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This book examines the beliefs and views of those who identified themselves as "democrats" during the Gorbachev era in Soviet politics, and traces the development of those beliefs in the post-Soviet era. It bases its analysis on attitudes towards the Soviet state, beliefs about the ideal future democracy, and beliefs about Russia's place in the world. Lukin also places ideology of Russian democrats into the context of Russian and world intellectual history. ... Read more

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Russian youth culture has been a subject of great interest to researchers since 1991, but most studies to date have failed to consider the global context. Looking West? engages theories of cultural globalization to chart how post-Soviet Russia's opening up to the West has been reflected in the cultural practices of its young people. Visitors to Russia's cities often interpret the presence of designer clothes shops, Internet cafes, and a vibrant club scene as evidence of the 'Westernization' of Russian youth. As Looking West? shows, however, the younger generation has adopted a 'pick and mix' strategy with regard to Western cultural commodities that reflects a receptiveness to the global alongside a precious guarding of the local. The authors show us how young people perceive Russia to be positioned in current global flows of cultural exchange, what their sense of Russia's place in the new global order is, and how they manage to 'live with the West' on a daily basis. Looking West? represents an important landmark in Russian-Western collaborative research. Hilary Pilkington and Elena Omel'chenko have been at the heart of an eight-year collaboration between the University of Birmingham (U.K.) and Ul'ianovsk State University (Russia). This book was written by Pilkington and Omel'chenko with the team of researchers on the project--Moya Flynn, Ul'iana Bliudina, and Elena Starkova. ... Read more

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If Dostoevsky claimed that all Russian writers of his day "came out from Gogol’s ‘Overcoat,’" then Edith W. Clowes boldly expands his dramatic image to describe the emergence of Russian philosophy out from under the "overcoat" of Russian literature.

In Fiction’s Overcoat, Clowes responds to the view, commonly held by Western European and North American thinkers, that Russian culture has no philosophical tradition. If that is true, she asks, why do readers everywhere turn to the classics of Russian literature, at least in part because Russian writers so famously engage universal questions, because they are so "philosophical"? Her answer to this question is a lively and comprehensive volume that details the origins, submergence, and re-emergence of a rich and vital Russian philosophical tradition.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Russian philosophy emerged in conversation with narrative fiction, radical journalism, and speculative theology, developing a distinct cultural discourse with its own claim to authority and truth. Leading Russian thinkers—Berdiaev, Losev, Rozanov, Shestov, and Solovyov—made philosophy the primary forum in which Russians debated metaphysical, aesthetic, and ethical questions as well as issues of individual and national identity. That debate was tragically truncated by the events of 1917 and the rise of the Soviet empire. Today, after seventy years of enforced silence, this particularly Russian philosophical culture has resurfaced. Fiction’s Overcoat serves as a welcome guide to its complexities and nuances.

Historians and cultural critics will find in Clowes’s book the story of the increasing refinement and diversification of Russian cultural discourse, philosophers will find an alternative to the Western philosophical tradition, and students of literature will enjoy the opportunity to rethink the great Russian novelists—particularly Dostoevsky, Pasternak, and Platonov—as important voices in the process of shaping and sustaining a new philosophy and ensuring its survival into our own age. ... Read more

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Eros and Creativity in Russian Religious Renewalexplores a tradition of sublimation and the theories of creativity in works of the four greatest Russian religious thinkers: Solovyov,Rozanov, Berdyaev and Vysheslatsev. Crone's study adds what is missin ... Read more

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Soulful, theatrical, intense: Russian talk is notably full of existential musing and dark passion. However, despite the widespread appreciation of Russian talk, no one has analyzed it as a form of cultural performance. As one of the first Western ethnographers to undertake fieldwork in Moscow, Nancy Ries did just that. In this pioneering study, she shows how everyday conversation shapes Russian identity and culture.Dire stories about poverty, hardship, and social decay recited constantly during perestroika served to fabricate a common worldview--conveying a sense of shared experience and destiny, and casting Russian society as an inescapable realm of absurdity and suffering. Ries agues that while these narratives aptly depicted the chaotic events of the time, they also comprised a kind of contemporary folklore, generic in their lamenting, portentous tones and their culturally poignant details.The story of a grandmother who stands in line all day in order to bring home a precious kilo of sugar becomes a parable of feminine self-sacrifice and endurance. Sardonic narratives about frustrated communal apartment dwellers pouring hot pepper in their neighbor's soup pot challenge the myth of camaraderie and express the proverbial notion that revenge is sweeter for Russians than reconciliation.This insightful ethnography suggests the enormous power that ordinary talk has, in any society, to shape social and political attitudes, and to produce distinctive cultural patterns. ... Read more

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Insights into daily Soviet life through conversation
Ries's book has become one of the must-cite books among anthropologists working in Russia or the xSSR. This is one of the first, if not the first ethnographic work based on research in an urban setting. Anthropologists typically head to the tundra or the villages, but most Russians live in very large cities. She presents an ethnography of conversations, usually in the kitchenaround drinking tea, which provides fascinating insights into the daily lives of urban people during perestroika. She includes an epilogue describing some of the changes after the fall of the Soviet Union.

