Introduction. Taking the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army of 1941—1945 as an example the authors identify features of the personnel selection in the army during military operations, conditions, requirements, criteria, qualities necessary for promotion to higher command positions. The aim of the study is to identify the mechanism of personnel selection in the armed forces during military operations. Methods. The authors use the following general scientific methods: modeling, structural and functional, systemic and comparative analysis; movement from the abstract to the (...) concrete and from the concrete to the abstract. The authors make use of P.A. Sorokin’s theory of vertical mobility. For further research of the problem, the methodology of synergetics and counterfactual modeling of the past can be involved. Scientific novelty of the research. The following existing concepts of the Red Army officers’ dynamics in 1941—1945 are generalized: positive, negative, moral and psychological selection. Their basic concepts and shortcomings are revealed. An initiativeintellectual concept of the officers’ selection in war is formulated on the basis of P. Sorokin’s theory of vertical mobility. The author identify specific conditions, requirements, and criteria influencing the selection of commanders during the war. Results. A clear opposition to the conditions, requirements and selection criteria in peacetime and wartime is given. The following specific criteria for selecting officers of the Red Army during the war are highlighted: the presence of combat experience; non-conformism; the ability to take personal responsibility; analyze and correct errors; nonstandard thinking. Military action creates specific conditions that give rise to the selection criteria for commanders. Conclusions. The selection criteria for personnel in peacetime and wartime armies differ sharply. At the beginning of battle actions, stereotyped commanders prevailed. Such people are replaced by commanders who are able to go beyond the established canons, orders of the chiefs. The work presents a diagram showing the stages of selecting officers in a war: military actions — conditions — selection criteria - requirements — new qualities of a person adapted to combat operations. This leads to the success of military operations, and, consequently, to the promotion of officers in rank and position. (shrink)

Introduction The article is focused on theoretical and methodological analysis of a number of social dynamics models that appeared on the basis of non-classical science. They are “challenge — response”, self-organization, a cycle of phase transitions “birth — life — death”, and “zone model”. The author reveals heuristic potential of each model, its strengths and weaknesses in the methodological aspect. The aim of the study is to consider the models of social dynamics that appeared on the basis of non-classical science (...) in social cognition, identify their methodological foundations; compare these theoretical constructs with each other, and to improve these structures in theoretical and methodological aspects. Methods The following general scientific methods were used in the study: modeling, structural-functional, systemic and comparative analysis. The scientific novelty of the study. The author traces evolution of how the models under consideration have been forming in the framework of social cognition, and points out the epistemological foundations of their occurrence. In the “challenge-response” model, the author identifies its basic ideas and classifies the sources that generate historical “challenges” and the entities that form “answers” to them. The author specifies that the model of self-organization appeared long before the 20th century, but only thanks to the systematic approach and synergetics it acquires the necessary theoretical level. The author also points out positive aspects and limitations of the self-organization model in relation to social cognition. The author specifies the full structure of the “zone model” in social cognition, which includes the following elements: the center, the middle part, the intermediate space, and the periphery. Modifications of this model are shown in the framework of the world-system approach and other social theories. Results. The study demonstrates that in relation to each model, empirical material was first accumulated, and only then it was theoretically generalized on the basis of non-classical science. It is shown that the main merit of the world-system analysis is creating a “zone” model of social dynamics. The author recognizes that the zone model to the maximum extent includes other theoretical constructions: “challenge - answer”, self-organization, the cycle of phase transitions “birth - life - death”. It is assumed that in the future, theoretical approaches in the humanities are more likely to include new methodological tools. Conclusions. The author reveals continuity of intellectual instruments among various non-classical models of social dynamics, shows separate stages of the models evolution. It is stated that in the framework of the non-classical methodology of social cognition, there is a place for the approaches generated by classical science (for example, the assumption of linearity as a way of developing society). (shrink)