Art & Aesthetics
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A scholarly journal and news magazine. October 2017. Vol. X:3. From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. 13 pages of reviews BALTIC WORLDSbalticworlds.com The Russian Revolution reshaped everything: Art & Aesthetics • Art education in transformation • Global ambitions captured in one day • Building for men of the future • The legacy in literature – the void also in this issue Illustration: Karin Sunvisson ANTI-GENDERISM / MEMORY & MONUMENTS / OPEN SOCIETY ARCHIVES / KGB IN RIGA / THE NOBEL FAMILY Sponsored by the Foundation BALTIC for Baltic and East European Studies contents 3 colophon WORLDSbalticworlds.com Baltic Worlds is published by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at Södertörn University, Sweden. Editor-in-chief editorial in this issue Ninna Mörner Publisher Joakim Ekman Scholarly advisory council Revolutionary principles Thomas Andrén, Södertörn University; Sari Autio-Sarasmo, n October 2017, one hundred years since In this issue, however, we Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki; the revolutionary era in Russia, we devote also dig into the past. In a feature theme Sofie Bedford, UCRS, Uppsala a special section to touch on certain as- article, Anna Kharkina presents feature University; Michael Gentile, 4 Open Society Archives. Playing an pects of the impact this disruptive event insights into how the Open Society Helsinki University; Markus Huss activist role, Anna Kharkina Influences of the Ihad on art, film, literature and aesthetics. Archive (OSA) has struggled over (chair), Södertörn University; 8 The KGB building in Riga. Story In this special section we explore the rela- the years to gather and spread Russian Revolution Katarina Leppänen, CERGU, of fear, Rosario Napolitano tionships between art, aesthetics and moving information about documents and in Art and Aesthetics University of Gothenburg; images that existed during the Soviet period archival findings, such as those Thomas Lundén, CBEES; essays 33 Introduction, Irina Seits & and the revolution itself as a political, historical from Hungary during WWII. Facts 12 Memory work. US and Ukraine, Kazimierz Musiał, University Ekaterina Kalinina and social event. that are not always welcomed have The faith of Yuliya Yurchuk of Gdańsk; Barbara Törnquist- Nostalgia is not a significant aspect of nevertheless been brought forward 18 Gender. Neo-authoritarian peer-reviewed Plewa, Centre for European the Nobel family Studies, Lund University revolutionary times, by any means. The estab- by OSA. discourses, Sabine Hark articles lishment of a new order is at the heart of the In her essay, Yuliya Yurchuk also I think my father was 35 Becoming tools for artistic Corresponding members post-revolutionary years, not to mention the examines the widespread paranoia traumatized by those commentaries Aija Lulle, University of Latvia; 28 Estonia branding, Abel Polese & consciousness of the people. extermination of traces or reminiscences of about monuments and the protests experiences, even though he Michael North, Ernst Moritz Emilia Pawłusz The higher art school and pre-revolutionary Russia. they arouse. Clashes occur over rep- was only four years old. Page 72 Arndt University Greifswald; 31 Truck drivers in protest, Ekaterina independent arts studios Mikhail Evsevyev presents archival findings resentations of the past and can eas- Andrzei Nowak, Jagiellonian “ Tarasova in Petrograd (1918–1921), on the problem of the reform of art education ily escalate. It is precisely this force University, Kraków; Andrea Petö, Election. Czech Republic, Riikka Mikhail Evsevyev in the first post-revolutionary years. He writes of the past and its relation to the Central European University, Palonkorpi 45 Revolutionary synchrony: that art was secondary to the economy and ide- contemporary that revolutionary A Day of the World, Robert Bird Budapest; Jens E. Olesen, ology, and in the eyes of the new government Russia was well aware of and was de- reviews 53 Mickey Mouse – the perfect Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, art needed to concentrate not on the mastery of termined to handle and supress. 82 Roma feminist activism, tenant of an early Soviet city, Irina Greifswald; Olga Schihalejev, old techniques, but on the manifestation of the Madina Tlostanova Seits Tartu University new revolutionary principles. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION affected 85 Europe faces Europe, 63 The inverted myth. Viktor Copyediting/proofreading individual lives. Here, in an inter- Jussi Lassila Pelevin’s Buddhas little finger, Christy Hayhoe, Proper English IN ANOTHER THEMATIC article, Irina Seits dis- view with Gustaf Nobel, the great- 87 The Arctic region, Ingmar Oldberg Tora Lane AB, Matthew Hogg, Semantix cusses the dehumanization of living space in grandson of Ludvig Nobel, Alfred’s 90 Norm-breaking female soldiers, AB; Brian Manning Delaney, the post-revolutionary decades in Russia. Con- elder brother, we learn about one Gunnar Åselius exhibition English Proper; Bridget Schäfer structivists experimented with new forms of family whose destiny was changed. 