After Stalin: the Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union (Weeks 1-12) | University of Kent
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The Case for Democracy: the Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny A
The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny a... http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resources/transcripts/5066.html/:pf_print... The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror Natan Sharansky , Joanne J. Myers November 9, 2004 Introduction Remarks Questions and Answers Introduction The Case for JOANNE MYERS: Good morning. I'm Joanne Myers, Director of Merrill House Programs, and Democracy: The Power of Freedom on behalf of the Carnegie Council I would like to say how extremely honored we are to have to Overcome with us this morning Natan Sharansky on the occasion of his recently published book, The Case Tyranny and Terror for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror. In reflecting on the challenges facing democracy in the 21st century, Margaret Thatcher once wrote, "It is always true that the world that is can best be understood by those conversant with the world that was. None are more conversant with the realities of the Cold War, or more adept at drawing out its lessons for today, than those who saw it—not just lived through it, but actually saw it for what it was—from the inside." It is with this in mind that we extend a very special welcome to our speaker this morning, Natan Sharansky. From Gulag to guru, Mr. Sharansky's life has personified the struggle for human rights and the ongoing pursuit of dignity for all mankind. Our guest today is a former Soviet dissident and political prisoner who has spent his life championing democracy. -
The Suppression of Jewish Culture by the Soviet Union's Emigration
\\server05\productn\B\BIN\23-1\BIN104.txt unknown Seq: 1 18-JUL-05 11:26 A STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE ETHNIC IDENTITY: THE SUPPRESSION OF JEWISH CULTURE BY THE SOVIET UNION’S EMIGRATION POLICY BETWEEN 1945-1985 I. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STATUS OF JEWS IN THE SOVIET SOCIETY BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR .................. 159 R II. BEFORE THE BORDERS WERE CLOSED: SOVIET EMIGRATION POLICY UNDER STALIN (1945-1947) ......... 163 R III. CLOSING OF THE BORDER: CESSATION OF JEWISH EMIGRATION UNDER STALIN’S REGIME .................... 166 R IV. THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES: SOVIET EMIGRATION POLICY UNDER KHRUSHCHEV AND BREZHNEV .................... 168 R V. CONCLUSION .............................................. 174 R I. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STATUS OF JEWS IN THE SOVIET SOCIETY BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR Despite undergoing numerous revisions, neither the Soviet Constitu- tion nor the Soviet Criminal Code ever adopted any laws or regulations that openly or implicitly permitted persecution of or discrimination against members of any minority group.1 On the surface, the laws were always structured to promote and protect equality of rights and status for more than one hundred different ethnic groups. Since November 15, 1917, a resolution issued by the Second All-Russia Congress of the Sovi- ets called for the “revoking of all and every national and national-relig- ious privilege and restriction.”2 The Congress also expressly recognized “the right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination up to seces- sion and the formation of an independent state.” Identical resolutions were later adopted by each of the 15 Soviet Republics. Furthermore, Article 124 of the 1936 (Stalin-revised) Constitution stated that “[f]reedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.” 3 1 See generally W.E. -
Boris Pasternak - Poems
Classic Poetry Series Boris Pasternak - poems - Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive Boris Pasternak(10 February 1890 - 30 May 1960) Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language. Furthermore, Pasternak's theatrical translations of Goethe, Schiller, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and William Shakespeare remain deeply popular with Russian audiences. Outside Russia, Pasternak is best known for authoring Doctor Zhivago, a novel which spans the last years of Czarist Russia and the earliest days of the Soviet Union. Banned in the USSR, Doctor Zhivago was smuggled to Milan and published in 1957. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year, an event which both humiliated and enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In the midst of a massive campaign against him by both the KGB and the Union of Soviet Writers, Pasternak reluctantly agreed to decline the Prize. In his resignation letter to the Nobel Committee, Pasternak stated the reaction of the Soviet State was the only reason for his decision. By the time of his death from lung cancer in 1960, the campaign against Pasternak had severely damaged the international credibility of the U.S.S.R. He remains a major figure in Russian literature to this day. Furthermore, tactics pioneered by Pasternak were later continued, expanded, and refined by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and other Soviet dissidents. <b>Early Life</b> Pasternak was born in Moscow on 10 February, (Gregorian), 1890 (Julian 29 January) into a wealthy Russian Jewish family which had been received into the Russian Orthodox Church. -
