Category Archives: Uncategorized

Cult of Personality два: электрическая бугиля

Today’s resources put a lot of emphasis of the effect of media both on the people and the government. The article about Shnurov paints him as a chaotic neutral activist must like the writers of World War 2 era literature. … Continue reading

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Under the influence of rock’n’roll

The excerpts from Yurchak’s book discuss how Western music, particularly jazz and rock and roll, had become increasingly popular amongst Soviet youth in the 1950s and onward. This went hand in hand with the increasing fascination over Western culture, in … Continue reading

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“Good” and “Bad” Soviet Literature

In our readings for today, we were given two examples of writing from the Soviet period: An excerpt from Time Forward, a production novel by Valentin Kataev; and “The Adventures of a Monkey”, a short story by Mikhail Zoshchenko. Time Forward … Continue reading

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A Brief History of Music from Peter I to Nicholas II

Hello! Since we just watched The Rite of Spring, I figured it might be appropriate to have some works of music from the other Cultural Revolutions we’ve studied, as well as an additional piece composed roughly contemporaneously to compare with The … Continue reading

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Third times the charm?

Previously in class we discussed a rise in the intelligentsia of the Slavophiles and Westernizers. In the Saunders reading for today we are presented with the intelligentsia again but a much more radical one. The previous radical intelligentsia, the slavophiles … Continue reading

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The Rise of the Intelligentsia

In the wake of the Decembrist Revolt in 1825, those individuals with educated backgrounds were left questioning their place in society. The Saunders reading calls them the “post-Decembrist” and points at the “social displacement” as a catalyst for the emergence … Continue reading

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The Peterhof

The Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg. The Cathedral houses the remains of all the Russian tsars and tsarinas from Peter I to Nicholas II (whose remains were delivered in 1998), minus Peter II … Continue reading

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A true believer?

During Stalin’s time as head of the Soviet Union he embarked upon an enterprise to reshape a large part of soviet work life. This reshaping was based around the education of communists for the purpose of “mastering technology” and replacing … Continue reading

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The Spell of Stalinism

Discussion Question: To what extent did prisoners see themselves as participants in the Revolution? The final scene of the reading by Ekaterina Olitskaia involves the prisoners singing the patriotic song “Wide is my Country”, despite the fact that the country … Continue reading

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“Things Fall Apart; The Center Cannot Hold”: The Patchwork Nature of Russia in the 19th Century

From around 1820 to the end of the 19th century, Russia started a second phase of expansions, annexing territories in Central Asia until Russia controlled a major chunk of the area. However, all was not well in Russia or its … Continue reading

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