Soviet Democracy
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Reassessing the Standard of Living in the Soviet Union: an Analysis Using Archival and Anthropometric Data
IZA DP No. 1958 Reassessing the Standard of Living in the Soviet Union: An Analysis Using Archival and Anthropometric Data Elizabeth Brainerd DISCUSSION PAPER SERIES DISCUSSION PAPER January 2006 Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit Institute for the Study of Labor Reassessing the Standard of Living in the Soviet Union: An Analysis Using Archival and Anthropometric Data Elizabeth Brainerd Williams College, CEPR, WDI and IZA Bonn Discussion Paper No. 1958 January 2006 IZA P.O. Box 7240 53072 Bonn Germany Phone: +49-228-3894-0 Fax: +49-228-3894-180 Email: [email protected] Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the institute. Research disseminated by IZA may include views on policy, but the institute itself takes no institutional policy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit company supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. IZA Discussion Paper No. -
Revolution in Real Time: the Russian Provisional Government, 1917
ODUMUNC 2020 Crisis Brief Revolution in Real Time: The Russian Provisional Government, 1917 ODU Model United Nations Society Introduction seventy-four years later. The legacy of the Russian Revolution continues to be keenly felt The Russian Revolution began on 8 March 1917 to this day. with a series of public protests in Petrograd, then the Winter Capital of Russia. These protests But could it have gone differently? Historians lasted for eight days and eventually resulted in emphasize the contingency of events. Although the collapse of the Russian monarchy, the rule of history often seems inventible afterwards, it Tsar Nicholas II. The number of killed and always was anything but certain. Changes in injured in clashes with the police and policy choices, in the outcome of events, government troops in the initial uprising in different players and different accidents, lead to Petrograd is estimated around 1,300 people. surprising outcomes. Something like the Russian Revolution was extremely likely in 1917—the The collapse of the Romanov dynasty ushered a Romanov Dynasty was unable to cope with the tumultuous and violent series of events, enormous stresses facing the country—but the culminating in the Bolshevik Party’s seizure of revolution itself could have ended very control in November 1917 and creation of the differently. Soviet Union. The revolution saw some of the most dramatic and dangerous political events the Major questions surround the Provisional world has ever known. It would affect much Government that struggled to manage the chaos more than Russia and the ethnic republics Russia after the Tsar’s abdication. -
Post-Soviet Political Party Development in Russia: Obstacles to Democratic Consolidation
POST-SOVIET POLITICAL PARTY DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA: OBSTACLES TO DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION Evguenia Lenkevitch Bachelor of Arts (Honours), SFU 2005 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of Political Science O Evguenia Lenkevitch 2007 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY 2007 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Evguenia Lenkevitch Degree: Master of Arts, Department of Political Science Title of Thesis: Post-Soviet Political Party Development in Russia: Obstacles to Democratic Consolidation Examining Committee: Chair: Dr. Lynda Erickson, Professor Department of Political Science Dr. Lenard Cohen, Professor Senior Supervisor Department of Political Science Dr. Alexander Moens, Professor Supervisor Department of Political Science Dr. llya Vinkovetsky, Assistant Professor External Examiner Department of History Date DefendedlApproved: August loth,2007 The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the 'Institutional Repository" link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at: <http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesis/project or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. -
THE MENSHEVIKS in 1917 by Olegpmwkov Bachelor of Arts
THE MENSHEVIKS IN 1917 r:. = BY OLEGpmwKOV Bachelor of Arts Moscow State Pedagogical Institute Moscow, USSR 1983 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS July 1992 THE MENSHEVIKS IN 1917 Thesis Approved: Thesis Advisor 0 Dean of the Graduate College 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express sincere appreciation to Dr. George F. Jewsbury and Dr. Joel M. Jenswold for their encouragement and advice throughout my graduate program. Many thanks also go to Dr. W. Roger Biles for serving on my graduate committee. Their suggestions and support were very helpful throughout the study. To Wann Smith for his expert typing and proofing skills; to Oscar Kursner for his help in translation. My wife, Y elaina Khripkov, encouraged and supported me all the way and helped me keep the end goal constantly in sight. Thanks go to her for her undivided time in the final stages of the project. She prov 1ded moral support and was a real believer in my abilities. 