NewsNet News of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies

March 2019 v. 59, n. 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Magnitsky Act - Behind the 3 Scenes: An interview with the film director, Andrei Nekrasov

Losing Pravda, An Interview with 8 Natalia Roudakova

Recent Preservation Projects 12 from the Slavic and East European Materials Project

The Prozhito Web Archive of 14 Diaries: A Resource for Digital Humanists

17 Affiliate Group News

18 Publications

ASEEES Prizes Call for 23 Submissions

28 In Memoriam

29 Personages

30 Institutional Member News

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FUTURE OF THE FIELD CAMPAIGN

DISSERTATION RESEARCH FUND Yana Skorobogatov Thanks to the nearly 200 members who have already 2016 Dissertation Research Grant Recipient committed to supporting the Future of the Field. It’s not History, Williams College • PhD, History, UC Berkeley too late to make a difference. Make your gift or pledge by June 30th to be counted. Announcing a New Dissertation Research Grant Thanks to ASEEES’s Dissertation Research Thanks to generous individual support ASEEES is able Grant, I was able to travel to Moscow to expand the number of Dissertation Research Grants to complete crucial research needed as available to students. I began writing my dissertation. I am grateful to those who funded this “We are both firm believers in the importance of Russian opportunity, without which, I may studies in American universities and American public life. not have been able to conduct the The only way to sustain a thoughtful analysis of Russia’s past, present, and future is to support future scholars and their necessary research and complete my work. This way the work begun by several generations of dissertation in a timely way. I am happy Russianists will continue for many years to come.” to say that my dissertation is now a book -- Joseph Bradley & Christine Ruane manuscript. Join Joseph and Christine to create more opportunities for student research YES - I want to make more Dissertation Research possible

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NEWSNET March 2019 2 From studio shoot in Kiev. © Piraya Film AS. Photo: Anna Marchuk.

The Magnitsky Act - Behind the Scenes An interview with the film director, Andrei Nekrasov

CHOI CHATTERJEE, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LOS ANGELES

In 2016, Andrei Lvovich Nekrasov, a well-known Russian film-maker, playwright, theater director, and actor, released a docudrama entitled, The Magnitsky Act—Behind the Scenes.1 Although the film won many artistic accolades, including a special commendation from the Prix Europa Award for a Television Documentary, public screenings were abruptly canceled in both Europe and the United States. Political pressure from various constituents and the threat of lawsuits from William Browder, the American-British billionaire and human-rights activist, ensured the limitation of the film to a single website. To the knowledge of this author, there has been only one public screening of The Magnitsky Act—Behind the Scenes in the United States. In June 2016, Seymour Hersch, a renowned investigative journalist, presided over a showing of the film at the Newseum in Washington, DC, that generated much controversy. The American press has not been kind to either the film or the director, Andrei Nekrasov. The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Daily Beast all seem to agree that the film is an overt work of Russian propaganda that aims to introduce confusion about the circumstances leading to the death of tax accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, in the minds of the viewers.2 The Putin administration, which has been the prime target of both the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky

NEWSNET March 2019 3 Rule of Accountability Act and the with a real-life experience in the Andrei Nekrasov: I felt that the story 2016 Global Magnitsky Human Rights practice of critical thinking.3 The film of Magnitsky, in its accepted version, Accountability Act, has good reason also allows us to revive a discussion was very powerful and important. I to promote a film that questions of Hayden White’s penetrating thought that Sergei Magnitsky was the circumstances surrounding analysis of the ways in which the a hero, and I wanted to tell the story Magnitsky’s untimely death in structure of the form necessarily of the modern hero, my compatriot. Moscow’s Butyrka Prison in 2009. influences the content of any artistic His case seemed very special because 4 Despite a flood of persuasive or historical narrative. The vehicle of Magnitsky, a tax lawyer (in reality, articles and editorials by well-known the docudrama that Nekrasov uses in an accountant) had come from the journalists suggesting that this his film, and the competing narratives world of capitalism, to symbolize all inconvenient film deserves no more about the circumstances leading that is good and moral in modern than a quick burial, I was drawn to to Magnitsky’s death, merit literary Russia. I believed that Magnitsky reconsider both the film and the and intellectual analysis, along with did not surrender under torture and political controversy that it continues geopolitical commentary. sacrificed his life fighting corruption. to create for two main reasons. First, Second, I am concerned by the 2) Who has funded the making of as the collapse of the Soviet Union fact that both critics and supporters5 this film and what motivated them to and our own recent presidential have turned the debate about the invest in this production? campaigns show, we can never entirely film into a referendum on William prohibit the intrusion of propaganda Browder, his business dealings as well AN: The film was produced by or politically slanted content into the as his global human rights activism, Piraya Film, a Norwegian company. public sphere. Instead, as a historian and the Putin administration. In this There is a long list of funders, and and faculty member who serves at interview with Andrei Nekrasov, I turn none are from Russia. (Please visit a public university, I believe that it is the spotlight back on the film-maker, www.magnitskyact.com for further my job to teach our students how to his motivations for making the film, information). And they are all very diagnose an issue, and how to consider and on his political experiences since “mainstream.” I believe in the United the many sides that a story necessarily the release of the film. It is important States and Russia it is easier to construe involves. As an intellectual process to remember that in the past Nekrasov the specific reasons that motivate this has immense value both in and of has made several politically charged funders, who are mostly private, to itself. Source criticism is a time tested films including Disbelief (2004), and support a project. In Europe, where and reliable means through which Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko more public money is available for we can make sense of an event or File (2007)—films that are extremely the arts, the state is more or less a phenomenon. Our students need critical of the Putin administration. obliged to fund the cultural process. to learn both the mechanics and the Nekrasov, a student of philosophy and So I submit an idea to a producer, and intellectual value of analyzing a source literature, is in the unique position of if they like it, they introduce it into and should be able to evaluate the having experienced censorship in the a complex system of funding that is nature of political content whether Soviet Union, Putin’s Russia, and in supposed to be politically neutral. it is embedded in a Facebook post, a the democratic countries of Western Only quality matters, in theory. In scholarly article, or a documentary. Europe and the United States. practice “quality” has political aspects, and its interpretation is open to The Magnitsky Act—Behind prejudices. the Scenes can serve as an important vehicle to introduce the contested Interview conducted by Barbara But it would be a simplification nature of historical truth, and as a Walker and Choi Chatterjee with Andrei to say the film was funded because prism, it allows us to view the multiple Nekrasov by email during January and I had set out to tell Browder’s modes through which various versions February 2019. version of the Magnitsky case. Those of the truth are disseminated in the funders who were (through their twenty-first century. Taught in tandem 1) Why did you want to make a film commissioning editors) monitoring with William Browder’s book Red about the Magnitsky Act? What drew the editing process, ZDF/ARTE, Notice, this film can provide students you to this project? for example, became aware of the

NEWSNET March 2019 4 inconsistencies in Browder’s version banned in Russia. But nationalism and supported my investigation into is not only a government policy. It’s the truth. What they did not realize the prevailing mood. The supposedly was who, and what, we were all democratic leader of the opposition, dealing with. They did not realize that that the West seems to praise and Browder was supported by the entire support, Alexei Navalny, was on political system of North America the record insulting Georgians in and Western Europe. They realized jingo-nationalistic posts during the that only when they were told by war. The film industry is, of course, politicians to stop the film. And they easier to steer in the “right direction” obeyed, contrary to what I thought as films, unlike articles and essays, was their principles. are very expensive to produce. But Russia is a complex society, deeply 3) How has the role of censorship, troubled, but also misunderstood by both in Russia and the West, affected Director Andrei Nekrasov. From studio shoot in Kiev. © Piraya Film AS. Photo: Anna Marchuk the West. If my films, such as Poisoned your artistic career? by Polonium: The Litvinenko File, and Putin personally as evidenced by Russian Lessons (2010) were attacked AN: Censorship has had a very strong the content in media outlets such as by pro-government media, then and damaging impact on my career. But Ekho Moskvy, Novaya Gazeta, Dozhd some of my articles were censored while censorship in Russia had never TV, New Times, Vedomosti, Colta. by the independent, “opposition” been something surprising to me, the ru, and others. The internet is full of outlets, such as Ekho Moskvy. way that the film The Magnitsky Act – mockery of Putin, his ministers and Behind the Scenes was treated by western of his party’s representatives. There is 4) Did you actually begin filming the politicians was totally unanticipated neither a system nor the kind of well- movie with an outcome of supporting and shocking. Yet, intellectually, the resourced deep state structures that Browder’s story in mind, as you experience was very illuminating. The control the flow of information. Many represent in the film, or did you plan pro-Western intelligentsia of Russia, a Russian media outlets, for example, from the start of the filming process class to which I have belonged, idolizes repeat Browder’s story of Magnitsky to end the film as it now stands? the West and believes that the freedom killed by the corrupt police with of expression is an essential and even the state covering it up. All that is AN: I started filming the story. I totally intrinsic part of Western culture. The perfectly “allowed” while Putin angrily believed in the story that Browder notion that the interests of economically condemns Browder as a criminal and had told me, and all the mainstream powerful groups can set a geopolitical Browder calls himself Putin’s number media repeated after him. agenda and that easily overrides one enemy. In reality, it is not allowed 5) You know that there are many more democratic freedom of expression is but simply happens because of the “disappeared” journalists and others considered to be a remnant of Soviet lack of consistent political censorship. era thinking. So I had to have a direct listed in the formal US Congress and personal experience of Western However, you will hardly ever Magnitsky Act who have suffered censorship to realize that that notion is hear a proper analysis and criticism from the effects of corrupt power in rooted in reality. in the Russian media of the big Russia. Why did you not address the fates of some of those others as well The issue of censorship in corporations, and of the oligarchs in your film? Russia is, on the other hand, often that make up the state. It is also true that such acute crises as military misunderstood in the West. There AN: I may be misunderstanding operations, such as Russian-Georgian is no direct political censorship of this question, but I do not see how war of 2008 produce intolerance the kind that existed in the Soviet addressing the fates of “disappeared” to the voices of the opposition. My Union, and that possibly exists in journalists and others’ would be film Russian Lessons (2008) about the countries like China today. Many relevant to the topic of my film in its suffering of the Georgians during popular Russian news outlets are final version. I obviously condemn critical of the government, and of that short war and its aftermath was

