President, Kasia Metkowski Editor-in-Chief, John Dethlefsen Lead Designer, Leo Elyon Editor, Anashe Barton Editor, Ionela Maria Ciolan Editor, Caitlin Cozine Designer, Alexandra Dubinin Designer, Kylen Gensurowsky Editor, Alexandru Groza Administrative Assistant, Kevin Lasek Editor, Elizabeth Levinson Interested in submitting? Contact us at: [email protected] 1 now, Before We Begin a Letter from the President, This publication is ate career. Our grad- curacy of the content. made possible by sup- uate students partic- The opinions and Dear reader, port from the Institute ipate in the life of the views expressed in of Slavic, East Europe- Department (study- this publication are For this edition, we at Troika distinguished ourselves by picking a an, and Eurasian Stud- ing, teaching, run- those of the authors, theme that directly addresses the embittered temperament that, over ies at the University ning the library, and do not necessarily the past year, has crept into our lives. By “celebrating disillusion- of California, Berkeley, organizing film reflect the opinions ment,” we challenge this temperament. with funding from series, perfor- and views of the Troi- the US Department mances, colloquia, ka editors. Troika of Education Title conferences), in the does not endorse any This year, Berkeley students have grown especially weary, faced VI National Resource life of the Universi- opinions expressed by with constant protests and security measures surrounding both con- Centers Program. ty, and in the pro- the authors in this troversial speakers and unpopular election results, as well as the fession (reading pa- journal and shall not continual struggle against an unresponsive bureaucracy. Additionally, University of Cal- pers at national and be held liable for any millennials across the country have continued to experience decreas- ifornia, Berkeley, international- losses, claims, expens- ing job prospects, increasing debt, and a political system that is dis- Graduate Program conferences). es, damages, and other tant from everyday realities. in Slavic Languag- More informa- liabilities caused ei- es and Literature: tion: http://slav- ther directly or in- Instead of subduing these feelings and frustrations, we channel them The graduate pro- ic.berkeley.edu/ directly in con- into fresh and innovative work. We hope that by celebrating instead gram is designed to graduate.html nection with, in of hiding, at least in print, we can encourage others to step away train future schol- relation to, or aris- from complacency. ars and teachers Disclaimer:ing out of the use of of Slavic languag- The Troika edit- the content in Thank you for picking up this edition of Troika. We hope that in es and literatures. ing team makes this publication. Students concentrate every effort to en- each of the pages, you can feel the weight of our dynamic group of either in literature and sure the accuracy disillusioned historians, artists, and students. culture or in linguis- of the information tics; they combine a contained in our Kasia Metkowski + the Troika Team core curriculum with journals. However, Spring 2018 independent research we make no war- early in their gradu- ranties as to the ac- 2 3 Artistic Analysis 8 Melissa Foote Revolution and Edification in Mayakovsky’s Mystery Bouffe 14 Grace Vedock Beyond the Black Square: Malevich’s Ideological Development Manifesto 22 Anya Kulikov Peredvizhniki: Art through Folktales Politics 32 Luke Panciera Russia’s New Glasnost: A Comparative Study of the 1999, 2011, and 2016 Duma Elections 42 Greta Bedekovics Interview with a Hungarian Freedom Fighter for the 50 Denisa Elena Montenegro’s Accession Vlasceanu Op-Ed 58 Ionela Maria EU’s good governance Ciolan model in the Eastern Neighborhood - what’s next? 60 Alexandru Groza Classicization: READER The Avant-garde paradox This is for the disillu- tion your reality. Find 62 Kasia Metkowski Crossed Paths: A Reflection sioned historians and what you seek in the artists, researchers and work of your peers. Original Compositions citizens, who feel im- 64 Benjamin Epstein Два Брата / Two Brothers patient with the world. TROIKA stands against 66 Alexey Isayev Девятсот Девятнадцать лет/ comfort, platitude, sim- Nine Hundred Nineteen Years We bring forth the plicity, obedience, yes- 72 Călina-Maria Thus Spoke Tzarathustra Moldovan untold stories of a men. We promote your misunderstood world right and duty to speak, 74 Lillian Avedian Ծնունդ / Birth -- Eastern Europe, to voice ideas, to argue 76 Ioana Marinescu Forced Evictions Russia, Central Asia, your perspective. Come the Caucasus -- and with us. Be TROIKA. 