DOCSLIB.ORG

The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4: a Symposium a Collection of Essays Center for Global Development

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4: a Symposium a Collection of Essays Center for Global Development The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4: A Symposium A Collection of Essays Center for Global Development. 2021. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Center for Global Development 2055 L Street, NW Fifth Floor Washington, DC 20036 www.cgdev.org Contents Introduction . 1 Susannah Hares and Justin Sandefur, Co-Directors, CGD Global Education Program The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4 Requires the Global Education Architecture to Focus on Foundational Learning and to Hold Ourselves Accountable For Achieving It . 2 Girin Beeharry, Global Education Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Postscript . 17 Girin Beeharry, Global Education Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Back to Basics . 21 Manos Antoninis, Director, Global Education Monitoring Report Playing Catch Up: The Role of Foundational Literacy in Achieving SDG 4 . 26 Caitlin Baron, Chief Executive Officer, Luminos Fund The (Mis)Alignment of Global and National Priorities for Education . 33 Lee Crawfurd and Susannah Hares Finding Room for Optimism on Foundational Learning . 38 Luis A. Crouch, Senior Economist, RTI International Every Global Certainty Can Be Disproven by a Local Reality . 42 Anton De Grauwe, Head of Technical Cooperation, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning Achieving SDG 4 Requires Prioritising Foundational Learning, Globally and Nationally . 48 Ashish Dhawan, Founder and Chairman, Central Square Foundation The Three-Legged Stool Approach to Advancing Basic Learning in East Africa . 51 Youdi Schipper, Risha Chande and Aidan Eyakuze, Twaweza East Africa The Ground Beneath Our Feet . 56 Hugh McLean, Senior Advisor, Education Program, Open Society Foundations (writing in his personal capacity) Why Haven’t We Prioritised Early Grade Literacy and Numeracy? . 71 Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, Deputy Director, Research Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, Department of Basic Education, South Africa, and Non-resident Fellow, Center for Global Development iii Start with the Right Foot: Recognizing the Power of Foundational Learning Data . 75 Silvia Montoya, Director, UNESCO Institute for Statistics Why Do We Keep Failing to Universalize Literacy? . 81 Karen Mundy, Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy, OISE and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto Make Inclusive FLN a Signature Issue for Education Systems . 85 Moses Ngware, Senior Research Scientist, and Head of Education and Youth Empowerment, African Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya The Missing Middle: What the Emphasis on National Education Results Ignores . 90 Dr. Benjamin Piper, Senior Director, Africa Education, RTI International; Non-Resident Fellow, Center for Global Development Sleeping Soundly in the Procrustean Bed of Accounting-Based Accountability . 96 Lant Pritchett, RISE Research Director, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University Taking Education Seriously . 103 Jaime Saavedra, Global Director for Education, World Bank The Paradox Burden: Lessons for Global Education from the Transformation of Health . 108 Oliver Sabot, Director, Nova Pioneer Should Foreign Aid for Education Focus Exclusively on Raising Second-Grade Test Scores? . 113 Justin Sandefur, Senior fellow, Center for Global Development How the Global Education Aid Architecture Can Work in Harmony on Foundational Learning . 118 Laura Savage, Non-resident fellow, Center for Global Development iv Introduction Susannah Hares and Justin Sandefur, Co-Direc- international organizations function and malfunc- tors, CGD Global Education Program tion. His essay embodies what we know about Girin. It is thoughtful but refreshingly direct. It is evi- Earlier this year, Girin Beeharry stepped down as the dence-driven but marries deep analysis with a feverish inaugural director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foun- focus on impact. Girin’s passion for change is palpable dation’s global education program. He’s not going qui- and his relentless challenge to the sector to do better etly though. “The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4,” first for the children we purport to serve shines through. published in the International Journal of Educational Development, is—in essence—Girin’s manifesto for inter- In March, CGD and Rise hosted a private roundtable national actors in the education sector. The essay has to hear reactions from the education sector leaders to little patience for what Girin perceives as our collective whom Girin’s essay is directed. Now, we are delighted failure to address alarmingly poor learning outcomes, to present a symposium of reactions and commentar- and it lays out a clear (and sometimes controversial) ies on “The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4.” In this col- vision for what needs to change to get back on track lection, sector leaders, researchers, and practitioners toward SDG 4. The heart of this manifesto is that we provide their reflections and counter proposals to must reorient global aid for education around pro- Girin’s essay. Taken collectively, the range of contrib- moting foundational literacy and numeracy, unflinch- utors and the insights their essays provide reflect the ingly monitor progress on that core goal, and hold all impact that Girin’s perspective has had on so many of development institutions accountable for measurable us and remind us quite how much he has contributed results in this domain. to the education sector. The essay has made waves, not least because Girin We offer thanks to Girin for stimulating this timely has worked closely with his target audience for years, debate, and