On Growth Two

42. Zoya Yankova

Professor Zoya Yankova was born in 1921 in the USSR. In 1947 she was graduated in history from Moscow State University. Since then she has worked in various sections of the Soviet Academy of Sciences on social problems concerning daily life of the Soviet citizen. At present she leads a team of researchers at the Institute of Concrete Social Studies. She has published some sixty books and special studies, among which are Changing Structures and Societal Roles and The Twentieth Century and the Problem of the Family. This conversation took place at her office in the Moscow Institute of Concrete Social Studies.

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If sociology in the Soviet Union means the study of social laws which determine human behavior, is this what your institute is essentially studying?

We not only concern ourselves with these activities, but we also study people's requirements, general interests, and attitudes. Our institute studies problems of the sociology of labor, the structure of Soviet society, problems of work and leisure, the sociology of the family, and public opinion.

Is it true that Soviet sociology looks upon the behavior of man as a social system which is interwoven like a tapestry?

This question has two aspects. We study the internal structure of the family. By internal structure we mean the nature of the relations within the family between the spouses, between the spouses and their children, and between the children. We also study the relationship of the family with other average families, with collective society in a broad sense, for instance, that of families with their neighbors. In addition, we study the family in relation to the system of other social groups.

How is your work related to the state? How do you teach children to become integrated into society away from their families?

We family sociologists believe that the optimum system of education consists of an organic combination of training within the family with social training. Under the Soviet government an educational system has been created which consists of three elements: family, school, and society. The family - this is clear - means training received within the family. Training at school is also obvious. Children go to school or to other organizations for children, for instance, a boarding school or a kindergarten. But in addition we have formed social circles which also exercise their own influence. In our country, a town is divided into districts, and every district is divided into microdistricts. Each of these microdistricts contains about 12,000 inhabitants and is governed by an administrative board, or zjek.

This board looks after the exploitation of dwellings, for instance. In the zjek, coordinating councils are formed from the community. The councils contain on the one hand the occupants of dwellings which come under the zjek. On the other hand there are teachers from the schools in the microdistrict, the headmaster of the schools, and the heads of organizations which operate within the territory of the zjek. If the children are not with their families or at school, but are playing outside, the coordinating council assists in keeping them occupied. The council organizes clubs in the office buildings of the zjek, arranges for excursions with the children, and

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organizes nurseries. So, our children are trained by their families, their schools, and by these broad circles formed from the community, which together operate within the territory of the zjek in which the family lives. This system - school, family, and the community - is, in our opinion, the optimum one.

And what about the state?

This is an overall education which is indirectly organized by the state. It corresponds to the training within the family and what we might call the social training within the zjek. The state education is one of the elements of the entire educational system.

Does a zjek have sociologists?

We are doing our best to attract them. In any case, there is a teacher, who receives a fixed salary. He works in the office building of the zjek. His main function is looking after the children of the zjek when they are not at school or with their families, in other words, during their leisure time.

And what about psychologists?

In principle, yes, but not all zjeks have their own professional psychologists as yet. In any case, each circle has its sociological service, that is to say, continuous investigations are made regarding the requirements of the population of the zjek.

To whom can the children go with their problems?

When they have some kind of problem within their family they can either go to the teacher in school or to the teacher in the zjek. A new form of education has been created here. Furthermore, within the territory of the zjek, departments of children of various ages are formed. The departments are divided into older students, secondary students, and younger students. At the head of these departments are the older students, usually members of the Konsomol. The departments form an educational unit in which all the children who live within the territory of the zjek concerned can, first of all, spend their leisure time. Here they come to do their homework. If they cannot manage it themselves, explanations are given by older students. They go on excursions together, which in one way or another answers the children's requirements when the family or the school cannot take care of such needs.

We have conducted an investigation of two zjeks in the district in which our institute is located. My group, which studies family problems, has

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conducted a special sociological investigation in order to find out in what way life in a zjek is organized, how the educational activities are set up, what the requirements of the people are, and how they wish to organize their leisure time, within the territory of the zjek as well as its boundaries. There are investigations to find out what kind of provisions they prefer to meet their daily requirements, what satisfies or dissatisfies them in the present provisions, and what new aspects of daily life have been created by them.

