Lev Shlosberg
11 February 2025
Source: Telegram
18+ THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED BY LEV MARKOVICH SHLOSBERG, A FOREIGN AGENT, OR CONCERNS THE ACTIVITIES OF LEV MARKOVICH SHLOSBERG, A FOREIGN AGENT [This capitalised text is published by Lev Shlosberg as a requirement imposed by Russia’s foreign agent legislation and is reproduced here for information purposes only – to illustrate the repressive nature of Russian law – RiR]
The Ministry of Injustice has added Lev Dmitrievich Gudkov, one of Russia’s leading sociologists, to the so-called ‘register of foreign agents.’ The officials’ decision is based on the desire to bring about maximum damage to an independent researcher studying public opinion. Lev Gudkov not only organizes and conducts his own research but also comments on it. These comments apparently rubbed someone the wrong way. And they took their revenge against Lev Gudkov. As usual, from the shadows, taking advantage of the situation of lawless and absolute impunity.
Lev Dmitrievich Gudkov, a graduate of the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University, is a sociologist and a leading researcher at the Levada Centre since its foundation. He has been a professor of sociology at the Higher School of Economics, editor–in-chief of the periodical Bulletin of Public Opinion, lecturer in cultural sociology at the Institute of European Cultures at the Russian State State University for the Humanities, and in political sociology at the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences.
Gudkov participated in all the main VTSIOM research projects during the period when this centre was headed by Yuri Levada: ‘Soviet Man, 1989-2003’, ‘Bureaucracy’, ‘Russian Nationalism’, ‘Results of the Year: Society 1989-2003’, etc. In 1988-1991, he was a leading researcher at the All–Russian Centre for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM). In 1991-2003, he was head of the Theoretical Department, and later the Department of Socio–Political Research at VTsIOM.
He left VTsIOM together with the team of Yuri Levada. Since 2003, he has worked in a similar position at the Levada Analytical Centre (Levada Centre). From December 2006 to May 2021, he worked as director of the Levada Centre, and since June 2021 he has been the scientific director of the Centre.
Lev Gudkov is the author and co-author (along with Yuri Levada, Aleksei Levinson, Boris Dubin, Vittorio Strada, Viktor Zaslavsky, Natalia Zorka) of the books: The ‘Culture of Everyday Life’ in the Latest Sociological Theories, Metaphor and Rationality as Problems of Social Epistemology, Literature as a social institution, Intelligentsia: Notes on Literary and Political illusions, Literature and Society: an Introduction to the Sociology of Literature, Negative Identity, The Problem of the ‘Elite’ in today’s Russia, Post-Soviet man and Civil Society, Abortive Modernization, Youth of Russia, Recurrent Totalitarianism, Illusions of Choice: 30 Years of Post-Soviet Russia, and others. These works form an invaluable contribution to Russian sociology: thousands of academics and practitioners have grown up on these books.
However, today the Russian state has no need for wisdom or knowledge. Moreover, there exists a danger. ‘We don’t need smart people. We need the faithful,’ the Strugatsky brothers wrote in It’s Hard to Be God. In the era of triumphant mediocrity, objective science is seen by the bureaucracy as a threat to those in power, and the ‘faithful’ take revenge on the smart so that no one can understand that being smart is natural and proper. This is done to crush people’s desire for reason and freedom.
The knowledge and wisdom of Lev Dmitrievich Gudkov was in demand before, is in demand today, and will be in demand tomorrow by the greatest minds in Russia. The persecutors of Lev Gudkov have added to their already sin-ridden karma an action that no God will be able to forgive. But these people, even if they wear a crucifix around their necks, have nothing to do with faith, science, or reason itself. One could simply pity them (not for the first or the hundredth time), but the feeling of pity is prevented by a desire for justice. To be agents of injustice is to be destroyers of the human values that have been developed over the centuries. Injustice is shameful. Besides that, it is scandalous.
Time will cope with the dust of our gloomy and unjust era. In history, everything will assume its place – by word and deed. On 3 July 2024, we spoke with Lev Dmitrievich in the program People of Peace. The broadcast was called ‘Parting with illusions’ (https://youtube.com/live/tIpyufgURH0). You can view it again: if it’s inconvenient on YouTube, there is a record on VKontakte (https://vk.com/video-32105930_456240016) and in Odnoklassniki (https://ok.ru/video/7726105365162). Enlightenment will always find a way to grow from among the harsh stones of any historical time.
Translated by Dominic Reed
