Characteristics of Becoming Sociology in Russia

Russian sociological thought XIX - early XX centuries was closely associated with the ideas of Russian philosophy and literature. The becoming of sociology in Russia was initiated in the framework of social journalism. The first sociological articles were published in the periodical press as a "Notes of the Fatherland", "Business", "Knowledge”. One of the founders of Russian sociology N.I. Kareev highly appreciated journalistic contribution to the development of sociology, noting that the "Notes of the Fatherland" was the first in the Russian sub-faculty, which has participated in the creation of generation of sociologists.

In the West the institutionalization of sociology, sociological deployment of higher education took place earlier than in Russia. Recognition of sociology at the state level in Russia was only after the February Revolution of 1917 largely due to P.A. Sorokin. The first sub-faculty of sociology was established in 1919 at the general education faculty of 2-nd Petrograd State University. Only in 1916 was an attempt to create a "Russian Sociological Society name M.M. Kovalevsky”.

The Russian government prevented the development of sociology. The desire to prove with the help of positivism, Marxism or another theories led to unreasonable politicization of Russian sociology. On this occasion P.A. Sorokin said: "In Russia the main 'scientific' arguments for sociology were: prison, exile and hard labour. Disinterested search for truth and the presentation of the results of this search were impossible”. Therefore, the hallmark of Russian sociology was its oppositional political preconception. Probably for this reason Russian sociology was prohibited in 1929-1958 and officially named as pseudoscience.