I might say something concerning the results of this survey in our district - the Czeryomsk district of Moscow. This district is divided into twenty-eight zjeks, all situated within this one district. Our concrete sociological investigation has shown that a large percentage of the population, for instance, prefers to spend its leisure time within its own districts. People living in a large town get tired of making regular trips to the centers. If we do not take into account the theaters, such as the Bolshoi, which are situated in other districts or in the centers, or the central libraries, to which special trips have to be made to certain districts, certain smaller forms of daily life remain, and it would be desirable to develop these, particularly in the microdistricts. For instance, people have expressed the wish that roundtable meetings be organized within the zjeks. These are held when some problem arises which is of interest to the population, for instance, the education of the children in the zjek when they do not have to go to school or during the time when they do their homework. The population has expressed the wish that at regular times - once a month or every six weeks - a roundtable meeting be organized in the club of the zjek, a meeting to which specialists and teachers are invited. Here, are discussed problems concerning the way in which the children can best be occupied during their leisure time so that their cultural level is increased and they do not endlessly roam the streets. Another problem of interest to people, as appears from our sociological investigation, is that many people would like to attend round-table meetings in order to discuss the problems of the organization of the lives of old-age pensioners. In a large city such as Moscow, and in other cities in the world, there are large numbers of retired people who cannot adapt themselves during the first period to their new way of life, and the population would like to listen to special lectures on this subject. Instead of reading specialized literature on this subject, people prefer to come to a round-table meeting in order to discuss how young people can help the old-age pensioners in their zjek and how they can render certain services, for instance, through the Timur brigades which have been created in many places. These brigades were organized for the first time during the war. Now they are being organized again all over Moscow. In these brigades children

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take over the responsibility of helping elderly people, particularly old-age pensioners. People therefore wish to discuss at these meetings what can be done to enable the pensioners to have a pleasant and quiet time within the territory of the zjek, to find out what they would like to see, to what lectures they wish to listen, and so on. And people want to discuss how the daily requirements of the population can best be met. Everyone wants to organize his district as well as possible and to direct the efforts of all the zjek inhabitants in such a way that, for instance, flowers are planted in the area of the zjek, that there will be plenty of green, and that there will be possibilities for listening to music.

Are you a sociologist yourself?

No, originally I was a historian. So far, we have not had any specialized sociological training at our universities. I completed my studies of history and acquired my knowledge of sociology by self-study and by following specialized courses later on.

Is your staff made up of male and female students?

Yes. My group consists of students and young collaborators, boys and girls, and we also have students available for doing our practical work - economists, statisticians, and students in history and philosophy.

How many people are in your study group?

There are nine.

Does this system of zjeks also exist in the rest of the country?

Yes, in agriculture - the sovkhozes and kolkhozes - are also divided into separate ‘settlements’ when the villages are sufficiently large. The villages are then divided into parts which can, in turn, organize the entire educational life within their - how shall I say it? Here they are not called zjeks, but they are also territorial population units. In small settlements, such an administrative division does not exist. When a large settlement is involved, it is divided into administrative sections.

What does the institute do in regard to studying the lives of working women in the Soviet Union? I understand that thirty percent of the working population in your country are women.

No, the figure is fifty-one percent. My group, which occupies itself with family problems, naturally also studies the problem of working wives, for the fact of a woman working in the social production process is seen by us as

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very important in the change which occurs within the family. For this greatly influences the structure of the family, the structural relations within the family, the authority of the wife seen through the eyes of her husband, and her authority toward the children. We are seeing the rise of new roles which are played within the family.

Judging by this high figure of fifty-one percent, I would be inclined to conclude that the children in your country are educated more by strangers than by their own families. Is it likely that shifts will occur in their affections, and how does all this influence the essential relationship between parents and children?

In the literature, mainly that coming from abroad, one often comes across the point of view that the emotional ties in the family are destroyed when both the husband and wife spend a large part of their time in the social production process or when they participate in the political life, and that the children are left to themselves. However, our sociological investigations have shown a completely different picture. The relations appear to be far more complicated. Our investigations have shown that the time that is spent together by parents and children is now much shorter, but affection and the meaning of the family relations become much profounder. Not only are the emotional ties strengthened, but the content of these relations generally means a change in the understanding between parents and children. Why is this? Indeed, the husband and wife are away from home during seven or even eight hours a day during ordinary working-days when they spend their time working in the social production process. During this time the children are either at school or in a boarding school, or else they are with other members of the family. They often go out to play within the area of the zjek. Often the parents only come home in the evening to eat together with their children. But against this, during that part of the day which they spend together - and this has been shown by investigation and is not a speculative conclusion - they spend the hours of the evening together and exchange news with one other. The parents tell what happened at their work, while the children tell what happened at school. The parents try, as it were, to check the children's lessons. They exchange opinions concerning the books they have read or the films they have seen. This is one side of the picture. Consequently, the relations become much more intense, although on working days they naturally have little time in which to see one other. An increasing number of families are spending Saturdays and Sundays - we have two days a week off - together with the children. They go out together, go to the theaters or museums, and spend their holidays together. So when

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we look at the year as a whole, we arrive at the conclusion that the amount of time spent together does not actually become shorter, that mutual relations become more intense, and that the emotional side of family relations grows stronger.

