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Anchors, Habitus, And Practices Besieged By War: Women And Gender In The Blockade Of Leningrad, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

As war challenges survival and social relations, how do actors alter and adapt dispositions and practices? To explore this question, I investigate women's perceptions of normal relations, practices, status, and gendered self in an intense situation of wartime survival, the Blockade of Leningrad (1941–1944), an 872-day ordeal that demographically feminized the city. Using Blockade diaries for data on everyday life, perceptions, and practices, I show how women's gendered skills and habits of breadseeking and caregiving (finding scarce resources and providing aid) were key to survival and helped elevate their sense of status. Yet this did not entice rethinking “gender.” To …

Citizen Havel And The Construction Of Czech Presidentiality, Timothy Barney

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Václav Havel had two eventful terms as the first democratic president of the Czech Republic. The documentary Citizen Havel is one rhetorical artifact that captures the way a new democracy and its attendant executive power is constructed consciously in real time in a political culture where such a tradition has largely not existed. Culled from ten years of fly-on-the-wall-style footage, Citizen Havel captures the tensions between the constitutional expectations of the Czech presidency and Havel's own extraconstitutional interpretations of executive power. Ultimately, this essay argues that Citizen Havel is one influential representation of how Czech “presidentiality” during the post-communist transition …

War, Fields, And Competing Economies Of Death. Lessons From The Blockade Of Leningrad, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

War can create a massive amount of death while also straining the capacity of states and civilians to cope with disposing of the dead. This paper argues that such moments exacerbate contradictions between three fields and “economies” (logics of interaction and exchange) – a political, market, and moral economy of disposal – in which order and control, commodification and opportunism, and dignity are core logics. Each logic and economy, operating in its own field, provides an interpretation of the dead that emerges from field logics of normal organization, status, and meanings of subjects (as legal entities, partners in negotiation, and …

From ‘Sots-Romanticism’ To Rom-Com: The Strugatskys’ Monday Begins On Saturday As A Film Comedy, Yvonne Howell

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

The Strugatskii brothers’ novella Ponedel’nik nachinaetsia v subbotu (Monday Begins on Saturday; 1965) imagines bright young scientists working at the cutting edge between quantum physics and folktale sorcery in a setting that was undeniably contemporary and local. I argue that the story can be best understood as ‘soc(ialist) romanticism’ – an aesthetic mode that celebrates the possibilities for individual questing and agency in late Soviet socialism. Konstantin Bromberg’s 1982 adaptation of the Strugatskiis’s story abandons both the romanticism and complexity of the novella, but, by incorporating elements of the‘youth film’, it represents a different kind of Soviet rom-com.

Overcoming Postcommunist Labour Weakness: Attritional And Enabling Effects Of Mncs In Central And Eastern Europe, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee, Vera Trappmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

Based on micro-level analysis of the developments in the steel sector in Poland, Romania and Slovakia, this paper examines the effects of multinational corporations (MNCs) on labour unions in Central and Eastern Europe. It makes a three-fold argument. First, it shows that union weakness can be attributed to unions’ strategies during the restructuring and privatization processes of postcommunist transition. Consequently, tactics used for union regeneration in the West are less applicable to CEE. Rather, the overcoming of postcommunist legacy is linked to the power of transnational capital. Through attritional and enabling effects, ownership by MNCs forces the unions to focus …

Political Culture Of Post-Soviet Economic Change: The Case Of Financial-Industrial Groups, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Beneath the seeming chaos and conflict of Russia's post-socialist experience were structured dynamics of contentious reconstruction of fields (collective relations of power and culture institutionalized as authority and definitions of "normal"). This essay argues that the Russian experience was driven in no small part by contention over remaking core meanings and authority of field relations, practices, and boundaries. Contention over field reconstruction emerged as three groups' interests and taken-for granted meanings of normality collided: those of Soviet-era managers, a new class of financial entrepreneurs and elites, and state elites and officials. Post-socialism has been a story of competing elite culture …

A Personal Look At America's Foremost Communist, Laura Browder

English Faculty Publications

There is nothing quite like the experience of being in the beautiful, sunlit special collections reading room on the top floor of Bird Library—especially when one is about to dive into 86 meticulously cataloged boxes of family history. I was there to do research for a documentary about my grandfather, Earl Browder, as well as a joint biography of him and my grandmother, Raissa Berkmann Browder—a task that was almost overwhelming to contemplate.

