The article is devoted to the analysis of serious external and internal challenges that currently face higher education in Russia.

External challenges are associated with new geopolitical realities that have significantly redefined the place of our country in the system of international relations, transformed its national and state interests and strategic goals, caused significant shifts in the functioning of the most important social institutions, one of which is higher education. The institution of higher education is the most important social institution subject to permanent transformation, and classical universities are the first to respond to the challenges that arise to the system of higher education as a whole.

To the external challenges the author refers the exit from the Bologna system and the transition to a new national model of higher education, changes in Russia's economic infrastructure and labor market due to economic sanctions, which requires the training of qualified personnel, primarily for knowledge-intensive industries, and the development of “breakthrough” industrial technologies; digitalization of communication processes, including massive information and, especially, disinformation flows aimed especially, at students.

These external challenges largely determine the internal challenges that take place within the institute of higher education and largely affect the structural components of its environment. These includes: digitalization of the educational process and attempts to introduce distance learning technologies too actively, not always thoughtfully; reorientation of the educational process to an applied function; staffing of the educational process; value transformation of the student community, which requires a revision of the existing model of academic interaction.

The article analyzes the discussions that are underway about Russia's withdrawal from the Bologna system, and mainly not so much about the primitive essence of the Bologna system itself or about the optimal model of higher education, in relation to the current situation in Russia, as about its advantages lost for Russian students. An analysis of the digitalization of the educational process leading to value transformations among Russian students takes up enough space.

Current article was written by a team of authors from the Faculty of Sociology of Lomonosov Moscow State University in preparation for the 270th anniversary of Moscow University. The article is based on processed and analyzed data from the sociological study “MSU through the eyes of students of the Faculty of Sociology”, conducted by employees of the Faculty of Sociology in December 2023. A total of 679 students were surveyed as a part of the study. In addition to quantitative study an important element of the survey were students’ essays in which they described their impressions of entering and studying at Moscow State University. The purpose of the study was to analyze students’ criteria for choosing a university, to better understand their attitudes towards various aspects of the educational process itself and employment prospects, to create a holistic picture of students’ attitudes towards Moscow University, about its mission in the development of Russia and Russian science, as well as about their own life trajectories. The article analyzed students' opinions regarding the factors that determined their choice of Moscow University, what role did their relatives or friends played in this choice and what extracurricular activities are of a greatest importance to students. Separately, the article discussed issues related to the employment of graduates and expectations from their future profession.

This article is devoted to understanding the essence of The Great Game – the policy of containing the development of Russia by Anglo-Saxon elites and powers, dating back more than two centuries, by the classics of the Russian school of geopolitics. The author of the article considers the geopolitical concepts of the founders of the civilizational approach and civilizational geopolitics – N.Ya. Danilevsky, K.N. Leontyev, representatives of pan-Slavism (R.A. Fadeev, I.I. Dusinsky), military-strategic direction (D.A. Milyutina, A.E. Vandama, A.E. Snesareva), Eurasia (P.E. N. Savitsky), Y.S. Kartsova, V.P. Semenova-Tyan-Shansky, P.N. Durnovo.

The author emphasizes that the development of Russian geopolitical thought took place in the absence of a political order from the state, as well as political and economic elites to develop a geopolitical strategy for the development of Russia and the implementation of its foreign policy. Unfortunately, the author states, many ideas of the classics of the Russian school of geopolitics (in particular, in their understanding of the essence, content and dynamics of the Big Game) turned out to be unclaimed by the ruling circles and governments, among which there were many people, Anglophile orientation, promoting the ideas of allied relations with England, to the detriment of the national interests of Russia.

At the same time, the author of the article notes, the understanding of the essence and features of the development of the events of the “Great Game” by representatives of the Russian school of geopolitics was largely carried out fragmentally, often in the aspect of analyzing the centuries-old civilizational confrontation between Russia and the Romano-German cultural and historical type (Western European great culture, civilization), and not purely continentalist concepts.