we are grateful to all our contributors for and he draws on detailed knowledge of how various their thoughtful responses. The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4: A Symposium 1 The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4 Requires the Global Education Architecture to Focus on Foundational Learning and to Hold Ourselves Accountable For Achieving It Girin Beeharry, Global Education Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation This essay was first published in theInternational Jour- 1. Introduction nal of Education Development in April 2021. Today, nine in ten children in Low Income Countries But surpassing all stupendous inventions, what (LICs) cannot read with comprehension by their tenth 1 sublimity of mind was his who dreamed of finding means birthday (World Bank, 2019a). In other words, they to communicate his deepest thoughts to any other are functionally illiterate, this after decades of decla- person, though distant by mighty intervals of place and rations and initiatives by the global education com- time! Of talking with those who are in India; of speaking munity to improve the quality of basic education. This to those who are not yet born and will not be born for a being the degree zero of our collective aspirations, thousand or ten thousand years; and with what facility, there is understandably a sense of malaise about the by the different arrangements of twenty characters effectiveness of the global education architecture in upon a page! [] Let this be the seal of all the admirable helping countries address what has been termed the inventions of mankind […]. “learning crisis.” In the last many years, the education — Galileo Galilei (1632, pp. 120–121) community has sought to respond to the perceived 1. Learning poverty indicator developed by the World Bank in coordination with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2 The Pathway to Progress on SDG 4: A Symposium deficiencies in the architecture in the form of well-in- 2. A short and incomplete history of tentioned partnerships, specialized financing facilities, tall and unfulfilled aspirations commissions, committees, platforms, initiatives, and forums.2 But these attempts to “fix” the architecture 1990s: The Jomtien Declaration of Education for All have yet to demonstrate meaningful success: learning emphasizes the need to improve literacy because “lit- levels are persistently low (Le Nestour and Sandefur, eracy is a necessary skill in itself and the foundation of other forthcoming), and positive deviants hard to find.3 life skills” (UNESCO, 1990, p. 6). It sets out the need for precise floor metrics: “such that an agreed percentage of As a committed partner to the global education agenda, an appropriate age cohort […] attains or surpasses a defined I believe the opportunity is ripe to re-energize the level of necessary learning achievement” (p. 5). education community by showing meaningful results in the next few years. To do that we should focus on 2000s: The Dakar Framework for Action includes a a few objectives, work in countries that share those commitment to improving quality in education and objectives, go at them with all that the global commu- ensuring the achievement of learning outcomes by all nity has to offer, monitor progress regularly, and hold in literacy and numeracy (UNESCO, 2000). The semi- ourselves collectively accountable for progress. My nal 2002 Global Education Monitoring Report (GEMR) submission is that one priority objective ought to be report already acknowledges the difficulty in mon- addressing Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) itoring learning (UNESCO, 2002). GPE’s precursor, in LICs, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). the Education For All Fast Track Initiative (EFA FTI) is established in 2002. The 2010 evaluation of EFA FTI I propose FLN as a priority because it is critical for any concludes: “the FTI has remained a weak partnership, with meaningful progress on the wider Sustainable Devel- weak accountability, and has not delivered the “compact” opment
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Politics of Multilingualism in Roma Education in Early Soviet Union and Its Current Projections Marushiakova, Elena; Popov, Vesselin
    www.ssoar.info Politics of multilingualism in Roma education in early Soviet Union and its current projections Marushiakova, Elena; Popov, Vesselin Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Marushiakova, E., & Popov, V. (2017). Politics of multilingualism in Roma education in early Soviet Union and its current projections. Social Inclusion, 5(4), 48-59. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i4.1128 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY Lizenz (Namensnennung) zur This document is made available under a CC BY Licence Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden (Attribution). For more Information see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.de Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183–2803) 2017, Volume 5, Issue 4, Pages 48–59 DOI: 10.17645/si.v5i4.1128 Article Politics of Multilingualism in Roma Education in Early Soviet Union and Its Current Projections Elena Marushiakova * and Vesselin Popov School of History, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9BA, UK; E-Mails: [email protected] (E.M.), [email protected] (V.P.) * Corresponding author Submitted: 14 August 2017 | Accepted: 16 October 2017 | Published: 22 December 2017 Abstract This article presents the history of the politics of multilingualism (or lack thereof) in regard to Roma (formerly known as ‘Gypsies’). In the 1920s and 1930s in the newly established Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, against a backdrop of pro- claimed principles of full equality of all peoples1 living in the new state, commenced a rapid creation of schools for Roma children with instruction in Romani mother-tongue along with special training of Roma teachers.
