Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO)

Fellows and Research Topics 2000-2001

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N
O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Mr. Eugene Avrutin
University of Michigan, History Department
Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow)
The Jews of Russia and the Problem of Assimilation, 1880-1917

Abstract: Avrutin's dissertation will examine the social, economic, and religious transformation of Jewish society by focusing on three distinct themes: the effects of upward economic mobility on Jewish professional and family life, Jewish social welfare organizations, and the role of religion in the construction of Russian-Jewish identity. His hypothesis is that the opportunities of middle-class life, the restrictive policies of the state, and the increased anti-Jewish sentiment of urban society exerted powerful pressure on the self-identification of Jews seeking to assimilate in St. Petersburg and Moscow. This study will be based on archival documents found in the Russian Historical Archives and Central State Historical Archives of St. Petersburg and the State Archives of the Russian Federation in Moscow.

B

Dr. Jacqueline Berman
Columbia University, Department of Political Science
Poland (Warsaw, Poznan)
'Women on the Market': Sex Trafficking, Migration, and the Production of a New Post-Bipolar Political Geography in Europe

Abstract: European officials estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 women work illegally in the sex industry in EU countries. The International Migration Organization finds than an increasing number of these women are from Central and Eastern Europe and have entered Western Europe to find themselves forced into prostitution for the financial gain of their exploiters. This problem, known as "sex trafficking," links questions of international security to gender and cultural identity as enticing labor markets and restrictions against legal immigration to the West produces streams of undocumented workers and the creation of organized channels for "getting people in." Most European governments remain focused on such traditional security concerns as illegal immigration while failing to address new security threats that emerge from the trafficking in women involving cultural/regional and gender identity. A complex network of international relations and identity formation in which women from this region are not simply victims of the upheavals caused by systemic transition, but move into Western Europe and prostitution as a result of a radically shifting inter- and transnational geopolitical situation. This project will (A) research and document the growing social problem of the trafficking of East European women into Western Europe; (B) explore and render new connections between questions of cultural mapping, identity, and gender; and (C) connect and invigorate identity and security studies in a post-bipolar international order.

Mr. David Burke
University of California - Berkeley, Department of History
Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Chita), Ukraine (Odesa, Kyiv)
Capital Punishment and the Quest for Personal Rights in Early 20th century Russia

Abstract: This study focuses on the history of capital punishment in Russia from 1905 to 1918 as a cultural practice and an issue of political debate within the tsarist regime and in revolutionary movements. It provides an analysis of the arguments against the death penalty in light of the liberal goal that personal rights be recognized in Russian law. It includes a review of death penalty statistics and an analysis of trends in offenses, techniques of execution, sentencing, and the social profiles of the condemned. In order to describe collective attitudes about personal rights and about the idea of the person, this study examines the death penalty as it was subjectively experienced by the condemned and recorded in their private documents. The study considers capital punishment as a key political issue during the Revolution of 1917. Lastly, it seeks to account for the change in the legal and symbolic significance of executions, including the disappearance of lawful executions, the rise of summary justice, and the execution of the tsar.

C

Mr. Michael Carpenter
University of California-Berkeley, Department of Political Science
Poland (Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow)
Liberalism and the Weakness of a Public Orientation in Post-Communist Poland

Abstract: This dissertation examines the relationship between conceptions of collective interest and liberal values in post-Communist Poland. A theoretical framework that distinguishes between three ideal-types of interests will be developed and tested: interests based on private networks, interests based on common citizenship, and interests based on a shared national consciousness. This project will also examine how these three types of interests are socially constructed, how they differ from one another, in what ways they are contested, and how they mobilize collective action. Using a multi-method approach that combines survey research, ethnographic data, analysis of public debates, and recent intellectual history, the project will demonstrate that the way interests are constructed affects the nature of political values.

Ms. Jennifer Cash
Indiana University, Department of Anthropology
Moldova (Chisinau)
The Rhetorics of Identity in Moldova: Nationalism and Ethnicity in Children's Cultural Programs

Abstract: Cash will conduct ethnographic research on children's folkloric ensembles and cultural education programs in the Republic of Moldova. Through this research, Cash will investigate how a broad range of intellectuals, including teachers, ethnographers, and music and dance ensemble directors, are developing ethnic and national identities by teaching and training a new generation. The project described below will contribute to comparative and theoretical discussions of nationalism and ethnicity, especially those concerning 1) shifting national and ethnic identities concomitant with state formation processes, and 2) the role of intellectuals in articulating and mediating large-scale group identities. This research will be conducted in three stages, the first two for which IREX will provide funding.