This is an ethnography, and not linguistic analysis or conversation analysis, so people looking for that kind of work may be disappointed. On the other hand, this is a book accessible to non-academics if you are willing to put in a little effort working through the subtle arguments. ... Read more

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Wonderful Class, Wonderful Professor
Our friend from NYC has obviously never had the pleasure of education in Russian Cultures from Prof. Kalbouss himself. This energetic, intellectually stimulating, and wonderful individual has made Russian Culture interesting to literally thousands of students for over 30 years in the eduation arena. He has singlehandedly created the cultures course from scratch which is currently being utilized by universities all over the country. He has recently retired from teaching at The Ohio State University, but the impact he has made on the many who have enjoyed his class over the years, will likely not go unappreciated. Congratulations to George Kalbouss on the tireless contribution he has made to higher education! He will be missed. ... Read more

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This book explores how one of the world's most literary-oriented societies entered the modern visual era, beginning with the advent of photography in the nineteenth century, focusing then on literature's role in helping to shape cinema as a tool of official totalitarian culture during the Soviet period, and concluding with an examination of post-Soviet Russia's encounter with global television. As well as pioneering the exploration of this important new area in Slavic Studies, the book illuminates aspects of cultural theory by investigating how the Russian case affects general notions of literature's fate within post-literate culture, the ramifications of communism's fall for media globalization, and the applicability of text/image models to problems of intercultural change. ... Read more

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Following the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, and again during the Gorbachev and Yel’tsin eras, the issue of individual legal rights and freedoms occupied a central place in the reformist drive to modernize criminal justice. While in tsarist Russia the gains of legal scholars and activists in this regard were few, their example as liberal humanists remains important today in renewed efforts to promote juridical awareness and respect for law. A case in point is the role played by Vladimir Solov’ev. One of Russia’s most celebrated moral philosophers, his defence of the ‘right to a dignified existence’ and his brilliant critique of the death penalty not only contributed to the development of a legal consciousness during his lifetime, but also inspired appeals for a more humane system of justice in post-Soviet debate. This book addresses the issues involved and their origins in late Imperial legal thought. More specifically, it examines competing theories of crime and the criminal, together with various prescriptions for punishment respecting personal inviolability. Charting endeavours of the juridical community to promote legal culture through reforms and education, the book also throws light on aspects of Russian politics, society and mentality in two turbulent periods of Russian history.

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What is the mysterious Russian soul? Where can you find palm trees in Russia? How much has Russia changed since the end of Communist rule? What do Russia's human 'walruses' do during the winter months? This book answers these questions, and many more, in a concise and lively overview of Russia: the country, its languages, its people, their way of life and culture and what makes them tick. If you are studying for examinations which require a knowledge of the background of Russia and its civilisation, or if you are learning the language, in, for example, an evening class and want to know more about the country and how it works, this is the book for you. If your job involves travel and business relations, it will provide valuable and practical information about the ways and customs of the people you are working with. Or if you simply have an interest in Russia for whatever reason, it will broaden your knowledge about the country and its inhabitants. The book is divided into three sections.Chapters One and Two deal with the forces - historical, geographical, geological, demographical and linguistic - that have brought about the formation of the country we know as Russia and the language we know as Russian. Chapters Three to Seven deal with the wealth of creative aspects of Russian culture from the beginnings to the present day. These chapters take a look at the main areas or works of literature, art and architecture, music, traditions and festivals, science and technology, fashion, and food and drink, together with the people who have created and are still creating them. Chapters Eight to Twelve deal with aspects of contemporary Russian society and the practicalities of living in present-day Russia: the way the political structure of the country is organized, education, the health service, the workplace and how people spend their leisure time. Chapter Twelve looks at the country's relations with the wider world, and takes a glance at the future. Each chapter ends with a section entitled 'Taking it Further', where you will find useful addresses, websites, suggested places to visit and things to see and do.Each chapter also contains a list of useful words and phrases which will help you to talk or write about the subject in question. The new edition takes into account any developments in Russian culture and society which have occurred since first publication. ... Read more

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This book charts the changing aspects of gender in Russia's cultural and social history from the late 17th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays, while focusing on women as a primary subject, highlight the construction of both femininity and masculinity in a culture that has undergone major transformation and disruptions over the period of three centuries. ... Read more

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Russia Women and Literature
This collection of essays examines women writers and their works, in general it is verydescriptive of Soviet Life and provides valuable information about gender discourse in Russian culture. The essays are fromdifferent perspectives with various conclusions, which will ba an aide forWomens studies as well as the study of women writers and Russian culture ofthe period ... Read more

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Tsarist Russia's commercial class is today receiving serious attention from both Russian and non-Russian historians. This book is a contribution to that literature. Commerce in Russian Urban Culture, 1861-1914 examines the relation between the entrepreneurial world, especially business and banking, and the cultural milieu of Russia.Going beyond the commercial-cultural connection of charitable activity, the contributors to this collaborative project also study cultural activity undertaken by enterprises for their own purposes, notably bank and commercial architecture.

"Culture and commerce" encompasses two areas in this volume.The first is the business milieu itself as a social and cultural phenomenon.Class and social stratification, types of entrepreneurs, and their mentality, religious affiliations, and charitable activities and donations are covered.The second is their impact on the form of cities, including not only Moscow and St. Petersburg but Odessa and Nizhnii Novgorod.Banks, insurance companies, and large commercial firms reshaped Russian cities with the construction of buildings for their own operations and retail shops, stock exchanges, mansions, and public buildings. ... Read more

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Based on life-historical research with five Muscovites, this book provides an intimate portrait of their experience of the post-Soviet years as a period of intense refashioning of moral personhood.This process is revealed as uniquely personal, socially ... Read more