What Does It Mean to Be a Russian Scientist Today? (Based on Discussions and Empirical Research)

The article addresses the problem of identifying Russian scholars in the social sciences and humanities as a professional group in the context of recent geopolitical challenges, as well as the transformation of science as a social institution and a form of knowledge. The article is based on the results of an analysis of focus group studies of Russian scholars conducted in 2023, as well as discussions on the specifics of Russian science and its place in global science from the 1990s to the 2020s. It is shown that the issue of the place of Russian scholars in the global scientific community, as well as the relationship between the universal theoretical and methodological foundations of social and humanitarian research (borrowed from the West) and the specific problems faced by Russian scholars, has been a subject of discussion over the past three decades. For various segments of the Russian scientific community — labelled as «localists» and «cosmopolitans» (A. V. Yurevich et al.), «natives» and «provincials» (M. M. Sokolov et al.), etc. — self‑referencing in relation to the global scientific community and a focus on finding ways to integrate into global science are equally characteristic. At the same time, understanding the features of the Russian scientific community, as well as Russian social and humanitarian science as a whole, is more of a subject for research by historians of science rather than a topic of everyday reflection among professionals. They see their mission as researching and solving the problems of Russian society, viewing them as local manifestations of common problems, rather than as studying the specifics of Russian society and developing an appropriate methodology for this purpose. A new, yet poorly reflected‑upon challenge for Russian scholars appears to be the concepts of «epistemic justice» and the «peripheral turn» promoted by the Western scientific community. These concepts involve declaring a rejection of the dominance of Western epistemology in modern science and embracing the worldviews and cognitive strategies of peripheral, marginal groups and cultures of the Global South. However, in practice, they represent a blurring of the epistemological and institutional principles of science as a specific form of cognition.