The article examines problems concerning the modernization of the higher education in Russia and training of highly intellectual, elite persons for managing the country.

The author concludes that the hasty steps taken in the course of reforming the Russian system of higher education at the end of the first decade of the 21st century led to a specific situation. This situation is characterized by a policy of accelerated reorganization of education, primarily aimed at accepting the dogmatized models and tools for educational institutions management, which were imposed by the West and initially designed for underdeveloped backward countries.

Unfortunately, this situation has determined many dysfunctions in education, concerning foremost classical university education. Completely predictably, it led to disorientation of student youth that began focusing on narrowly applied aspects of future professional activity, which are secondary in terms of social significance.

The article emphasizes the importance of preserving the best traditions of the Russian higher education within the framework of classical universities, which have always played a leading role in the reproduction of the elite of the society. Key points are identified that make it possible to specify the essence of the elite reproduced by classical universities.

The author demonstrates that the future presidents and prime ministers, Nobel laureates, internationally renowned writers graduated from the most famous universities in the world, with the Lomonosov Moscow State University preserving a leading place among them. For example, when Russian science was living through its historical rise, it was led by the Moscow University graduates, including S.I. Vavilov, A.N. Nesmeyanov, M.V. Keldysh.

Overcoming the populist approaches to contemporary education, return to the fundamentality and breadth of domestic education, focus on the traditional “scientific education”, as well as the intellectual potential of the best educational institutions in Russia are regarded as the most important tasks for reforming the whole system of education in which classical universities played and will play a major role.

The use of the terms “conservative” and “innovative” in relation to education occurred relatively recently. In 1978, in a report to the Club of Rome, a group of scientists drew attention to the inadequacy of the principles of traditional education to the requirements of modern society for the individual, to the development of her cognitive abilities. In this report, innovative education was defined as “focused on creating a person’s readiness for rapidly advancing changes in society, readiness for an uncertain future through the development of creativity, diverse forms of thinking, and cooperation with others”. In fact, from that moment the mechanism of reforming the education system in the most developed countries of the world was launched. Our country joined this process later, nevertheless the education reform in modern Russia has been going on for more than 20 years, and often we follow the West in a situation where it is already beginning to be abandoned there. A little later, the reforms were renamed into the process of modernization of education, giving everything an almost eternal character, and in fact highlighting the uncertainty of this process, shifting the system of changes to a permanent state, which is very uncomfortable for those who study and for those who teach.

The article deals with topical issues of ensuring the competitiveness of universities and national systems of higher education, primarily Russian, in the context of globalization. Ensuring a high level of competitiveness of the education system on the world arena is based on effective strategies for the development of national universities. The implementation of these strategies should contribute to the achievement of the level of world standards in education, research and development. The most representative examples of a competitive university are the so-called “world class universities” (WCU), included in the well-known international ratings (ARWU, THE, QS) are world-class universities. The strategy of achieving a level of competitiveness by a specific university, which makes it possible not only to get and gain a foothold in the international rating, but also to rise, is directly connected with the national (state) strategy for the development of higher education. According to S. Marginson, in the context of the globalization of education in different countries of the world, three basic models of strategies for the development of world-class universities (“breadth”, “deep” and combined – “breadth and depth”) are practiced. The strategy for the development of the Russian system of higher education was initially based on a strategy “deep” (the program for supporting Russian universities “5 in 100”). However, at present, the emphasis has shifted to the strategy of promotion in the disciplinary (subject) rating. It, quite correlates with the target scenario, formulated in the “Strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation”, approved by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation.

The article deals with a part of the results of the overall study which took place in 2009–2015 and was devoted to the examination of the public attitudes towards 2014 Sochi Olympics and Olympism on the whole. In the course of the monitoring conducted throughout the whole period of Sochi Olympics project implementation there have been formed sets of statistical evaluation results of the “Olympic region” most important daily living activities spheres conditions and development, with a system of key indicators being used. The original data structured in the united time series give a possibility of a variable comparison of the results attained on a great number of indicators and finally enable to evaluate the degree of implementation of the tasks defined by the IOC. The research program was based on methodological and procedural approaches widely introduced in the works of contemporary Russian and foreign scholars. A benchmarking analysis of the current values system and the region residents’ behavior within the framework of sustainable development is presented in different topic blocks. Empirical data collected through a six-year period show dynamics in Sochi and Krasnodar region population commitment to a healthy lifestyle, vicious habits proliferation and environment friendly daily living activities. Certain communities monitoring results prove a principal thesis which states that lifestyle is a result of the internal and external factors longstanding interaction where the internal ones are determining. It is they that provide such quality characteristics of a lifestyle as continuity and stability. Being a large-

scale event Olympic games can boost some particular positive changes in the lifestyle of the dwellers of the city which became the event capital but the games are not able to provide the changes’ sustainment. To prevent reversibility of the positive changes the local authorities and civil society institutions in the city should undertake strong task-oriented efforts.

