Download or read book Soviet Soft Power in Poland written by Patryk Babiracki and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concentrating on the formative years of the Cold War from 1943 to 1957, Patryk Babiracki reveals little-known Soviet efforts to build a postwar East European empire through culture. Babiracki argues that the Soviets involved in foreign cultural outreach tried to use "soft power" in order to galvanize broad support for the postwar order in the emerging Soviet bloc. Populated with compelling characters ranging from artists, writers, journalists, and scientists to party and government functionaries, this work illuminates the behind-the-scenes schemes of the Stalinist international propaganda machine. Based on exhaustive research in Russian and Polish archives, Babiracki's study is the first in any language to examine the two-way interactions between Soviet and Polish propagandists and to evaluate their attempts at cultural cooperation. Babiracki shows that the Stalinist system ultimately undermined Soviet efforts to secure popular legitimacy abroad through persuasive propaganda. He also highlights the limitations and contradictions of Soviet international cultural outreach, which help explain why the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe crumbled so easily after less than a half-century of existence.

Download or read book Life Is Elsewhere written by Anne Lounsbery and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Life Is Elsewhere, Anne Lounsbery shows how nineteenth-century Russian literature created an imaginary place called "the provinces"—a place at once homogeneous, static, anonymous, and symbolically opposed to Petersburg and Moscow. Lounsbery looks at a wide range of texts, both canonical and lesser-known, in order to explain why the trope has exercised such enduring power, and what role it plays in the larger symbolic geography that structures Russian literature's representation of the nation's space. Using a comparative approach, she brings to light fundamental questions that have long gone unasked: how to understand, for instance, the weakness of literary regionalism in a country as large as Russia? Why the insistence, from Herzen through Chekhov and beyond, that all Russian towns look the same? In a literary tradition that constantly compared itself to a western European standard, Lounsbery argues, the problem of provinciality always implied difficult questions about the symbolic geography of the nation as a whole. This constant awareness of a far-off European model helps explain why the provinces, in all their supposed drabness and predictability, are a topic of such fascination for Russian writers—why these anonymous places are in effect so important and meaningful, notwithstanding the culture's nearly unremitting emphasis on their nullity and meaninglessness.

Download or read book On Russian Soil written by Mieka Erley and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-15 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blending close readings of literature, films, and other artworks with analysis of texts of political philosophy, science, and social theory, Mieka Erley offers an interdisciplinary perspective on attitudes to soil in Russia and the Soviet Union from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. As Erley shows in On Russian Soil, the earth has inspired utopian dreams, reactionary ideologies, social theories, and durable myths about the relationship between nation and nature. In this period of modernization, soil was understood as the collective body of the nation, sitting at the crux of all economic and social problems. The "soil question" was debated by nationalists and radical materialists, Slavophiles and Westernizers, poets and scientists. On Russian Soil highlights a selection of key myths at the intersection of cultural and material history that show how soil served as a natural, national, and symbolic resource from Fedor Dostoevsky's native soil movement to Nikita Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign at the Soviet periphery in the 1960s. Providing an original contribution to ecocriticism and environmental humanities, Erley expands our understanding of how cultural processes write nature and how nature inspires culture. On Russian Soil brings Slavic studies into new conversations in the environmental humanities, generating fresh interpretations of literary and cultural movements and innovative readings of major writers.

Download or read book Interpreting Emotions in Russia and Eastern Europe written by Mark D. Steinberg and published by Northern Illinois University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing together important new work by an international and interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, Interpreting Emotions in Russia and Eastern Europe approaches emotions as a phenomenon complexly intertwined with society, culture, politics, and history. The stories in this book involve sensitive aristocrats, committed revolutionaries, aggressive nationalists, political leaders, female victims of sexual violence, perpetrators and victims of Stalinist terror, citizens in the former Yugoslavia in the wake of war, workers in post-socialist Romania, Balkan Romani "Gypsy" musicians, and veterans of the Afghan and Chechen wars. These essays explore emotional perception and expression not only as private, inward feeling but also as a way of interpreting and judging a troubled world, acting in it, and perhaps changing it. Essential reading for those interested in new perspectives on the study of Russia and Eastern Europe, past and present, this volume will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and humanities who are seeking new and deeper approaches to understanding human experience, thought, and feeling.

