This article emphasizes the regional development in today's Russia and focuses on the current state of the system of higher education. The concept of elite professional education is used as a means of social mobility and an instrument for the formation of the social structure of a particular region. What prompted this approach was an analysis of…

The causes of punishment including violence are perceived, first and foremost, as in the nature of family relations. The authors' survey focused on children's interaction with their parents, and the risk of violence is clearly present. Russian sociological research on violence against children within families shows a lack of consensus on what…

A roundtable was held in April 2010, by correspondence and with participants in attendance; it was organized by the editorial board of "Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia" jointly with the faculty of sociology of the Russian State University of the Humanities [RGGU]. The focus of the proceedings was a discussion (taking account of experience in…

The processes of modernization in this country's economy require a well-qualified work force that is mobile in social, professional, and geographic terms. The necessary basis of a successful solution to this problem is the stability of the family, which is the basic active agent of the reproduction of new generations of workers. Family stability…

In presenting the basic data of the article the authors note that the topic itself, the sociology of the school grade, is determined by the overall context of timely and relevant issues that have to do with rating the success of the educational process. In the past few years the array of problems relating to educational evaluation has been studied…

Rural young people in today's Russia have the ability to contribute to Russia's development, but conditions in the Russian countryside do not provide opportunities for them to do so. Potentially, rural young people represent an innovative resource of social, economic, and cultural development, a vital factor of the material and intellectual…

The increase in the use of narcotics in Russia has been complicated by the spread of new kinds of drugs that are less visible than more traditional kinds. A worsening of the situation must be prevented. This requires studying the accumulation of world experience, searching for up-to-date approaches to prevention, combining the efforts of science…

Sociological surveys have shown that education in Russian society today still remains a valued priority to young people. It is in demand by a substantial portion of secondary school graduates who are hoping to continue their education in an institution of higher learning. The modernization of graduation and entrance tests, associated with the…

Issues of sexuality have started to be studied quite extensively in Russia in the past few years, and the results of research have appeared in this country's scholarly literature.1 It is regularly noted, moreover, that at the present time Russian sociologists have only very preliminary, fragmentary ideas not only about the sexual behavior of…

There is a persistent opinion that the spread of narcotics abuse is taking in more and more young people and having an impact on the economic, political, and cultural development of society. Data obtained by sociologists and criminologists make it possible to single out the factors, conditions, and channels of the spread of psychoactive substances…

Alcohol abuse in Russia has been increasing in recent years, especially in northern regions, as has the incidence of alcohol-related disease rates. A survey was conducted in Surgut (the Khanty-Mansi autonomous okrug) that determined the factors lending to the prevalence of alcohol abuse among the population of the northern city and assessed the…

It is acknowledged that the value of reading has gone down in today's Russian society, and this is rated as unequivocally negative. Instead of "the most well-read country in the world," Russia is now called a "society of TV viewers" by the some observers; it is not a nation of independent thinkers but passive objects of the influence of the state…

In this commentary, the author stresses that reading habits in Russia have changed since the Soviet era, and the more intellectual journals and magazines in particular have lost their importance. Audiences for books and magazines have fragmented, and there are fewer sources of commonly shared information and ideas than was true a few decades ago.…

Attention to virtual space is growing in Russia. Russian politicians have an interest in the Internet: the president has his own blog and reads Twitter, and the United Russia Party is starting to work with the iPad on a mass scale. Opposition leaders and movements are not lagging behind either. Online surveys of various Internet resources are…

The future of Russian society is manifested in the new generation, the community of children and young people. To a large extent, the country's social and economic development depends on the health and education of the rising generation, on its social values and orientations, its spirituality and morality, and its level of cultural accumulation.…