G. Shchedrovitsy’s System-Thinking-Activiti Methodology as social engineering and anthropotechnics of the «new people» and «new worlds» of the «russian world» ideology

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this article is to examine the essence of G. Shchedrovitsky (SMAM) as social engineering and anthropotechnics of the “new people” and “new worlds” of the “Russian World” ideology, and the deconceptualization of the mythologems of the aggressor country’s ideology.  Scientific novelty. This article provides the first in-depth analysis of the circumstances surrounding the formation of H. Shchedrovitsky’s worldview, his development of the System-Mind-Activity Methodology (SMAM), its main structural components, and its influence on the formation of the aggressor country’s ideology; it also critically examines and deconceptualizes the ideologemes of the “Russian World”. It is revealed that the System-Mind-Activity methodology was created to seize power by forming a new methodology that would shape the “new man” the methodologist. The latter is interpreted as a holistic subject who embodies the unity of thought and action in his activities, destined to be a creator of history and a transformer of the world. In essence, the SMAM is the foundation of the aggressor country’s concept of geopolitical expansion. Conclusions. Based on a critical analysis of a wide range of historical sources, this study reveals that G. Shchedrovitsky’s development as a person was influenced by his natural abilities, family background, the earlier Soviet experience of social engineering in the 1920s–1940s, the world of the Strugatsky brothers’ realistic science fiction, and the worldview of the 1960s generation. The study traces and confirms the existence of an ideological and thematic connection between the creators of the “new man” of the 1920s–1940s, who survived Stalin’s repressions, and the “creative Marxists” of the post-Stalin period, in particular with the Moscow Methodological Circle, whose ideological inspiration was G. Shchedrovitsky. It is argued that the theory and practice of “constructing the Soviet man” in the 1920s–1940s became the empirical foundation for G. Shchedrovitsky’s development of the technology of “new thinking”, which he equated with the creation of the “new man”. It has been established that the systemic-cognitive-activity methodology is based on H. Shchedrovitsky’s creative development of K. Marx’s dialectical logic. It was developed as a tool for intervening in and managing the historical process, and implemented in the concept of the aggressor country’s geopolitical expansion.