REEIfication THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN INSTITUTE David L. Ransel, Director Janis Cakars, Editor Vol. 23, No. 3 October 1999 Russia and the American Role Feature Articles on the Eve of a New Century Ambassador Collins on The following speech by Ambassador James Collins was composed in the midst US-Russian Relations 1 of the Kosovo War. I know this because I was in Moscow doing research in the spring semester, and Jim was kind enough to invite me for a visit at Spasso House. He Research in Moldova 3 was, as always, his calm, controlled self, despite the assaults on the embassy by anti- Baltic Studies Summer American protesters and his grueling schedule of daily and nightly efforts to win the Institute 4 cooperation of the Russian government and to circumscribe its mediation efforts. Chopin Conference 4 Amid these demands on his time and energy, Jim crafted a commencement address for IU. When he agreed last year to deliver the commencement speech in May, 1999, Library Digital Index Project 5 he knew that intervening events might cause difficulties for him, but Jim is true to his Visiting Students from Bosnia commitments and very loyal to IU. He arranged things so that he could get away for and Herzegovina 18 this occasion no matter what. He and his wife Naomi were both graduate students at IU. Naomi finished with a Other News PhD in history and has for some years served as executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. During commencement she received the IU IU and AAASS 2 Presidents Medal of Excellence for her important work in fostering international exchanges. Jim was well on his way to receiving a PhD with specialization in Russian Byrnes Fellowship history before deciding at the last moment to enter the diplomatic corps. In May, IU Contributions 3 finished the educational process by awarding Jim an honorary Doctor of Laws de- Center for the Study of gree. Democracy 5 We are pleased to present the commencement speech that Jim crafted amid the Corporate Culture Project 5 winds of war and delivered here in Bloomington on May 8. David L. Ransel New Students 8 Graduations 9 Commencement Address Faculty News 10 by Ambassador James F. Collins Student News 13 Thank you President Brand for that generous introduction. Chancellor Wells, Members of the Board of Trustees, members of the Indiana Faculty, I join you with Alumni News 14 enthusiasm in congratulating the Indiana class of 1999. REEI Picnic 15 I am deeply grateful to all of you for the honor you do me today and for the special Student Awards 16 recognition you have given my wife Naomi this weekend by awarding her the Presidents Medal for Excellence. New Fellowship 16 For both of us, this recognition by the Indiana family is a source of deeply felt New Video Acquisitions 17 pride, for we hold a special place in our hearts for IU. We married not far from here in Faculty Members Retire 19 Beck Chapel thirty-six years ago this month: IU gave us many lasting friendships, and Indianas community of scholars and students opened for both of us opportuni- Faculty Members Hired 19 ties that changed and shaped our lives as I am confident it will open the way for Serbian Artists Visit 19 todays graduates. I know today is a proud time for each graduate, as well as for each parent, family member, loved one, and friend who supported a student through to this moment. It is a moment for each graduate to be proud of his or her accomplishment to say even out loud, I did it. But I know, too, it is day of other emotions. A ceremony of commencement marks continued page 6 2 Russian and East European Institute IU Participants in the 1999 AAASS Indiana University Russian and Conference East European Institute The National Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic INSTITUTE STAFF Studies will be held in St. Louis, November 18-21, 1999. The following IU faculty and students will be participating. David L. Ransel,Director Denise Gardiner, Assistant Faculty Papers Director/ Outeach Coordinator Laura Rasbach, Administrative Michael V. Alexeev (Economics): Fiscal Federalism in Russia Assistant Maria Bucur-Deckard (History): Paying Homage: Contests Over World War I Sophie Christoff, Advisor and Memorials in Interwar Romania and National Identity Project Administrator Bernd J. Fischer (History, IPFW): The Albanian National Idea in the Albanian National Renaissance GRADUATE ASSISTANTS Miroslav Ruzica (Social Work, IUPUI): Serbian Third Sector at a Crossroads Janis Cakars, Publications Editor Scott Joseph Seregny (History, IUPUI): Zemstvos, Professionals, and Peasants, Carrie C. Ellingson, Website and 1910-1916: Fragmentation and Revitalization Oureach Assistant Bozena Shallcross (Slavics/Polish Studies Center): From Romanticism to F.. Timothy Martin, World Wide Biedermeier: Stafan Chwins Hanemann Web Administrator Jeffrey Veidlinger (History/Jewish Studies): The Apocalypses of Fedorov and Stephen Nedell, Assistant to Soloviev: Uses of Patristic Orthodoxy in