In addition, working wives enjoy more authority over their children. The child can now get an answer from its mother to many social questions. Finally, a man's wealth is determined by his wealth in social contacts. Seventy-two percent of the investigated families now spend weekends and holidays with their children.

Do you think that Soviet families will become smaller and smaller by the year 2000? And what will be the future picture of the family in Russia?

You know, the family is a very special unit. On the one hand, it is governed by our legislation, norms, and traditions, the same as other social units. On the other hand, the family carries a much heavier weight of those relations that are based on emotions, feelings of love, respect, or mutual understanding. This specific characteristic of the family makes it in my view possible to arrive at the opinion that, as society as a whole and man himself become increasingly perfect and as man's personality is better formed, the importance of these spontaneous relations, which are based on the emotions, respect, and love, will grow more and more, whereas the importance of the norms and traditions, which used to regulate all the functions and relations along very strict lines, will decrease. The growth of civilization will mean the growth of man's emotional relations, mutual understanding, and mutual support. The realization of our common goals will also acquire a much greater importance. I believe that even today we can observe a reduction in the size of families. This has been taking place for a considerable time. At the moment the average family here consists of three and one-half persons. Perhaps the size of the family may slightly increase in the future, for I believe that the need for children, for unity with one's nearest relations, and for love will become increasingly important every year. For, as our personal requirements grow, the size of the family will grow slightly. The optimum size of a small group is, after all, five to seven persons. For the time being, my opinion is not based on calculations but on the belief that as man's emotional civilization increases, he will feel a growing need for solid emotional family ties.

But in the year 2000 the world will probably count 7,000 million inhabitants. How are we to supply all these people with food and work?

I don't believe that the size of the family will increase considerably. One

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part of our republic has too small a population for its production process - that is why I believe if we could solve the population problem within the frontiers of our country, there would be no danger for the time being of the population here becoming too large. Moreover, I don't believe that families will grow greatly, for owing to the improvement in living conditions and the increase in material prosperity, the number of families that contain not two, but three generations will rise. This means that many grandfathers and grandmothers will be living next door to or in the immediate vicinity of their children and grandchildren whenever conditions permit them to do so. Thus, the size of the family as such will increase. If there should be slightly more than one child to each statistical family, this will not cause the general size of the family to increase very much, but it will, in my opinion, result in the fact that the emotional level of the family will be increased. We have some republics in which the families contain five to six children each. Here, the number of children will probably slightly decrease. These are the republics such as Zerbeidzjan, and, generally speaking, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. But in parts of the USSR, such as the Baltic regions, or in central cities such as Moscow and Leningrad, there is a large percentage of families that have only one child. In these republics and cities the number of children will rise slightly in contrast, and in this way the average of the country as a whole will be slightly leveled off so that the overall size will not increase to an important extent.

Some of our women who have read novels dealing with this matter, including novels from the West, have asked us sociologists the following question: Will the fact that wives are taking jobs on a large scale within the social production process and in political life negatively influence relationships within the family? Our investigations have shown that in families in which the wife is working in the social production process, occupying herself with interesting, meaningful work, the emotional climate is better. The husband's attitude toward his wife is far better. He helps more often with the housekeeping or in educating the children, he allows more often for her opinions and, in addition, the wife in such families plays a new role. Not only, as before the revolution, does she serve the family, but she now acts as an organizer of the family's leisure time, makes important social decisions, determines the future of the children, and so on. The result of doing meaningful work outside the home has not, therefore, had any negative influence on the internal structure of the family. On the contrary, it makes for a genuinely collective family. All this is proved by our sociological material. And that is not all. It has also been shown that many scientists and journalists confuse two concepts: family equality and the role played by

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the father. Consequently, a number of them think that all problems within the family will be solved when the husband and wife play completely equal roles and perform the same functions. The husband washes one napkin and the wife another. The husband clears up one half of the room, the wife the other. This is only to explain what I mean. Swedish sociologists have even jokingly put the problem as follows: ‘Is it possible for the father to be the mother?’ They believe that if the father can be the mother, this will mean complete equality. We have a different opinion: that equality should take the form in which the father fulfills the functions of the father and generally remains the father whereas the mother remains the mother, but everything is arranged between them on a basis of sensible agreements, mutual assistance, and support.