79 Aleksey Calvin Translation of Akhmatova’s Requiem nail them to the fore- Appendix head of the world. If you are against the tenants we propose: 86 Come with us. Ques- thank you and shut up. 5 pronounced who-doe-zhest-veh-knee ah-nah-lee’s Translation: Artistic Analysis художественный анализ LADIMIR Maya- ty and underscores his passion To get there The Unclean pass kovsky’s contribu- for and propagation of world through Hell, Paradise, and the tions to the political revolution as it is essentially an Land of Chaos before ultimate- strategy of agitprop agit-template in which one can ly reaching the Man of the Fu- -- that is, the use of agitation exercise their struggle. Maya- ture’s kingdom “which is earth- Vand propaganda to shape and kovsky’s final arrangement of ly, not heavenly” (The Complete incite public opinion -- during Mystery-Bouffe consists of six Plays 1968). The Promised Land the Russian Revolution were acts in which a flood inundates is abundant with everything far from slight. Rather, his ar- the world. The survivors include The Unclean need: food, tools, tistic offerings infused with his seven pairs of The Unclean shelter, electricity, and most devotion to the revolution took and seven pairs of The Clean. importantly no bourgeoisie to the form of illustrated posters, That is to say, fourteen prole- hinder them. The play ends slogans, films, and plays. Agit- tarians and fourteen bourgeois. with a victory chorale sung plays were often ephemeral Alongside these twenty-eight by The Unclean in which they and according to Lynn Mally, characters are a Compromiser emphatically declare: “We “were designed to educate au- who represents a Menshevik, who were naught, today are diences about important pol- an Intellectual, and an oppor- all” (The Complete Plays 1968). icies or events and perhaps tunistic Lady. They all convene even to inspire action” (Mally at the North Pole where The Although a devout atheist him- 2003). Mayakovsky’s inaugural Unclean build an ark that is self, Mayakovsky utilizes the Socialist play Mystery-Bouffe quickly seized by The Clean flood myth of Noah as well as was written and produced in and the three auxiliary char- the parable of Christ walking 1918 and later expanded upon acters. The ark functions fleet- on water to construct his play. in 1921. Mystery-Bouffe breaks ingly first as an autocracy, then His use of biblical narratives with the fleeting nature of as a democratic republic, when within a theatrical work finds agit-plays but is in accordance finally The Unclean overthrow its origins in the mystery play with the same means to an The Clean -- quite literally over -- a type of drama practiced in end as agitprop. While Mys- the edge of the ark and into Europe during the Middle Ages tery-Bouffe can be considered the water. They venture over which was put on by members a farce, Mayakovsky careful- the earth in their ark in search of the church in consecrated ly constructs his work using of the Ararat mountains where arenas, usually in Latin. By the the didactic intent of the me- they encounter an entity walk- 13th century the strict religi- dieval mystery play, the ab- ing on water: the Man of the osity of the mystery play be- surd qualities of the opéra Future. He tells them of the gan to wane as acting guilds bouffe, and his experience Promised Land where “labor is began to perform outside of with creating agitprop in or- sweet” and electricity is abun- the church, in the vernacular, der to push forward the goals dant (The Complete Plays 1968). of communism by illustrating the proletariat’s rise to power. In the 1921 version of the play, Mayakovsky indicates that “In the future, all persons per- forming, presenting, reading, or publishing Mystery-Bouffe should change the content, making it contemporary, im- mediate, up-to-the-minute” (The Complete Plays 1968). This dec- laration gives the play plurali- 9 and increasingly added apoc- earth starts to flood, or “leak”, somewhat more diluted, underworld, to Hell. Although le of Mystery-Bouffe. Accord- tell the devils of their “earth- ryphal ingredients. Satirical el- Mayakovsky subverts the nar- a little bit slipperier. The Unclean go to Hell in Act ing to Sharon Aronson-Lehavi, ly torments,” specifically the ements were introduced -- go- rative and has the characters Then, what a downpour! III, their journey is inverted. mystery plays which end in atrocities of World War One, ing as far as mocking monks construct the ark in response The streets were brimful; Instead of down, they go up a utopian vision of the world slavery in British colonies, and and priests -- which ultimately to the event. The flood itself is melted buildings collapsed on through the clouds. Still fur- make use of “...a communal factory related injuries. A voice other buildings. led to the demise of the mys- apocryphal as it is continuously ther they ascend through the sharing and merging between from among the devils responds: The whole earth, tery as the church no longer described as both wet and dry. smelted in the open hearth clouds into Paradise, and fur- stage and audience [which] supported the dubiousness of When the German appears of revolution, ther up into the Land of Chaos signifies belief in the perfor- No more! the new interpretations.