Making the New Post-Soviet Person: Moral Experience in Contemporary Moscow (Russian History and Culture)

Based on life-historical research with five Muscovites, this book provides an intimate portrait of their experience of the post-Soviet years as a period of intense refashioning of moral personhood. This process is revealed as uniquely personal, socially Making the New Post-Soviet Person 4 Copyright 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Chapter One. Backgrounds 12 A window within the window 12 Post-Soviet social and personal transformations 14 Articulating morality in contemporary Russia 26 The anthropology of moralities 32 Theory of moral breakdown 34 Life history and experience 41 Narratives 46 Locating my interlocutors 52 Organization of the book 55 Chapter Two. Olya 56 Human/non-human and morality of society and God’s morality 60 Developmental morality 67 Moral breakdown in contemporary Russia 72 Chapter Three. Larisa 80 Divided self 85 Lying 92 Chapter Four. Olya and Larisa 104 Understanding 104 Lying 114 Chapter Five. Dima 130 Transformations 133 Work on the self 140 Moral breakdowns 152 Ethics as a quest to live sanely 156 Ethically negotiating difference 160 Chapter Six. Anna 176 Moral distrust 178 Hope 182 Morality – shared and unique 186 Family as morality 194 Obshchenie 199 Ethical dilemma 205 Chapter Seven. Aleksandra Vladimirovna 214 It is dawn 219 Spark of God 222 Morality of God 225 Prayer as ethical practice 229 Work on the self 232 Inheriting morality 236 Moral breakdown 242 Chapter Eight. Some Conclusions 250 Morality and personhood 250 Range of possibilities 253 Morality and new post-Soviet personhood 259 References 262 Index 270 900418371X,9789004183711 BRILL The post-Soviet years have widely been interpreted as a period of intense moral questioning, debate, and struggle. Despite this claim, few studies have revealed how this moral experience has been lived and articulated by Russians themselves. This book provides an intimate portrait of how five Muscovites have experienced the post-Soviet years as a period of intense refashioning of their moral personhood, and how this process can only be understood at the intersection of their unique personal experiences, a shared Russian/Soviet history, and increasingly influential global discourses and practices. The result is a new approach to understanding everyday moral experience and the processes by which new moral persons are cultivated. --Book Jacket