After all, my grandfather Earl Browder was the head of the American Communist Party (CPUSA) during its most influential period—the Great Depression. He coined the slogan “Communism …

Revisions In Red, Laura Browder

English Faculty Publications

In this article the author reflects on her experience of researching the history of her grandfather Earl Browder, a former leader in the U.S. Communist Party, and exploring his significance both in historical and personal terms. She comments on her research regarding his status as a spy of the Soviet Union, share her views on her father's reluctance to discuss his past, and notes Browder's campaigns for President of the U.S. in the 1930s.

Foundation In The Field: The Ford Foundation New Delhi Office And The Construction Of Development Knowledge, 1951-1970, Nicole Sackley

History Faculty Publications

In recent years, historians have uncovered a good deal about the domestic production and circulation of development knowledge between US philanthropies and US universities. They have begun to trace as well the role of US foundations in the formation of transnational epistemic communities of experts that cohered around, and defined, developments such as population control, food production and economic planning initiatives.³ The voice of the foundation in these histories nevertheless remains largely that of the foundation presidents and senior officers in New York. This article, however, intends to shift our perspectives on the foundations and the construction of development …

Norms And Survival In The Heat Of War: Normative Versus Instrumental Rationalities And Survival Tactics In The Blockade Of Leningrad, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

When war challenges civilian survival, what shapes the balance between normative and instrumental rationalities in survival practices? Increasing desperation and uncertainty can lead civilians to focus on their own material interests and to violate norms in the name of survival or gain—to the detriment of the war effort and of other civilians. Do norms, boundaries against transgressions, and considerations of collective interests and identities persist, and, if so, through what mechanisms? Using diaries and recollections from the 872-day Blockade of Leningrad (1941–1944)—an extreme case of wartime desperation—this article examines how three forms of cultural embeddedness shape variation in the strength …

[Introduction To] Propaganda State In Crisis: Soviet Ideology, Indoctrination, And Terror Under Stalin, 1927-1941, David Brandenberger

Bookshelf

The USSR is often regarded as the world's first propaganda state. Particularly under Stalin, politically charged rhetoric and imagery dominated the press, schools, and cultural forums from literature and cinema to the fine arts. Yet party propagandists were repeatedly frustrated in their efforts to promote a coherent sense of "Soviet" identity during the interwar years. This book investigates this failure to mobilize society along communist lines by probing the secrets of the party's ideological establishment and indoctrinational system. An exposé of systemic failure within Stalin's ideological establishment, Propaganda State in Crisis ultimately rewrites the history of Soviet indoctrination and mass …

Between Apprehension And Support: Social Dialogue, Democracy, And Industrial Restructuring In Central And Eastern Europe, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article explores the attitudes of trade union organizations to restructuring and privatization of their enterprises to strategic foreign investors in Central and Eastern Europe's biggest steel producers: Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia. Contrary to advocates of insulating technocratic decision-makers from social partners, this article argues that higher quality of democracy and concomitant social dialogue carried out at the level of the sector with union organizations that are autonomous of the government in power (as was the case in the Czech Republic and Poland), are associated with greater restructuring and with support for privatization to strategic foreign investors. In …

Von Der Avantgarde Zu Den Verlierern Des Postkommunismus: Gewerkschaften Im Prozess Der Restrukturierung Der Stahlindustrie In Mittel- Und Osteuropa, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee, Vera Trappmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