F

Dr. Anne Fitzpatrick
George Washington University, Department of History
Russia (Moscow, Obninsk, Sarov), Ukraine (Kyiv, Kharkov)
War by Numbers: Computers, Nuclear Weapons, and the Arms Race

Abstract: Fitzpatrick’s project focuses on a comparative history of computing in the American and former Soviet nuclear weapons programs. She will conduct research at several scientific institutions and archives throughout Russia and Ukraine. Additionally, the project requires support for interviews with numerous participants in the former Soviet nuclear weapons community. Overall, this research will provide the scholarly basis for an important book that will be published with a top-ranking university press. This study will greatly enhance public understanding of the role of technology in the nuclear arms race, and in science and society.

Dr. Lazar Fleishman in Latvia

Dr. Lazar Fleishman
Stanford University, Slavic Department
Latvia (Riga)
History of Russian Journalism in Exile

Abstract: The end result of the research will be a monograph devoted to the history of the Russian émigré press from the 1917 Russian revolution through the demise of the Stalinist regime in mid-1950s. The monograph will point out the distinctions in cultural and political orientation between numerous exiles from the Soviet Union and the large Russian-speaking minority populations in various European countries and will examine Russian journalism in diaspora as an important cultural institution. This will be contrasted with the State-run Soviet press and will illuminate the interrelationships of Russian newspapers abroad with the leading European and American periodicals.

G

Ms. Victoria Gardner
University of Michigan, Department of Near Eastern Studies
Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Bukhara)
The Transmission of Knowledge in Central Eurasia: Makhdum-i A'zam within the Naqshbandiyya Sufi Order

Abstract: 'Orthodoxy' used in Central Eurasia to construct social position among religious claimants, was subject to change over both time and place. Gardner proposes to delineate the ideas flowing through the spiritual teaching of a sixteenth-century, religiously-minded writer, Ahmad ibn Mavlana Jalal ud-Din Khwajagi Kasani Makhdum-i A'zam (d. 1542 CE). By compiling a draft edition of his treatises and determining his intellectual precursors, she will document how he situated himself within religious structures and patronage systems. By then examining how these treatises were used through later reproduction and emendation, Gardner will document which parts of his intellectual system were valued and in which contexts. This will greatly augment general knowledge of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi order in its pre-Mujaddidi phase.

Dr. Anna Geifman
Boston University, Department of History
Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg)
Russian Jews in the Twentieth Century

Abstract: Dramatic events of this century had enormous repercussions for the Russian Jewry, the world's largest Jewish community around 1900, whose influence on Russia's history was equally vital. Preliminary research for Geifman’s project, Russian Jews in the Twentieth Century, reveals that such key issues as Jewish involvement in Russian politics, behavior patterns of Russian Jews during the Holocaust, and socio-psychological problems of Jewish emigration require serious additional investigation, evaluation and revision. Geifman plans to conduct research at the GARF, the RGIA, and other archives for completion of a conceptual study which will be based on all available sources and consist of analytical essays on unresolved or neglected historical controversies.

Dr. Johanna Granville
Clemson University, Political Science Department
Russia (Moscow)
Hungary and the USSR: a New Analysis of Soviet Decision Making Based on Communist Bloc Archival Sources

Abstract: Granville's project is part of a book based on multi-archival research that explores the decision-making process leading to the two Soviet military interventions in Hungary, on October 23 and November 4, 1956. While in Russia, she will complete Chapter Three (the Polish and Chinese angles), and then conduct research for the remaining book chapters (Chapter One: "Roots of the Rebellion;" Chapter Two: "The Gathering Storm;" and Chapter Six "János Kádár and the Normalization Process"). The research questions for Chapter Three are: 1) Why did the Soviet Union intervene in Hungary in 1956, but develop a more tolerant attitude toward Poland? 2) How did Polish and Chinese communist leaders perceive the events in Hungary and influence Soviet decision-making?

Dr. Jan Gross
New York University, Department of Politics
Poland (Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, Lublin, Kielce, Rzeszow)
Social and Political History of the Polish Jewry in 1944-1949

Abstract: This project will result in a comprehensive, social and political, history of the last five years of organized Jewish presence in Poland-1944-1949.

