M.Yu. Kondratyev’s Social Psychological Phenomenon of “Closedness”: From a “Closed Group” to a “Closed Society”

The paper traces the logic of research into the phenomenon of “closedness” from a small group to a “closed society”. The works of Mikhail Kondratyev dedicated to closed groups are reviewed in the context of research on orphanages and as crucial in defining the psychological content of the very phenomenon of “social closedness”. As an example of how M. Kondratyev’s key ideas on closed groups may be applied, the paper presents an empirical research on the “closed society”. It is argued that all basic social psychological patterns discovered by M. Kondratyev in small closed groups are completely relevant to the ones found in the big closed group — the “closed society”