Slavic Languages and Societies Commons^™

La Santa Muerte And The Characteristic Damage Of Canonization, Ellen Webber

Journal of Global Catholicism

Devotion to La Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint who personifies Death, has

been condemned by the Catholic Church for its affiliation with Mexican drug

cartels. This article challenges mainstream interpretations of La Santa Muerte

devotion using the theological framework of characteristic damage, as defined

by Lauren Winner and Paul J. Griffiths. This framework understands liturgy

as celebrated by sinners in a damaged world, and therefore necessarily damaged

itself. As much as liturgy and Christian practice form us for good, they also per-

petuate damage. I argue that the sins present in La Santa Muerte veneration are

an expression of …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Hindu Poetry And The Project Of An Inter-Spiritual Catholic Theology, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article engages the work of the Indian south Indian Tamil-language Vaiṣṇava poet saints known as the Alvārs. The article specifically focuses the First HundredHoly Linked verses of Poykai Ālvār to argue for inter-spiritual learning between Catholics and Hindus. The article concludes with personal reflections on this encounter within the context of the global Catholic Church

Are We The Last Generation Writing Poetry In Russian?, Victor Fet

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

How did my own poetry change after the war that began in February 2022? From the initial shock of the war – to a tragic realization that my own language is forever compromised by being shared with, and indeed usurped by, the aggressor. Personal observations are shared by a biologist and poet.

“Enslavement By Unbridled Passions:” Catholic Magisterial Institutional Attitudes Toward Homosexuals In Poland Between 1945 And 1989, Agnieszka Laddach

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Communism, the Polish bishops presented a narrative about (homo)sexuality with in order to create the image of a righteous moral and social life that was to influence the Catholics. In my research I conduced a thematic analysis of this narrative. I highlight the doctrinal and Polish social-religious context to foreground tendencies in the formation of Church teaching about homosexuality as well as the importance of the Church in Poland to its formation. Then, I show the factors that characterize the episcopal discourse’s content and language about homosexuality, recognizing that components of episcopal discourse suggest a specificity of Church potential …

Overview & Acknowledgments, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

This Introduction overviews the work of contributors from the Graduate Symposium sponsored by the Journal of Global Catholicism and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.  The Introduction also highlights the independent peer reviewed submission from Dr. Agnieszka Laddach of the University of Warsaw.

A Feminine Flame In The Midst Of Repression: The Concealed Role Of Women In The Isolated Siberian Tundra, Jenny N. Liang

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

The modern Russian state is distinctive in her history of utilizing the isolated Siberian tundra for eliminating political dissent, with millions of dissidents disappearing into penal colonies, labor camps, and gulags, some never to reappear. Of the incomprehensible mass of numbers are the stories of steadfast wives refusing to abandon their husbands, women surviving the brutal political prison camps, and girls manipulated as political pawns into Siberia. In a historically patriarchal Slavic society, the stories of women have been conveniently pushed aside. The distinctive Russian practice of exiling political dissidents to the remote Siberian tundra has led to stories of …

Unsuccessful? Universal Human Rights And The United Nations: Russian Imperialism In Ukraine And The Post-Udhr International System, Sofiia Novytska

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Human universality has always stood as a controversial subject and remains politically contentious today. Following the humanitarian crisis of World War II, the international community was determined to protect the integrity and dignity of people worldwide by developing the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, universal human rights were not invented by the Declaration and were already conceptually established in global ancient thought, further evolved into Early Modern scholarship, and later paved the way for modern humanitarian frameworks. The UDHR was not universally well-received, and was criticized for its revolutionary legal character, postcolonial contestation, and practical ambiguity. The …

Dwelling In Parallel Worlds: Esoteric And New Age Milieus In The Soviet Period And Afterward, Edited By Birgit Menzel And Anna Tessman: A Review, Alexander John Paul Lutz

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Birgit Menzel and Anna Tessmann, eds. Dwelling in Parallel Worlds: Esoteric and New Age Milieus in the Soviet Period and Afterward. Münster: LIT Verlag, 2025. 320 pp. €34.90 (paperback). ISBN: 978-3-643-91580-1.