Authors who comprehend the essence and significant events of the “Great Game” in their works include: representatives of Pan-Slavism – N.Ya. Danilevsky, I.I. Dusinsky, R.A. Fadeeva; representatives of the military-strategic direction – A.E. Snesarev and A.E. Vandam; Y.S. Kartsovo and P.N. Durnovo. The rest of the classics of the Russian school of geopolitics addressed this issue selectively, within the framework of other topics of interest to them.

The unusual political fate of L.A. Tikhomirov, who went from a revolutionary narodnik and member of Narodnay Volya to an apologist of the Russian autocratic monarchy, still attracts the attention of humanities scholars. His monarchist ideas, which made him one of the classics of Russian conservative thought, are also actively studied. Moreover, L. Tikhomirov in his literary and public activities in the service of the autocracy showed himself as a true conservative reformer, who developed a whole system aimed at transforming the entire system of the Russian monarchy. 

The purpose of the article is to analyze the concept of “national reforms” proposed by L. Tikhomirov for the transformation of Russian government. 

His proposals included changes in the entire system of religious policy in the spirit of state-church symphony. Comprehensive reform of the state social and class policy in the form of the creation of peculiar corporations for the new social groups that emerged in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century. A return to a proper “governing policy” of the country, where there would be no overpowering bureaucracy and party politicking, and governance would utilize a combination of bureaucratic forces with social forces. His reform projects also included proposals for transformations in the socio-economic sphere. In this matter, L. Tikhomirov was a supporter of the creation of a self-sufficient, independent from the influence of external factors economy – autarky, developing under the aegis of the monarchical state that regulates all economic processes. 

The conclusion is that despite the authorities’ rejection of his ideas and proposals in their entirety, some of them have not lost their relevance today. Among them, L. Tikhomirov’s ideas about the importance of realizing Russia’s historical place in the world as a bearer of original Orthodox culture deserve to be noted. His thoughts on the uniqueness of the Russian state-political system, which he deduced from the special geographical and political factors of our country’s existence, and hence, in his opinion, the impossibility of absolute copying of Western European legal, economic and social models.

The article analyzes two of the most important teachings in the world of religious-philosophical and socio-political thought — humanism and conservatism. It is emphasized that the doctrine of humanism, which arose in the XIV–XVI centuries. initially opposed the traditional religious and philosophical teachings of European peoples, primarily Christianity. As a religious philosophy, humanism served as a tool for the destruction of traditional societies and traditional religions and at the same time served as a methodological basis for creating an ideal society of universal justice. In the XVI–XIX centuries. The religious and philosophical attitudes of humanism have become the methodological basis of all the main religious, philosophical, ethical, political, economic, and aesthetic teachings of Western European civilization. The humanistic attitudes in these teachings took various forms — from the most radical (Marxism, anarchism) to liberal and protective (Hegelianism). However, in the XX — early XXI century. humanism has become a tool of the leading so-called "civilized" states, with which they destroy undesirable state regimes and traditional values of peoples who do not fit into the newly created "world order". Russian Russian thought tradition, in turn, was initially traditionalist and conservative, moreover, Russian religious and philosophical teachings were markedly different from those of Western European ones. The article shows the history of the birth and development of the Russian traditionalist-conservative tradition from the XI to the XXI centuries. It is concluded that in the works of modern Russian researchers at the beginning of the XXI century, the basic principles of the traditionalist-conservative methodology were formulated in the new historical conditions in which the current human community exists. The term "Russian chranitelstvo" is proposed to designate this kind of methodology in modern Russian socio-humanities. A new understanding of the traditionalist-conservative approach to the analysis of the historical development of man and society makes it possible to reflect and show the civilizational specifics of Russia, the complexity, multidimensional nature and interdependence of those social, spiritual, religious, political and economic processes that determined Russian statehood, as well as to offer an alternative, and, most importantly, a perspective view of the current state and the future of our state and people.

This article is devoted to the sociological analysis of a wide range of problems related to the phenomenon of propaganda, carried out mainly in a destructive form, in order to influence modern Russian youth.