Download or read book The American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies for 1994 written by Patt Leonard and published by M.E. Sharpe. This book was released on 1997-05-31 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text provides a source of citations to North American scholarships relating specifically to the area of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It indexes fields of scholarship such as the humanities, arts, technology and life sciences and all kinds of scholarship such as PhDs.

Download or read book Disability in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union written by Michael Rasell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are over thirty million disabled people in Russia and Eastern Europe, yet their voices are rarely heard in scholarly studies of life and well-being in the region. This book brings together new research by internationally recognised local and non-native scholars in a range of countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It covers, historically, the origins of legacies that continue to affect well-being and policy in the region today. Discussions of disability in culture and society highlight the broader conditions in which disabled people must build their identities and well-being whilst in-depth biographical profiles outline what living with disabilities in the region is like. Chapters on policy interventions, including international influences, examine recent reforms and the difficulties of implementing inclusive, community-based care. The book will be of interest both to regional specialists, for whom well-being, equality and human rights are crucial concerns, and to scholars of disability and social policy internationally.

Download or read book Yugoslavia written by Dennison Rusinow and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2008-12-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defying Stalin and his brand of communism, Tito's Yugoslavia developed a unique kind of socialism that combined one-party rule with an economic system of workers' self-management that aroused intense interest throughout the cold war. As a member of the American Universities Field Staff, Dennison Rusinow became a long-time resident and frequent visitor to Yugoslavia during these transformative times. This volume presents the most significant of his refreshingly immediate and well-informed reports on life in Yugoslavia and the country's major political developments. Rusinow's essays explore such diverse topics as the first American-style supermarket and its challenge to traditional outdoor markets; the lessons of a Serbian holiday feast (Slava); the resignation of Vice President Aleksandar Rankovic; the Croatian political purge of 1971; ethnic divides and the rise of nationalism throughout the country; the tension between conservative and liberal forces in Yugoslav politics; and the student revolt at Belgrade University in 1968. Rusinow's final report from 1991 examines the serious challenges to the nation's future even as it collapsed.

Download or read book The World beyond the West written by Mariusz Kałczewiak and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-03-11 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No matter how one defines its extent and borders, Eastern Europe has long been understood as a liminal space, one whose undeniable cultural and historical continuities with Western Europe have been belied by its status as an “Other” in the Western imagination. Across illuminating and provocative case studies, The World beyond the West focuses on the region’s ambiguous relationship to historical processes of colonialism and Orientalism. In exploring encounters with distant lands through politics, travel, migration, and exchange, it places Eastern Europe at the heart of its analysis while decentering the most familiar narratives and recasting the history of the region.

Download or read book Gender and War in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe written by Nancy M. Wingfield and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-09 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores the role of gender on both the home and fighting fronts in eastern Europe during World Wars I and II. By using gender as a category of analysis, the authors seek to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the subjective nature of wartime experience and its representations. While historians have long equated the fighting front with the masculine and the home front with the feminine, the contributors challenge these dichotomies, demonstrating that they are based on culturally embedded assumptions about heroism and sacrifice. Major themes include the ways in which wartime experiences challenge traditional gender roles; postwar restoration of gender order; collaboration and resistance; the body; and memory and commemoration.

Download or read book Russian Society and the Orthodox Church written by Zoe Knox and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-06-02 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russian Society and the Orthodox Church examines the Russian Orthodox Church's social and political role and its relationship to civil society in post-Communist Russia. It shows how Orthodox prelates, clergy and laity have shaped Russians' attitudes towards religious and ideological pluralism, which in turn have influenced the ways in which Russians understand civil society, including those of its features - pluralism and freedom of conscience - that are essential for a functioning democracy. It shows how the official church, including the Moscow Patriarchate, has impeded the development of civil society, while on the other hand the non-official church, including nonconformist clergy and lay activists, has promoted concepts central to civil society.

Download or read book Russia in the Era of NEP written by Sheila Fitzpatrick and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1991-09-22 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: " . . . a comprehensive look at an enigmatic era . . . " —Choice "This provocative collection of essays certainly takes some of the polish off Soviet socialism's golden age." —Journal of Interdisciplinary History "The authors and editors of this splendid volume deserve great praise. Their work moves the field of Soviet history several large steps forward." —Slavic Review Lenin's New Economic Policy of the 1920s, although a relatively free and open potential alternative to Soviet communism, was also a time of extreme tension, as Russian society and culture were rocked by the forces of resistance and change. These essays examine the social and cultural dimensions of NEP in urban and rural Russia in the years before Stalin and rapid industrialization.