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. The Main Approaches to the Study of the Russian Revolution in American Historiography 2 The Study of Menshevism in the U.S. 6 Soviet Scholars on Menshevism 8 Sources 1 2 Themes and Problems 14 II. Tiffi "HONEYMOON' OF Tiffi REVOLUTION_~-~-~! 8 The Necessity for the Dual Power 1 8 The Essence and Structure of Dual Power 2 7 Establishing of the Revolutionary Defensists Policy3 5 III. THE APRIL CRISIS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES _____4 7 The First Clash. -
Socialism in Europe and the Russian Revolution India and the Contemporary World Society Ofthefuture
Socialism in Europe and II the Russian Revolution Chapter 1 The Age of Social Change In the previous chapter you read about the powerful ideas of freedom and equality that circulated in Europe after the French Revolution. The French Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a dramatic change in the way in which society was structured. As you have read, before the eighteenth century society was broadly divided into estates and orders and it was the aristocracy and church which controlled economic and social power. Suddenly, after the revolution, it seemed possible to change this. In many parts of the world including Europe and Asia, new ideas about individual rights and who olution controlled social power began to be discussed. In India, Raja v Rammohan Roy and Derozio talked of the significance of the French Revolution, and many others debated the ideas of post-revolutionary Europe. The developments in the colonies, in turn, reshaped these ideas of societal change. ian Re ss Not everyone in Europe, however, wanted a complete transformation of society. Responses varied from those who accepted that some change was necessary but wished for a gradual shift, to those who wanted to restructure society radically. Some were ‘conservatives’, others were ‘liberals’ or ‘radicals’. What did these terms really mean in the context of the time? What separated these strands of politics and what linked them together? We must remember that these terms do not mean the same thing in all contexts or at all times. We will look briefly at some of the important political traditions of the nineteenth century, and see how they influenced change. -
Soviet Democracy
SOVIET DEMOCRACY by Harry E Ward SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY New York 1947 NOTE ON THE AUTHOR Dr. Harry F. Ward is Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. He has spent considerable time in the Soviet Union and has writ- ten and lectured extensively on the Soviet Union. His books include In Place af Profit, Democracy and Social Change and The Soviet Spirit. The cover is by Lynd Ward, son of the author, dis- tinguished American artist who is known for his novels in pictures and for his book illustrations. - i 5.1 12.$fiW Photos, excem where otherwise in icated v cour- tesy of the ~xhibitsDepartment of the ~atiohai~oun- cil of American-Soviet Friendship. A PUB1,ICATION OF SOVIET RUSSIA TODAY 114 East ~2ndSt., New York i6, N. Y. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 209 CHAPTER I THE ECONOMIC BASE URING 1945 and 1946 the Soviet press carried on an extensive discussion of Soviet democracy-what it is D. and how it works. This discussion began as an edu- cational preparation for the election of the Supreme So- viet. It continued in response to much talk here about "dif- ferent ideas of democracy" that arose from disagreements in the United Nations and in the occupation of enemy coun- tries. Soviet writers point out that underneath such differ- ences over procedures is the historic fact that theirs is a so- cialist democracy. This, they tell their readers, makes it a higher form than capitalist democracy. They mean higher in the ongoing of the democratic process not merely as a form of government, but a cooperative way of life through which more and more of the people of the earth, by increas- ing their control over both nature and human society, emancipate themselves from famine, pestilence and war, as well as from tyranny. -
FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS in the SOVIET UNION: a COMPARATIVE APPROACH * T~Omas E