    [Show full text]
  • Zhenotdel, Russian Women and the Communist Party, 1919-1930
    RED ‘TEASPOONS OF CHARITY’: ZHENOTDEL, RUSSIAN WOMEN AND THE COMMUNIST PARTY, 1919-1930 by Michelle Jane Patterson A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Michelle Jane Patterson 2011 Abstract “Red ‘Teaspoons of Charity’: Zhenotdel, the Communist Party and Russian Women, 1919-1930” Doctorate of Philosophy, 2011 Michelle Jane Patterson Department of History, University of Toronto After the Bolshevik assumption of power in 1917, the arguably much more difficult task of creating a revolutionary society began. In 1919, to ensure Russian women supported the Communist party, the Zhenotdel, or women’s department, was established. Its aim was propagating the Communist party’s message through local branches attached to party committees at every level of the hierarchy. This dissertation is an analysis of the Communist party’s Zhenotdel in Petrograd/ Leningrad during the 1920s. Most Western Zhenotdel histories were written in the pre-archival era, and this is the first study to extensively utilize material in the former Leningrad party archive, TsGAIPD SPb. Both the quality and quantity of Zhenotdel fonds is superior at St.Peterburg’s TsGAIPD SPb than Moscow’s RGASPI. While most scholars have used Moscow-centric journals like Kommunistka, Krest’ianka and Rabotnitsa, this study has thoroughly utilized the Leningrad Zhenotdel journal Rabotnitsa i krest’ianka and a rich and extensive collection of Zhenotdel questionnaires. Women’s speeches from Zhenotdel conferences, as well as factory and field reports, have also been folded into the dissertation’s five chapters on: organizational issues, the unemployed, housewives and prostitutes, peasants, and workers.
    [Show full text]
  • Historians As Activists: History Writing in Times of War
    Nationalities Papers (2021), 49: 4, 691–709 doi:10.1017/nps.2020.38 ARTICLE Historians as Activists: History Writing in Times of War. The Case of Ukraine in 2014–2018 Yuliya Yurchuk* Department of History and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] Abstract This article elucidates the role of historians in times of war and the peculiarities of popular history narratives written by historians who became activists. The article focuses on historians who call themselves “Likbez. Historical Front.” This cohort gave rise to a new professional species—activist historians—who are different from so called memorians or propagandists, who work in service of authorities. Likbez historians tried to use their power to influence and promote their activist agenda not only in the realm of memory and history but also in reformation of state institutions. I argue that for Likbez historians, securitization of the past is the main strategy employed for producing historical knowledge. Historians’ work is a part of postcolonizing process observed in Ukrainian society since the Maidan protests. As the analysis shows, popular history narratives written with an open activist agenda are a result of many compromises made by scholars in the intersection of several factors: professional ambitions, political and civic aims, social and political context, popular expectations, and market environment. In line with the increased attention to agency in memory studies, this article demonstrates that historians have a much more nuanced relation to power than straightforward opposition or co-option. Keywords: Ukraine; history writing; memory; popular history; activism; securitization; postcolonizing process; empowerment The terms often used to define the military conflict in eastern Ukraine1—information war, war of narratives, or hybrid war—underline the crucial role of information in the conflict (Khaldarova and Pantti 2016; Nygren and Hök 2016; Bolin, Jordan, and Stålberg 2016).
