Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons^™

Adaptation Practices And Forms Of Struggle In Jewish Communities For The Preservation Of Religious Worldview In Soviet Ukraine (1920s-1930s), Tetiana Savchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of the ways of adaptation of the Jews to the Soviet anti-religious experiments and the definition of forms of counteraction to these attacks during the 1920s and 1930s. There is insufficient research in the historiography of the struggle of Jews for the preservation of their religious worldview. The development of historiography shows a certain imbalance in the studies of the methods and extent of anti- church policy while ignoring the reaction of believers to the Bolshevik experiments. Based on archival documents of the Soviet secret services (not previously introduced into scientific circulation) and ...

Language And Cultural Identity In Post-Soviet Frozen Conflicts, Irina Paquette

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

How we, as humans, define ourselves and our national and ethnic distinction often centers on visible characteristics—physical features, group traditions, and language. Of those, language is both mutable and plays such a central role in daily life that it is often a hotly contested and manipulated factor in defining national identity. This paper examines the role language has played in the formation of crisis situations in the former Soviet Union. Linguistic identity has been used as a basis to establish the legitimacy of independence for both Soviet republics and separatist groups within those republics. As such, it is a ...

Pinpointing Patterns Of Violence: A Comparative Genocide Studies Approach To Violence Escalation In The Ukrainian Holodomor, Kristina Hook

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article utilizes the case study of the 1930s Ukrainian Holodomor, an artificially induced famine under Joseph Stalin, to advance comparative genocide studies debates regarding the nature, onset, and prevention of large-scale violence. Fieldwide debates question how to 1) distinguish genocide from other forms of large-scale violence and 2) trace genocides as unfolding processes, rather than crescendoing events. To circumvent unproductive definitional arguments, methodologies that track large-scale violence according to numerically-based thresholds have substituted for dynamics-based analyses. Able to address aspects of the genocide puzzle, these methodologies struggle to incorporate cross-cultural contextual variation or elicit ripe moments for specific, real-time ...

“Practice Basic Hygiene, And You’Ll Stay Healthy”: How Primary School Reading Textbooks Transmitted Cultural Education In The Soviet Union, Victoria Storozenko

University of South Florida M3 Center Publishing

Russia’s Cultural Revolution, beginning after the October Revolution in 1917, produced a broadly defined understanding of culture and cultural education at Russian schools that encompassed even basic hygiene and health. Drawing from postdoctoral research, this paper discusses the Cultural Revolution’s impact and its ideas on cultural education as presented in textbooks for 10-year general education schools in the Soviet Union. Discourse analysis revealed that the schoolbooks acted as an interface between a functional education system and changes in its surrounding environment, especially changes due to the Cultural Revolution. Amid today’s COVID-19 pandemic, the study’s findings raise ...

Identifying Factors For Voluntary Return Migration: A Case Study Of Uzbek American Returnees, Khojiakbar Gayratbekov

Master's Theses

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many Uzbek immigrants found their ways to the United States. Given the unique historic context to their cultural and national identity, Uzbeks experience distinctive integration and adaptation process when they arrive in the United States. Despite political instability and a weak economy in Uzbekistan, data from the United States Department of Homeland Security reveal that many Uzbek immigrants are leaving the U.S. for their home country. Thus, this study investigates factors for return migration among Uzbek immigrants for the period of 2010 to 2020. This study utilizes a mixture of qualitative and ...

A Historical And Contextual Analysis Of Soviet And Russian "Active Measures": How Russian Political Warfare Efforts In Foreign Presidential Elections Have Transformed In The Information Age, Olivia Myers

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to analyze the transformation of Russian active measures in targeted national elections since the Soviet era. Through a historical analysis of research on active measures and contextual analysis of active measures campaigns themselves, this thesis finds that Russian active measures techniques have not drastically changed since the Soviet era. Instead, as a result of technology, Russian active measures have utilized platforms of social media to become more targeted, continuous, and convert. Therefore, Russian active measures campaigns have been better able to successfully target specific audiences, arguably making these campaigns more effective.

From Ideological Resource To Financial Asset: The Evolving Relationship Between Youth And The State In Putin's Russia, Eleanor Schmid

Honors Theses

This thesis identifies four periods of Russian youth policy, and discusses how President Vladimir Putin's approach to youth and youth issues is markedly different than that of previous heads of state, and that it has evolved even within his tenure. My content coding analysis of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs' 2013-2025 Strategy identifies the main values the Russian government seeks to impart upon youth, and my analysis of public opinion surveys of youth provides evidence that there is a connection between the 2013 Strategiia and youth attitudes and values.

Us Military Policy In Poland And The Baltics: To Stay Or Not To Stay, Owen Bates

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Religion In The Lives Of The Last Soviet Generation In Lithuania, Milda Ališauskienė

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper contributes to the academic debates about the compatibility of religion and modernity and reveals the way Soviet modernization has affected the religious values of the last Soviet generation in Lithuania. It discusses the role and dynamic of religion, intergenerational transmission, and the manner in which religion becomes or does not become a resource for an individual’s social mobility. The article, focusing on the last Soviet generation (b. 1970–1985) living in Lithuania, is based on analysis of 88 narratives of representatives of this generation. Trends of religious individualism, critical engagement with institutional religiosity and conformity with religious ...

Was Soft Power Used During The Cold War?, Drake C. Dewey

Capstone Showcase

On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which resulted in the formal conclusion of the Cold War. The Cold War was an ideological battle between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the mid-1940s until 1991. I have decided to put the beginning date of the Cold War as March 5, 1946, while the end date is December 25, 1991. During the Cold War, there was a new form of power which was coined by Joseph Nye. Scholars have questioned the influence of soft versus hard ...