Revolving Beast: Identifying the Animal in Post-Revolutionary Russian Literature
Revolving Beast: Identifying the Animal in post-Revolutionary Russian Literature by Eric D. Ford A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Slavic Languages and Literatures) in the University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Sofya Khagi, Chair Associate Professor Herbert J. Eagle Professor Peggy S. McCracken Assistant Professor Benjamin B. Paloff In memory of my brother Jason Ford (1970 - 2012) ii Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been written without the support and encouragement of several people at the University of Michigan. I am especially indebted to two individuals: Herb Eagle, who served admirably as chair of the Slavic Department for the majority of my time at the university, and who gave invaluable help and advice during some particularly trying times; and Sofya Khagi, my advisor, with whom I have had the great pleasure of working over the past several years. She has been a wonderful mentor, colleague, and friend. I am deeply grateful to my other committee members, Peggy McCracken and Benjamin Paloff, who read my dissertation carefully and provided very helpful criticism and suggestions. I would also like to thank the talented and dedicated faculty of the Slavic department with whom I’ve worked as student and colleague: Olga Maiorova, Mikhail Krutikov, Tatjana Aleksić, Jindrich Toman, Svitlana Rogovyk, Nina Shkolnik, Natalia Kondrashova, Eugene Bondarenko, and Omry Ronen. Thanks also to the many fellow graduate students I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with: Aleksandar Bošković, Vlad Beronja, Yana Arnold, Jessica Zychowicz, Renee Scherer, Adam Kolkman, Sarah Sutter, Jodi Grieg, Marin Turk, Jamie Parsons, Olga Greco, Paulina Duda, Haley Laurila, Jason Wagner, and Grace Mahoney. -
Yelena Bonner—A Commanding Voice for Human Rights & Heroic Figure for Karabagh Armenians Passes Away
ZORYAN INSTITUTE OF CANADA, INC. PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Patil Halajian DATE: June 23, 2011 Tel: 416-250-9807 Yelena Bonner—a Commanding Voice for Human Rights & Heroic Figure for Karabagh Armenians Passes Away Armenians mourn the loss of Yelena Bonner, a great humanist, and a leading combatant against the injustices of the Soviet era. She will forever remain relevant and inspirational to people worldwide, and to Armenians particularly, because of her forceful advocacy on behalf of the people of Karabagh. Yelena Bonner, the wife of Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet Union's most prominent dissident scientist, and developer of Russia‟s first hydrogen bomb, was co-founder the Moscow Helsinki Group in the 1970s. By relentlessly challenging state oppression, it quickly became the most active rights group in the entire movement. The organization‟s mission was to publicize Soviet violations of the Helsinki Accord signed in 1975, recognizing Soviet hegemony in photo by Mikhail Lemkhin return for assurance of fundamental freedoms and human rights guarantees. Throughout her lifetime, Ms. Bonner lent her voice to many causes. She spoke very passionately on the human rights violations committed by Azerbaijan in Karabagh and virtually from the onset of the national liberation movement there, she defended the right of the Armenian nation to self-determination. She did so from the highest platforms, calling international attention to the issue. Among her public appearances was a lecture on “Nationalities in the Soviet Union: Possible Solutions within the Framework of a Revised Constitution,” which she made under the auspices of the Zoryan Institute and the Amnesty International Group of Harvard Law School in 1990. -
Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge (Translated from the French and with an Introduction by Richard Greeman), NYRB Classics, 2008, 368 Pp
Unforgiving Years by Victor Serge (Translated from the French and with an introduction by Richard Greeman), NYRB Classics, 2008, 368 pp. Michael Weiss In the course of reviewing the memoirs of N.N. Sukhanov – the man who famously called Stalin a ‘gray blur’ – Dwight Macdonald gave a serviceable description of the two types of radical witnesses to the Russian Revolution: ‘Trotsky’s is a bird’s- eye view – a revolutionary eagle soaring on the wings of Marx and History – but Sukhanov gives us a series of close-ups, hopping about St. Petersburg like an earth- bound sparrow – curious, intimate, sharp-eyed.’ If one were to genetically fuse these two avian observers into one that took flight slightly after the Bolshevik seizure of power, the result would be Victor Serge. Macdonald knew quite well who Serge was; the New York Trotskyist and scabrous polemicist of Partisan Review was responsible, along with the surviving members of the anarchist POUM faction of the Spanish Civil War, for getting him out of Marseille in 1939, just as the Nazis were closing in and anti-Stalinist dissidents were escaping the charnel houses of Eurasia – or not escaping them, as was more often the case. Macdonald, much to his later chagrin, titled his own reflections on his youthful agitations and indiscretions Memoirs of a Revolutionist, an honourable if slightly wince-making tribute to Serge, who earned every syllable in his title, Memoirs of a Revolutionary. And after the dropping of both atomic bombs on Japan, it was Macdonald’s faith in socialism that began to -
Soviet Political Memoirs: a Study in Politics and Literature
SOVIET POLITICAL MEMOIRS: A STUDY IN POLITICS AND LITERATURE by ZOI LAKKAS B.A. HONS, The University of Western Ontario, 1990 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of History) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June 1992 Zoi Lakkas, 1992 _________________ in presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department. or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. V Department of The University of British &‘olumbia Vancouver, Canada Date 1L4( /1 1q2 DE-6 (2/88) ii ABS TRACT A growing number of Soviet political memoirs have emerged from the former Soviet Union. The main aim of the meinoirists is to give their interpretation of the past. Despite the personal insight that these works provide on Soviet history, Western academics have not studied them in any detail. The principal aim of this paper is to prove Soviet political memoir’s importance as a research tool. The tight link between politics and literature characterizes the nature of Soviet political memoir. All forms of Soviet literature had to reform their brand of writing as the Kremlin’s policies changed from Stalin’s ruthless reign to Gorbachev’s period of openness. -
Social Report 2003! 3 Alfa Bank Social Report 2003! 3
Our Reputation Throughout the history of Alfa Bank, we have considered our reputation to be our most valuable asset. Over the years, we have experienced all the obstacles and challenges that faced Russia as a whole. We have triumphed against all odds, becoming Russia’s largest private bank, a leader of the financial industry. Alfa Bank is one of the very first Russian companies to acknowledge its social responsibilities. For years now, the name of Alfa Bank has been nancial support to numerous non-profit programs closely linked with such cultural and social initia- in Russia’s regions, as well as offering assistance to tives as the annual Golden Mask Theater Festival in young talent, and helping those in need. But that’s Moscow and the Alfa Chance Program, supporting not all, either. We take an active role in society in talented young people in Russia’s regions. every place where we develop our business, from Alfa Bank has blazed a trail to Russia for some of holding conferences aimed at attracting investment the world’s leading contemporary performers, in- into the regions, to financing ecological programs cluding Elton John, Sting, Tina Turner and Paul and aiding educational institutions. McCartney, as well as organizing foreign tours We offer aid at all levels of society. We see our role for leading Russian opera and ballet companies. as encouraging the harmonious advancement of This year we also helped to organize and finance all of our communities. a competition to design a statue in memory of No- We are convinced that the future of our business bel Laureate Joseph Brodsky in St. -
Father Alexander Men
Father Alexander Men ANDREI DUBROV Father Alexander Men is well known in'Moscow, but not in the West. He is still young, not yet 40. After studying at a forestry institute in Siberia, he realized that a profession as a graduate in forestry was not for him. He was a believer, a man of great faith - and had been so since childhood. He was brought up in a believing family and his uncle was a priest. The call to the priesthood came to him when he realized that mis sionary work in the Soviet Union was his unquestionable duty. So he entered the seminary at Zagorsk. He excelled in his studies and ~radua ted in the early 1960s. After ordination he was sent to serve in the village of Tarasovka, 40 kilometres from Moscow, on the way to Zagorsk. All his parishioners quickly came to love the young priest for his kindness, his gentleness and his desire to help people in all he did and said. He had the ability to strike up a relationship with everyone. He is one of the most erudite people in Moscow, but he never parades it; with simple people he talks about things which are close to their hearts and which they under stand - a rare quality among modern Russian intellectuals. Gradually Father Alexander became known in Moscow itself. People started coming to his services from there. He is particularly loved by young people, by the new generation of young Russians, who continue to seek the truth as they did in the past. Many have seen through the com munist ideology. -