Religious And Cultural Dimension Of The "Ringing Cedars Of Russia" Movement In The Context Of Hybrid Warfare, Oleksandr Lukyanenko, Vitaly Dmytrenko, Vita Dmytrenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to a comprehensive religious analysis of the neo-religious movement “The Ringing Cedars of Russia,” based on the works of Vladimir Megre and the image of the prophetess Anastasia. The study covers the ideological and doctrinal foundations of the movement, its socio-cultural practices, the functioning of tribal settlements, as well as mechanisms of influence on individual and collective consciousness. Particular attention is paid to the concepts of “Vedrussia”, the sacralization of “Russian space” and the mythologization of Russia’s calling to revive the “primitive civilization of harmony.” The analysis shows that the movement, while declaring ecological and humanistic …

Mountain Communities During A Time Of War: A Case Study Of The Hutsul Region In The Carpathian Mountains Of Ukraine, Pavlo Rybaruk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the ethno-ecological technologies employed by the Hutsul people within the highland agrarian economy of the Carpathian Mountains. Over centuries, the Hutsuls have developed ethno-ecological technologies that maintain ecological integrity while supporting community livelihoods.

The study addresses three primary research questions: What are the most important ethno-ecological technologies of the Hutsul highland economy? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be applied to economic, agricultural, and tourism development in the Hutsul region? How might these traditional ethno-ecological practices be combined with contemporary approaches to encourage sustainable development in the region?

The research explores the devastating impact of the Russian …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Ritual As Resistance: Orality, Identity, And Soviet Kazakh Childhood In Sayin Muratbekov’S The Smell Of Wormwood, Dana Akhmerova

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

This essay analyzes The Smell of Wormwood (1967), a short novel by Soviet Kazakh author Sayin Muratbekov, set in a Kazakh village during World War II. The narrative centers on Ayan, a nine-year-old orphan with a physical disability, who copes with trauma and marginalization by becoming a storyteller for the village children. Focusing on the role of Kazakh folklore—particularly storytelling and initiation rituals—I explore how these cultural forms shape the novel’s characters, structure, and central conflict. Drawing on Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner’s theories of ritual, I argue that Ayan’s storytelling creates an informal liminal space through which the …

Jewish Emigration And Satire In The Soviet Union (Ca. 1970), Jack I. Reppen

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

The Dymshits-Kuznetsov affair provides an important case study of the use of satire in Soviet media, primarily through easily understood cartoons like the ones seen in Krokodil. These satirical cartoons exploit Jews for alleged scapegoatism, anti-Sovietism, and other characteristics relating to internal problems. In this paper, the author explores the idea that when disinformation disguises itself as satire, it subverts the revolutionary and critical components that are traditionally attributed to the genre of satire.

Khrushchevka: A Historical And Economic Analysis Of Russian Housing, Privatization, And Urban Renewal In Putin’S Russia, Victoria A. Faulkner

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The Moscow Urban Renewal Initiative (Инициатива обновления городов Москвы, 2017-) is the joint project of President Vladimir Putin (1999-2008, 2012-) and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin (2010-) to remove dilapidated housing structures in Moscow. Since 2017, the programme has already displaced about 20,000 Muscovites, with plans to displace 1.5 million more by its completion goal of 2032. These displacements have revealed significant economic deficiencies in the post-Soviet market economy of the Russian Federation. Delays in the programme due to the COVID-19 pandemic have only escalated issues further – as has the War on Ukraine. Understanding the importance of the Moscow Urban …

Living By The Sword: Religiosity And The Terrorist Subculture Of Russian Revolutionaries, 1904-1910, Gregory I. Mcevoy

Dissertations and Theses

The Marxist dictum of “religion is the opiate of the masses” has led to a prevailing assumption in scholarship that the socialist movements of the early twentieth century have been inherently atheistic. Religion is often associated as a remnant of old, antiquated society and incompatible with the claimed modernity of socialist progress. This assumption has led to overlooking the religiosity within certain radical movements and revolutionary culture at large. Scholarship on the political underground in Tsarist Russia has, thus far, perpetuated this impression. While it is the true that the Bolsheviks and Leninist Social Democrats rejected religion as obscurantist and …

Fairy Tales In Service Of Political Projects: “Hansel And Gretel” In Changing Political Regimes, Polona Tratnik

Marvels & Tales

The production of fairy tales depends on political interests. The tales’ regimes of production and anticipated reception condition their inscribed ideological inclinations and erasures. I examine how Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the brothers Grimm contributed to nation-building and, focusing on “Hansel and Gretel,” how the changing regimes of production required omissions in the translations of the Grimms’ tales into Slovenian. I argue that the sui generis appropriation of the tale titled “Janko and Metka” by the writer France Bevk helped build a socialist nation. Finally, the article comments on some issues in capitalist regimes of fairy-tale production.

