Naive Wisdom of Tatyana Zaslavskaya

Abstract

This is an extensive memorial obituary for prominent Russian sociologist Tatyana Ivanovna Zaslavskaya (1927–2013). The brief chronicle of her academic career and the list of Zaslavasky's major scientific works are supplemented with some existential reconstructions of the major events in her life, of which Zaslavskaya also paid great attention to in her autobiographical memories. A brief chronicle of her scientific career includes her studies at the Moscow State University, her work at the Institute of Economics, the Russian Academy of Science, and the Novosibirsk Academgorodok, her active part in Perestroika as the first head of the All-Union Center for Public Opinion Research, and finally, her work as the president of the Interdisciplinary Center for Social and Economic Sciences (Intertcentre) near the end of her life. Zaslavsky always stressed the importance of her senior teachers, G.G. Kotov, A.V. Sanina, V.G. Venzher, and I.A. Kronrod, with love and respect. Much of the attention in her autobiographical reflections is occupied in the studies of the interactions between the villages and towns of Russia and the USSR. Zaslavasky also considered ideological socio-political conflicts which provoked the Soviet party leadership around several scientific projects Zaslavskaya was involved in. The obituary emphasizes that Zaslavskaya was characterized as a scientist motivated by social activism and by her desire to contribute to the improvement of the research of Soviet and Russian society. Additionally, Zaslavskaya possessed modesty, humility, curiosity and naivety, the inherent qualities of a true scientist worthy as one of the classic examples of academic intelligence in the world.