NEWSNET March 2019 5 the “disappearance” of journalists and are dealing with a fallacy here, in my Choi Chatterjee is a Professor of History others. In Russia journalists disappear humble opinion. The Magnitsky Act, at California State University, Los Angeles. usually by being “simply” shot (not in in my view, is not a weapon that can Chatterjee, along with Steven Marks, Mary Neuberger, and Steve Sabol, edited The Wider “sophisticated” Saudi ways), and as far protect people. The Magnitsky Act Arc of Revolution in three volumes (Slavica as I remember only one is referred to was designed to punish those deemed Publishers). in The Magnitsky Act, Paul Khlebnikov. murderers and torturers of Magnitsky. He was the editor of Forbes, Russia, Well, if my film demonstrates that and was shot in 2004 when Bill Magnitsky was not murdered (by ENDNOTES Browder was a great fan of Vladimir the people Browder claims he was 1 I thank Barbara Walker (University of Nevada, Putin and continued to be for some murdered by), nor was he tortured, Reno) for her excellent comments and sugges- time. I have not seen any evidence or the Magnitsky Act is nonsensical. tions. even claim, that Putin may have been You cannot punish someone for 2 Mark Landler, “Film about Russian Lawyer’s behind that murder. I was a friend of something that did not happen. Can Death Creates an Uproar,” New York Times, Anna Politkovskaya, perhaps the most you then say, never mind, human 6/9/2016, last accessed on 2/2/2019, https:// famous of all Russian journalists who rights violations happen, and it’s www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/world/europe/ sergei-magnitsky-russia-vladimir-putin.html; was assassinated in the recent past. good to have a mechanism to punish Joshua Yaffa, “How Bill Browder became Russia’s She is featured in my film,Poisoned by violators even if there’s no evidence Most Wanted Man,” 8/20/2018, last accessed Polonium. that people named as violators are on 1/2/2019, https://www.newyorker.com/ guilty? I don’t think one can say “never magazine/2018/08/20/how-bill-browder- The Magnitsky Act – Behind the became-russias-most-wanted-man; Katie Scenes is about the ways in which the mind”. Neither legally, nor, morally. Zavadski, “How an Anti-Putin Film-Maker became a Kremlin Stooge,” 7/25/2017, last notion of human rights is sometimes There is no evidence accessed 2/11/2019, https://www.thedailybeast. used as a fake alibi for white-collar whatsoever that the government com/dissident-director-helped-trumps-russia- crimes. Though I explore just one case, of the United States conducted comrade-attack-us; and “Russian Agitprop Lands in Washington,” 6/19/2016, last accessed I think that I have managed to show independent investigations of the 2/10/2019, https://www.washingtonpost. that those ways are exceptionally policemen and the judges who were com/opinions/russian-agitprop-lands-in- sophisticated and efficient, and enlist supposedly involved in the death of washington/2016/06/19/784805ec-33dc-11e6- all the major media, civil society, 8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html?utm_term=. Magnitsky. And no one seems to be e38a9f18e74c. NGOs, governments, parliaments, and concerned of course about the rights major international organizations. of those on the Magnitsky list, who 3 Bill Browder, Red Notice. The True Story of High can’t even reply to the accusations, let Finance, Murder, and One Man’s Fight for Justice (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015). 6) Does William Browder’s role in the alone have the accusations verified formulation of the Magnitsky Act by an independent investigator or 4 Hayden White, Content of the Form. Narrative invalidate its value and that of the judge. Instead of protecting people, Discourse and Historical Representation (Baltimore: Global Magnitsky Act, in seeking to the Magnitsky case helps the “bad The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987) provide protection for those suffering guys” to demonstrate to their Russian 5 Robert Parry, “Guardians of the Magnitsky from the effects of deadly and corrupt compatriots that the West is rotten Myth,” Consortium News, 10/28/2018, last ac- power such as the recently deceased to the core, its policies are created cessed 2/7/2019, https://consortiumnews. Saudi Arabian journalist, Jamal com/2017/10/28/guardians-of-the-magnitsky- by compliant stooges (lying thieves myth/; James Carden, “By Screening The Mag- Khashoggi? and useful idiots), and more rockets nitsky Act the Newseum Stood up for the First should be built to confront America’s Amendment,” The Nation, 6/20/2016, last accessed 2/10/2019, https://www.thenation.com/article/ AN: Let me, for the argument’s sake, injustice towards Russia and others. A pose myself what would seem like by-screening-the-magnitsky-act-the-newseum- lie can never really protect anyone, in stood-up-for-the-first-amendment/; and Vladislav a version of your question: “Would my humble opinion. But the problem Silayev, “U.S. Economic Sanctions Policy towards Browder’s role in creating a weapon Russia: Examining the Magnitsky Act,” MA Thesis, is worse. It turns human rights into a Harvard University, March 2018. that could protect someone like hypocritical ideology to protect the Khashoggi from deadly and corrupt interests of the powers that be, a bit power invalidate that weapon?” My like the slogans about brotherhood answer would be, no, it would not and justice in the Soviet Union. invalidate that weapon. However, we

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NEWSNET March 2019 7 Losing Pravda, An Interview with Natalia Roudakova

INTERVIEW BY SEAN GUILLORY, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Editor’s note: this text is excerpted from a transcript of “The Ethics of Soviet Journalism” podcast on Sean Guillory’s Sean’s Russia Blog. The interview features Natalia Roudakova, who was awarded the 2018 Wayne S. Vucinich Prize for Losing Pravda: Ethics and the Press in Post-Truth Russia (Cambridge University Press). Sean Guillory: Your book’s title, Losing Pravda, has a double meaning, it seems to me. On the one hand it refers to the loss of the newspaper Pravda, which can be seen as a metaphor, for the Soviet Union in general. But on the other hand, it refers to the loss of truth. What are you trying to say with this double meaning of your book’s title? Natalia Roudakova: Well, like any clever book title, it is supposed to simply attract attention. But the first meaning is pretty obvious, about the loss of the newspaper. The second meaning is about the loss of the need to seek truth, the loss of the value of seeking truth and telling it to others that I am arguing has occurred in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. It’s this double meaning that I’m after. The cultural diminution of the value of seeking and telling truth to others, and especially to the face of power.

NEWSNET March 2019 8 SG: A reader might find this quite a space in the Soviet Union, and that in order to try to correct the injustice. ironic, or strange, because truth- it was occupied in particular by the SG: This is really interesting, and seeking isn’t usually associated practices surrounding journalism. goes to the role that Soviet journalism with Soviet journalism. This is one SG: Can you give an example of or Soviet journalists played within the of the things that your book begins how a Soviet journalist works with system, within the society, because with—a theoretical discussion of the the issue of truth? our general understanding—and I problematic of truth in the Soviet think this is something that you’re Union—but also how we understand NR: Yeah. I give a pretty extensive giving a good challenge to—is it more generally. You ask the reader example of somebody named Yuri that journalism is just a place for to see truth not as a binary of true and Shchekochikhin, a very well-known propaganda, right? But you have false, but as an ethic, or as a virtue, and Soviet journalist and then Russian these amazing stories of journalists even an expression of sincerity. What journalist and parliamentarian. actually being the voice of the do you mean by this ethical approach He worked for the newspaper population, of these whistle-blowers. to truth in the Soviet context? Literaturnaia Gazeta toward the end of the Soviet period, where he So what is the role of the press within NR: As I claim in the introduction, any was known as their bravest, most the Soviet Union? book that has the term pravda or truth courageous, honest, and hard- NR: As I see it, the most important in the title must address the question working investigative journalist. way to think of it is that the Soviet press of the moral balance of the entire He wasn’t by far the only one was part and parcel of the governing Soviet order, and so that is the big in the entire Soviet Union, but he was mechanism of Soviet society, but then question that I raise. I am interested in one of the better-known investigative governing needs to be understood as approaching truth as a social product journalists in Soviet Russia. He went an actual practice as opposed to a top- above all else, and by that I mean after a lot of cases of corruption in the down relay of totalitarian tendencies that it’s something that is produced Soviet government bureaucracies, of some leaders. by people together, something that very much acting on signals from has a big element of power to it, but One important role that I below, as we know from historical don’t address much at all in the is not reduced to it. I simultaneously work that has been done. follow Foucault and go beyond some book, because it has been addressed There are a fair number of of his more classic statements on the thousands of times elsewhere, is the cases of whistle-blowing in the Soviet relationship between truth and power. role of representing the Soviet society, Union that I discuss, and officially or rather Soviet power, to itself. So, I think of truth telling as a Literaturnaia Gazeta was known the propaganda or what German social activity, meaning that truth- as a place to which people could philosopher Jürgen Habermas calls tellers need to be socially recognized turn with a case of whistle-blowing. representative publicity, is showing as such. There are certain, tacit [Shchekochikhin] would take that to the king and his court how great criteria, and so I use a lot of different up, and he would work for months their dominion is. kinds of theories about what it means on an essay, investigating an issue. That’s one very important part, to be tacit. What does it mean to be Sometimes morally reprehensible non-direct? What does it mean to but it was not the only thing that was behavior by officials, sometimesgoing on in the Soviet Press. I even go signal something without explicitly illegal behavior by officials. Not every saying it? To the extent that this wave as far as to argue that it wasn’t even the story was published. In fact, more main thing in the Soviet press, or at least or space of truth exists, it exists as a stories were left unpublished or never social practice, recognized as such. I it wasn’t the main thing for which the even written, but the journalist did Soviet press was read and respected. claim in the book that there was such the necessary legwork and follow up

NEWSNET March 2019 9 “...any book that has the term pravda or truth in the title must address the question responsible, for the direction in which truth-seeking and truth-telling, so of the moral balance of the the country is going to go. much so that you speak of a cynical entire Soviet order, and so As the archives opened up, zeitgeist hanging over the profession that is the big question that as topics that couldn’t be written by the early 2000s. I raise. I am interested in about then became available to be NR: The setting in the cynical era approaching truth as a social written about, as many journalists actually happens very quickly. I start product above all else...” ran for office in the new elections to to see the beginnings of it in ‘93, ‘94. the Russian representative branch of Many journalists from the Soviet In addition to propaganda government, there was this incredible period simply could not go on in this or representative publicity Soviet kind of high going on. Many different atmosphere of having to constantly journalism provided an imperfect journalists opened their own look for money. Others, though, check on power, an accountability newspapers, television stations, and kept thinking, “All right, I can make role in the Soviet system. The press radio stations. some compromises but not others,” was pretty much the only institution However, as we all know in the because, some of them have simply of accountability in the absence field, the end of the Soviet Union and told me, “I don’t know what else to do. of free and fair elections and the the beginning of new liberal reforms I don’t want to do advertising, I don’t absence of a robust legal system to in the 90s were accompanied by a very want to learn another profession, I which citizens could turn with their deep and profound economic crisis, love journalism, that is what I do, and grievances. The press was it. when there was simply no currency now is a new time, so I’m just going to be collected and hyperinflation. to figure out how to stay as true to SG: So censorship ends in the There was no money in the budget, myself as I can under the pressure of late 80s and then the Soviet system no money for businesses to spend this search for money.” collapses. How did the end of this on advertising, and no money for And the search for money ethical system, these various practices citizens to pay for these outlets. And of Soviet journalism, change? often meant, on the part of media so at that very moment when lots of managers, the search for political NR: That’s a very dramatic, if journalists are wanting to start their sponsorship, because oftentimes not tragic, story in the end. It’s a own enterprises to become beacons money came during election combination of multiple factors that of public thought and opinion, they campaigns. end up without money. initially revived Soviet journalism. So some people simply Tracking the origins of The late 1980s, the perestroika years, couldn’t do it, others stayed in it, corruption in journalism, what begins the Gorbachev years, the glasnost and still many, many others came to happen is, what do you do when you years, are precisely the years when into the profession, young people, have no money but want to continue that spirit of public-oriented truth- usually, without having had any to do what you’re doing? You start seeking that I argue was at the core of that previous training in Soviet to look for money, and that concern of Soviet journalism, if not Soviet journalism, and hence without that for money becomes all powerful. propaganda, which I argue are two commitment to truth-seeking at I will never forget one phrase that different activities, flourished. the core of the profession that was a journalist told me: “In the Soviet When that spirit started to trained into Soviet journalists over Union, we were taught not to talk unfold and to take full shape, for a decades of mentorship. about money and not to think about brief period, there is a moment when When readers and viewers money. And now we have to think the Soviet press was still funded by consumed news and tried to make about money all the time.” And so the government, but was no longer sense of what was going on in the clearly that’s where things started to controlled by it at all. Journalists came 1990s, already in ‘93, ‘94, from the unravel professionally for journalism. into their full role of societal telos- sources that I have, I see that readers setters, as they call them: the people SG: You also note that this had and viewers were starting to question who are responsible, feel themselves a profound impact on the ethics of the sincerity and the honesty with