Download or read book Constructing South East Europe written by Dimitar Bechev and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regional cooperation has become a distinctive feature of the Balkans, an area known for its turbulent politics. Exploring the origins and dynamics of this change, this book highlights the transformative power of the EU and other international actors.

Download or read book Antosha Levitasha written by Serge Vladimir Gregory and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Antosha and Levitasha is the first book in English devoted to the complex relationship between Anton Chekhov and Isaac Levitan, one of Russia's greatest landscape painters. Outside of Russia, a general lack of familiarity with Levitan's life and art has undermined an appreciation of the cultural significance of his friendship with Chekhov. Serge Gregory's highly readable study attempts to fill that gap for Western readers by examining a friendship that may have vacillated between periods of affection and animosity, but always reflected an unwavering shared aesthetic. In Russia, where entire rooms of galleries in Moscow and St. Petersburg are devoted to Levitan's paintings, the lives of the famous writer and the equally famous artist have long been tied together. To those familiar with the work of both men, it is evident that Levitan's "landscapes of mood" have much in common with the way that Chekhov's characters perceive nature as a reflection of their emotional state. Gregory focuses on three overarching themes: the artists' similar approach to depicting landscape; their romantic and social rivalries within their circle of friends, which included many of Moscow's leading cultural figures; and the influence of Levitan's personal life on Chekhov's stories and plays. He emphasizes the facts of Levitan's life and his place in late nineteenth-century Russian art, particularly with respect to his dual loyalties to the competing Itinerant and World of Art movements. Accessible and engaging, Antosha and Levitasha will appeal to scholars and general readers interested in art history, late nineteenth-century Russian culture, and biographies.

Download or read book New Narratives of Russian and East European Art written by Galina Mardilovich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-20 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together thirteen scholars to introduce the newest and most cutting-edge research in the field of Russian and East European art history. Reconsidering canonical figures, re-examining prevalent debates, and revisiting aesthetic developments, the book challenges accepted histories and entrenched dichotomies in art and architecture from the nineteenth century to the present. In doing so, it resituates the artistic production of this region within broader socio-cultural currents and analyzes its interconnections with international discourse, competing political and aesthetic ideologies, and continuous discussions over identity.

Download or read book Rampart Nations written by Dr. Liliya Berezhnaya and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2019-03-11 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “bulwark” or antemurale myth—whereby a region is imagined as a defensive barrier against a dangerous Other—has been a persistent strand in the development of Eastern European nationalisms. While historical studies of the topic have typically focused on clashes and overlaps between sociocultural and religious formations, Rampart Nations delves deeper to uncover the mutual transfers and multi-sided national and interconfessional conflicts that helped to spread bulwark myths through Europe’s eastern periphery over several centuries. Ranging from art history to theology to political science, this volume offers new ways of understanding the political, social, and religious forces that continue to shape identity in Eastern Europe.

Download or read book Historical Concepts Between Eastern and Western Europe written by Manfred Hildermeier and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2007 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a decade after the breakdown of the Soviet Empire and the reunification of Europe, historiographies and historical concepts still stood very much apart. This book talks about how there were no common efforts for joint interpretations and no attempts to reach a common understanding of central notions and concepts.

Download or read book A Research Guide to Southeastern Europe written by Zachariah H. Claybaugh and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-03-15 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Research Guide to Southeastern Europe: Print and Electronic Sources is designed to aid those interested in exploring this dynamic region in locating the best resources available, whether looking for archival collections in Albania or dissertations and theses in Greece. It provides readers up-to-date information on a variety of research collections from over twenty countries and in over a dozen languages. The focus of the volume is on the modern era, primarily the 18th century to the present, the subject areas of the humanities and social sciences, though researchers from outside of the subject and temporal scope of the work will find information of use, and the countries of Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova (including the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic), Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey. This volume is distinctive in that it is the only bibliographic resource that offers such extensive subject, linguistic, and regional treatment. This work is composed of five chapters and three appendices. The chapters are focused on research materials, giving readers access points for critical materials on Southeastern Europe both in print and digital formats from libraries, archives, journals, and databases. The appendices focus on library classification, educational programming geared to language instruction, and transliteration of non-Latin scripts.