Unity of Applied Sociology and Social Philosophy
Authors: Sheregi Frants , Doktorov Boris 
Published: December 2024

Sheregi’s account on his own scientific research is an unusual tale with multiple layers to it, with its origins lying in events that transpired half a century ago and the tale itself culminating in reports about current scientific research. The events mentioned in the account are not assigned any specific dates, but the era is given away by major events that happened during any given time and even more so by the subject matter of whatever studies are presented. You have your Komsomol construction projects, including the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), then you have a series of studies that were supposed to gauge what the youth thought about decisions made at Komsomol conventions. Then you have opinions held by various groups of the youth and the general population in regards to Mikhail Gorbachev’s social and economic innovations. As time goes on election surveys and attempts to predict who will win an election become a relevant topic. Then you’re presented with a comprehensive look into research on issues related to youth, college students, teachers, next to that you have studies that look into various forms of deviant behavior exhibited by young Russians.

This isn’t simply a list of topics for research: in his work Sheregi delves into the very essence of his approach towards dealing with sociological subject matter. For example, when analyzing the ethnic composition of the workforce involved in the construction of the BAM dispatched from different Soviet republics, he noticed that the vast majority of those who were coming in were ethnic Russians, which prompted him to conclude that the country would soon fall apart. Content analysis of corresponding plans of publishing houses for the years 1975–1985 refute official statements made by the government alleging that inflation was nonexistent in the country.
One thing that is unique compared to autobiographies written by other Russian sociologists would be Sheregi describing his own career path. It basically boils down to him actively avoiding government service. The new forms of labor relations, as well as new approaches towards coordinating scientific research that came about during the time of the perestroika immediately caught his attention, they reminded him of what he learned in the early years of his own life living in the Hungarian part of Western Ukraine, which for a long time harbored skills and traditions inherent to a capitalist economy. Also Sheregi elaborated on what motivated him to establish his own (private) research center, on top of inventing a particular way of organizing scientific research that turned out to be much more effective compared to what was practiced in state-curated sociology departments. One initiative of his center that stands out in particular is the publication and distribution of literature on sociology, which is something that has been actively ongoing and almost exclusively done charitably: at the moment this “small library” consists of about 250 books. In recent years various circumstances of his life have prompted F. Sheregi to make a comeback and once again pursue theoretical sociology, and just as before his efforts involve inventive ways to formulate problems and a unique outlook on their genesis and resolution.