№ 4 - 1994
Klyamkin I.M.
The Soviet and the Western: Is Synthesis Possible?

The Soviet and the Western: Is Synthesis Possible? Analytical Center, "Public Opinion " Foundation, comes out with still another of its studies of the post-Soviet man's values. Below is published the first part of an article presenting the results of the study. The author, who is Head of the Center, analyzes the way the consciousness of both elite and mass groups of Russian society combines abstract symbols of "good life" with the more concrete values that catch and fix people's notion of the outher conditions securing such life ("values-conditions"), on the one hand, and of personal qualities they consider the most important for themselves ("values-qualities"), on the other. In the second and concluding part of the article (to be published in the next issue of the journal) the author will analyze Russia's population's view of the national historical origins of various symbols and values, to determine whether it sees them as traditionally Russian, or, else, Soviet, or, finally, Western.