NEWSNET March 2019 10 NR: One of the things that went which journalists work. It doesn’t take out the window really quickly, I very much for a reader or a viewer to remember seeing it in the newspapers start to smell something is fishy when of the early 1990s, is the concern for all of a sudden the kind of coverage of the reader and viewer themselves. politics that they’re used to starts to I remember seeing something like change in subtle and sometimes not- this: “The newspaper finally no longer so-subtle ways. has to answer every letter and every That’s when, I think, the cynical phone call, and we consider this as a zeitgeist starts to take place, and then certain kind of freedom of the press.” it accelerates through the so-called That was very informative to see that wars of kompromat, which were at freedom of the press for some in their height as the modern oligarchy the early ‘90s was freedom from the was being formed in Russia, from the reader and from their responsibilities mid 90s to the early 2000s. And then, cynicism is a very multi-layered to the reader that the Soviet system towards the end of the book, I look phenomenon, and it has that tacit had instilled in journalists. into the situation where this cynical component when we withdraw So, this kind of deep zeitgeist is permeating all spheres of from politics, when we give up on a connection to readers and viewers life, including entertainment media way forward, when we turn away, and audience members is, I think, and the kinds of public statements when we become apathetic. But very telling, and a crucial component that public officials make, starting then he says only those people who of what Soviet journalism was about. with Putin and all the way down. have once been enchanted can be In today’s world, when trust in media SG: But there is some hope, disenchanted. is at such a premium, it is looking out because since, really, 2011, 2012, you So, at the heart of cynicism, for the reader’s interest, for the public do see a growing cadre of dedicated, he says, there is always a little kernel interest, really, that today’s journalists very good young journalists who are of idealism or truth-seeking in it, and could probably take away most. working and doing some fabulous it gets activated by the exorbitant, work. So how do you understand the cynical dis-inhibition of the powerful. current state of the ethics of Russian I am starting to see that there is a Natalia Roudakova (@roudakova) is a kind of double tension or double cultural anthropologist working in the field journalism amongst this new cadre? of political communication and comparative process going on related to that. NR: I think things today, in 2018, media studies, with a broad interest in moral On the one hand, officials in Russia philosophy and political and cultural theory. are a lot clearer, ethically, morally are increasingly good at showing She has worked as an Assistant Professor at speaking in Russian journalism than to everybody that they’re just in the the Department of Communication at UC they were even in 2013, 2014. Basically business of governing, or rather in the San Diego, and is now a visiting scholar in the I talk about the long 2000s as the Media and Communication Department at business of governing the country as Erasmus University in Rotterdam. most cynical period in contemporary if it was a private fiat, that they do not Russian history, where it seemed like care about citizens, that they do not Sean Guillory (@seansrussiablog) is the Digital Scholarship Curator at the University of there was no hope for any kind of care about the notions of justice. revival of the spirit of truth-seeking Pittsburgh Center for Russian, East European And the more they do & Eurasian Studies. He hosts Sean’s Russia and -telling. The mass protests of 2011 so, it seems, the more there is an Blog podcast. Guillory’s entire interview of and 2012 that I ended up taking some understanding, especially among Roudakova can be found here. part in convinced me otherwise. the young, and I don’t think only the I do rely a lot on the German young, that maybe enough is enough. philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s SG: And finally, what can today’s theorizing for my thinking on journalists in Russia learn from their cynicism. He talks about how modern Soviet forefathers?

NEWSNET March 2019 11 Recent Preservation Projects FROM THE SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN MATERIALS PROJECT

JUDY ALSPACH, CENTER FOR RESEARCH LIBRARIES Since its founding in 1995, the Slavic and East European Materials Project (SEEMP) has acquired, preserved, and maintained microform and digital collections of unique, rare, and voluminous research materials pertaining to the field of Slavic and East European studies for its members. SEEMP is administered by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), an international consortium of university, college, and independent research libraries. Founded in 1949, CRL supports original research and inspired teaching in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences by preserving and making available to scholars a wealth of rare and uncommon primary source materials from all world regions. CRL is based in Chicago. SEEMP emphasizes preservation, either through microfilming or digitization, of newspapers, journals, books, archives, pamphlets, and other relevant materials from the region. Geographic areas of interest include the countries of Eastern and Central Europe (Albania, Belarus’, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine), Russia, Transcaucasia (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), and the Central Asian nations that were formerly part of the Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan). Each year, members of SEEMP meet to evaluate new proposals and receive updates about projects previously approved for funding support. SEEMP regularly preserves

NEWSNET March 2019 12 and acquires content one title at a time. additional sets of Fierman’s newspapers During the past five years, SEEMP has were approved for microfilming. So approved funding to add each of the far, about half of the newspapers in following titles to its collection: this project have been completed and are available to researchers. The • Krokodil (published in Moscow). newspapers microfilmed so far include: SEEMP acquired issues from 1923- 1944 on 22 reels of microfilm. Kazakhstan Krokodil is an important Russian • Ana tīlī (1990-2010): Pro- satirical journal published from government weekly newspaper 1922 to 2000. It began as a published by the Kazakh Tili Society. supplement to the Workers’ Gazette • Aq bosagha (1993-1997): Monthly before it became a separate newspaper from the League of publication. Krokodil was one of Muslim Women several satirical publications during • Industrial’naia Karaganda (1997- the Soviet period. 1998): Newspaper of the Karaganda • Kurjer warszawski (published in Oblast in central Kazakhstan Warsaw) SEEMP acquired issues • Nauka Kazakhstana (1994-2000): from 1821-1839 on 32 reels of Biweekly publication of the Ministry microfilm. Kurjer warszawski was of Science – Academy of Sciences a daily newspaper published in of the Republic of Kazakhstan • Fidokor / FMD Partiyasi (1999-2007): Warsaw, Poland from 1821-1939. • Ortalyq Qazaqstan (1997- Organ of the Fikodor National ︠ ︡ • Zapoliarʹe (published in Vorkuta). 1998): Newspaper from central Democratic Party SEEMP acquired issues from August Kazakhstan, published three times 1952-Dec 1990 on 70 reels of a week • Golos Uzbekistana (1995-1996): microfilm.Zapoli ︠ a︡ rʹe was the official • Qazaq eli (1995-2010): Weekly Russian-language weekly issued by organ of Vorkuta’s Communist Party newspaper produced by the the People’s Democratic Party and the only newspaper that has Kazakh government • Ma’rifat (2000-2009): A principal been published in Vorkuta since its • Qazaqstan mughalimi (1988-2010): newspaper of Tashkent, issued founding in 1943. Its importance is Published by the Ministry of twice a week related to the city itself, which is of Education • Oila va zhamiiat (1992-2009): historical significance as: (1) Vorkuta • Qazaqstan sarbazy (1994-2007): Newspaper of the Women’s was one of the largest centers of Issued by the Defense Ministry of Committee of Uzbekistan; focuses Gulag camps in European Russia; Kazakhstan on social and women’s issues (2) it is one of a few major cities • Uchitel’Kazakhstana (1993-2007): in the world built above the Arctic Published by the Ministry of Science • Turkiston (1992-2009): Formerly Esh Circle; and (3) during the Soviet and Education of Kazakhstan Leninchi, renamed in 1992. Organ period it was one of the largest coal • Zan︠ g︡ gazeti (1996-2011): Semi- of the Kamolot Association of mining centers in Europe. weekly law gazette from Kazakhstan Young People of Uzbekistan SEEMP also takes on strategic multi- Kyrgyzstan • Ŭzbekiston adabiëti va sanʺati title projects, when such proposals are ︠ ︡ (1985- (1981-2009): Weekly organ of the brought forward for consideration by • Komsomolets Kirgizii 1991): Local organ of the Soviet Union of Writers of Uzbekistan SEEMP members. Communist Party’s youth wing In 2013, a set of Central Asian • Vatanparvar (1992-2009): Uzbek newspaper holdings was approved for Uzbekistan military newspaper, published by microfilming by SEEMP. These materials • Adolat (1995-2007): Organ of the the Ministry of Defense had been collected by Dr. William Adolat Social Democratic Party Judy Alspach is the Area Studies Program Fierman, Professor Emeritus in the Manager at the Center for Research Libraries Department of Central Eurasian Studies • Ësh leninchi (1981-1991): Organ of at Indiana University. In 2015 and 2016, the Union of Youth in Tashkent

NEWSNET March 2019 13 Figure 1. Prozhito.org. Front page.