This article is devoted to one of the most pressing problems affecting multiple aspects of modern social life – the formation of value attitudes towards nature. The article discovers the concepts of ecological culture, ecological consciousness, ecological education. The main agents of ecological socialization, the difficulties the ecological culture formation in Russian society are being analyzed. The necessity of protecting environment is substantiated, especially considering the conditions marked by mankindreaching the stage of development when the relations between nature and society may lead to ecological crisis.

The main attention is paid to the analysis of the influence of one of the main agents of environmental education of the individual – the family, which is most capable of inculcating environmental behavioral stereotypes, environmental norms and rules of behavior. Family and its members are child’s primary environment, hence it plays an essential role in child’s life and are obliged to teach children not only what and how you can take from nature, but also what they need to give it. The author of the article states that in contemporary Russia parents’ opportunities to foster ecological culture among their children are limited due to the fact that they do not always have sufficient knowledge and skills, which in its turn is caused by lack of culture aimed at preserving environment. This leads to ecological infantilism of the future generations.

The empirical base of the work is the research of the Public Opinion Fund, the All Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, the Analytical Center of Yuri Levada and the World Health Organization.

This article will be of interest to specialists in the fields of social ecology, environmental sociology, family sociology, ecology and nature management, as well as a wide range of readers interested in environmental issues. The materials of the article will be useful to employees of state environmental authorities and institutions, members of public environmental organizations, university professors and students.

In 2016–2018 are carried out actions of the second stage of a demographic policy of the Russian Federation for the period till 2025. During the look-ahead period it is supposed to develop and pass the federal law provided by articles 133 and 421 Labor codes of the Russian Federation by which the order of finishing of the minimum wage rate till the size of a living wage of able-bodied population of subjects will be established. In the Law of the Russian Federation from April, 19th, 1991 N 1032-1 “changes will be passed About population employment in the Russian Federation”, providing entering of specifications into an order and terms of payment of the unemployment benefits directed on an exception of abusing’s at reception of the unemployment benefit, and also essentially increasing the size of the given grant for separate categories of citizens. In the Law of the Russian Federation “changes will be passed About population employment in the Russian Federation” regarding an establishment of powers of enforcement authorities of subjects of the Russian Federation, employers on placing of the information on conditions of attraction of citizens for realization of labor activity with a view of perfection of an information portal “Work in Russia” and to filling by its trustworthy information. In state and the level subjectsof programs join problems and actions which urged to improve a demographic situation. Federal and regional programs of social and economic development join the questions connected with revealing of problem directions. On the basis of the received information perspective lines of activity and actions for management of a situation are developed. In subject’s programs of social and economic development are developed and take root. The accepted programs allow to reveal in due time demographic tendencies during the current period and to react by means of acceptance of administrative decisions. On the levelsubject’sit is important to consider regional features of demographic development and to develop the differentiated approach to working out and realization of regional demographic programs.

At the state and regional level it is provided to develop special measures on preventive maintenance and timely revealing of occupational diseases, improvement of working conditions, assistance of employment of the women having juvenile children, and increase of their competitiveness on a labor market. The great attention is given to social programs on development of an infrastructure of preschool education that provides maintenance with places in the preschool educational organizations in a priority order for children of working women. Longterm programs are directed on popularization of a healthy way of life. Spent on state migratory the politician it is directed on increase of migratory appeal important in the geopolitical relation of regions of the Russian Federation. Migration brings the contribution to increase in number of region and able-bodied population.

The Lipetsk region – the region having in the central part of the Russian Federation, possessing a comfortable climate for life and population activity. For it are characteristic, as the general demographic tendencies observed in regions of the Central Federal District, and the features. In article results of researches of the basic demographic indicators, received on the basis of the statistical data are resulted. In article programs of the demographic and social and economic policy spent by local authorities, directed on improvement and stabilization of a demographic situation are analyzed.

