Humanities Research in Russia: Status of the Art

Abstract

Achievements, trends, and problems in the development of social sciences after 1991 are considered, with a focus on the humanities—history, philology, and other areas. The author determines the distinctive features of this sphere of basic science and emphasizes the growing priority of domestic topics without compromising study of global subject matter and the structure of scientific institutions. A list of innovative interdisciplinary topics for future plans and projects is proposed. Special attention is paid to the RFH‒RFBR grant policy, which has made it possible to overcome crisis phenomena that emerged after 1991 and to correct the scientific agenda in favor of interdisciplinary, practice-oriented studies and institutionally, in favor of university science. The author fixes crisis and negative phenomena in modern social science and the humanities, especially those related to their institutional support, norms of scientific ethics, and responsibility. Measures to improve the situation are proposed, including with regard to the unjustified decrease in the share of grant support for scientists within the Russian Academy of Sciences, the center of basic humanities research in Russia.