Korolev, S. A. Modernization and demodernization in the Russian history. Part 2

Abstract: the author analyzed modernization processes in Russia in the 20th century, in particular, Stolypin’s land reform, Stalin’s modernization in the 30s, Gorbachev’s perestroika and post Soviet modernization in 1991-1998. According to the author, Russian modernization is not just the process ongoing in the split society, it is also an inner contradictory process causing and deepening that split and, finally, it is an attempt to overcome that split, such an attempt being forced in most cases. History shows that radical modernization aggravates the split of the society and provokes archaization, the latter is either caused by the modernization itself or arising from the conformists’ reaction to it. “Soft” or gradual modernization does not solve the problems the government and the society are facing but creates basis for future crises. In the perspective, modernization in Russia may benefit from building a compromise model which would achieve the balance between the government’ and the civil society’s interests.

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