Der Beitrag analysiert die Gründe für die Schwächung der Gewerkschaften in Mittel- und Osteuropa auf betrieblicher Ebene. Am Beispiel der Stahlindustrie in Polen, Rumänien und der Slowakei zeigt er, dass die Gewerkschaften Legitimität und Unterstützung bei den Belegschaften aufgrund ihrer Verwicklung in die Restrukturierung der Unternehmen verloren haben, und zwar aus je unterschiedlichen Gründen. In der Slowakei und Rumänien haben sich die betrieblichen Gewerkschaftsvertreter zusammen mit Regierungsangehörigen an den Betrieben privatwirtschaftlich bereichert und die Unternehmen so in den Bankrott geführt, während in Polen die Gewerkschaften versucht haben, die Profitabilität der Unternehmen zu erhalten, auf Kosten der Arbeitsplätze. Der neoliberale Kurs …

From Economic Crisis To Reform: Imf Programs In Latin America And Eastern Europe By Grigore Pop-Eleches (Book Review), Aleksandra Sznajder Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications

Grigore Pop-Eleches’s book on the interaction of international and domestic determinants of IMF-style reforms in developing countries makes a significant contribution to international and comparative political economy literature. His effort to capture the dynamics of the contentious and complex relationship between the IMF and developing countries/emerging markets inLatin AmericaandEastern Europerepresents mid-range theorizing at its best. The author combines insights from international and comparative political economy literatures to pursue complementary questions. From the international effect perspective: what role do economic crises play in the initiation and implementation of IMF-backed economic reform? Is the IMF impartial in its policy and financial support …

[Introduction To] Political Humor Under Stalin: An Anthology Of Unofficial Jokes And Anecdotes, David Brandenberger

Bookshelf

Political Humor Under Stalin is an anthology of jokes, wisecracks, and satire from the Soviet 1930s and 40s that provides a glimpse of everyday dissembling and dissent in one of the modern world's most repressive societies. More than merely a joke book, it offers no less than a folkloric counter narrative to the "official" history of the USSR, as well as a ground-breaking discussion of the culture of joke-telling under Stalin.

Efroimson, Vladimir Pavlovich, Yvonne Howell

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

EFROIMSON, VLADIMIR PAVLOVICH ( 1908-1989). Geneticist, seminal figure in the development of population and medical genetics, author of works on sociobiology and the genetics of human ethical and aesthetic behavior.

The State‐Led Transition To Liberal Capitalism: Neoliberal, Organizational, World‐Systems, And Social Structural Explanations Of Poland’S Economic Success, Lawrence P. King, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications

Neoliberals argue that rapid liberalization and privatization can transform postcommunist economies into Western-style capitalist systems. Organizational sociologists argue that these policies produce a unique variety of capitalism, while world-systems theorists argue that they lead to underdevelopment. This article advances a social structural alternative in a crucial case. Poland’s relative economic success resulted from prolonged state ownership and an interventionist state employing various industrial policy tools that facilitated efficiency-enhancing market-oriented restructuring before ushering in beneficial foreign direct investment. The resulting capitalist system closely resembles the typical pattern found in most late industrializers.

[Introduction To] Epic Revisionism: Russian History And Literature As Stalinist Propaganda, David Brandenberger, Kevin M. F. Platt

Bookshelf

Focusing on a number of historical and literary personalities who were regarded with disdain in the aftermath of the 1917 revolution - figures such as Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Mikhail Lermontov - "Epic Revisionism" tells the fascinating story of these individuals' return to canonical status during the darkest days of the Stalin era. An inherently interdisciplinary project, "Epic Revisionism" features pieces on literary and cultural history, film, opera, and theater. It pairs scholarly essays with selections from Stalin-era primary sources - newspaper articles, unpublished archival documents, short stories - to provide students and …

The Creative Intelligentsia And The Rise Of Official Russocentrism Under Stalin, David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

In the mid-to-late 1930s, Soviet society witnessed a major ideological about-face as party propaganda and mass culture assumed an increasingly patriotic, Russo-centric orientation. Heroes, imagery, and legends from the Russian national past were deployed to bolster the legitimacy of the Soviet state and provide a complement to the reigning Marxist-Leninist ideology, then in a trend threatening to eclipse the stress on revolutionary class consciousness that had characterized the Soviet experiment for nearly two decades.

