The American Scholar in the Soviet Union

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES • VOLUME 5 NUMBER 4 • AUGUST 1984 The American Scholar in the Soviet Union _- j- ,, Moscow, the State VH, Lenin Library Most Americans are surprised to the U.S. Information Agency, and they are as different from one their own testimony, count among learn that our country's exchanges our embassy in Moscow in ad another as from the Soviet programs the most memorable personal and with the U.S.S.R. in the humanities ministering these critical programs. and would require a separate essay.) intellectual experiences of their and social sciences are in reason The National Endowment for the The exchange experience with the lives. They become sojourners in a ably good health despite the sharp Humanities has played a major U.S.S.R. is extraordinarily complex. land where the permanent struggle deterioration in political relations. funding role in these exchange pro It is embedded in an adversarial between cant and truth, between il While contacts in sciences and grams since 1971, and its present relationship between the super lusion and reality, brings them into technology have dwindled, the core level of support—$1 million a powers that is replete with tensions daily collision with the most fun programs in the humanities and year—has been a powerful in at every level—including the ex damental issues of values. No social sciences have continued fluence in maintaining a leading changes themselves—and yet is one wonder that they return home with without interruption since they role for the humanities in American of the few areas where there is exquisitely heightened sensitivities were inaugurated in 1958 and have scholarship on the Soviet Union. genuine and mutually beneficial to the contours of their own culture even flourished in recent years. Compared with the more spon cooperation and a modicum of that few can experience who have These programs were among the taneous flow of scholarly traffic good will. American participants, not shared their journey. fruits of the first thaw in the cold between, say, the United States most of them specialists in history, The success of this small band of war more than a quarter of a cen and Western Europe, the volume of culture and contemporary society, Americans derives in the first place tury ago. They predate detente and exchanges is exceedingly modest: must cope with bureaucratic, from their own skills and per have so far survived its demise. About 100 American scholars a year political and ideological obstacles to sistence. The IREX program is not The principal, official US-U.S.S.R. spend a semester or an academic their work that are all but unimag for casual visitors or sabbatical academic exchanges' are conducted year in the Soviet Union, while inable to their homebound col pleasure seekers, but emphasizes by the International Research & Ex about twice that number take part leagues or those accustomed to advanced research under unusual changes Board (IREX), a New York- in such organized projects as joint more conventional foreign venues. conditions. Those who participate based subsidiary of the American or parallel research and scholarly Yet the overwhelming majority not must have rigorous training and Council of Learned Societies. IREX symposia. But in the rarefied at only manage to accomplish signifi preparation in the Russian or is the private-sector, nonprofit mosphere of things Soviet- cant, even prodigious, research Soviet aspects of their disciplines, a broker for the nation's network of American, these exchanges have an feats, but become profoundly in good grasp of the language in universities and research institu impact quite out of proportion to volved in academic and personal cluding, in small but increasing tions and works closely with the their size. (IREX also conducts ex relationships with their Soviet numbers, the non-Russian lan foundations, the State Department, changes with Eastern Europe, but counterparts and hosts that, by guages of the U.S.S.R., and research projects that affirm American observers of the Soviet nominees. From the U.S. side, seriousness of purpose both to their Union, the exchange scholars as a widened concern about technology Editor's American sponsor and their Soviet group undoubtedly emerge with transfer most frequently rules out hosts. In fact, their credentials and the most nuanced sense of Soviet Soviet nominees. On the Soviet Notes their on-the-ground performance society, and those who have done side, young American scholars on determine which doors shall be their stints in locations only infre the university exchange are most As guest editor, I find my task opened to them. Many of the par quently visited by foreigners frequently caught in the inability of simplified by the Humanities' ticipants are veterans of earlier become an especially valuable the Ministry of Higher and editorial tradition, which indicates visits, who are encouraged to resource in understanding how the Specialized