The Prozhito Web Archive of Diaries: A RESOURCE FOR DIGITAL HUMANISTS

MISHA MEL’NICHENKO, SVETLANA RASMUSSEN, AND SUSAN GRUNEWALD

The Slavic Digital Humanities working group of ASEEES is proud to present the Prozhito project (prozhito.org) in an inaugural Digital Project spotlight section. Prozhito is a searchable digital corpus of Russian- and Ukrainian-language diaries. The ultimate goal of Prozhito is to create a digital gateway to understanding diaries with DH tools and methods. Prozhito started in April 2015 with 100 diaries containing 30,000 entries. Over the years the project has expanded and today Prozhito gives users access to over 3,000 diaries with over 300,000 daily entries. At the upcoming ASEEES conference in San Francisco, Slavic DH will host its second annual pre-conference event. Those interested in DH will have the opportunity to work with experts in diary studies to discuss options to enhance Prozhito’s collection and to make it more usable for researchers. Through this article and our pre-conference event, Slavic DH group invites all interested to learn how to incorporate this type of resource into their own research and teaching. Originally, Prozhito’s founder, the Moscow-based historian Misha Mel’nichenko, planned to collect only Soviet diaries. With the second version of Prozhito, launched in spring 2016, the team began collecting diaries from before 1917 and after 1991. The majority of the uploaded diaries still date from the 20th century. The majority

NEWSNET March 2019 14 of the diary entries in the collection that were heavily edited, censored, or publication. At this point the copyright concentrate on two key periods of written from scratch for publication. holders have a chance to exclude Russian history: the 1917 revolutions Nevertheless, Prozhito includes such any parts of the diary that they deem and World War II. One subset of diaries texts into the archive, voicing doubts unacceptable for publication in the starts roughly in 1916 and goes to about about their authenticity in the author’s Prozhito archive. 1924. The other major subset starts in profile. If desired, such texts can be In the vast majority of cases, the 1940 and lasts until 1946. At this point excluded from the search. fragments that are edited out contain Prozhito has also collected about two The Prozhito team tries to get the one or a combination of the following hundred diaries written during the permission for presenting the diary issues: siege of Leningrad. The Ukrainian- online from the author, their heirs, the language section of Prozhito contains • records of negative emotions editor, or the publisher. If it is impossible many diaries from the members of the caused by relatives and friends; to find any contact information, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. text is loaded into the archive without • negative assessments of others; All diaries are in their original language full-text access. The text of the diary, • anti-Semitic remarks; without translation. however, is available in the search • descriptions of reprehensible Prozhito’s founders were able to upload results. If a user searches for a word that stories (participation in theft or a large number of diaries into the appears in one of the records in this fraud, adultery); archive through a simple Microsoft diary, they will receive one diary entry • description of sexual practices, Word mark-up that parsed the full text containing this word, but they will not desires and fantasies. of a diary into individual daily entries be able to read the entire text. The Also, some heirs have repeatedly and created a searchable .xml file that Prozhito team uses this mode to upload voiced refusals to publish the earliest went directly onto the website. newly published diaries contributed and latest records, as the authors by publishing houses that are under Prozhito’s search functions allow a user created them in years of “insufficient active copyright. For example, all the to parse diaries by date, author, gender, intellectual strength”. When discussing diaries published and age. Also, the diaries are tagged by the academic by theme and genre: travel, family, publishing house weather, military, etc.. Researchers can Kuchkovo Pole are assemble a corpus of selected authors available in the within the website and search only the Prozhito search desired diaries. and the project The Prozhito team publishes diaries users can buy as they find them in a manuscript printed versions or a previous publication without of the diary in the additional commentary. When working publisher’s store at with a published diary, Prozhito a discount. does not aim to correct or edit the In exchange for the publication within the manuscript. The ability to use these volunteers, however, try to preserve texts in the project, the results of publishers’ work as much Prozhito returns as possible, that is, without any typos digital copies of or alterations. the transcribed Due to the nature of diary writing, and verified diary some potentially unreliable sources are manuscripts to the present in the corpus. Often these are author, their heirs, the Soviet editions of military diaries or the owner of the manuscript before

NEWSNET March 2019 15 specific cases, project participants try minutes (several days for a practicum) to minimize exemptions and propose to transcribe the text. Then, all replacing the names of the persons participants discuss their diary parts, involved with initials, but ultimately what was interesting, the questions always accept the will of the owners or they had, and the things they had managers of the manuscript. trouble reading with the others. These activities lead to excellent dialogs Community and Collaborative Work between participants, and the ultimate The work’s scope is colossal both realization that diaries are a source of in terms of the number of texts and surprising and amusing details about human participants. The project has life in Soviet society. revealed more than 2,000 published Prozhito works without institutional Russian-language diaries ranging from support. Thus its successes are a few pages to ten volumes. The project dependent on the work of its also came across more than 1,200 texts need work with estimated completion volunteers. Nevertheless, the project in electronic form. Finally, Prozhito times for each task and the subscribers was able to collect the diaries of acquired 120 unpublished manuscripts are free to choose the tasks that fit major Russian 19th- and 20th-century through their owners and their their interests. After communication intellectuals, as well as the diaries of relatives. Dozens of participants were about the tasks, organizers send the regular working-class people. The needed to partake in the searching, volunteers the project materials. ASEEES pre-conference event hopes scanning, transcribing, verification, and Volunteers do the work at their own to put Prozhito into a dialogue with marking up of the texts. To do this work, pace but are encouraged to complete English-speaking researchers and the Prozhito team created a volunteer assignments in reasonable time. Upon DH-specialists to bring the Russian, community. completion, the Prozhito team uploads Ukrainian, and Soviet 20th-century By way of the media, social networks, the resulting materials to the website. experience from the diaries into the university classrooms and publications and word of mouth, Prozhito assembed Collaborative work on the Prozhito worldwide. Prozhito’s founders hope over 500 volunteers interested in project has not been limited to that their work collecting diaries will working with other people’s diaries. The individuals working from home. go on and be of service to researchers volunteers connect with the project The project has evolved to include internationally, not only through its team either through email or through workshops, or laboratorii, which current digital tools and workshops, social networks. Each diary in Prozhito commenced in Moscow in 2016 and but also through innovations and new has one of several statuses: “needs have now been held in several Russian collaborations. formatting,” “needs transcribing,” or cities including Irkutsk, Perm, and “needs text.” Anyone can search for a Smolensk. Prozhito has also organized Since 2015, Misha Mel’nichenko has been working list of diaries with a specific status to guided practicums for students of the to upload pages of diaries to his digital repository fit their preference. Upon receiving project, Prozhito. Since its inception, Prozhito has Higher School of Economics in Moscow. compiled over 35,000 entries from Russian and an email from a volunteer, a volunteer Both workshops and practicums Ukrainian diaries, most dating to the Russian Civil organizer writes back with simple rules serve as an excellent model to further War and the Great Patriotic War. for working with published texts and collaborative research as well as to Svetlana Rasmussen is a Ph.D. candidate in History manuscripts, a list of manuscripts, and foster discussion of diary sources in a at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, expecting a list of diaries that need formatting classroom setting. Prozhito workshops to defend her dissertation “Rearing the Collective: according to Prozhito rules. Another Evolution of the Soviet School Values and Practices, allow volunteers to engage with a 1953 -1968” in Spring 2019. option is to subscribe to the Prozhito diary and work together to decipher newsletter, which sends out volunteer the passages. Workshop participants Susan Grunewald is a Ph.D. candidate in History at assignments monthly. Each month the Carnegie Mellon University, expecting to defend her each receive several scanned pages dissertation in May 2019. organizers send a list of diaries that of a diary and then have about 40

NEWSNET March 2019 16 AFFILIATE GROUP NEWS

CfP: AATSEEL Annual Conference nominated individually. In general, hard their knowledge of East Slavic language, San Diego, CA, February 6-9, 2020 copy submissions are preferred over history, and culture. Participants can The AATSEEL conference is a forum for e-versions.* The prizes will be awarded expect to acquire a familiarity with or exchange of ideas in all areas of Slavic at the AWSS meeting at the 2019 ASEEES strengthen their competency in the and East/Central European languages, Annual Convention. Rusyn language, as well as gain an literatures, linguistics, cultures, and If you have any questions, please understanding of Carpatho-Rusyn history, pedagogy. The Program Committee contact the committee’s chair: Melissa culture, literature, and ethnography. invites scholars to form panels around Bokovoy at [email protected] The Studium Carpato- specific topics, organize roundtable To nominate any work, please Ruthenorum is held on Prešov University’s discussions, propose forums on send or request that the publisher send campus, with the dormitory, cafeteria, instructional materials, and/or submit one copy to each of the five members of and classroom building in close proximity. proposals for individual presentations for the Prize committee by 15 May 2019: Instruction is provided by university the 2020 Conference. • Melissa Bokovoy, Dept of History, professors, distinguished Slavists, and Please submit your proposals by MSC06 3760, 1 U of New Mexico, specialists in Carpatho-Rusyn studies. April 15, 2019 for early consideration (the Albuquerque, NM 87131-1181 The language of instruction, in parallel final submission deadline is July 1, 2019). • Diane Nemec Ignashev, Dept of courses, is either Rusyn or English. The All proposals must be made through the German and Russian, Carleton program offers 20 hours of history lectures online submission process – no emailed College, 100 North College Street, and 20 hours of language instruction. proposals will be accepted. Northfield, MN 55057. (E-books/pdfs; A minicourse in Carpatho-Rusyn preferred) ethnography will also be offered. Extra CfS: Association for Women in Slavic • Jenny Kaminer, UC-Davis, Dept practice sessions outside of the classroom Studies Heldt Prizes of German and Russian, 1 Shields will help participants strengthen their The Association for Women in Slavic Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 conversational skills. Participants who Studies invites nominations for the 2019 • Maria Popova, Macgill U, Dept of complete the program receive official competition for the Heldt Prizes, awarded Political Science, 855 Sherbrooke certificates from the Studium, and for works of scholarship. To be eligible St. W., Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7 transcripts will be available for students for nomination, all books and articles for Canada who wish to earn credits for the program the first three prize categories must be • Anika Walke, Dept of History, through their home universities. published between 15 April 2018 and Washington U in St. Louis, CB 1062, 15 April 2019. Nominations for the 2019 Busch Hall 113, One Brookings Drive, CfP: CESS 2019 Central Eurasian Studies prizes will be accepted for the following St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 Society 20th Annual Conference, October categories: 10-13, 2019 • Best book in Slavic/Eastern European/ Carpatho-Rusyn Research Center Pre-Conference Workshops, Oct. 9-10 Eurasian women’s and gender studies 10th Annual Studium Carpato- Washington, DC • Best article in Slavic/Eastern European/ Ruthenorum Summer School For CESS 2019, the conference panels will Eurasian women’s and gender studies Prešov University in Prešov, Slovakia, explore ideas relating to all aspects of • Best book by a woman in any area of announces its three-week Studium humanities and social science scholarship. Slavic/East European/Eurasian studies Carpato-Ruthenorum International Summer The geographic domain of Central Eurasia • Best translation in Slavic/East European/ School for Rusyn Language and Culture encompasses Central Asia, the Caucasus, Eurasian women’s and gender studies to be held from June 9–29, 2019. The Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, (Must be published between 15 April program is hosted by the university‘s Inner Asia, the Black Sea region, the Volga 2017 and 15 April 2019) Institute of Rusyn Language and Culture. region, and East and Central Europe. One may nominate individual The Studium summer school is Practitioners and scholars in all fields with books for more than one category, and intended for those interested in studying an interest in this region are encouraged more than one item for each category. the Rusyn language and the history of the to participate. In addition, the organizers Articles included in collections as Carpatho-Rusyns, including high school will host Pre-Conference Workshops and well as journals are eligible for the (18 and over) and college students, as well special panels dedicated to works-in- “best article” prize, but they must be as Slavists and any who wish to broaden progress.