The author agrees with the classics of socio-political thought that "propaganda permeates all aspects of human life - a mechanism for the large-scale dissemination of ideas" aimed at forming or changing perceptions of the surrounding reality among broad social groups. At the same time, he emphasizes that ideology is often the basis of propaganda, but if ideology is a coherent system of ideas and ideas, then propaganda is their active dissemination in various, sometimes quite aggressive forms, designed for a specific audience, which is most often served by young people.

The article states that after the collapse of the USSR, in the conditions of an ideological vacuum, the concept of propaganda completely disappeared from the domestic public discourse, therefore, modern youth does not have adequate ideas about its content. In confirmation, the results of a sociological survey conducted among students of the Faculty of Sociology of Moscow State University are presented, which showed that misconceptions about the essence of this phenomenon prevail among students.

The author draws a distinction between constructive and destructive propaganda, the characteristic features of which include the imposition of certain views, which in the future should lead to the goals pursued by the subjects of propaganda. These include incitement to discord, escalation of social conflicts, aggravation of social contradictions, formation of anti-humanistic beliefs, plunging people into the quagmire of social evil, confrontation with each other.

The predominant object of destructive propaganda is a youth audience with an unformed or deconstructed value system that does not have critical thinking or special analytical skills, but is subject to emotional, mental and, especially, information overload. The most important subject of destructive propaganda against Russian youth has traditionally been the ideologists of the special services of foreign states and international organizations using so-called "agents of influence" or "foreign agents" (in modern terminology).

The article examines in detail the mechanisms used by the subjects of destructive propaganda to form the views, values, and beliefs desired by them among modern Russian youth. The author concludes that the methods and models of destructive propaganda influence have undergone significant changes in the era of the formation of electronic and digital civilization. At the heart of "digital" propaganda are the characteristic features that distinguish this specific communication process, in which "new media" are increasingly being included, which are very popular with young people, especially students.

This article is devoted to the work of American scientist Eric Olin Wright. The relevance of the article is due to the changes in the system of social stratification occurring in modern societies, as well as numerous attempts by scientists to develop relevant approaches to the study of social structure. The American sociologist studied the problems of transformation of the class structure, which is reflected in a large number of his scientific publications. His vision of the system of social stratification of modern societies is original and based on a lot of factual material. Wright was interested not only in American society, he participated in international comparative studies, and also visited Russia and Ukraine to study the social structure. The article discusses the main provisions of E.O. Wright's class theory. The American sociologist consistently moves in his analysis from the categories of "class" and "exploitation" to the study of new middle classes and to the creation of his own holistic theory of contradictory class positions. The author of the article has made an attempt to trace the research logic of the famous American sociologist, as well as to show his success in carrying out an accurate and detailed revision of various class theories, and taking into account his own empirical research to build one of the most popular class theories in modern science.

In recent years, scientific discussions have intensified about the "special" way of development of Russia, the need to preserve the national identity and the harm of reckless copying and borrowing of "alien" practices in the political, economic, cultural spheres, about the need to return to traditional spiritual and moral values. The Russian business culture has an interesting history of formation: the pre-revolutionary period with a special business code and reliance on the values of Orthodoxy; the Soviet period with the values of collectivism, the priority of the common over the private, strict hierarchical order; the early post-Soviet period with non-systematic attempts to raise "western" companies from Soviet enterprises, "blind" copying Western business experience, privatization and the destruction of the "old order" and paternalistic system of relations with power; finally, the current period of development of Russian business culture, when as a result of the first rapid intensification of international activity and the strengthening of contacts with foreign organizations, and then forced break of business ties with "unfriendly" organizations a rather distinctive business culture with a number of specific features and characteristic "ambiguity" (at the same time collectivism and individualism, masculinity and femininity, task and human orientation, monoactivity and polyactivity, polysynchronous organization of working time, long-term and short-term orientation, combination of centralization and decentralization, orientation on individual achievement and status). Characteristic features of modern Russian business culture are high distance of authority and acceptance by individuals of the established hierarchical order, respect for status, dependence of business on power, negative attitude to risk and change on the part of the staff and calm perception of uncertainty by managers, active use of informal ties and reliance on interpersonal relations in business interaction, high context of culture, particularism, etc.

