This study examines a distinctive episode in the intellectual history of post-Soviet Russian religious thought: the reception of the Daodejing, a foundational text of Daoist philosophy, in the 2010 Russian edition edited by Vladimir Vyacheslavovich Maliavin. Against the background of the post-Soviet resurgence of Orthodox theological reflection, the study investigates how a non-Christian sacred text was recontextualized through Russian Orthodox intellectual and spiritual categories. Drawing on Julia Kristeva’s theory of intertextuality and Gérard Genette’s framework of trans-textual relations as methodological tools for intellectual history, the analysis identifies three intertextual mechanisms that structure this reception: excerpt, conversion, and strategic omission. Excerpt foregrounds Daoist elements that resonate with Orthodox vocabulary, as in the rendering of the ‘constant Way’ as predvechny Put (pre-eternal Path). Conversion re-semanticizes selected concepts to activate Orthodox associations: De becomes Sovershenstvo (perfection), while wuwei is rendered as delo nedeyaniya (deed of non-action). Strategic omission simplifies, omits, or leaves unelaborated elements that might complicate an Orthodox-oriented reading, including aspects of the critique of ritual. The study demonstrates that Maliavin’s reading creates a space of interreligious resonance without establishing doctrinal equivalence between Daoism and Orthodoxy. By illuminating how a non-Christian sacred text can be selectively recontextualized within another religious-intellectual tradition, the study contributes to scholarship on post-Soviet Russian religious thought and cross-cultural religious reception.
The American economist of Hungarian origin, Nobel Laureate John Harsanyi, was acknowledged for his pioneering research findings in non-cooperative game theory. He published some papers on other professional topics before his groundbreaking game-theoretical articles; however, these works did not have a significant impact. This paper aims to demonstrate that Harsanyi’s (1966) social status theory is based on a perspective distinct from the mainstream of his time and involves several statements, relationships, and explanations that were not published until many years later and remain valid today. The theory is based on individuals’ positional aspirations and the notion that social status is determined by the social groups in which they operate. The latter reflects that an individual’s activities performed for group members are judged by them, and this assessment establishes how respectfully they behave towards the individual. The theory focuses on the interdependence of individuals and explains the mechanism of status relations through a game-theoretical bargaining model. This theory remains valid today, as many professional, social, and consumerist groups, both formal and informal, operate for specific purposes. Striving for a high(er) social status has become more relevant as a high(er) relative rank makes access to additional benefits easier, and its advantages can be allocated to other fields because of networked economies, societies, and communication.
Since the breakdown of the USSR, attempts have been made in post-Soviet Russia, and now the Russian Federation, to come to terms with its Soviet past. These have, over the past decades, become increasingly politicized and streamlined. Coming to terms with one's own past is rarely an easy task, as examples from all over the world can testify. The combination of a colonial empire (with qualifications) and the 70-year attempt to build a socialist state (also with qualifications) in one country, however, poses particular challenges. This paper attempts to sketch the situation researchers currently face and makes a few suggestions, aiming at both a fair and sober analysis.
This article presents a study of Mariology in the thought of two women from the Orthodox Christian dissent in the late USSR: Zoia Krakhmal'nikova and Tat'iana Goricheva. Examining their trajectories toward Christianity under state socialism and their underground publications, it investigates how they reappropriated the figure of the Mother of God to envision new models of women's roles and, ultimately, to articulate a broader response to what they perceived as Russia's national impasse. Both women turned to the Bogoroditsa in their activism, drawing on Russia's tradition of Marian devotion, yet their engagements with Mariology followed distinct paths. Krakhmal'nikova's approach, deeply rooted in textual tradition and inspired by the figure of Mother Maria Skobtsova, centered on the idea of "comprehensive motherhood." Goricheva's, by contrast, was more personal and experimental: for her, the Mother of God became both a source of personal transformation as a woman and a universal model of ideal womanhood in the late Soviet Union. The article concludes by tracing later developments in their respective Mariologies as these evolved or were reappropriated in the post-Soviet context.