NEWSNET March 2019 17 Pre-Conference Workshops will are ineligible. be offered at the CESS 2019 Annual • Authors may be of any nationality Conference. Intended to provide as long as the work is originally SPOTLIGHT ON additional opportunities for scholarly published in English. ASEEES REGIONAL AFFILIATES engagement and training, the workshops • Books that have received other prizes will be held October 9-10, 2019. Possible are eligible. ASEEES encourages and welcomes workshop topics include: ethics and • Strong preference will be given to safety in field research, guidance for works by first-time authors and junior participation at regional doctoral students preparing for fieldwork, scholars early in their careers conferences, sponsored by our methods workshops (best practices in Please send one copy of regional affiliates. One need not be a archival research, qualitative data analysis, the nominated monograph to each resident in the region to participate interview best practices, participatory Committee member. Nominations must and regional conferences are approaches), publishing/preparing be received no later than June 15, 2019. ideal for graduate students and research for submission, teaching about even advanced undergraduates— the region and workshopping syllabi, CfS: Society for Romanian Studies regions also offer monetary prizes conducting public scholarship, and grant Graduate Student Essay Prize among student contributors. In proposal writing. The Society for Romanian Studies is short, conferences are meant to The website provides more pleased to announce the Eleventh Annual foster the comradery that allows information about the requirements Graduate Student Essay Prize competition members to grow their network of of each of the conference features. For for an outstanding unpublished essay scholars while engaging in friendly inquiries regarding the conference, email or thesis chapter. The submitted single- [email protected]. If you have any author work must be written in English by and constructive criticism. Our questions about the pre-conference a graduate student in any social science or smaller sizes allow for more options workshops, Amanda Wooden, amanda. humanities discipline on a Romanian or at conferences and often the ability [email protected]. Moldovan subject, broadly and inclusively to present in an interdisciplinary understood. environment. Regional affiliates The 2019 Hungarian Studies Association The competition is open to hold conferences in the spring Book Prize current MA and doctoral students or semesters, with the Central region Sponsored by the Hungarian Studies those who defended dissertations in AY holding meetings in fall. Check out Association, the goal of the book prize 2018–2019. Submitted work should have our revised web-based presence is to recognize quality scholarship been completed during AY 2017–18. If the on the ASEEES website and see in Hungarian studies and support essay is a dissertation chapter, it should be if participating in an upcoming Hungarian studies in the United States. accompanied by the dissertation abstract regional meeting works for you. The book prize is awarded biennially and table of contents. Expanded versions for the most important contribution to of conference papers are also acceptable Hungarian studies originally published if accompanied by a description of the • Southern Conference on Slavic in English in the previous two calendar panel and the candidate’s conference Studies (SCSS), March 14-17 years. The HSA Book Prize carries a cash paper proposal. Candidates should clearly • Northeast Slavic, East European award and is presented at the meeting of indicate the format of the essay submitted. & Eurasian Conference, March 30 the Hungarian Studies Association at the Essays/chapters should be up to 10,000 • Midwest Slavic Association- ASEEES annual convention. words double spaced, including reference Midwest Slavic Conference, April Rules of eligibility are as follows: matter. Candidates should also indicate 5-7 • The competition is open to works their institutional affiliation and the type • Western Slavic and Eurasian in any discipline, dealing with any aspect of the essay submitted. Questions can be Association (WSEA), April 24-27 of Hungarian studies. directed to the chair of the committee, • REECAS NW: Northwest Regional • The book must be a monograph, Marina Cap-Bun. Send a copy of the essay, Conference For Russian, East preferably by a single author, or by no any accompanying documentation (as European, and Central Asian more than two authors. both Word and PDF please) and updated Studies April 26-27, 2019 • It must bear a copyright date of 2017 CV to [email protected] by July 1, or 2018. 2019. • Central Slavic Conference hosts • Textbooks, collections, translations, its annual conference in the fall. bibliographies, and reference works

NEWSNET March 2019 18 PUBLICATIONS

censorship and new economic growth. In Alcestis in the Underworld, published this new atmosphere of freedom, Russia’s by Circling Rivers, is Nina Murray’s new satirical magazine Krokodil (The Crocodile) poetry collection. Murray describes the became rejuvenated. John Etty explores Greek myth from which the title is drawn: Soviet graphic satire through Krokodil “Alcestis takes the place of her husband, and its political cartoons. He investigates King Admetus, in the underworld, so that the forms, production, consumption, and he may continue to rule the living. She functions of Krokodil, focusing on the eventually returns to the land of the living. period from 1954 to 1964. Etty’s analysis She and her family — presumably — live extends and enhances our understanding happily ever after. But Alcestis has seen of Soviet graphic satire beyond state- and learned things no one else has known.” sponsored propaganda. Alcestis in the Underworld articulates Murray’s own radically foreign experience of civic duty: her life in Moscow Historical Atlas of Central Europe: Third as a US diplomat, after growing up in then- Revised and Expanded Edition, by Paul USSR Ukraine. Robert Magocsi, was released by University of Toronto Press in 2018. Michael Katz’s new translation of This edition takes into Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is now consideration recent changes in the out in paperback and is also included in an region. The 120 full-color maps, each all new Norton Critical Edition. accompanied by an explanatory text, provide a concise visual survey of political, A Dostoevskii Companion: Texts and economic, demographic, cultural, and Contexts, edited by Katherine Bowers, religious developments from the fall of the Connor Doak, and Kate Holland, is now Roman Empire in the early fifth century available through Academic Studies Press to the present. Embedded in the text are (November 2018). 48 updated administrative and statistical A Dostoevskii Companion aims to tables. The value of the Historical Atlas help students and readers navigate the of Central Europe as a reference tool is writer’s fiction and his world, to better enhanced by an extensive bibliography understand the cultural and sociopolitical and a gazetteer of place names – in up to milieu in which Dostoevskii lived and 29 language variants – that appear on the wrote. Rather than offer a single definitive maps and in the text. view of the author, the book contains a The Historical Atlas of Central collection of documents from Dostoevskii’s Europe is a resource for scholars, students, own time (excerpts from his letters, his journalists, and general readers who wish journalism, and what his contemporaries to have a fuller understanding of this critical wrote about him), as well as extracts from area, with its many peoples, languages, the major critical studies of Dostoevskii and continued political upheaval. from the contemporary academy. The volume equips readers with a deeper A History of Russian Literature, by Andrew understanding of Dostoevskii’s world Kahn, Mark Lipovetsky, Irina Reyfman, and his writing, offering new paths and and Stephanie Sandler, was published by directions for interpreting his writing. Oxford University Press in July 2018. This book provides a Graphic Satire in the Soviet Union: Krokodil’s comprehensive account of Russian writing Political Cartoons, by John Etty, was from its earliest origins in the monastic published by University Press of Mississippi. works of Kiev up to the present day. It After the death of Joseph Stalin, addresses continuities and discontinuities Soviet-era Russia experienced a flourishing in the history of Russian literature across artistic movement due to relaxed all periods, and in particular brings out

NEWSNET March 2019 19 trans-historical features that contribute field, the volume provides an overview of to the notion of a national literature. This the history and culture of one of the most volume delivers a fresh view on a series important communities in the long history of key questions about Russia’s literary of the Jewish people. history, by providing new mappings of literary history and a narrative that Photographic Literacy: Cameras in the pursues key concepts (rather more than Hands of Russian Authors, by Katherine individual authorial careers). The narrative M. H. Reischl, was published by Cornell underscores the ways in which context University Press in December 2018. and text are densely woven in Russian Photography, introduced to Russia literature, and demonstrates that the most in 1839, was nothing short of a sensation. exciting way to understand the canon and Its rapid proliferation challenged the other the development of tradition is through arts, including painting and literature, as a discussion of the interrelation of major well as the very integrity of the self. As and minor figures, historical events and Reischl shows in Photographic Literacy, literary politics, literary theory and literary authors as varied as Leonid Andreev, Ilya innovation. Ehrenburg, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn picked up the camera and reshaped not An Introduction to Estonian Literature, edited only their writing practices but also the by Hilary Bird, was published by Slavica sphere of literacy itself. Publishers in 2018. Bird’s Introduction to While these authors used Estonian Literature is a welcome contribution images to shape the reception of their for anyone with an interest in the lively work, Russian photographers--including and flourishing literature of this small but Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky and Alexander culturally vibrant country. Bird’s coverage is Rodchenko--used text to shape the not merely of the modern writers, some of reception of their visual work. From the whose work is available in English translation, diary to print, the literary word imbues the but also of literature in the Estonian language photographic moment with a personal life from the earliest times, which has been a story, and frames and reframes it in the closed book up to now to anyone without a writing of history. Reischl argues for the knowledge of the language. central place that photography has played in the formation of the Russian literary New Directions in the History of the Jews in imagination. From image to text and back the Polish Lands, edited by Antony Polonsky, again, she traces the visual consciousness Hanna Węgrzynek and Andrzej Żbikowski, of modern Russian literature as captured was published by Academic Studies Press through the lens of the Russian author- in August 2018. photographer. This volume is made up of essays first presented as papers at the Russia’s Great War And Revolution In the conference held in May 2015 at POLIN Far East: Re-Imagining the Northeast Asian Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Theater, 1914-22, edited by David Wolff, Warsaw. One section of the book deals Shinji Yokote, and Willard Sunderland, with museological questions—the voices was published by Slavica Publishers in of the curators, comments on the POLIN September 2018. museum exhibitions and projects, and This volume features new research discussions on Jewish museums and on the critical effects of World War I and education. The second section examines the Russian Revolution and Civil War in the current state of the historiography Northeast Asia, a broad region that has of the Jews on the Polish lands from the historically included the Russian Far East, first Jewish settlement to the present day. Mongolia, China, Korea, and Japan. The Making use of the leading scholars in the chapters pose new questions about the

NEWSNET March 2019 20 causes, consequences, and dynamics in the new political order. Stalin and his of the war and revolutionary upheavals fellow Communist Party leaders in turn in the region. More than anything, the used these practices ruthlessly to pursue volume makes clear that our familiar their ideological agenda of economic habit of approaching Russia’s Great War and social transformation. Synthesizing and Revolution from a predominantly new research on Stalinist collectivization, European angle needs to be reconsidered. industrialization, cultural affairs, gender roles, nationality policies, the Second Ian Helfant’s book, That Savage Gaze: World War, and the Cold War, the book Wolves in the Nineteenth-Century Russian provides a succinct account of this pivotal Imagination, was published by Academic period in world history. Studies Press in August 2018. That Savage Gaze explores the Writing the Time of Troubles: False Dmitry in significance of wolves in pre-revolutionary Russian Literature, by Marcia A. Morris, was Russia utilizing the perspectives of cultural published by Academic Studies Press in studies, ecocriticism, and human-animal August 2018. studies. It examines the ways in which Is each moment in history hunters, writers, conservationists, members unique, or do essential situations repeat of animal protection societies, scientists, themselves? The traumatic events doctors, government officials and others associated with the man who reigned as contested Russia’s “Wolf Problem” and the Tsar Dmitry have haunted the Russian particular threat posed by rabid wolves. imagination for four hundred years. Was It elucidates the ways in which wolves Dmitry legitimate, the last scion of the became intertwined with Russian identity House of Rurik, or was he an upstart both domestically and abroad. It argues pretender? A harbinger of Russia’s doom that wolves played a foundational role in or a herald of progress? Writing the Time of Russians’ conceptions of the natural world Troubles traces the proliferation of fictional in ways that reverberated throughout representations of Dmitry in eighteenth- Russian society, providing insights into and nineteenth-century Russia, showing broader aspects of Russian culture and how playwrights and novelists reshaped history as well as the opportunities and and appropriated his brief and equivocal challenges that modernity posed for the career as a means of drawing attention Russian empire. to and negotiating the social anxieties of their own times. David L. Hoffmann’s The Stalinist Era was published by Cambridge University Press in December 2018. Index of Advertisers This book offers a new interpretation of Stalinism by placing it in American Councils/ACTR 22, 26 an international context. Many “Stalinist” European University St. Petersburg 27 practices—the state-run economy, Kritika/Slavica/ Three Strings Books 7 POLIN 27 surveillance, propaganda campaigns, and SRAS 15 the use of concentration camps—did not University of Kansas 31 originate with Stalin or even in Russia, but were instead tools of governance developed by European countries prior to In addition to articles and news columns, NewsNet also features a limited number of and during the First World War. The Soviet advertisements from various organizations system was formed at this moment of total presenting scholarly publications, products, war, and wartime practices of mobilization services, or opportunities of interest to those in the Russian, Eurasian, and Central European and state violence became institutionalized fields. Please contact [email protected] for rates, specs and production schedule.