The article analyzes the gender aspect of the attitude to money and the choice of financial strategies of behavior. Many problems related to finance are not related to money as such, but to the attitude of individuals towards it. Despite the presence of common characteristics of the value-semantic attitude to the phenomenon of money among men and women, they perceive some phenomena of economic reality differently. There are certain developments in psychology and social sciences on this topic, but the gender characteristics of money perception are still poorly understood. The article provides a brief description of the results of foreign and domestic research in this area, as well as data from a survey of students of Lomonosov Moscow State University conducted by the author in May-June 2023. The analysis of the sociological survey data showed that girls tend to worry more about money issues and they are more often dissatisfied with their financial situation. This also causes a difference in the financial strategies of boys and girls. The student youth expresses a desire to increase their income, but the desire to maintain the available income is more typical of the male part of the student body, and the mood to increase existing savings is female. For young men, money is important as the main condition for success and self-realization. For girls, money is more a means to achieve a sense of freedom and security. These features also affect the financial practices of the respondents. For example, the practice of income-expenditure management is more typical for male students. To a lesser extent, girls have a point of view that making money requires a significant return in captivity of efforts, therefore, in order to earn a lot, you need to work more. When asked by students about choosing a financial strategy for behavior, the most popular answer was the statement «it is better to work less and earn more».

Among the factors that most strongly influence the social capital of an individual are the quantity and quality of social contacts, the availability of education and internal attitudes of an individual. A person with a large social capital is more decisive and readier for change, because he or she is confident in his or her own strength and ability to adapt to new living conditions. The article explores the issue of the relationship between the size of social capital and the location of an individual. The regions of the Russian Federation vary in the quality of life. There is also spatial and digital inequality between them, which is manifested in unequal income, as well as in different living conditions, climate, accessibility of modern technologies. Residents of each region have unequal opportunities to meet their everyday needs.

 An individual's desire to change the current order of things by moving to another region can be presented as an indicator of the amount of social capital. The more determined an individual is to change his reality, the more developed is his social capital. The assessment of desires and aspirations was carried out by analyzing the search activity of Internet users in different regions of Russia. Six leaders and six outsiders of the rating of Russian regions by quality of life were selected. Residents of the regions with the lowest quality of life are more interested in higher education than others. For them it is a real opportunity to move to another region and change their life position. Thus, there is a paradoxical situation: the worse conditions an individual life in, the better he or she develops social capital.

The article examines the peculiarities of the effect of medicalization on the individual perceptions of older people about their own health. The empirical base of the study consisted of 60 interviews with elderly residents of St. Petersburg of different generations 65+ and 75+, 30 interviews with representatives of each generation. The main method of analysis is thematic. In the course of the study, it was determined that in Russia, old age is inextricably linked with the medicalization of this condition and older people form a special group that is constantly exposed to the problem of medicalization of age. In the course of the study, we found out that discrimination against older people based on poor health in old age is present both in the framework of private communication with relatives and loved ones and is widespread in various discourses in the media and is actively supported by doctors and other medical professionals. The narratives of the interview identified an important problem, namely the connection between old age and poor health, which causes older people themselves to define their old age as a time of problems and difficulties with health. The problem of medicalization itself is extremely significant and difficult to solve at this stage. The problem of medicalization of the elderly leads to the fact that barriers for the elderly begin to develop in society and old age is perceived from the position of minimizing possible health problems. In this case, it is important to conduct further sociological research focused on analyzing the features of medicalization and the possibility of minimizing this problem in Russian society and throughout the world.

The purpose of the article is to identify the specifics of studying representatives of the precariat and its conceptualization within the framework of Russian sociology.

The article analyzes the "theoretical split" that exists in Russian sociology regarding the conceptualization of the concept of "precariat". Based on the analysis of the works of sociologists belonging to two approaches, the features characterizing the precariat as a socio-economic group and as a full-fledged social class were formulated. The authors also identified the features of the precariat shared by representatives of both approaches.

At the end of the article, the formulation of the precariat as an emerging class is put forward and two aspects are highlighted that can contribute to the integration of its representatives into modern Russian society.