1967] FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN THE SOVIET UNION: A COMPARATIVE APPROACH * T~omAs E. TowE t INTRODUCTION The Soviet Constitution guarantees many of the same funda- mental rights as are guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States, plus several others as well. Indeed, these rights are described in greater detail and appear on their face to be safeguarded more emphatically in the Soviet Constitution. However, the mere existence of constitutional provisions for fundamental rights does not necessarily guarantee that those rights will be protected. Western scholars often point to discrepancies between rhetorical phrases in the Soviet Con- stitution and actual practices in the area of fundamental rights.' Soviet legal scholars insist, however, that such criticism should be aimed instead at Western constitutions. Andrei Vyshinsky has stated that it is precisely in the area of fundamental rights that "the contra- dictions between reality and the rights proclaimed by the bourgeois constitutions [are] particularly sharp." 2 Soviet legal scholars claim that bourgeois laws are replete with reservations and loopholes which largely negate their effectiveness in protecting fundamental rights generally, and those of the working man in particular.3 There is undoubtedly some truth in both claims, for, as Professor Berman has stated, "The striking fact is that in the protection of human rights, the Soviet system is strong where ours is weak, just as it is weak where ours is strong." 4 The full impact of this statement can only be understood by comparing the different approaches which * The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments and suggestions of Dr. Branko M. -
The Novosti Press Agency Photograph Collection 21 Mirror Images: the Novosti Press Agency Photograph Collection*
The Novosti Press Agency Photograph Collection 21 Mirror Images: The Novosti Press Agency Photograph Collection* JENNIFER ANDERSON RÉSUMÉ La collection de photographies de la Novosti Press Agency, conservée aux Special Collections and Archives de l’Université Carleton, est une ressource rare et fascinante. Les 70 000 photographies et les textes d’accompagnement, qui datent de 1917 à 1991, appartenaient autrefois au Bureau de la Soviet Novosti Press Agency (APN), situé sur la rue Charlotte à Ottawa, mais le personnel de la bibliothèque Carleton a dû récupérer ce matériel rapidement vers la fin de l’année 1991 avec la dissolution de l’Union soviétique et la fermeture du Bureau à Ottawa. Fondé en partie pour encourager les Occidentaux, en particulier les Canadiens, à voir l’URSS d’un meilleur œil, l’APN d’Ottawa distribuait ces photographies et ces communiqués de presse aux médias, aux or ganisations et aux individus à travers le Canada. La collec- tion offre aux historiens un aperçu de la construction de l’image que se donnait l’Union soviétique, les points de vues soviétiques of ficiels sur les relations interna- tionales pendant la Guerre froide et les ef forts pour adoucir les opinions anti-sovié- tiques au Canada. Dans son texte « Mirror Images », Jennifer Anderson soutient que la collection mérite d’être mieux connue des historiens de la Guerre froide au Canada et des historiens qui s’intéressent aux relations internationales et que le grand public pourrait aussi être intéressé par une exposition conçue autour de l’idéologie, de la perception et de la construction de l’identité pendant la Guerre froide. -
10 the Pharos/Summer 2012 Anton Chekhov in Medical School— and After
10 The Pharos/Summer 2012 Anton Chekhov in medical school— and after An artist’s flair is sometimes worth a scientist’s brains – Anton Chekhov Leon Morgenstern, MD The author (AΩA, New York University, 1943) is Emeritus it significantly enlarged the scope of my observations and Director of the Center for Health Care Ethics and Emeritus enriched me with knowledge whose true worth to a writer Director of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los can be evaluated only by somebody who is himself a doctor; Angeles, and Emeritus Professor of Surgery at the David it has also provided me with a sense of direction, and I am Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. sure that my closeness to medicine has also enabled me to avoid many mistakes.1p425 t is often overlooked, and sometimes forgotten, that Anton Chekhov, the noted Russian writer of short stories and plays, Medical school was a pivotal juncture in the delicate balance Iwas also a doctor. He was one of the principal authors in between the two careers. It made him into the doctor he was. what has been called the Golden Age of Russian Literature It helped him reach the goal of becoming the writer he was in the mid- and late-nineteenth century, along with Fyodor to be. Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Ivan Turgenev. Chekhov was born in Taganrog, a port town founded by In 1879 at the age of nineteen, Anton Chekhov enrolled in Peter the Great on the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia. His the medical school of Moscow University. -
Revolution in Russia and the Formation of the Soviet Union