NEWSNET March 2019 21 Go Beyond Ordinary Language & culture Fully-funded research immersion abroad Summer regional Overseas internships studies

Applications for Summer 2019 due February 15 Applications for Fall / AY 2019 due March 15

acStudyAbroad.org acResearchAbroad.org STUDY ABROAD [email protected]

NEWSNET March 2019 22 2019 ASEEES PRIZES CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS APPLICABLE (including literature, the arts, film, etc.). The winner will be chosen by: TO ALL BOOK PRIZE COMPETITIONS: Policy analyses, however scholarly, • Jeremy Hicks, School of Languages, For full rules and complete details about cannot be considered. Linguistics and Film, Queen Mary U all prizes, please see http://aseees.org/ The winner will be chosen by: of London, Mile End Road, London E1 programs/aseees-prizes • Yoshiko Herrera, Dept. of Political 4NS, United Kingdom • The copyright date inside the book Science, U of Wisconsin-Madison, • Lisa Wakamiya, Associate Professor, must be 2018 North Hall, Room 110, 1050 Bascom Dept of Modern Languages and • The book must be a monograph, Mall, Madison, WI 53706 Linguistics, Florida State U, Diffenbaugh preferably by a single author, or by no • Krisztina Fehérváry, c/o Dept. of 362, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1540 more than two authors Anthropology, U of Michigan, 1085 S. • Diane Nemec Ignashev, *send • Authors may be of any nationality as University Ave, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107 electronic copy if possible to dignashe@ long as the work is originally published • Barbara Henry, 2334 NE 92nd Street, carleton.edu; Dept of German & in English in the US* Seattle, WA 98115 Russian, Carleton College, One North College St., Northfield MN 55057 • Textbooks, collections, translations, bibliographies, and reference works USC BOOK PRIZE IN LITERARY & CULTURAL REGINALD ZELNIK BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY are ineligible STUDIES The Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History, • Works may deal with any area of The USC Book Prize in Literary and Cultural established in 2009 and sponsored by Eastern Europe, Russia, or Eurasia* Studies, established in 2009 and sponsored the Institute of Slavic, East European, • Additional eligibility requirements by the Department of Slavic Languages and and Eurasian Studies at the University unique to each prize competition are Literatures at the University of Southern of California, Berkeley, is awarded for an listed below California, is awarded for an outstanding outstanding monograph published on *Except where otherwise indicated monograph published on Russia, Eastern Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia in the Nominating Instructions Europe, or Eurasia in the fields of literary & field of history in 2018. cultural studies in 2018. • Send one copy of eligible monograph RULES OF ELIGIBILITY RULES OF ELIGIBILITY to each Committee member AND to • The competition is open to works of the ASEEES main office. Nominations • The competition is open to works of scholarship in history must be received by April 15. scholarship in literary and cultural The winner will be chosen by: • Fill out the Book Prize nomination form studies, including studies in the visual • Mark submissions with the name of arts, cinema, music, and dance. • Christine Ruane, 189 Cameron Station the prize(s)

WAYNE S. VUCINICH BOOK PRIZE Established in 1983, the Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize, sponsored by ASEEES and the Stanford University Center for Russian and East European Studies, is awarded for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences published in English in the US in 2018. RULES OF ELIGIBILITY • The competition is open to works of scholarship in any discipline of the social sciences or humanities

NEWSNET March 2019 23 Blvd, Alexandria, VA 22304 • Rinna Kullaa, Institute for East European • Kimberly Elman Zarecor, 146 College • Jeff Sahadeo, Institute of European, History, U of Vienna, Spitalgasse 2, Hof 3, of Design, Iowa State U, 715 Bissell Rd, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Carleton A-1090 Wien, Austria Ames, IA 50011-1066 U, 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa ON K1S-5B6 Canada ED A HEWETT BOOK PRIZE KULCZYCKI BOOK PRIZE IN POLISH • Keely Stauter-Halsted, 133 S. East Ave., The Ed A Hewett Book Prize, established in STUDIES Oak Park, IL 60302 1994 and sponsored by the U of Michigan The Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies, Center for Russian, East European, and established in 1996 and sponsored by the DAVIS CENTER BOOK PRIZE IN Eurasian Studies, is awarded for an Kulczycki family, former owners of the Orbis POLITICAL & SOCIAL STUDIES outstanding monograph on the political Books Ltd. of London, England, is awarded The Davis Center Book Prize in Political economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or Eastern for the best book in any discipline on any and Social Studies, established in 2008 Europe, published in 2018. aspect of Polish affairs, published in 2018. and sponsored by the Kathryn W. and RULES OF ELIGIBILITY RULES OF ELIGIBILITY Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, • Works must be on the political • Only works originally published in is awarded for an outstanding monograph economy of Russia, Eurasia and/or English, outside of Poland, are eligible published on Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Eastern Europe. • The book must be a monograph Europe in anthropology, political science, The winner will be chosen by: predominantly on Polish studies. sociology, or geography in 2018. • Dinissa Duvanova, International • Preference will be given to works by RULES OF ELIGIBILITY Relations, Lehigh U, 201 Maginnes Hall, 9 first-time authors. • The competition is open to works of West Packer Ave, Bethlehem, PA 18015 • The competition is open to works in scholarship in anthropology, political • Gerald Easter, Dept. of Political Science, any discipline, dealing with any aspect science, sociology, or geography, and McGuinn Hall, Boston College, 140 of Polish affairs. Commonwealth Ave, Chestnut Hill, MA also to social science works that cross • Previous winners of this prize are 02467 strict disciplinary boundaries ineligible. • Doug Rogers, Yale U, Dept. of The winner will be chosen by: Anthropology, 10 Sachem Street, New The winner will be chosen by: • Morgan Liu, Dept. of Near Eastern Haven, CT 06511-3707 • Jessie Labov, 204 N. 35th Street, Languages & Cultures, The Ohio State U, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Electronic 1775 College Road, 300 Haggerty Hall, BARBARA JELAVICH BOOK PRIZE submissions are preferred. Please email Columbus, OH 43210-1340 The Barbara Jelavich Book Prize, established PDF submissions to [email protected]. • Jelena Subotic, Georgia State U, Dept. in 1995 and sponsored by the Jelavich • Bozena Karwowska, 917 - 1873 East of Political Science, PO Box 4069, estate, is awarded for a distinguished Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada. Atlanta, GA 30302-4069 monograph published on any aspect of Electronic submissions are preferred. • Graeme Robertson, UNC at Chapel Hill, Southeast European or Habsburg studies Please email PDF submissions to Dept. of Political Science, 315 Hamilton since 1600, or nineteenth- and twentieth- [email protected] Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3265 century Ottoman or Russian diplomatic • Brian Porter-Szucs, 504 Maple Ridge history in 2018. Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 MARSHALL D. SHULMAN BOOK PRIZE RULES OF ELIGIBILITY The Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize, W. BRUCE LINCOLN BOOK PRIZE • Authors must be scholars who are established in 1987 and sponsored by the The W. Bruce Lincoln Book Prize, sponsored citizens or permanent residents of Harriman Institute of Columbia University, by Mary Lincoln, is awarded biennially (in North America. is awarded for an outstanding monograph even numbered years) for an author’s dealing with the international relations, • The competition is open to works on first published monograph or scholarly foreign policy, or foreign-policy decision- any aspect of Southeast European or synthesis that is of exceptional merit and making of any of the states of the former Habsburg studies since 1600, or 19th- lasting significance for the understanding Soviet Union or Eastern Europe published and 20th-century Ottoman or Russian of Russia’s past, published in 2018. in 2018. diplomatic history. RULES OF ELIGIBILITY RULES OF ELIGIBILITY The winner of the will be chosen by: • The book must be an author’s first • Works must be about international • Stella Ghervas, Professor of Russian published monograph or work of behavior of the countries of the former History, School of History, Classics synthesis. Communist Bloc. and Archaeology, Armstrong Building, • It must be published in English and in Newcastle U, Newcastle upon Tyne, The winner will be chosen by: North America. NE1 7RU, UK. (email address): *also • Jeff Hass, Dept. of Sociology & send an electronic copy if possible to • The geographic area of study is broadly Anthropology, U of Richmond, 28 [email protected] defined as the territories of the former Westhampton Way, Richmond, VA 23173 • Mark Cornwall, Professor of imperial Russian state and the Soviet • Rachel Epstein, Joseph Korbel School of Modern European History, Faculty Union. The book may deal with any International Studies, U of Denver, 2201 of Humanities, Avenue Campus, period of history. S. Gaylord Street, Denver, CO 80208 Southampton SO17 1BF, UK • Books that have received other prizes

