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Lev Gudkov
Лев Гудков
Gudkov in 2009
Born	(1946-12-06) December 6, 1946 (age 79) Moscow, Soviet Union
Alma mater	Lomonosov Moscow State University
Scientific career
Fields	Sociology

Lev Dmitrievich Gudkov (Russian: Лев Дмитриевич Гудков; 6 December 1946)^{[citation needed]} is a Russian sociologist and one of the leading researchers of Russian public opinion. He was the director of the Levada Center from 2006 to 2021 and has since served as the center's academic supervisor.^[1] He is also the editor-in-chief of the Russian Public Opinion Herald. He is known for developing, together with Yuri Levada, the concept of “Homo Sovieticus” (“Soviet Man”).^[2] In 2025, he was designated as a “foreign agent” by the Russian Ministry of Justice. Gudkov has been described as the “Galileo Galilei” of Russian sociology.^[3][4]

Early life and education

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (October 2024)

Gudkov was born on 6 December 1946.^[where?]

He studied journalism, sociology, and philology at the Lomonosov Moscow State University and graduated in 1971. From 1970 to 1973, Gudkov worked for the department of methodology of researching social processes at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In the following four years until 1977, Gudkov was an employee of the department of philosophy and sociology at the Institute for Scientific Information on Social Studies, which belongs to the Russian Academy of Sciences. He continued his post-graduate studies at the Institute for Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences until 1977. His dissertation concerned Max Weber's concept of the methodology of social sciences and the German tradition of the understanding of sociology.

Career

From 1977 to 1984, Gudkov was a senior researcher of the Sociology Department at the Russian State Library.Between 1984 and 1986, he worked as one of the leading scientific employees at the Sociology Department of the Design Research Institute. Gudkov was the senior scientific employee of the All-Union book chamber from 1986 until 1988. In 1988, he started working for VCIOM, and became one of the leading scientists of the research center soon thereafter. Three years later, in 1991, Gudkov was made the head of the theory and later the sociopolitical department of research at VCIOM.

Gudkov participated in all research projects at VCIOM during the period when the center was administered by Yuri Levada, such as;

• “The Soviet person from 1989 to 2003”
• “Bureaucracy”
• “Russian nationalism”
• “Results of a year: The society from 1989 to 2003”

In 1995, Gudkov completed his PhD.

Personal life

As of 2023, Gudkov lives in Russia. In an interview with Der Spiegel he said, “I'm already old; it's too late for me to move away.”^[6] When asked what effect the developments have on him personally, he said, “I would call it depression, an occupational hazard.”^[6]

Publications

Gudkov is the author of several books and articles considering the theory and methodology of sociology, sociology of literature, ethno-national relations, and social problems of the post-Soviet society, including:

• Lev Gudkov. Metafora i ratsionalnost' v perspektive socialnoi epistemologii. Moscow, 1994 (Metaphor and rationality as the problem for social epistemology).
• Lev Gudkov, Boris Dubin. Intelligentsia. Moscow-Kharkov, 1995
• Lev Gudkov, Boris Dubin. Literatura kak socialnyi institut. Moscow (Literature as a social institute) Moscow, NLO, 1995
• Gudkov, L. and Levinson, A. Attitudes Toward Jews in the Soviet Union: Public Opinion in Ten Republics. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1993
• Gudkov, L. and Levinson, A. Attitudes toward Jews in the Commonwealth of Independent States. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1994
• Prostoi sovetskii chelovek: Opyt socialnogo portreta na rubezhe 1990 godov. Moskva, 1993 (in co-auth. with Yu. Lewada, B. Dubin, A. Levinson, and N. Zorkaja): (German translation: Die Sowjetmenschen: Soziogramm eines Zerfalls, 1989-1991. B., Argon, 1992.)
• Gudkov L, Dubin B. Obtschestvennyi dogovor v Rossii (Social contract in Russia). Sociological survey. Moscow, 2001.,
• “Russia—A Society in Transition? ”. Telos 120 (Summer 2001). New York: Telos Press.
• La Russia postcomunista. Da Gorbaciov a Putin. Luiss University Press, 2005, 181 p.
• Gudkov L., Dubin B., Lewada Yu. Problema elity v sovremennoi Rossii (Problem of Elites in contemporary Russia), Moscow, 2007

References

External links

• The Accidental Russiphile — an interview of Lev Gudkov to the Novye Izvestia (In English) August 2007
• Lev Gudkov at Pipl Profile — bibliography and facts about Lev Gudkov
• Lev Gudkov at Eurozine — Author's page at Eurozine
• Presidential Election: The Russian attitudes and the opportunities to make a choice by Lev Gudkov and Boris Dubin