Красная Секта, Slav Gratchev

Open Access Books

Грачев, Слав. Красная секта. Библиотекa университета Маршалла, Хантингтон, 2025.

Этот роман рассказывает о многом: о войне, об огромной любви и верности долгу, о советских шахматистах и, наконец, о судьбе одной маленькой испанской девочки, которая по воле случая оказалась на чужбине и смогла вернуться домой только через пятьдесят дoлгих лет. Этот роман о стране, которой уже нет на картах мира, которая не позволяла своим гражданам жить и думать свободно. То, что она всегда делала с успехом - это отнимала у людей их будущее.

Gratchev, Slav. The Red Cult. Marshall University Libraries, Huntington, 2025.

This novel discusses …

Inciting Peace From The Inside Out, Stephen G. Adubato, Ebere Bosco Amakwe, Katherine Hinic, Sarita Maldjian, Forrest Pritchett, Jon Radwan, Nicholas Sooy, Chad Thralls

Conferences

Violence and war can be incited, and so can peace. This volume shares select addresses and responses from Seton Hall University’s 2/7/23 conference “Inciting Peace From The Inside Out.” A multi-disciplinary range of scholars each addresses how reconciliation processes grow from spiritual dynamics. Multiple religious traditions teach contemplative praxes that prioritize and nurture personal reflection oriented toward peace. Social conflicts divide, so engaging them with a partisan orientation only serves to escalate harmful rifts. In contrast, bringing personal awareness and sensitivity, spiritual balance, and holistic integral perspective to conflict can transcend divisions and work toward unity. This volume is supported …

Samovars In The Snow: The Rise Of A Distinctively Russian Tea Culture, Abigail Coker

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

In the 18th Century, tea culture emerged in the Russia of Catherine the Great. Following the lead of the westernizing empress, Russians of the aristocracy adopted the refinement, which the spread across the empire. By the mid-19th Century, Russians from all social classes enjoyed tea not just as a drink but as a means of socializing and extending hospitality. Tea culture also manifested itself in new types of foods as well as cups and plates, as well other elements of broader Russian culture.

Drowned Maidens And Mother Earth: The Roots Of Sexism In Russian Folklore Studies, Juniper Guthrie

The Corinthian

During the mid-nineteenth century, the Russian intelligentsia began to lean towards Slavophilic studies in their pursuit of Russian nationalism. The driving thesis of the Slavophilic movement sought to embrace Slavic (and for Russian nationalists, specifically Russian) culture and roots, pushing back against the Petrine and Catherine movements towards Westernization. A crucial element of this mythic Slavic culture that often went unquestioned was the strict code of its gender norms. Significant folklore collectors brought their class and gender biases along with them. They held very specific beliefs regarding “real” folklore and “proper” performances of tales, imposing their intellectual structure onto a …

The Romani People In The European Cultural Imagination: Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée And Virginia Woolf, Nadya Siyam

Theses and Dissertations

Scholarly literature on Roma is scarce compared to other racial groups as a lack of academic interest, financial limitations, and other social and political factors has constrained it. This resulted in a cross-cultural circulation of misinformation about Romani people and the reproduction of Romani myths and stereotypes in fiction. This project aims to analyze selected literary works on Gypsies from three Eastern and Western European countries and two periods to unpack the cultural and political roots of Romani literary misrepresentation. This research employs a range of theoretical frameworks chosen to put the Gypsy protagonists under maximum spotlight without unnecessary repetition, …

Rider Of The Black Horse, Theodore Schenck

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This article explores the actions and ideology of the Russian revolutionary and terrorist Boris Savinkov through his final novel, The Black Horse. I argue that the book represents its author's attempt to come to terms with a world in which he feels politically homeless with the victory of his enemy, the Bolsheviks. Savinkov reckons with his fate through the liberal use of Biblical allusions and apocalyptic imagery.

