, considering them in relation to general linguistic theory, methodological questions, interdisciplinary approaches, and subject-specific theolinguistic perspectives. The study is based primarily on Russian-language research. Considering the fact that the earliest works on theolinguistics were authored by Western and Polish scholars, it was necessary to reference them.
This article aims to examine the phenomenon of polysemy in legal language, which by definition should be unambiguous and precise. The appearance of polysemous terms in it creates significant problems both in legal practice and translation. The article analyses selected polysemous terms from the Polish Labour Code and its two Russian translations. Differences in the understanding and use of the same terms in different legal contexts are presented. Particular attention is also paid to the verification of equivalents found in bilingual dictionaries of legal terms.
Cognitive linguistics is recognized as a discipline that studies linguistic knowledge in relation to human cognitive processes, such as the role of memory and the perception of reality, among others. Within this framework, cognitive grammar emerges from the idea of describing language functionality under the premise that the form and meaning of any linguistic unit constitute an inseparable symbolic unit. Unlike traditional grammar, which is based on structures and rules of a language, cognitive grammar emphasizes the semantic representation of lexical units. Leveraging advancements in cognitive linguistics, this study aims to demonstrate how methods grounded in cognitive knowledge can benefit learners of Russian as a Foreign Language (RFL). This is because cognitive grammar focuses on the actual use of language, considering the speaker’s communicative intent and the construction of meaning through forms. To further support this objective, this study presents a methodological proposal involving a test-based exercise designed for Spanish-speaking students. It examines the role of Russian verbal prefixation in fostering a cognitive understanding of various prefixes.
10.31261/pr
Język Polski
Русский
English