    [Show full text]
  • The Baba and the Bolshevichka – Learning to Read Soviet Representations of Women’S Literacy in Early Soviet Culture
    The Baba and the Bolshevichka – Learning to Read Soviet Representations of Women’s Literacy in Early Soviet Culture Kathryn Martin University of Nottingham The importance of the female role in the Sovietisation process in post- Revolutionary Russia and beyond was not lost on many of the key figures of the Bolshevik party, not least Vladimir Lenin, who wrote many articles prior to the seismic social shifts of 1917 extolling the need to emancipate women from their current social positions, and emphasising the key role that the female figure had to play in bringing communism to the nation. Clara Zetkin, the German Marxist theorist and female activist recalled that in 1920, Lenin told her that: “We can rightly be Proud of the fact that in the Party, in the Communist International, we have the flower of revolutionary womankind. But that is not enough. We must win over to our side the millions of toiling women in the towns and villages. […] There can be no real mass movement without women” (1929: 69). However, one of the greatest barriers to this process were the overwhelmingly low levels of literacy among the adult female population Journal of Languages, Texts, and Society, Vol. 2 (2018), 48–66. © 2018 by Kathryn Martin. This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. The Baba and the Bolshevichka 49 after the Revolution, which according to some estimates, were as low as 17% (St George 25). This paper draws on Soviet linguistic theory and language policy in order to explore the relationship between the female literacy movement in the early Soviet period and its artistic representation in three different cultural items from this period: state produced propaganda posters, Olga Preobrazhenskaia’s 1927 film Baby Riazanskie (The Peasant Women of Riazan), and Andrei Platonov’s 1929 novel Kotlovan (The Foundation Pit).
    [Show full text]
  • Master Thesisdv
    From Sickle to Hammer: Frictions’ Role in the Industrialization of Russia Guillem Blasco i Piles1 Advisor: Federico Tadei September 2018 Abstract This paper studies the structural transformation of Russia in 1885-1940 from an agrarian to an industrial economy. To do so, time-series for Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union during 1885-1940 are reconstructed and a methodology is developed that allows us to identify the different factors that had the largest quantitative impact on Russia’s economic development, through the reduction of frictions in the productive process. The results of the research showed that investment was the main economic variable in diminishing the production frictions. War communism exacerbated market distortions in the production process, due to their extremist policies in extremely harsh times. During Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, investment was channeled through the granted easy credit of the Gosbank to fund the impossible high production objectives. This set of policies seemed to have the largest impact in the reduction of the production market frictions of the analyzed period, particularly, the first Five Year Plan. At the contrary, education was not found significant in the reduction of the production frictions and, as expected, frictions remained high during the Tsarist Period, deterring industrialization. Keywords: Industrialization, Frictions, Russia, Soviet Union, Markups, Monopoly Power, Five-year Plans, Production Quotas, Soft-Budget Constraints. JEL Codes: E65, N10, O11, O14, O47 1 Universitat de Barcelona, MSc in Economics. E-mail: [email protected] Gràcies mare. A Tere, Toni, Carles i Vincent. From Sickle to Hammer Guillem Blasco i Piles 1 Introduction The main aim of this paper is to analyze the industrialization of Russia by finding the main obstacles that impeded its structural transformation.
    [Show full text]
  • Summer Catalogue 2018
    www.bookvica.com SUMMER CATALOGUE 2018 1 F O R E W O R D Dear friends and collegues, Bookvica team is excited to present to you the summer catalogue of 2018! The catalogue include some of our usual sections along with new experimental ones. Interesting that many books from our selection explore experiments in different fields like art and science themselves. For example our usual sections of art exhibition catalogues and science include such names as Goncharova and Mendeleev - both were great exepimenters. Theatre section keeps exploring experiments on and off stage of the 1920s under striking constrictivist wrappers. We continue to explore early Soviet period with an important section on art for the masses where we gathered editions which shed light on how Soviets used all available matters to create a new citizen on shatters of the past and how to make him a loyal tool of propaganda. Photography and art of that period is gathered in a separate section with such names like Zdanevich and Telingater among the artists. Books on architecture include Chernikhov fantasies, Stepanova’s design of metro book, study of Soviet workers’ clubs and the most spectacular item is account of the work made by architecture studios in early 1930s led by most famous Russian architects. Probably the jewel of our selection is a rare collection of sheet music from 1920s-30s or more precisely cover designs. We have been gathering them for a year and are happy to finally share our discoveries on this subject with you. Don’t miss too small but very interesting sections of Ukrainian books and items on Women.