The Failure Of Third-Party Interventions In Civil Wars, Benjamin D. Giltner

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the circumstances that result in the inability of third-party interventions to solve civil wars. Previous research has examined the impact of third-party interventions on the outcomes of civil wars, the interests of third-party actors in civil wars, as well as the perceptions of civil war participants on third-party actors. The theory in this paper asserts that third-party interventions are unsuccessful when the government and leader of at least one country place the interest of special interest groups ahead of the national interest of their country. This research uses the war in eastern ...

"Unite The Left": Contextualizing Bukharin's Abc Of Communism And Berkman's Abc Of Anarchism, David Hayter

Theses and Dissertations

In 1919, Nikolai Bukharin, the leading theoretician of the Bolshevik Party, published a manual entitled The ABC of Communism meant to put the governing ideology of the newly formed Soviet State into eminently readable terms. Alexander Berkman, a Russian Anarchist who strongly supported the October Revolution, became disillusioned with the new regime in 1921 and left the country. He later published his own tract entitled The ABC of Anarchism. This thesis pits these two theoretical works against each other as historical documents embodying the nature of leftist polemics that has characterized the movement since the dissolution of the First International ...

Youth As A Leading Power Of Uzbekistan, Mukhtor Nazirov

The Light of Islam

The article examines the features of effective interaction between government agencies, NGOs, and other civil institutions on youth issues. State youth policy in Uzbekistan considers revealing the potential of young people and promoting their effective socialization. The article shows the importance of modern education and upbringing, social support of young people in Uzbekistan. The political activity of youth is an indicator of the processes taking place in modern society. The article considers youth policy, the UN international legal documents regulating the youth sphere. The urgency of the youth issue is growing in connection with the deepening of globalization. The solutions ...

The Influence Of Information Power Upon The Great Game In Cyberspace: U.S. Wins Over Russian Meddling In The 2018 Elections, Joseph H. Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

The 2018 U.S. pivot in information and cyberspace degraded Russian operations in the 2018 election. Following pervasive Russian information power operations during the U.S. 2016 elections, the United States progressed from a policy of preparations and defense in information and cyberspace to a policy of forward engagement. U.S recognition of renewed great power competition coupled with Russia’s inability to compete diplomatically, militarily (conventionally), or economically, inspires Russia to continues to concentrate on information power operations. This great game in cyberspace was virtually uncontested by the U.S. prior to 2017. Widespread awareness of Russian aggression in ...

The Trabant And The Mercedes: A Psychological Analysis Into The Disjunction Of German Reunification, Faith Morris

Senior Theses

Ostalgie, a combination of the German words Ost (east) and Nostalgie (nostalgia), is the psychological phenomenon that describes former East Germans’ longing for a return to aspects of life from the period of communist rule. This paper explores the phenomenon of Ostalgie in reunified Germany in relation to psychological constructs of nostalgia and collective identity.

Ostalgie is essentially both a means and an end. This paper seeks to prove Ostalgie is a means of creating identity, formulated by the interplay of nostalgia and certain social conditions that combined with and aided the failure of democratic capitalism for former East Germans ...

Stephen F. Cohen, Nicholas Hayes

University Chair in Critical Thinking Publications

No abstract provided.

Urban Warfare: Emerging Geopolitical Conundrum, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Urban warfare is as old as human history. It is becoming increasingly important in international political and military planning due to increasing global urbanization and the presence of megacities (urban areas with populations exceeding 10 million) in many global regions and being in areas of recent and potential military conflict. 2018 World Bank data notes that approximately 56% of the world's population lives in urban areas which is up from 34% in 1960. Many of these megacities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Manila are adjacent to oceanic waters and vulnerable to trade and ...

Report On The Visit Of Prof. And Mrs. Josef Hromádka To The U.S.A., 1966, John Heidbrink

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Professor Josef L. Hromádka (referred to as JLH in the report) was a theologian of the Church of the Czech Brethren who took refuge in the USA during the Nazi conquest of his native Czechoslovakia and taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. He made what for many seemed a surprising decision to return to Prague after the communist coup d’etat in 1948. Soon he became the best known Protestant theologian on the other side of the “Iron Curtain” as he interpreted communism as a wave of a promising future to which Christians need to adjust in order to assist in ...

State-Sponsored Atheism: The Case Of Albania During The Enver Hoxha Era, İbrahim Karataş

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This study analyzes how Enver Hoxha tried to abolish religions in Albania during the communist era. I argue that if atheism is not politicized and not exerted by force, its materialist damage is less. Yet, when atheization becomes a state policy and the government executes clergy, oppresses pious people, and destroys mosques and churches for the sake of atheism, irreligion then becomes a matter of state security. The study contends that when atheism is applied by force, atheist fundamentalism, which is no different than the religious version, emerges. Thus, irreligion becomes a threat to people’s lives and destroys society ...

On Both Sides Of The Wall, Christoph Schmauch

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"Since the emphasis of this paper is to be on the Cold War and its aftermath, I will only mention that the first ten years of my life I lived in Silesia, Germany, on the outskirts of Breslau/Wroclaw during the Nazi period of World War II. I will begin with the end of WWII, 1945, my experience for two years in the mountains of Silesia under Polish administration, and from 1947 to 1950 in the Soviet zone of occupation in Germany in Görlitz, and beginning in 1950 in Ost-Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic."