A very significant distinguishing feature of modernity is the formation of a general Western superideology, which claims to establish control over the entire ideosphere of mankind. The beginning of the formation of this global ideology can be considered the end of the Cold War, which allowed the West to defeat the USSR. This victory was won not so much due to some superiority in the level of social organization of Western countries, but due to a more perfect mechanism for applying soft power (using one's ideas through propaganda tools). In fact, the confrontation between the West and the communist bloc led by the USSR was a typical competition between two different "soft forces". The most important success of the West in the ideological struggle against the USSR was a victory in its own "rear", by winning the sympathy of its intelligentsia, which made a turn -began to view the USSR not as a defender of the working masses, but as a totalitarian state encroaching on freedom and democracy. The "soft power" of the West, backed by economic successes and the power of the propaganda machine, ensured a much more effective promotion of Western ideas around the world, starting in the 1960s, compared to the Soviet mechanisms of forming its own global "attractiveness".
The Soviet system of values, which until a certain point in time was shared by a large part of society, was eventually discredited and replaced by the Western one. This happened not so much due to some kind of gross manipulation but due to the hidden work of the mechanisms of "soft power" that managed to change the mind first of the Soviet elite and then of the Soviet intelligentsia. Those actors, who promoted the Western system of values, struck selected targets of the topics essential to a Soviet man, gradually transforming the attitudinal matrices of the widest sections of the population. The first target of such a transformation (after the elite) was the intelligentsia. Through the so-called "opinion leaders", messages on the excesses of the Soviet system and the advantages of Western social organization were methodically hammered into their minds. The ideas of disarmament, transition to a market economy and liquidation of kolkhozes (collective farms), which encompassed the Soviet intelligentsia with the help of the "soft power" of the West, when implemented, did not lead to economic prosperity and the establishment of friendly relations with neighboring countries. In this study, based on an analysis of materials from the Ogoniok magazine, the most popular in the circles of the intelligentsia, we have tried to answer the following question: With the help of what mechanisms it became possible to change the attitude of Soviet citizens to certain basic institutions of Soviet society?
The article analyzes the potential of Russia's “soft power” and its main content components, such as education, ideology and language influence. The author's point is that despite the presence of an impressive potential of soft power, Russia begins to lose positions not only in the far abroad, but also in the post-Soviet space. It is concluded that the reasons for the failures in many areas (including foreign policy) is the state of Russian management personnel. Research and practice clearly demonstrate that the effectiveness of management is directly predetermined by the quality of management decision-making, which in Russia is at a depressingly low level since the culture of thinking in our country is in decline. It is proved that the management of our country consists of people who, firstly, are not professionals, and secondly, are not united by a common integrative idea. This is the source of many failures in the application of “soft power” even in the CIS.
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