Secondary Education to that these notes should serve as a return periodically for fresh system works at its far reaches. arrange appropriate placements out brief introduction to the issue's research; all are screened by com The IREX exchanges with the side the university system. Thus, contents. mittees of peers who review the U.S.S.R. involve two partners: the because there are presently no of This issue is largely devoted to significance and feasibility of their Soviet Ministry of Higher and ficial U.S. agreements with the humanities disciplines as they deal projects as well as the produc Specialized Secondary Education, Soviet Ministry of Culture, it is dif with the non-Western world, i.e. tiveness of their previous visits. which provides a link with the ficult to place American specialists scholarly exchanges, cooperative Newcomers are also carefully Soviet university system, and the in such fields as musicology or programs of international complex reviewed, interviewed, and selected U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences, theater. Scholars may also run ity, travel, translation, culture by the same panels and are inten which houses the prestigious afoul of the rather rigid bureau shock, and communication. sively briefed and prepared by research institutes. cratic Soviet research establishment Twenty years ago I was intro those who have recently returned The ministry exchange is part of and find that their proposed duced to Chinese and Japanese about the conditions under which the intergovernmental cultural research does not fit into the plans literature and civilization in a they can expect to work. agreement that lapsed in 1979 of a particular institute or archive. seminar for liberal arts college Exchange participants' scholarship following the Soviet invasion of Americans assume that the over faculty presided over by the same constitutes a major portion of our Afghanistan, but the IREX portion whelming reason for the failure of Professor de Bary of Columbia who fund of published knowledge of of the exchanges has continued on the Soviet side to accept U.S. is featured in the article on that critical world area. Three titles the basis of an informal under scholars is political, either in the “Eastern Civ.” The consequent published in 1983 alone are ex standing. The ministry program in sense of the political views of the geographic and comparative amples of the breadth and scope of cludes graduate students and individual involved or the political breadth of my course-offerings in the work accomplished: Gold and young faculty, as well as a senior sensitivity of the research project. Classics was largely due to that Azure: 1000 Years of Russian Architec scholar program and an exchange From our experience, the causes for enlightening experience. My friends ture by William Craft Brumfield; of teachers of Russian and English, rejection appear to be complex and were amazed, my students mysti Poland's Place in Europe: General and covers all disciplines. In prac frequently of the more prosaic sort fied . But such personal Sikorski and the Origin of the Oder- tice, most American participants in just mentioned. Only a handful of reminiscences are not condoned by Neisse Line, 1939-1943 by Sarah the IREX-ministry exchange (who American specialists have been editorial precedents. Meiklejohn Terry; The Other Push must as a minimum have com repeatedly denied placement, and Let me add that our page of NEH kin: A Story of Pushkin's Prose Fiction pleted all requirements for the there is seldom a clear reason why deadlines and Notes and News will by Paul Debreczeny. The last ex doctoral degree except the thesis) these scholars are singled out. Un be regularly enhanced by articles haustive survey of their publica are in the humanities and social fortunately, the leverage we once exploring the evaluation of applica tions, conducted in 1978, revealed sciences—that is, they are special had because we were in a position tions in the review process and that alumni of the Soviet and East ists on Russia or the U.S.S.R.— to assure entry to the United States other matters that should be of in European exchanges had by then while the Soviets typically for any and all Soviet nominees has terest to potential applicants and attributed more than three thou have given priority to science disappeared. Yet, even in these would-be grantees. sand scholarly books and articles to and technology. times of poor intergovernmental —Harold Cannon their overseas research—a rate of The exchange with the academy relations, apparently firm Soviet one publication every other day arises from a nongovernmental decisions have been reversed. over the two preceding decades. agreement between the academy IREX's relationship with its ex This emphasis on hard research, and the American Council of change partners—in itself a reveal rather than on a more sentimental Learned Societies, which is ad ing subchapter of Soviet-American hands-across-the-seas variant of ex ministered by IREX.

Load more