ANTH0056: Anthropological Approaches to Eurasian Socialist and Post-Socialist Societies (19/20)

A quick combined Google search for “бытие определяет сознание” and “благоустройство” confirms this hunch, yielding over 11,000 results featuring the two phrases together (when Googled on its own, the Marx quote brings up over half a million Russian-language results, versus only 20,000 English ones): “Being determines consciousness. The urban environment nurtures a cultured way of being, teaches a conscious attitude towards the space of the [inner] courtyard, street and district in which you live, reminds you of the responsibility to maintain good order in the space around you”, reads the first paragraph of a story in a local newspaper about the blagoustroistvo of 35 courtyards in the Moscow Oblast city of Serpukhov.[1] “This is an excellent example of the way in which being determines consciousness” says Tatyana Vitusheva, the Chief State Administrative-Technical Inspector of the Moscow Oblast, with reference to the newly-renovated central square in the village of Medvezhki Lakes. “Seeing the blagoustroistvo around them”, she continues, “people begin to take more responsibility for cleanliness and order”.[2] “The famous economist Karl Marx said that being determines consciousness”, says the Deputy Minister for Construction of the Russian Federation Andrey Chibis in a press conference devoted to funding received by the Republic of Tatarstan from the Comfortable Urban Environment (KGS) programme jointly held with Tatarstan’s President Rustam Minikhanov. “In dirt and disorder”, be continues, “there is no hope for people to develop their talent”.[3] “Five things you can’t do without in the office, or how to increase productivity. Being determines consciousness”, reads a headline in Delovoe Obozrenye (Business Review), “the first journal for business and about business in [the city of] Ulyanovsk”.[4] And so on, and so on.