This shift away from proletarian internationalism toward Russo-centric etatism has been a source of considerable scholarly controversy. Some have linked this phenomenon to nationalist sympathies within …

Effects Of Eu Accession On The Politics Of Privatization - The Steel Sector In Comparative Perspective, Aleksandra Sznajder Lee

Political Science Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the European Union (EU) accession process on the restructuring and privatization of the steel sector of the four largest steel producers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Slovakia. The outcome to date for these countries' steel mills has been relatively uniform in that they have been integrated into the global production networks of some of the largest multinational steel enterprises. The pressures which brought this outcome about, however, were far from uniform. The variability in the modes of convergence is highlighted by …

Stalin's Holy War: Religion, Nationalism, And Alliance Politics, 1941–1945 (Book Review), David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

The Kremlin tête-à-tête and the iconoclastic revival of the Russian Orthodox Church that followed have long intrigued those writing about ideological change in the USSR under Stalin. Many believe that the concessions to the church were an exigency of war designed to increase the party’s ability to rally support from among even the most reluctant members of Soviet society. Others consider the revival of the church to have been part of a more thoroughgoing Russiªcation of the USSR in the mid- to late 1930s that rehabilitated aspects of the Russian national past for mobilizational purposes well before 1941. In Stalin’s …

Stalin As Symbol: A Case Study Of The Cult Of Personality And Its Construction, David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

Although the cult of personality certainly owed something to Stalin’s affinity for self-aggrandisement, modern social science literature suggests that it was designed to perform an entirely different ideological function. Personality cults promoting charismatic leadership are typically found in developing societies where ruling cliques aspire to cultivate a sense of popular legitimacy.² Scholars since Max Weber have observed that charismatic leadership plays a particularly crucial role in societies that are either poorly integrated or lack regularised administrative institutions. In such situations, loyalty to an inspiring leader can induce even the most fragmented polities to acknowledge the authority of the central …

Stalin's Secret Pogrom:The Postwar Inquisition Of The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (Book Review), David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

Stalin’s Secret Pogrom is a fascinating volume that presents many challenges as a historical source. Much of the information about the JAC and its associates contained in the transcript ought to be treated with great caution. Not only were the charges trumped-up, but the defendants were tortured, and their testimony was coerced. Nor should the transcript itself be studied as an orchestrated spectacle of Stalinist propaganda, inasmuch as the trial was held in secret and lacked much of the hyperbole characteristic of the show trials of the 1930s. Instead, the transcript testiªes to the bravery of many of the defendants, …

[Introduction To] National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture And The Formation Of Modern Russian National Identity, 1931-1956, David Brandenberger

Bookshelf

During the 1930s, Stalin and his entourage rehabilitated famous names from the Russian national past in a propaganda campaign designed to mobilize Soviet society for the coming war. Legendary heroes like Aleksandr Nevskii and epic events like the Battle of Borodino quickly eclipsed more conventional communist slogans revolving around class struggle and proletarian internationalism. In a provocative study, David Brandenberger traces this populist "national Bolshevism" into the 1950s, highlighting the catalytic effect that it had on Russian national identity formation.

Beginning with national Bolshevism's origins within Stalin's inner circle, Brandenberger next examines its projection into Soviet society through education and …

The Great Transition: The Dynamics Of Market Transitions And The Case Of Russia, 1991-1995, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The market transition in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union brings us back to essential issues that Marx and Weber addressed: the genesis of capitalism and the process of economic change. What is the transition and what does it involve - restructuring incentives, creating new laws, learning new culture, or creating new power structures? The answer partially depends on the particular transition (initial conditions, targets, actors' perceptions); but necessary general frameworks remain elusive, and current economic policies and analyses reveal that we understand little more about economic change than a century ago. Recent works on market transitions have furthered …

Proletarian Internationalism, “Soviet Patriotism” And The Rise Of Russocentric Etatism During The Stalinist 1930s, David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sostavlenie I Publikatsiia Ofitsial'noi Biografii Vozhdia--Katekhizisa Stalinizma, David Brandenberger

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.