    [Show full text]
  • Juche - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
    الجوتشي Juche - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche Juche From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Juche (Chos ŏn'g ŭl: 주체 ; hancha: 主體 ; RR: Chuch'e ; Korean pronunciation: [t ɕut ɕʰ e]), usually translated as "self-reliance", sometimes referred to as Kimilsungism , is the official political ideology of North Korea, described by the regime as Kim Il-Sung's "original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought". [1] The idea states that an individual is "the master of his destiny" [2] and that the North Korean masses are to act as the "masters of the revolution and construction". [2] Kim Il-Sung (1912-1994) developed the ideology – originally viewed as a variant of Marxism-Leninism – to become distinctly "Korean" in character, [1] breaking ranks with the deterministic and materialist ideas of Marxism-Leninism and strongly emphasising the individual, the nation state and its sovereignty.[1] Consequentially, Juche was adopted into a set of principles that the North Korean government has used to justify its policy decisions from the 1950s onwards. Such principles include moving the nation towards "chaju" (independence), [1] through the construction of "charip" (national economy) and an emphasis upon Tower of the Juche Idea in "chawi" (self-defence), in order to establish socialism.[1] Pyongyang, North Korea. The Juche ideology has been criticized by scholars and observers as a mechanism for sustaining the authoritarian rule of the North Korean regime, [3] justifying the country's heavy- handed isolationism. [3] It has also been attested to be a form of Korean ethnic nationalism, acting in order to promote the Kim family as the saviours of the "Korean Race" and acting as a foundation of the subsequent personality cult surrounding them.
    [Show full text]
  • Contents Literally "Subject(Ive) Thought"[1]
    Juche Juche (/dʒuːˈtʃeɪ/;[2] Korean: , lit. 'subject'; Korean pronunciation: [tɕutɕʰe]; 주체 Juche ideology usually left untranslated[1] or translated as "self-reliance") is the official state ideology of North Korea, described by the government as Kim Il-sung's original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought.[3] It postulates that "man is the master of his destiny",[4] that the North Korean masses are to act as the "masters of the revolution and construction" and that by becoming self-reliant and strong a nation can achieve truesocialism .[4] Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) developed the ideology, originally viewed as a variant of Marxism–Leninism until it became distinctly Korean in character[3] whilst incorporating the historical materialist ideas of Marxism–Leninism and strongly emphasizing the individual, the nation state and its sovereignty.[3] Consequently, the North Korean government adopted Juche into a set of principles it uses to justify its policy decisions from the 1950s onwards. Such principles include moving the nation towards claimed jaju ("independence"),[3] through the construction of jarip ("national economy") and an emphasis upon jawi ("self-defence") in order to establish socialism.[3] The practice of Juche is firmly rooted in the ideals of sustainability through Torch symbolizing the Juche agricultural independence and a lack of dependency. The Juche ideology has been ideology at the top of the Juche criticized by many scholars and observers as a mechanism for sustaining the Tower in
    [Show full text]
  • Resilient Russian Women in the 1920S & 1930S
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Zea E-Books Zea E-Books 8-19-2015 Resilient Russian Women in the 1920s & 1930s Marcelline Hutton [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook Part of the European Languages and Societies Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Modern Literature Commons, Russian Literature Commons, Theatre and Performance Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hutton, Marcelline, "Resilient Russian Women in the 1920s & 1930s" (2015). Zea E-Books. Book 31. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/31 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Zea E-Books at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Zea E-Books by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Marcelline Hutton Resilient Russian Women in the 1920s & 1930s The stories of Russian educated women, peasants, prisoners, workers, wives, and mothers of the 1920s and 1930s show how work, marriage, family, religion, and even patriotism helped sustain them during harsh times. The Russian Revolution launched an economic and social upheaval that released peasant women from the control of traditional extended fam- ilies. It promised urban women equality and created opportunities for employment and higher education. Yet, the revolution did little to elim- inate Russian patriarchal culture, which continued to undermine wom- en’s social, sexual, economic, and political conditions. Divorce and abor- tion became more widespread, but birth control remained limited, and sexual liberation meant greater freedom for men than for women. The transformations that women needed to gain true equality were post- poned by the pov erty of the new state and the political agendas of lead- ers like Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin.