NEWSNET March 2019 24 are eligible. in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian and bibliography. Submissions • Scholarly merit, originality, and felicity Studies. The winner of the competition must be double-spaced and include of style will be the main criteria for receives free roundtrip domestic airfare footnotes or endnotes. selection. to and room at the ASEEES Annual • Essays should be emailed to The winner will be chosen by: Convention and an honorary ASEEES Mary Arnstein, Communications membership in 2020. • Edith Clowes, Dept. of Slavic Languages Coordinator, at [email protected] and Literatures, 269 New Cabell Hall, U RULES OF ELIGIBILITY and to all members of the prize of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904 • ASEEES Regional Affiliates and committee. • Erika Monahan, Dartmouth College, Dept Institutional Members are invited Deadline for submissions: June 1. of History HB 6107, 301 Carson Hall, 28 to hold their own competitions for North Main St., Hanover, NH 03755 best essay among their graduate The winner will be chosen by: • Sergei Zhuk, Dept. of History, Ball State students, and submit the winning • Eric Gordy, U College London (UK) U, Muncie, IN 47306 paper to the ASEEES Grad Student • Laura Olson Osterman, U of Colorado, Prize Committee. • Jovana Babovic, SUNY Geneseo, OMELJAN PRITSAK BOOK PRIZE IN • Essay author must be a graduate UKRAINIAN STUDIES student and must have written the ROBERT C. TUCKER/STEPHEN F. COHEN The Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in essay in English while in a graduate DISSERTATION PRIZE Ukrainian Studies, established in 2019 program. The Tucker/Cohen Dissertation Prize, and sponsored by the Ukrainian Research established in 2006 and sponsored by the • Essays can be any of several formats: Institute at Harvard University, recognizes a KAT Charitable Foundation, is awarded Expanded versions of conference distinguished book in the field of Ukrainian annually (if there is a distinguished papers; graduate level seminar studies that was published in 2018. submission) for an outstanding English- papers; Master’s thesis chapters; RULES OF ELIGIBILITY: language doctoral dissertation in Soviet dissertation chapters • The competition is open to works in or Post-Soviet politics and history in the any discipline, dealing with any aspect NOMINATING INSTRUCTIONS tradition practiced by Robert C. Tucker of Ukrainian studies, including the • Essays should be submitted by the and Stephen F. Cohen. works that put Ukrainian experiences Chairs of the Regional Affiliates or in a broad comparative context. RULES OF ELIGIBILITY the primary representatives of the The winner will be chosen by: Institutional Members. Graduate • The dissertation must be written in • Heather Coleman, Dept. of History and students whose institution is not English and defended at a university Classics, 2-28 Tory Building, Uof Alberta, in the US or Canada; Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4 Canada an ASEEES institutional member • The dissertation must be completed • Catherine Wanner, Professor, History or is not holding a competition and defended during the 2018 and Anthropology, 302 Weaver this year, are advised to check the calendar year; Building, Penn State U, University Park, rules for their regional competition. PA 16802 Students cannot self-nominate their • The dissertation’s primary subject • Michael Naydan, 236 Burrowes papers/must go through the proper and analytical purpose must be in Building, Dept. of Germanic and Slavic nominating procedures. the realm of the history of domestic Languages, Penn State U, University • Submitter must clearly indicate the politics, as broadly understood in Park, PA 16802 format of the essay submitted and academic or public life, though it provide an abstract. may also include social, cultural, GRADUATE STUDENT ESSAY PRIZE economic, international or other • Essays should have a word count The ASEEES Graduate Student Essay Prize of 7,500-14,000 (25 to 50 pages dimensions. The dissertation must was established in 2006 and is awarded for approximately) inclusive of footnotes focus primarily on Russia (though the an outstanding essay by a graduate student topic may also involve other former

NEWSNET March 2019 25 Soviet republics) during one or more archivists or curators whose contributions • Quietly but enduringly and effectively periods between January 1918 and to Slavic, East European and Eurasian promoting and strengthening the the present. studies librarianship have been especially profession noteworthy or influential. The effect of Deadline for nominations June 1. NOMINATING INSTRUCTIONS these contributions may be the result of The winner of the CLIR Distinguished • A nomination will consist of a letter continuous or distinguished service to Service Award will be chosen by: from the faculty advisor explaining the profession, but may also be the result the ways in which the work is of extraordinarily active, innovative or • Jon Giullian, U of Kansas outstanding in both its empirical and collaborative work that deserves national • Christopher Condill, U of Illinois interpretive contributions, along with recognition. • Janice Pilch, Rutgers U • Joseph Lenkart, University of Illinois, a 700-1,000 word abstract, written by RULES OF ELIGIBILITY the candidate, specifying the sources Urbana-Champaign • Active participation in special and general findings of the research. • Andy (George Andrew) Spencer, U of projects, efforts or initiatives that A faculty supervisor may nominate Wisconsin-Madison have measurably impacted the no more than one dissertation a year. • Liladhar Pendse, UC Berkeley profession • Erik Scott, U Kansas Deadline for submissions: May 15. • Exemplary and influential research The winner will be chosen by: and/or scholarship pertaining to DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTIONS AWARD SEEES librarianship • Valerie Sperling, Clark U Established in 1970 the Association’s • Robert English, USC • Consistently superior ASEEES Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, • Matthew Lenoe, U of Rochester committee or subcommittee work East European, and Eurasian Studies and /or advocacy Award honors eminent members of ASEEES CLIR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE • Exemplary leadership on ASEEES the profession who have made major LIBRARIAN AWARD committees, subcommittees or in contributions to the field through The ASEEES Committee on Libraries and other initiatives scholarship of the highest quality, Information Resources Distinguished • Conceiving of and implementing mentoring, leadership, and/or service to Service Award, which was established in innovative or creative ideas that the profession. The prize is intended to 2010, honors ASEEES member librarians, benefit the profession recognize diverse contributions across

Fellowships For language study Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad: for students of Russian in Moscow and Persian in Dushanbe. $5,000 - $9,000.

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NEWSNET March 2019 26 the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies field. NOMINATING INSTRUCTIONS • The Committee accepts nominations in writing or via e-mail from any member of ASEEES. • The lead nominator should submit all documents and letters in one PDF file to the Committee Chair. • The nomination letter should include: biography focusing on the individual’s distinguished achievements in Slavic, East European and Eurasian studies; a list of publications, editorships, curatorships; a list of awards and prizes;his or her contributions in mentoring and training; and his or her involvement in and service to ASEEES and/or the profession, if any. • The nomination file should include the nominee’s CV. • Self-nomination is not accepted. • Committee members also survey the field for possible awardees. Deadline for nominations is April 1. The winner will be chosen by: • Eric Naiman, UC Berkeley • Kristen Ghodsee, U of Pennsylvania • Dan Healey, U of Oxford • Lauren Kaminsky, Harvard U • Olga Shevchenko, Williams College

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lectures, conferences, workshops, fellowships Call for applications at POLIN Museum polin.pl/en/geop

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NEWSNET March 2019 27 IN MEMORIAM ASEEES Awards First Book HERMAN S. ERMOLAEV MARTIN VOTRUBA Subvention in Spring 2019 Herman Martin Votruba, Sergeevich Head of Slovak Ukrainian Women Writers and the National Ermolaev was Studies Program Imaginary: From the Collapse of the born in Tomsk, and Senior Lecturer USSR to the Euromaidan by Oleksandra Siberia in 1924. at the University of Wallo, University of Toronto Press Pittsburgh, died Ermolaev (forthcoming in 2019) came to the US on November 23, in September 2018. of 1949 as a Votruba was Tales from Albarado: Ponzi Logics of scholarship student at Stanford. From born in 1948 in Accumulation in Postsocialist Albania by there he received his MA and PhD from UC Brno, Moravia. He received his MA and Smoki Musaraj, Cornell University Press Berkeley’s Department of Slavic Languages doctorate from Comenius University. He (forthcoming in 2019) and Literatures. began his career as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Translation and Interpretation He spent his entire academic career at The committee agreed that both books Princeton, beginning as an instructor in in Bratislava in 1973 and continued at 1959 and becoming a full professor in 1970. Comenius University, Slovakia. After leaving are likely to make important contributions Ermolaev was known for his survey course Czechoslovakia, he served on the editorial to the field while also serving as good on Soviet literature; however, he also taught staff of the Ornciment Quarterly and as an texts for undergraduate- and graduate- a popular course on the works of Aleksander editor for Radio Free Europe. The University level courses. Solzhenitsyn and offered courses on the of Pittsburgh appointed him Slovak Chair Russian short story and advanced Russian. of the Slovak Studies Program, where he remained since 1990. In addition to his duties at Princeton, Upcoming Articles in Ermolaev taught advanced literature courses In addition to teaching courses in Slovak at Middlebury’s Russian Summer School. He language at all levels, history, culture, and Slavic Review served as AATSEEL vice president (1968– cinema, he built the largest collection Vol. 78 Spring 2019 1970), president (1970–1972), and Executive of Slovak films outside of Slovakia and arranged public showings. Votruba helped Council member (1972–1977). “Environmental Subjectivities from the send many students to study Slovak at Ermolaev’s scholarship focused on Russian Soviet North” by Andy Bruno literature of the Soviet period; his book Soviet Comenius University in Bratislava. Together “Curative Nature: Medical Foundations of Literary Theories 1917–1934: The Genesis of with Christine Metil, he started the Slovak Soviet Nature Protection, 1917-1941” by Socialist Realism remains the standard work Heritage Festival. In addition, he organized Johanna Conterio on the subject. His next major project was the annual Thomas Kukučka Memorial Lectures. Votruba himself often lectured an annotated translation of Gorky’s Untimely “Bringing Oil to Life: Corporations and at the Department of State, at academic Conspiracies in Russian Oil Documentaries” Thoughts: Essays on Revolution, Culture, and conferences, and elsewhere on Slovak topics. the Bolsheviks, 1917–1918. Additionally, by Douglas Rogers Votruba was a member of the Board of Mikhail Sholokhov was the subject of some directors of the Academia Istropolitana “Small Comrades as Historians and of Ermolaev’s most important work. and of the Western Pennsylvania History Ethnographers: Performativity, Agency and As a scholar of Soviet literature, Ermolaev Society’s Slovak collection committee. He the Socialist Pedagogy of Citizenship in confronted the question of censorship. was also a certified tester for Slovak and Ceausescu’s Romania, 1969-1989” by Diana He charted changing policies of Soviet Czech languages for ACTFL’s Interagency Georgescu censorship by comparing editions of Soviet Language Roundtable protocol and “Psychology and Management of the “classics” and noting what was changed in training. He received numerous awards Workforce in Post-Stalinist Hungary” by each era depending on the most recent and commendations including AATSEEL Tuomas Laine-Frigren political concerns. The result was a broad Excellence in Teaching Award (Post- “Doublespeak: Poetic Language, Lyric Hero, and coherent picture of the influence of Secondary); Slovak Studies Association Best the political on the literary throughout the and Soviet Subjectivity in Mandel’shtam’s ‘K Academic Article Prize; the Milan Hodža nemetskoi rechi’” by Kirill Ospovat Soviet period. His magisterial analysis was Award of Honor, from the Slovak Academy published in 1997 under the title Censorship of Sciences; and Medal of Honor from the “The History and Afterlife of Soviet in Soviet Literature, 1917–1991. Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to the US. Demography: The Socialist Roots of Neoliberalism” by Inna Leykin Excerpted from Princeton University’s Excerpted from text provided by Michael “Was There a ‘Simple Soviet’ Person? webpage. Kopanic, Jr. (University of Maryland, Debating the Politics and Sociology of ‘Homo University College) Sovieticus’” by Gulnaz Sharafutdinova

NEWSNET March 2019 28 PERSONAGES

Congratulations to American Councils president emeritus Dan Davidson on receiving the IIE Centennial Medal for his ASEEES DISSERTATION RESEARCH GRANT commitment to international education.

