The Russian family: to be or not to be? (An overview of American research)

Abstract

While Russia is today undergoing profound change, the family seems to be an "experimental field" to achieve economic, legal, social and spiritual stability of the society.What lessons have been learned from the previous decades, which were spent to create the family of "a new type"? How deep is contemporary family damaged by the social diseases? Are there any paths for the Russian family to emerge from its today's crisis condition? — these are the main questions to be answered.Tracing the history of the Soviet and Russian family from the first years after the October Revolution up to "perestroika" and transition to a market economy, the American scholars accentuate the three following meanings of the family:1.   the family as a small group, which accumulates the social and economic processes being under way in the society;2.   the family as a social institution, which carry out the control over sexual behavior and is responsible for the demographical processes in the society;3.   the family as a social community, which mediates the tics between individuals and society and transforms some values and moral orientations on micro-level.The works of the American researchers of the 1970-s and 1980-s had played a distinguished role of an early diagnostics of those processes, which later developed in the Russian family and threatened the performing of the family's social functions. The American scholars used the system approach to define the problems of the family and were the first to work out the criteria of effectiveness of the family's social role. They also have made forecasts concerning the parallel and alternative forms of marriage-family behavior, which are still actual.One can mark three main directions in the American familistic science, dealing with research of the Russian family:1.   The first one is represented by so called "new lefts". They pay special attention to "experiments" in sphere of the forms of property and stand for the creation of an economic adaptive model of the family under conditions of contemporary Russia;2.   "Neofeminist" direction. Its supporters, on the contrary, strive for the radical revision of the theory of "women's oppression" and for equal distribution of power and roles in the society. They also call upon to give a woman the right to choose the area of activity.3.   The "reflexive" direction. According to the supporters of this one the clue to decide all the problems of the family is improvement of its "life-style" as well as the strengthening of its socialization role and conversion family into self-sufficient value.Each of these three directions is distinguished by original theoretical and methodological base. At the same time some points do not seem indisputable. The answers to many questions differ from those in traditional Russian (Soviet) familistic science. There is however a hope for fruitful mutual dialogue between Russian and American scholars on the most acute problems of the family and women's social status.