    [Show full text]
  • Topic 3: the Rise and Rule of Single-‐Party States (USSR and Lenin/Stalin)
    Topic 3: The Rise and Rule of Single-Party States (USSR and Lenin/Stalin) Soviet Culture Under Lenin and Stalin, 1917-1953 Chart Major Theme: Domestic Policies and Impact Structure and Organization of Government and Administration • Lunacharskii was made People’s Commissar of Education Political Policies • War communism (culture and politics became one) • Party mindedness (partiinost) became paramount; individual views were not tolerated Economic Policies • War communism (1917-1921) • New Economic Policy (1921-1928) Social Policies Religious Policies Role of Education • Lunacharskii was made People’s Commissar of Education and he guided the Soviet regime’s efforts to improve education and develop a socialist culture • He recruited “bourgeois specialists” needed to train future “socialist specialists” • Bolshevik regime placed high priority on eliminating illiteracy; implemented the likbez, or the liquidation of illiteracy, in 1919 • In 1921, workers’ schools (rabfaki) were established in factories to teach basic readin, writing, and arithmetic • Saw education as a way to foster Soviet thought in the younger generation and eradicate bourgeois influence • Scientists experienced a growing intolerance at the hands of the party on issues of central scientific and philosophical importance during the 1920s (genetics were an especially touchy topic) Role of the Arts (Culture) • Many intellectuals and artists fled under War Communism (Lenin), some came back under the NEP (Stalin) • After the Nov. Revolution, culture wasn’t greatly affected; artists became less in demand • Lunacharskii was responsible for making Lenin’s views on culture and art a reality; he was an intellectual among Bolsheviks; he had to persuade the Bolsheviks of the value of arts • He wanted to preserve the best of Russsia’s culture, even if it was from the bourgeois era • He founded the Assos.
    [Show full text]
  • History, Memory and National Identity Understanding the Politics of History and Memory Wars in Post-Soviet Lands
    History, Memory and National Identity Understanding the Politics of History and Memory Wars in Post-Soviet Lands Igor Torbakov Abstract: Over the past several decades, the “politics of history” has become a significant aspect of domestic politics and international relations within Europe and around the world. The politicizing and instrumentalizing of history usually pursues two main objectives: first is the construction of a maximally cohesive national identity and rallying the society around the powers that be; second is eschewing the problem of guilt. The two are clearly interlinked; having liberated oneself of the sense of historical, political, moral or whatever responsibility, it is arguably much easier to take pride in one’s newly minted “unblem- ished” identity based on the celebratory interpretation of one’s country’s “glorious past.” This article intends to explore how the memories of some momentous developments in the tumultuous 20th century (above all, the experience of totalitarian dictatorships, World War II, the “division” and “reunification” of Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union) and their historical interpretations relate to concepts of national identity in the post-Soviet lands. Keywords: history, memory, identity, politics of history, Russia, Eastern Europe Tell me what you remember and I’ll diagnose your condition —Aleksandr Kustaryov1 t the end of June 2010, a remarkable text appeared on the website of the Russian A liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy. Its author, the prominent Russian lawmaker Kon- stantin Kosachev, suggested that it was time for Russia to elaborate upon what he called a comprehensive “set of principles, an ‘historical doctrine’ of sorts” that would help Moscow Igor Torbakov is currently a Visiting Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Forge of Stalin of Forge the in Kotljarchuk AUS Andrej Gammalsvenskby Is the Only Swedish Settlement to the East from Finland, Founded in 1782
    AUS AndrejAUS Kotljarchuk In the Forge of Stalin Gammalsvenskby is the only Swedish settlement to the east from Finland, founded in 1782. In the past of Gammalsvenskby the history of the Soviet Union, Sweden, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis the international communist movement and Nazi Germany combined in a bizar- Stockholms Studies In History, 100 re form. And even when the ploughmen of the Kherson steppes did not left their native village, the great powers themselves visited them with the intention to rule forever. The history of colony is viewed through the prism of the theory of “forced normalization” and the concept of “changes of collective identity“. The author intends to study the techniques of forced normalization and the strategy of the In the Forge of Stalin collective resistance. Swedish Colonists of Ukraine in Totalitarian Experiments Andrej Kotljarchuk is an associate professor in history, working as a university of the Twentieth Century lecturer at the Department of History, Stockholm University; and as a senior rese- archer at the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University. His research focuses on ethnic minorities and role of experts’ communities, mass Andrej Kotljarchuk Stockholm 2014 violence and the politics of memory. His recent publications include the book chap- ters “The Nordic Threat: Soviet Ethnic Cleansing on the Kola Peninsula” (2014), “The Memory of Roma Holocaust in Ukraine: Mass Graves, Memory Work and the Politics of Commemoration” (2014); as well as the articles “World War II Memory Politics: Jewish, Polish and Roma Minorities of Belarus”, in Journal of Belarusian Studies (2013) and “Kola Sami in the Stalinist terror: a quantitative analysis”, in Journal of Northern Studies (2012).
    [Show full text]