Nearing his 90th Anniversary. Not so Cheerful Memories. Yakov Gilinsky Answers Boris Doktorov’s Questions. Interview prepared by B.Z. Doktorov

Abstract

Strictly speaking this is an anniversary interview with Yakov I. Gilinsky, a renowned Russian sociologist and criminologist who dedicated many years of his life to researching various forms of deviant behavior. But in reality this is me having a discussion with a colleague and a friend who is approaching an important milestone in his life – his 90th birthday. With this being far from our first discussion about his life experience and accomplishments, as ten years ago he spoke about himself in a book titled “Me in the World, the World in me”, and bearing in mind that there are multiple videos on YouTube where he was interviewed, I thought it would be appropriate to avoid going over every stage of Mr. Gilinsky’s life and instead suggested we talk about events that transpired within the previous 20 years, leaving the more distant past in the background. Thanks to this key component of the conversation readers can get some insight into the trials and tribulations that his ancestors went through, into his path towards becoming a scientist and his accomplishments in the field, as well as into the happy and most productive years of his life during the perestroika. Readers learn about Mr. Gilinsky’s frequent communication with the world’s most renowned criminologists, his participation in major scientific conferences, his business trips and travels with his wife – who was always by his side – when they visited many countries in Europe and located on other continents. But aside from that we discuss the dynamics of important global and national macro-political processes, negative tendencies in the development of social sciences in Russia, overwhelming hardship in his own personal life, all of which made our conversation not all that cheerful. That being said, overall Yakov Gilinsky made it in life, his achievements will be relevant for many years to come.

Keywords

• sociology
• criminology
• deviantology
• deviant behavior
• crime
• postmodern criminology