Late Imperial Russian Philosophy Slavic Bibliographer Student Papers CONTACT INFORMATION Barbara Allen (History) Caught in the Middle: Alexander Shliapnikov and Internal Russian and East European Institute Communist Party Politics, 1923-24 565 Ballantine Hall Gregory S. Rogers (History) The Presentation of Finnic Peoples in Russian Indiana University Historiography Bloomington, IN 47405-6615 Phone: (812) 855-7309 Panel Chairs Fax: (812) 855-6411 Ben Eklof (History): Provincial Life, Public Culture, and Enlightenment in the Russian Email: [email protected] Locale, 1864-1921. http://www.indiana.edu/~reeiweb/ David L. Ransel (REEI/History): Myth and Gender in Imperial Russia Panel Discussants REEI Distinguished Alumni & Michael V. Alexeev (Economics): Measurement of Economic and Social Change in Distinguished Service Awards Russia During Transition Maria Bucur-Deckard (History): Staging the Past: The Politics of Commemoration in This award program was initiated at the Habsburg Central Europe 1988 Midwest Slavic conference in cel- Nyusya Milman (Slavics): Womens Voices in Russian Literature ebration of REEIs 30th anniversary. Rountable Participants ALUMNI AWARDS 1988 Alexander Rabinowitch Ben Eklof (History): Russian Education in the Latest Crisis 1988 Charles Gati Owen V. Johnson (Journalism/History): Independent Media and the Democratization 1995 Gale Stokes of Central and Eastern Europe Scott Joseph Seregny (History, IUPUI): Russian Civil Society and the State at the End SERVICE AWARDS of the Nineteenth and the Beginning of the Twentieth Centuries: New Looks at Old 1988 Theofanis Stavrou Questions 1988 Robert F. Byrnes 1989 Karen Niggle Of special note on Friday afternoon and evening: 1996 Robert W. Campbell 1997 Charles Jelavich Roundtable in Memoriam for Robert F. Byrnes: Scholar, Teacher, Colleague 1997 Janet Rabinowitch Charles Jelavich, Chair Friday Evening Reception for Indiana University Alumni Russian and East European Institute Russian and East EuropeanRussian and East European Institute 3 Institute A Summer of Fieldwork in Moldova by Jennifer Cash I spent July and August conducting through material culture or other traits, dancers and musicians; bee-keepers and pre-dissertation fieldwork in the Repub- where they were placed in history, and other self-employed craftsmen; and many lic of Moldova supported by a Mellon how their relationships with each other others. I am grateful to all of them for Foundation fellowship through the Rus- were described, were all questions I asked showing me some of the variety and com- sian and East European Institute and a while visiting these museums. Going to plexity that makes up their lives in Skomp fellowship through the Anthropol- museums also afforded me an opportu- Moldova, of which ethnicity and nation- ogy Department. I began my eight weeks nity to ask about changes in the repre- alism are only a part, and look forward to of summer research by attending a con- sentation of history and ethnography developing a proposal for a full year of ference sponsored by the Center for Ro- over the past ten years that might be linked fieldwork. manian Studies in Iasi, Romania, during to changes in Moldovas status as a new the week of June 27 July 2. From there, state. While answers to the first set of I traveled to Chisinau, Moldova, which questions were largely visible through Jennifer Cash is a PhD graduate student served as a base for my research activi- museum displays, I found that it was in Anthropology and frequent contribu- ties from July 3 August 20. much harder to find answers about cul- tor to REEIfication. My general research interests in an- tural changes. However, despite my diffi- thropology include ethnicity and nation- culties, I learned a great deal about the alism in East Europe and the former So- practice of ethnography in Moldova and Recent viet Union. Moldova is a particularly in- the personal experiences and careers of teresting location to conduct research several scholars who were affiliated with Contributions to on these topics which are so often af- museums. Robert F. Byrnes/ fected by state politics and policies be- I originally intended to go from cause of its particular fragility as a na- Chisinau to museums in Orhei, Orheul REEI Endowed tion-state. Among other factors, the full Vechi, Ivancea, Soroca, Ungheni, and Fellowship Fund territory of the Republic of Moldova has Comrat. Some of my travel plans failed to no history as an independent state and materialize, but in addition to conducting The Byrnes family and the Russian its political status has long been con- research in Chisinau, Orhei, and Soroca, I and East European Institute created tested on ethnic grounds because the was invited to participate in a special ten- the Robert F. Byrnes Fellowship three majority of the population is minimally day camp. The camp was designed to years ago as the principal memorial to distinguishable from neighboring Roma- promote ethnic integration between the founder of REEI.