Index/Dos'e na Tsenzuru. Issue # 29

The new issue bearing the title of "Co-Participants" begins with "Social Atomization" by a well known sociologist Boris Dubinin in the "Vocal Solo" section. The author analyses sociological data from the Yuri Levada Center on how the society perceives NGOs in general and human rights groups in particular, and whether the Russian society is capable of consolidating without government sponsorship and supervision.

The first publication in the main section is "A Trap for Non-Formal Organizations" by Boris Sklyarenko with the analysis of why the 1990-s wave of emerging NGOs eventually failed to retain the positions won by non-formal democracy in its fight against reactionary communist and administrative bureaucracy.

Sergey Korolev’s "Seductive Discipline" reviews and analyses some new disciplinary methods practiced by the government that are virtually immune to resistance from NGOs.

In their article "COSMOS CIVILIS..." Danyil Goretsky and Andrey Yurov analyze the reality of today’s existence of civil groups and NGOs.

Irina Mardar’s publication "Civil Society in Virtual Space" poses a question of whether there is such a thing as civil society on the web and what the correlation is between the tendencies of NGO development in real life and their "footprint" in virtual space.

In his article "Who Needs NGOs" Boris Timoshenko discusses the possible future of NGO’s in Russia.

The next section; "And Nowhere to Turn to", presents "Public Self-Organizations" by Kirill Podrabinek about who and why needs or does not need NGOs in today’s Russia; "Singing for the Void" by Dmitry Florin about disillusionment in how effective civil society can be against the government machinery, and "The Splendors and Miseries of the “Nashis”" by the same author on prospects of the existence of NGOs created by the government; "The Rank-and-File Man and the Grassroots» by Oleg Yanitsky about NGOs’ gains and losses since 1990-s; "Donkeys and Elephants Driving One Coach" by Boris Panteleyev about the so called democratic authoritarianism and the mentality of the crowd.

The next section bears the title of "Citizens for Civil Society". It starts with a piece by a well known writer Reveka Frumkina about the phenomenon of civilian volunteers in this country and in the West.

Tatyana Milacheva’s "NGOs between the Government and the Society" discusses the position of NGOs in today’s society.

Human rights activist Stefaniya Kulayeva in her article "Does School Need Human Rights Related Projects?" conveys her view of the rights of schoolchildren.

"Outreach" by Asya Akselrod is a report of her experience working with prostitutes in Saint Petersburg as human rights volunteer.

In her second article "Two Porches of the Chieftain’s Palace" Irina Mardar tells the reader about development problems of a new human rights project, "Museum to the Memory of 1962" in Novocherkassk.

Journalist and Secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia Pavel Gutiontov in his publication "Flowers for Ghandi" offers a self-critical view on civil life of today’s Russia.

Section "A Hymn to Lonely Fighters" contains "1993", a story by writer Oleg Pavlov; a piece by Rostislav Gorchakov "Friends and Enemies of the Russian Bath Connoisseurs" ironically depicting his participation in a "self-motivated organization"; and "Russia’s Glory" - a discourse on citizen mentality by Aleksey Rafiyev.

Section "Limits of Non-Understanding" presents Aleksandr Zimbovsky’s story of operations and criminal prosecution of "Portos" - an independent organization advocating alternative pedagogical methods.

The "History" section contains a selection of materials by Polish politicians and journalists (including Tadeus Mazovecki, Waclaw Radzivinovic and others) on how the Solidarity movement emerged and developed in Poland.