Ideology in Russia: Past and Present

Abstract

The article is devoted to the general approach and main accents of A.A. Zinoviev in understanding ideology, which is a cross-cutting theme of his sociological and literary work and is specially studied in the monographic works Communism as Reality, The West, The Ideology of the Party of the Future, The Understanding Factor, in journalistic articles On Marxism, Straw for the Drowners, etc. The author shows that Zinoviev reveals the specifics and essence of ideology in its correla­tion with science and opposition to it. Unlike science, which is aimed at knowing reality as it is objectively, in fact, ideology teaches people to look at the world and themselves subjectively, biasedly, its social function is to organize public consciousness, control people through bringing them to some established stan­dard. Ideology should be considered in unity with people, organizations, means that are intended for its production and distribution and together with it consti­tute the ideosphere of society. The ideosphere can include a variety of ideologi­cal differences and, nevertheless, remain a common and integral structural com­ponent of modern society, just as, for example, a state policy can be unified in the presence of different parties.