Perspectives on the Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet Times
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe Volume 27 Issue 1 Article 2 2-2007 Perspectives on the Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet Times Igor Pochoshajew University of Rostock, Germany Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Eastern European Studies Commons Recommended Citation Pochoshajew, Igor (2007) "Perspectives on the Russian Orthodox Church in Soviet Times," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 27 : Iss. 1 , Article 2. Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol27/iss1/2 This Article, Exploration, or Report is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PERSPECTIVES ON THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN SOVIET TIMES by Igor Pochoshajew Igor Pochoshajew (Russian Orthodox) is Junior Professor for European History of Religions - Intercultural History of Christianity, Theological Faculty, Univ. of Rostock, Germany. He received his Dipl.Theol., PhD as well as the Habilitation at the University of Rostock,. He also received the M.Litt., Classics, Trinity College Dublin, Republic of Ireland, and the Diplme d’Etudes Approfondies, Theology, Univ. of Strasbourg II, France,. Among his books and articles Alexander Men’ on the Relationship between Church and State, Frankfurt am Main: Otto Lembeck, 2006 (in German). Interpretation of recent history is a huge task that Russia has still to complete. Aleksandr Men’, a Russian-Orthodox priest murdered in 1995,1 regarded examination of the past a necessary condition to build the future.2 There have not been many efforts spent on this task yet. -
Ethical Genius
The Jewish Ethics Workbook: Chapter Four Ethical Genius Who is mighty? He who subdues his passions. (Avot: Chapter 4, Mishnah 1) There are two theories about leadership. On the one hand, there is the view that in every generation there are a few special men and women–great heroes-- who set the agenda and call the shots for the rest of us. These men and women are larger than life. They think big and they act big because they are big! On the other hand, there is the view that no one can rise above history like this. Even the greatest heroes, when examined carefully, are carried along by the currents of time. This theory says that real leadership is quieter, more prosaic, and more common. Let’s call the first view, the “heroic model of leadership” and the second view, “quiet leadership.” Heroic Leaders These men and women are exceedingly smart, full of energy, cunning as foxes, and almost always physically strong and alert. These are the men and women that we read about in history text books. In the United States, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Ben Franklin come easily to mind. Just consider Ben Franklin for a moment. He was a prolific writer, a politician, a diplomat, and one of the founding fathers of the United States of America. Here are a few of his inventions: bifocals, Franklin stove, catheter, lightning rod, odometer, and daylight savings time. He founded the first fire department, the first fire insurance company, and he is given credit with penning the first political cartoon. -
THE SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT from the WEST the Spiritual Movement from the West
THE SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT FROM THE WEST The spiritual movement from the West An essay and two talks by Grigory Pomerants Translated by Peter TInwaites Published July 2004 by Caux Books - Caux Edition rue de Panorama, 1824, Caux, Switzerland ISBN 2 88037 600 9 © Caux Books - Caux Edition Book design: Blair Cummock Back cover photo: Bryan Hamiin Printed by Imprimerie Pot, Geneva, Switzerland IV Contents Translator's introduction 7 THE SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT FROM THE WEST [I] 13 [II] 37 [III] 54 TWO TALKS Introductory note 67 Europe, Asia and Russia - perspectives on the dialogue of cultures 69 Russia's spiritual and social crisis 83 Translator's introduction Grigory Pomerants has been a witness of the history of his country, Russia, throughout its Soviet period and up to the present day. Born four months after the Bolshevik Revolution, he lived through the civil war period, the Stalin purges of the 30s, four years' war service from Stalingrad to Berlin as a Red Army infantryman, arrest and imprisonment during the persecutions of Stalin's last years, and the three decades of varying degrees of state oppression and intimidation which followed, less extreme than Stalin's but still fearsome for its victims. Pomerants' writings blend scholarship with the testi mony of an individual soul on its journey through that dramatic historical and social landscape. Two themes in his work are the conquest of fear, and the freedom of the individual conscience. His weapons in achieving that conquest and that freedom have been inner contempla tion, and the gift of expressing and communicating his reflections.