Boris Andreevich Grushin (russian: Бори́с Андре́евич Гру́шин; 2 August 1929, in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
– 18 September 2007, in Moscow) was a well-known
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
philosopher,
sociologist and
historical and
sociological
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
scientist
A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences.
In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...
. He is generally seen as the pioneer of public opinion polling in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
more than thirty years before its breakup. Prominent American novelist
Olga Grushin
Olga Grushin (born June 1971) is a Russian-American novelist.
Biography
Born in Moscow to the family of Boris Grushin, a prominent Soviet sociologist, Olga Grushin spent most of her childhood in Prague, Czechoslovakia. is his daughter.
Life and scientific activity
Grushin graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of the
Lomonosov Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
in 1952 with a dissertation on ''The Logical and Historical Problem in Marx's Capital''. In 1957 he completed his postgraduate study in the same place, with a thesis on ''Receptions and Ways of Reproducing the Thoughts of Historical Development''.
At the same time in 1952 Grushin was one of the founders of the Moscow Logic Circle. Other members who entered the circle included
Aleksandr Zinovyev
Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev ( Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Зино́вьев; October 29, 1922 – May 10, 2006) was a Soviet philosopher, writer, sociologist, and journalist.
Coming from a poor peasant fami ...
,
Merab Mamardashvili
Merab Mamardashvili ( ka, მერაბ მამარდაშვილი, russian: Мера́б Константи́нович Мамардашви́ли; September 15, 1930 – November 25, 1990) was a Georgian philosopher.
Biography
He ...
and Georgy Schedrovitsky. It was later called the Moscow Methodological Circle (ММК).
[The Moscow Methodological Circle]
. The Schedrovitsky Institute for Development. Retrieved 2009-12-20.
In 1960 he founded the Institute of Public Opinion at the newspaper ''
Komsomolskaya Pravda'' where problems within the Soviet Union were brought to daylight and analyzed through public opinion surveys for the very first time.
In 1967 Grushin received a
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
in
philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union for his work concerning the ''Problem of Methodology while Researching Public Opinion''. He decided to leave the newspaper work afterwards and devoted himself to several different projects.
Between 1962–1965 and 1977–1981 Grushin was an employee of the journal ''
Problems of Peace and Socialism
''Problems of Peace and Socialism'' (September 1958–June 1990, Russian: ''Проблемы мира и социализма)'', also commonly known as ''World Marxist Review'' (WMR), the name of its English-language edition, was a monthly theore ...
'' in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
. In the years of 1967–1968 and 1982–1989 he worked at the
Faculty of Journalism of the Lomonosov
Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
.
In the two years from 1988 to 1990 he was one of the organizers and directors of the
All-Soviet Center for Public Opinion Studies (VCIOM), which gave him the chance to expand his work on public opinion surveys.
Meanwhile, in 1989, Grushin created the Service of studying of public opinion Vox Populi the first detached and completely private opinion center in the Soviet Union.
Between all his projects Grushin worked at several academic centers such as the Institute of Sociological Researches and the
Central Economic Mathematical Institute
The Central Economic Mathematical Institute (russian: Центральный экономико-математический институт (ЦЭМИ)) of the Russian Academy of Sciences is an economic research institute located in Moscow. It fo ...
. He taught at different universities in Russia and the US and in 1993 worked as one of the advisers of president
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
.
In 2003 Grushin received the award of the Union of Russian Journalists for "journalistic skills" in his book ''Four Lives of Russia''.
Grushin died on September 18, 2007, in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
Long after his death Boris Grushin will be remembered as one of the founding fathers of Russian
sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...
who firmly worked towards the recognition for sociology as a scientific discipline. Some of his pupils and followers include J. Kapeljush, V. Sazonov, T. Dridze, A. Zhavoronkov, A. Vozmitel, V.Korobejnikov, E. Andrjushchenko, V. Tokarovsky, E. Avraamova, L. Byzov and many more.
References
External links
*http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/europe/24grushin.html
*https://web.archive.org/web/20080621063401/http://bd.english.fom.ru/report/cat/az/N/number_05_01/egur050106
*http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/boris-grushin-397539.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grushin, Boris
1929 births
2007 deaths
Moscow State University alumni
Russian sociologists
20th-century Russian philosophers