CLASSROOM COUNTRY PROFILES Revolution in Russia and the Formation of the Soviet Union The Russian Revolution often refers to two events that took place in 1917. The first, known as the February Revolution, forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate and led to the formation of a provisional government. During the second event, commonly known as the October Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, Vla- dimir Lenin’s Bolshevik Party seized power and began seven decades of one-party rule. Some scholars and Soviet critics have argued that the second event was actually a coup by Lenin and his supporters and not a true revolution. The Russian Empire in 1914. Date confusion—The February Revolution actually In the early 1900s, cracks were beginning to appear in the tsar’s control took place in early March. Because the Russian Em- over the Russian Empire. An attempted revolution in 1905, which saw pire followed the Julian Calendar, which is 13 days mass worker strikes and peasant revolts, shook the monarchy and forced behind the Gregorian Calendar, the events are referred Tsar Nicholas II to implement political reform, including the establishment to as the February Revolution. Likewise, the October of a parliament and a new constitution. Revolution actually took place in early November. Reform temporarily quieted the unrest, but the new policies proved inef- Soviet—The word means “council” in Russian. Soviets fective and the parliament, known as the State Duma, was largely unable were workers’ councils made up of various socialist to override the Tsar’s decrees. parties at the end of the Russian Empire. -
Who Were the “Greens”? Rumor and Collective Identity in the Russian Civil War
Who Were the “Greens”? Rumor and Collective Identity in the Russian Civil War ERIK C. LANDIS In the volost center of Kostino-Otdelets, located near the southern border of Borisoglebsk uezd in Tambov province, there occurred what was identified as a “deserters’ revolt” in May 1919. While no one was killed, a group of known deserters from the local community raided the offices of the volost soviet, destroying many documents relating to the previous months’ attempts at military conscription, and stealing the small number of firearms and rubles held by the soviet administration and the volost Communist party cell. The provincial revolutionary tribunal investigated the affair soon after the events, for while there was an obvious threat of violence, no such escalation occurred, and the affair was left to civilian institutions to handle. The chairman of the volost soviet, A. M. Lysikov, began his account of the event on May 18, when he met with members of the community following a morning church service in order to explain the recent decrees and directives of the provincial and central governments.1 In the course of this discussion, he raised the fact that the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defense in Moscow had declared a seven-day amnesty for all those young men who had failed to appear for mobilization to the Red Army, particularly those who had been born in 1892 and 1893, and had been subject to the most recent age-group mobilization.2 It was at this moment that one of the young men in the village approached him to ask if it was possible to ring the church bell and call for an open meeting of deserters in the volost, at which they could collectively agree whether to appear for mobilization. -
Deploying the Dead: Combat Photography, Death and the Second World War in the USA and the Soviet Union
KEVIN FOSTER Deploying the Dead: Combat Photography, Death and the Second World War in the USA and the Soviet Union s Susan Sontag has noted, ‘Ever since cameras were invented in 1839, photography has kept company with death’ (Sontag, 2003: 24). It has done so, principally, by taking its place on the world’s battlefields and, from the AUS Civil War onwards, bringing to the public graphic images of war’s ultimate truth. The camera’s unflinching witness to death helped establish photography’s authority as an apparently unimpeachable record of events. ‘A photograph’, Sontag observes, ‘passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened’ (Sontag, 1977: 5). Yet the ‘truth’ of any photo is only ever conditional: ‘the photographic image … cannot be simply a transparency of something that happened. It is always the image that someone chose; to photograph is to frame, and to frame is to exclude’ (Sontag, 2003: 46). Photographers often worked, and continue to work, under close editorial direction with a detailed brief to collect specific images from designated areas in prescribed forms. The photographs they take are ‘Crafted through a maze of practices and standards, both explicit and implicit’ overseen by ‘photographers, photographic editors, news editors and journalists’ who collectively determine ‘how war can be reduced to a photograph’. The resulting images, Barbie Zelizer argues, ‘reflect what the camera sees by projecting onto that vision a set of broader assumptions about how the world works’ (Zelizer, 2004: 115). In this context it is clear that the photographic truth is less an elusive ideal than a consciously crafted product – it is manufactured, not discovered or revealed.