The proposed paper outlines concepts of the Religious individualism in modern Western society analyzed by the French sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Léger in “Religion in movement (1999)”. Author proposes an assessment of the religious situation in the French society at the end of the XX century and discuss some examples. Particular attention is given to crisis of secular regulation of the religious in the modern society. The weakening of the regulatory capacity of religious institutions leads to a weakening of the secular state. Religious institutions should be able to implement the regime of the truth of faith, which makes the institutional power of the superior guarantor of common faith principles shared by all believers of the denomination. The system of “copying” the structures of the Catholic Church of the XVIII century adopted by the secular state, today is not more correspond nor religious organizations in general, neither even the modern structures of the organization of the Catholic Church in France, that become a problem for a state-confessional relation. Modern institutional disorganization in the religious field, contributing to the destabilization of the French model of secularism, weakened by political cultural and economic liberalization that undermine its principles values that historically based secular system itself. Institutional crisis of the truths of faith approval favours an increase in the number of belief systems of individual communities. The problem can not be solved a priori, legally separating the traditional, “recognized by law” and other religions. The changing religious situation the state must find a new model of interaction with religious groups and organizations. The material is useful for comparative studies of the religious situation in Russia and Western Europe.

The article analyzes the strategy of the Russian Orthodox Church for the revival of national, state and church identity in Russia. The peculiarities of the church interpretation of the concept of identity and the risks of loss of national identity are revealed from the standpoint of the Church. The author concludes that in the socio-political discourse of the Orthodox Church the concept of identity is presented as a cultural and social marker and is comprehended in the paradigm of conformity with established standards and behavioral responses. Spiritual identity is seen in Orthodoxy through an appeal to the religious tradition and is correlated with the moral imperative formed in the past and with the social and legal code. The Church considers the Orthodox self-identification of citizens and its participation in sociocultural transformations of Russia to be important factors of state identity. In declarations on the topic of Christian identity, the leaders of the Church rely on the idea of Russian religious philosophy about the genetic connection of Orthodoxy with national consciousness. The tendency of Orthodox participation in the public examination of secular cultural events, in teaching schoolchildren (“General Professional Competences’ in the course of ‘The Basics of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics”) and in the scientific activity of higher educational institutions (the inclusion of “theology” in the list of scientific disciplines of the Higher Certifying Commission) is developing. Public support for the interaction of the Church with state institutions of culture and education is regarded by the author as a factor of acquiring institutional features of identity by Orthodoxy. The active participation of the Church in the public discussion on the relationship between Russia and European countries is motivated by the desire to develop international cooperation, which is hampered by the value contradictions that the “secularized” West is offered to overcome by returning to a Christian identity. The scientific intelligentsia reacts inconsistently to the church formulation of the national identity as Russian identity. The implantation of Russian identity to the detriment of Russia causes ideological conflict.

Current article is dedicated to analysis of social cleavages in the American elections and the ways they influenced on presidential election in 2016. Originally developed by S. Rokkan and S.M. Lipset, social cleavages became a classic theme for contemporary political sociology. However, despite the fact that the theory has been developing primarily by Americans, it has been rarely used to analyze electoral system in the USA. Traditionally it’s been aimed at European and developing countries where electoral fragmentation is seen more clearly. But recent changes in the American society and the political system demonstrate the emergence of social cleavages that had not been inherent before. The article shows how American electoral space transformed since the 1980s and how it became more fragmented under the influence of social, economic and ideological factors. Elections in 2016 became a watershed for social cleavages that accumulated through time and aggravated even more considering internal crises in the Democratic and more so in the Republican parties. Donald Trump’s victory is an impersonation of the American party system crisis and of the mainstream politicians’ inability to find proper explanation of the changing electorate. Author shows that American society today is polarized even more than many European countries while group identification determines vectors of political change.

The article is written by postgraduate students of the Sociological Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University on the results of a general discussion of the possibilities of innovative development through the prism of related fields of knowledge. It reflects the urgency of studying the processes taking place in various institutions of society and causing innovative development. The publication discusses the features of the functioning and interaction between the social institutions of business and education in the context of innovative processes occurring in Russia (low conversion fundamental knowledge in innovation, the inability of young people to engage in science, the specialists outflow from the country, maintaining a balance between traditions and innovations in education, closure of complex industries, and others). The analysis of existing theories and examples of successful interaction between education and business organized to obtain innovative developments are presented (MSU Science Park and others).

The data on innovative business models implemented in the countries of the world (Russia, China, Singapore, the United States) and the features of their implementation (the possibility of start-up visas, the problems of protecting the rights of entrepreneurs and investors, the time of launching the project and the idea before production), empirical data on the outflow of specialists From Russia, which is considered as one of the consequences of the lack of innovative production in Russia). The authors proposed the possible directions of the organization of education and innovative business, based on the successful experience of foreign countries. The article considers marketing mechanisms as a way of communication between education, business and government institutions in the creation and implementation of innovative developments in Russia, the peculiarities of marketing in the innovative context, in particular, the key role of marketing in acquiring the final innovative product by buyers.

Article is dedicated to the analysis of “Sociology” session held as a part of the International conference for students, post-graduate students and young scientists “Lomonosov–2017”. Such events help to find, retain and develop talented youth, to involve it in solving the actual problems of modern science.