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Full-Text Articles in Slavic Languages and Societies

Russian Linguistic Policy In The Post-Soviet World, Payton G. Deichler Apr 2026

Russian Linguistic Policy In The Post-Soviet World, Payton G. Deichler

The Dialogue

This paper examines the role of the Russian language as an instrument of soft power in the post-Soviet space, arguing that its geopolitical influence extends beyond demographic prevalence to the institutional frameworks through which it is promoted and mediated. Rather than functioning solely as a neutral medium of communication, Russian operates as an infrastructural component of influence that shapes access to media ecosystems, educational systems, and professional mobility across former Soviet republics. Drawing on the concept of a “Monopoly of Interpretation,” this study proposes that the centralized, state-linked promotion of Russian enables the consolidation of political narratives within shared linguistic …


Maxim Gorky’S Illusionary Reformation Of Human Nature And The Rise Of The Soviet Citizen: Socialist Realism As A Constructive Force In Mother, Alysia Gayle Meyer May 2025

Maxim Gorky’S Illusionary Reformation Of Human Nature And The Rise Of The Soviet Citizen: Socialist Realism As A Constructive Force In Mother, Alysia Gayle Meyer

Honors Projects

This paper examines the origins and evolution of the Socialist Realism movement headed by Maxim Gorky, as a defining ideological and artistic framework of the Stalin era. Emerging in response to the experimental avant-garde movements of Revolutionary Russia, Socialist Realism sought to construct the ideal Soviet Reality, reimaging society and its citizens through the lens of collectivism, labor, and ideological purity. Central to this exploration is Gorky’s first major Socialist Realist novel, Mother, which serves as a blueprint for depicting the ideal Soviet citizen. By analyzing the motivations behind this movement and its portrayal of utopian ideals, this study reveals …


Belief In The Unbelievable: Yakov Druskin And Chinari Metaphysics, Patrick D. Powers Jan 2021

Belief In The Unbelievable: Yakov Druskin And Chinari Metaphysics, Patrick D. Powers

Honors Papers

This project focuses on the philosophy of Yakov Druskin and its applicability as a lens through which to examine the metaphysical and religious elements of chinari literature. Formed in Leningrad at the dawn of the Soviet Union, the group of authors and philosophers known as the chinari has long been recognized as an important component of the Russian avant-garde. However, the role of religion and spirituality in their works remains under-examined, despite the fact that the group featured a prolific religious philosopher, Yakov Druskin. By exploring a selection of Druskin’s philosophical concepts and applying them to major chinari texts—Daniil Kharms’ …


Introduction. Dialogues With Shklovsky: The Duvakin Interviews 1967-1968., Slav N. Gratchev, Irina Evdokimova Apr 2019

Introduction. Dialogues With Shklovsky: The Duvakin Interviews 1967-1968., Slav N. Gratchev, Irina Evdokimova

Modern Languages Faculty Research

Dialogues with Shklovsky: The Duvakin Interviews 1967–1968 reflects the spirit of times—when the most dramatic events of the twentieth century were happening in Russia and the USSR. The first English translation of the 1967–1968 interviews with the founder of the Formalist School of literary theory, Viktor Shklovsky, this volume offers a slice of Russian micro-history that relies on the living voice of that history. Through the transcription of a six-hour phono-document, the readers will hear the voice of a real participant in events that for the longest time in the USSR were forbidden to be discussed or written about.


Classical Literature And The Retroaction Of Socialist Ideology—The Sovietization Of A Medieval Georgian Epic Poem And Its Mysterious Author, Diego Benning Wang Apr 2018

Classical Literature And The Retroaction Of Socialist Ideology—The Sovietization Of A Medieval Georgian Epic Poem And Its Mysterious Author, Diego Benning Wang

Madison Historical Review

Shota Rustaveli, presumed author of the medieval Georgian epic poem vepkhistqaosani (The Knight in the Panther's Skin), was one of the most celebrated cultural and historical figures in Soviet Georgia. However, not much is known about Rustaveli apart from his work. In this essay, I argue that a series of policies under the Soviet government transformed Rustaveli into a national symbol of Georgia, but the celebration of Rustaveli and his poem scarcely deviated from the ideological guidelines of the Soviet state. In discussing the impact and legacy of the Soviet promotion of Rustaveli, I purport to highlight the "national in …


The Cold War: Over, Renewed, Or Never Ended?, Matt Phipps Apr 2015

The Cold War: Over, Renewed, Or Never Ended?, Matt Phipps

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The Cold War has been studied repeatedly since the war supposedly ended in 1991. However recent events are starting to cause some concern and make many question whether or not the Cold War actually ended, if it took a different shape or perhaps has just been on pause. I argue that the Cold War has been a conflict that has been going on since 1947 and although the conflict has looked differently in recent decades the conflict was never properly put to an end. The research analyzes US decision making with respect to Russian and Asian relations over the last …


Russian Art In The Second Half Of The Twentieth Century, Ekaterina Dyogot Jan 2012

Russian Art In The Second Half Of The Twentieth Century, Ekaterina Dyogot

Russian Culture

This essay concerns Russian art in the second half of the twentieth century, yet any such description requires constant reference to the Russian avant-garde and the Soviet art system. The country's isolation made Soviet art such a specific, aesthetic, and particularly institutional phenomenon that it becomes critical to any understanding of art in the post-Stalinist period.


The Russian Cinematic Culture, Oksana Bulgakova Jan 2012

The Russian Cinematic Culture, Oksana Bulgakova

Russian Culture

The cinema has always been subject to keen scrutiny by Russia's rulers. As early as the beginning of this century Russia's last czar, Nikolai Romanov, attempted to nationalize this new and, in his view, threatening medium: "I have always insisted that these cinema-booths are dangerous institutions. Any number of bandits could commit God knows what crimes there, yet they say the people go in droves to watch all kinds of rubbish; I don't know what to do about these places." The plan for a government monopoly over cinema, which would ensure control of production and consumption and thereby protect the …


Efroimson, Vladimir Pavlovich, Yvonne Howell Jan 2008

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.


Kasha, Yvonne Howell Jan 2007

Kasha, Yvonne Howell

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Russian kasha can refer to virtually any grain cooked into a porridge.