The 2019 Luce/ACLS Fellowship in Religion, Journalism & International Affairs increases public understanding of the role of religion ASEEES is sponsoring up to 16 grants annually, at a maximum of $6,000 in international affairs. The 2019 Luce/ each, for the purposes of conducting doctoral dissertation research in ACLS Fellows include ASEEES member Larisa Jasarevic, University of Chicago, Eastern Europe and Eurasia in any aspect of Slavic, East European, and for “Beekeeping in the End Times: Disaster Eurasian studies in any discipline. Ecology and Islamic Eschatology in Bosnia and Beyond.” Thanks to the generous gifts from ASEEES members and other donors to the Future of the Field campaign, we are able to offer several new grants in Johanna Mellis will be joining Ursinus Women and Gender Studies, LGBTQ Studies, and in Russian Studies. College as an assistant professor of World history. DEADLINE: Applications must be submitted by April 30

The jury for the HABSBURG syllabus ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must be graduate students of any nationality, in competition announces the winner, Brian any discipline currently enrolled in a PhD program in the US. Applicant must Porter-Szucs, for his course, History 331 have successfully achieved PhD candidacy (ABD status) by the start of the - Poland in the Modern World. The topics proposed research travel covered provide for broad and variegated exposure to Poland’s political and social APPLICATION: aseees.org/programs/dissertation-grant experience and political culture from the decades before World War I through the CONTACT: [email protected] with any further questions. post-communist era. The readings include a survey of modern Polish history by Porter-Szucs, along with diverse primary source readings, many of them translated by Porter-Szucs himself. The readings offer students an array of perspectives CIVIL SOCIETY IN RUSSIA RESEARCH GRANT on Polish society and politics. Students who take this course are challenged to immerse themselves in how historians and Polish citizens have understood their experience and to think critically about Thanks to support from the US-Russia Foundation, ASEEES is sponsoring those perceptions. grants (up to $6,000) to support research related to the rule of law, governance, economy, business, and civil society in Russia. These grants will Dr. Maciej Siekierski, Curator of the provide opportunities for young scholars to make connections with Russian European Collections of the Hoover Institution, has been awarded the Medal peers and senior specialists, promoting long-term professional relations and of the 75th Anniversary of Jan Karski’s fostering the next generation of Russia experts. Mission. This is a distinction given to those fostering respect for the renowned courier The grants may be held concurrently with other partial funding sources; of the Polish Underground during WWII. however recipients cannot also hold fully-funded research fellowships. Siekierski received the medal as a guardian of the history of Poland for his work saving DEADLINE: Applications must be submitted by April 30 historical documents related to the fight ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must be MA, PhD (at the predisseration level), or for freedom and independence during the Second World War and post-war activities. professional school students enrolled at US universities. Please see the website for complete requirements. APPLICATION: see aseees.org/programs/civil-society-russia-research-grant CONTACT: [email protected] with any further questions.

NEWSNET March 2019 29 INSTITUTIONAL MEMBER NEWS

HOOVER INSTITUTION LIBRARY THE KENNAN INSTITUTE AND ARCHIVES AT THE WILSON CENTER

George F. Kennan Fellows will be based Institute will continue to offer opportunities The Hoover Institution Library & Archives at the Wilson Center in DC for three-month for collaboration and engagement. and the Hoover Institution Washington, residencies. Fellows will receive access to Applicants for the Billington Fellowship DC office are pleased to announce the the Library of Congress, National Archives, must hold a PhD awarded within the past 10 opening of a satellite reading room for and policy research centers in DC, as well as years. Preference will be given to proposed digital content at the Hoover DC office. the opportunity to meet with key experts research in the fields of Russian history and Computer workstations will serve digital and officials. While conducting research, culture. There is no citizenship restriction on collection material, including more than Kennan Fellows are expected to actively this grant. 66,000 items that make up its digital participate in discussions with the policy and The Billington Fellowship offers a collections website, including the poster academic communities, including speaking monthly stipend, research facilities, a collection, a wide variety of sound engagements, meetings, conferences, research intern, and computer access. recordings, KGB records from the Baltic and other activities. Upon completion Fellows are required to be in residence at KI of the fellowships, the grantees become for the duration of the grant. The application States, Pasternak family correspondence alumni, for whom Kennan will continue deadline is May 15, 2019. and manuscripts, and more to offer opportunities for collaboration The DC reading room, located at and engagement. There are no citizenship The Galina Starovoitova Fellowship on 1399 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 500, requirements for this grant. Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Washington, DC 20005. Researchers Please note that applicants have an is available to scholars, policy makers, should email [email protected] to option to apply for the fellowship as journalists, civic activists, and other engaged make an appointment. individuals or as part of a team. If applying persons who successfully bridge the worlds The Hoover Institution is excited to as a team of two (or three) applicants, the of ideas and public affairs to advance partner with the Hoover DC office to applicants must be citizens of at least two human rights and conflict resolution. expand access to the East Coast and different countries. The goal of such joint Applicants with substantial experience provide scholars with an alternative fellowships is to promote collaborative from a wide variety of backgrounds are option for conducting research with research projects among US, Russian, and eligible for appointment. All applicants Ukrainian experts. Kennan Fellowship are required to have a working knowledge select digital Hoover Institution Library & Teams will: Produce joint paper(s) for policy- of English. For academic participants, Archives materials. relevant publications; Present work at DC, eligibility is limited to the postdoctoral Russia, and/or Ukraine events; Conduct level, and normally it is expected meetings and engage with policymakers that academic candidates will have MENTORING PROGRAMS in DC. Competitions for the fellowships will demonstrated their scholarly development 2019-2020 CALL FOR be held twice yearly. The next application by publication beyond their dissertation. PARTICIPATION deadline is September 1. Applicants must For other applicants, an equivalent level of submit a completed application. professional achievement is expected. ASEEES offers two distinct The Starovoitova Fellowship offers a mentoring programs: a year- The Billington Fellow will be based monthly stipend, research facilities, word long traditional mentor-mentee at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute processing support, and research assistance. relationship for students and in DC for a nine-month term. Fellows will One 6-month and one 3-month grant are early career scholars to discuss receive access to the Library of Congress, available. Grant recipients are required to issues within academia, and a less National Archives, and policy research be in residence at the Kennan Institute for intensive informational interiew centers in DC, as well as the opportunity to the duration of their grant. Starovoitova pairing for young professionals meet with key experts and officials. While Fellows are expected to hold public lectures interested in non-academic fields. conducting research, the Billington Fellow on the themes of conflict resolution and will be expected to actively participate in human rights while conducting research discussions with the policy and academic on a specific topic. In addition, Starovoitova APPLY to find a mentor or communities. These discussions can be Fellows will participate in discussions volunteer to serve as a mentor by in the form of speaking engagements, with the public policy and academic May 21. meetings, conferences, and other activities communities, including giving speeches organized by the Kennan Institute and the and lectures at other institutions and taking To participate in the Exploring Wilson Center. Upon completion of the part in meetings and conferences. The Career Diversity program, CLICK fellowship, the Billington Fellow will join application deadline is May 15, 2019. HERE. the Center’s alumni, for whom the Kennan

NEWSNET March 2019 30 The Kennan Institute welcomes its Germany” Eastern Alternative. Russia as a Model current and incoming scholars: • Sergei Zhuk, Ball State U, “Soviet for State-led Economic Development Title VIII Research Scholars Ukraine and Capitalist America: and Democratic Breakdown in Eastern • Maria Blackwood, Harvard U, “Personal Ukrainian National Identity in Cultural Europe” Experiences of Nationality and Power Cold War, 1954-1991” • Emma Gilligan, Indiana U, “War Crimes in Soviet Kazakhstan,” and Moral Compensation: Domestic • Natalie Belsky, U of Minnesota Duluth, Galina Starovoitova Fellows on Human Litigation in Chechnya” “Encounters in the East: Evacuees Rights and Conflict Resolution • Daria Skibo, Centre for Independent in the Soviet Hinterland during the • Sergei Davidis, Human Rights Center Social Research, “Mechanisms for Local Second World War” ‘Memorial,’ “The Practice of Politically Identities Constructing in the Context Motivated Imprisonment in Modern of Military and Political Conflicts” Title VIII Short Term Research Scholars Russia in Connection with Violations • Jamie Blake, UNC at Chapel Hill, of Various Internationally Recognized James Billington Fellow “Architects of Russian America: Human Rights and Freedoms” • Dmitry Kozlov, Human Rights Center Transnational Musical Networks Post • Olga Irisova, ‘Riddle,’ “Improving “Memorial,” “Komsomol Meetings, 1917” Western Strategy of Combating Streets and Dancing Halls: Producing • Johanna Conterio, Flinders University, Disinformation Campaigns: Cognitive Spaces for Public Action in 1950-60s “Urban Planning as Social Engineering: Science Instead of Technical Debunking Leningrad” The Politics of Green Space in the as a Key Solution to the Problem” USSR, 1931-1941” Wilson Center Fellows • Olena Lennon, U of New Haven, George F. Kennan Fellows • Sarah Oates, Philip Merrill College of “Lobbying for Ukraine: Perceptions of • William Butler, Dickinson Law, Journalism, University of Maryland, Advocacy Groups in the Washington, “lnternational Law in the Russian Legal College Park, “Russian Propaganda D.C. Area on New Challenges and System” Rewired: Analyzing Misinformation in Opportunities in Influencing the U.S.’s • Matthew Dal Santo, Independent the Digital Age” Foreign Policy” Scholar, “А Tsar’s Life for the People: • Catherine Schuler, U of Maryland, • Thomas O’Donnell, Freie U Berlin, The rehabilitation of Nicholas II and College Park “Spectacular Affect: Mass “Washington Viewpoints on the Russia’s Search for а Viable, Post-Soviet Festivals and Symbolic Politics in energy & geostrategic relations Public Philosophy” Putin’s Russia” between Russia, Ukraine, Poland & • Paula Ganga, U of Rochester, “The

NEWSNET March 2019 31 51st Annual ASEEES Membership Join the 3,300 individual members and ASEEES Convention receive: Nov. 23 - 26, 2019* • Discounted convention registration fees San Francisco • Slavic Review and Marriott Marquis NewsNet • Access to ASEEES Commons, job, fellowship/ grant announcements Registration information • Eligibility for travel grants, research funding, and first Hotel information Join us book subventions • Access to mentoring, networking and professional Panel/paper acceptance development opportunities emails will be sent out mid- April Dues structured at several levels, including Reduced Dues for low-income scholars living and working in Eastern Europe/ *Note: the convention will be held Saturday-Tuesday Eurasia

ASEEES offers travel grant for members to present their papers at its Annual Convention. Only current regular or student members may apply for the grants listed below:

• Kathryn Davis Graduate Student Travel Grant Program • Russian Scholar Travel Grant Program • Regional Scholar Travel Grant Program • Convention Opportunity Travel Grant Program • Diversity & Inclusion Travel Grant Program

NEWSNET March 2019 32