93 Transnational families, Aija Lulle 70 Russian art 1917–1932, Helene Layout spatial organization that profoundly changed Read also about two female Carlbäck Sara Bergfors, Lena Fredriksson, people’s everyday lives, pushing them to gradu- revolutionary heroes; Maria Boch- conference reports Serpentin Media Female soldiers 26 Bakhtinian theory. Art protest in ally become less individuals and more bricks in kareva and Larissa Reisner. Or the Illustrators Mordovia, Russia, Ninna Mörner the joint project to build a new tomorrow. destiny of the avant-garde artist of the Revolution Katrin Stenmark, Karin 73 The legacy of the revolution, The Russian Revolution cut through history. Nikolai Punin, who was sent to Gu- Bochkareva’s battalion Sunvisson, Ragni Svensson Aliaksei Kazharski It implied change on many levels, including lag for Anti-Soviet activities. was one of fifteen differ- Subscription ≈ 96 The peace of 1617, Thomas Lundén perspectives on time. For a while, only now and Ninna Mörner ent female units established in Sofia Barlind tomorrow mattered. Russia in 1917. Page 90 interview Printed by “ 74 The Nobel family and the Russian Elanders Sverige AB Revolution, Irina Seits Printed: ISSN 2000-2955 PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES have undergone a double-blind peer review by at least two independent specialists. A peer-reviewed article pub- Online: ISSN 2001-7308 lished in Baltic Worlds generates one publication point for the authors and their institutions in the Norwegian bibliometric register (DHB). BW is an Contact Baltic Worlds Open Access Journal and all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. More information is available on our website. [email protected] The content expresses the views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Baltic Worlds. 4 feature feature 5 ARCHIVING THE PAST, DEFINING THE PRESENT OPEN SOCIETY ARCHIVES, BUDAPEST by Anna Kharkina series of interviews with the Open Society Archives’ The article is based on interviews with the Open Society Archives’ (OSA) employees, which I conducted while staying employees in July 2016: Iván Székely, Senior Research Fellow; at the archive as a recipient of the Visegrad Scholar- István Rév, Director; Csaba Szilágyi, Head of the Human Rights ship in summer 2016, took place before the conflict Program; Nóra Bertalan, Public Relations Officer; András Mink, betweenA the Hungarian government and the Central European Research Fellow; and Robert Parnica, Senior Reference Archivist. University (CEU), of which the OSA is a part, came out into the open. Nevertheless, even then it was obvious that the CEU is a special place in contemporary Hungary’s political landscape state authorities. According to the agreement with the US gov- and that it made things uncomfortable for those in power. The ernment, the archival materials are owned by the US but depos- conflict was in the air, though as yet unexpressed. The aim of my ited at the OSA for a period of 50 years. István Rév, a Hungarian stay at the OSA was to study the functioning of an independent historian and former dissident under the Soviet regime, became archive: how it establishes cooperation with other archival insti- academic director of the archive (he still holds this position, tutions, which professional standards it follows, and, and how it leading the archive for more than 20 years). The professional ba- defines its aims and policies. I tried to approach these questions sis and routines for the archive were established by Trudy Hus- from different angles depending on who I was interviewing, but kamp Peterson, Acting Archivist of the United States (1993—1995) one question seemed to re-appear during all of the interviews: and US National Archives archivist with a long career record. how does the archive position itself in relation to the current po- Peterson previously was director of the Open Media Research litical authority, which tries to undermine the democratic ideas Institute (OMRI) in Prague, an analytical office for analysis of the that the CEU and the OSA stand for? How does it evaluate and former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, with its headquarters react to the situation around it? in Washington. After the OMRI was closed, she was asked to The foundation of the OSA goes back to 1995, as a realization become the professional leader of the newly established OSA, of an idea that an archive with documents related to the com- which took over OMRI’s archive as well as the archive of Radio munist history of Central and Eastern Europe should be present Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute in Munich. where people speak the languages of the region. Financially Being an archive in between political systems and different supported by George Soros, the archive was able from the very organizations, the OSA’s funding sources create interesting chal- The records of the Donald and Vera Blinken Open Society Archives’ extensive collection is now available through the CEU Library catalog. beginning to be totally independent of the influence of any local lenges for the archival representation of history as well as for 6 feature feature 7 the employees.