From Provincial Palace To Country Cottage: A History Of The Russian Dacha, 1700s To Present, Melissa Renee Rosenak Bevency

History Undergraduate Departmental Honors Theses

In Russia, the dacha is typically a second home with a garden, located outside of but not far from a major city. However, this definition fails to fully encapsulate the cultural phenomenon, which has transformed in tandem with Russia throughout the years. The dacha's first manifestations appeared during the reign of Peter the Great, the name coming from the verb "to give," as dachas were given as land allotments by the tsar to his servitors. These grand estates were limited to Russia's most elite and were maintained by enserfed peasants. However, in centuries that followed, the dacha became more accessible …

The Human Faces Of Dissident Socialism: The Fight For Human Rights In Soviet Ukraine, Alexander Nicholas Sosenko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the transformation of a Ukrainian literary and aesthetic avant-garde movement in the 1960s, the Sixtiers, into an emblem of the 1970s global human rights campaign. This historical interpretation intertwines the brief flicker of early-1960s Ukrainian art and poetry with the joyous and tragic stories of Soviet citizens fighting for human rights. The Ukrainian Sixtiers’ experience with political persecution made them ideal players in the international human rights movement in its formative years. They adopted positive foreign influences and modified them for their own situation, whether in intellectual work or human rights activism. This represents a Soviet Ukrainian …

“Comrade Woman” In 21st-Century Serbia: (Dis)Continuities Of Yugoslav Feminism In Post-Yugoslav, Post-War Serbian Feminism, Heyu Yuan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Forty-five years have passed since 1978, when the first feminist conference in the Eastern Bloc – Drug-ca žena – žensko pitanje: novi pristup? (Comrade Woman – The Woman’s Question: A New Approach?) – took place in Belgrade in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). After the violent breakup of the SFRY, what, if anything, is left of the legacies of Yugoslav feminism in today’s Serbia? To answer this question, this research examines the Serbian feminist scenes across time through literature and five semi-structured interviews. It concludes that although the Serbian feminist movement has become significantly different from the Yugoslav …

The Confounding Body: Female Corporeality, Androgyny, And Disgust In The Work Of Virginia Woolf And Zinaida Gippius, Yelizaveta Shapiro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Confounding Body: Female Corporeality, Androgyny, and Disgust in the Work of Virginia Woolf and Zinaida Gippius examines how the discourses of degeneration, eugenics, and sexology shaped representations of women’s bodies in British and Russian modernist literature. Focusing on the writing of Zinaida Gippius (1869-1945) and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), I challenge the longstanding argument that both authors attempted to escape the material body by resorting to androgynous tropes. I argue that the material female body takes center stage in both Gippius’s and Woolf’s work and functions as a powerfully paradoxical entity: one that generates disgust and enables oppression while housing …

Три Шага К Свободе (In Russian), Slav Gratchev

Open Access Books

Грачев, Слав. Три шага к свободе. Библиотекa университета Маршалла, Хантингтон, 2023.

Три шага к свободе — это первый роман исторической трилогии, которая перенесет вас в страшный мир разрушений и отчаянной борьбы за жизнь в Советском Союзе во время сталинских репрессий, Второй мировой войны, и жизни при коммунистическом режиме в 1980-х годах. События, описанные в романе, а также жесткая критика коммунизма, его бесчеловечного лица и его далекой от всякого гуманизма философии, привели бы автора к немедленному тюремному заключению, находись он в путинской России сегодня. К счастью, он не там, а значит, он сможет закончить свою работу и опубликовать все книги этой …

Raising The Iron Curtain: Healing Collective Oppression Through Literature, Alisa Chirkova-Holland

Student Works

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by former gulag prisoner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is a short novel that entails an ordinary day for a prisoner, Shukhov, in a Siberian gulag. Although the work is a typical skaz, a traditional Russian narrative form, the novel was well-received by Russians at the time of publishing in 1962. This paper will explore the reason for such acclamation, understanding how Solzhenitsyn’s innovations to the skaz allowed readers to connect with their past. The paper also mentions theories such as Traumatic Realism to comprehend how such a bleak novel positively impacted post-Stalinist readers. …

Blood Cries Out From The Ground: The Einsatzgruppen And The Holocaust In Ukraine, Lauren R. Letizia

Student Publications

After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht occupied much of the western Soviet regions. The Third Reich deployed special killing squads known as the Einsatzgruppen to protect its military and ideological interests. These units were responsible for murdering over two million Jews from 1941 to 1944, primarily through mass shootings. Ukraine was one of the most afflicted countries by this “Holocaust by Bullets.” Because of the efficient genocidal techniques of Einsatzgruppen units operating in the region, one in four Jews who perished in the Holocaust was Ukrainian. The scale on which these killings …