H

Dr. Larry Holmes
University of South Alabama, Department of History
Russia (Kirov, Nizhni Novgorod, Moscow)
Broken into Pieces from Moscow to Kirov: The Bureaucracy for Russia's Schools.

Abstract: Holmes will conduct research for the completion of a book-length manuscript on the bureaucracy of Russia's schools from 1931 to 1941. Primarily in Kirov's extensive and accessible archives, he will probe the extent to which that bureaucracy consisted of agencies from the center to regional and local areas and of parallel institutions at all levels with competing jurisdictions and conflicting agendas, determine how it was helped or hindered by letters of complaint and denunciation from below, judge how it could effectively or not govern the schools of the Russian Republic, and discover the extent and nature of the terror unleashed against it.

Ms. Larisa Honey
City University of New York, Graduate School & University Center
Russia (Moscow)
Women's Health in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract: This project examines how a decade of economic crisis, triggered by Russia's transition from state socialism, has affected women's health in Moscow. Through participant-observation, interviews, and archival research, Honey will examine how socioeconomic and ideological changes have influenced women's health and access to health care, and how women have responded to their changed circumstances. In affiliation with Moscow State University, she will conduct research at a state clinic, a private clinic, a fitness center, and a woman's factory. Each of these sites highlights different segments of women's complex health position. The results will contribute to a broader understanding of Russia's health crisis and associated political fallout, as well as to studies of Russian gender and medical anthropology.

Dr. Alexandra Hrycak
Reed College, Department of Sociology
Ukraine (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv)
Women's NGO Coalition Formation in Ukraine

Abstract: This project examines the determinants of cooperation within and between two post-Soviet women's NGO coalitions, the USAID funded "NIS-US Women's Consortium" and its locally based rival, the Ukrainian Women's Union. Two general questions will be explored: (1) How does each coalition mobilize local chapters in pursuit of its national goals, and (2) Under what circumstances are these two coalitions able to cooperate politically on women's issues. Hrycak will conduct formal interviews with each coalition's leaders as well as with activists who belong to local chapters in three cities. They are: Lviv, which is dominated by the nationalist Women's Union; Kharkiv, which is dominated by the Feminist Consortium; and Kiev, the capital, which presents considerable incentives for the two groups to cooperate.

Dr. William Husband
Oregon State University, Department of History
Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg)
Native Mother: Nature and Wilderness in Modern Russia

Abstract: Native Mother will blend social history with environmental studies. This book will transcend the prevailing state-versus-environmentalist analysis to show that the cultural facet of the interaction between humans and their environment is as important as the (considerable) physical and material impact. Not limited to history "from below," however, Native Mother will integrate analysis of institutions, policy formulation, and implementation. He will perform archival and library work in Moscow and St. Petersburg, specifically at the Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents on Recent History (RTsKhIDNI); Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE); Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA); Russian State Library; Russian National Library; and the Russian State Historical Library.

I

Ms. Seema Iyer
University of Michigan, Urban & Regional Planning
Russia (Irkutsk)
Intra-Oblast Migration Patterns and the Formation of a Post-Soviet Urban Hierarchy: The Role of Urban Planners in Siberia

Abstract: Because economic and political power was synonymous in Soviet Russia, the urban hierarchy paralleled the political hierarchy. The population and industrial concentration in administrative centers increased disproportionately despite the official policies restricting large-city formation. This project examines the effect of current political regionalization on the urban hierarchy. Because urbanization in Siberia occurred primarily during the Soviet era, an oblast in this region of Russia will be used as a case study. Iyer will interview local urban planners to assess current changes in the planning process and their perceived influence over regional development. Census and vital registration data will be used to determine intra-oblast migration patterns, which is one measure of interurban connectedness that has a direct effect on the urban hierarchy.

J

Mr. Rashi Jackman
University of Michigan, Department of History
Slovenia (Ljubljana)
Inter-ethnic Cooperation in Trieste/Trst under Fascism

Abstract: This project will study inter-ethnic cooperation between Slovenes and Italians living in Trieste from 1918 through 1925-26. The central questions behind the research are how, when, and by what means do members of different ethnic communities cooperate with and help one another under extreme political conditions. The sources will include but not be limited to school and university records, church documents and membership lists, city and regional government records, personal memoirs, letters to and from Slovene émigrés, popular literature, and newspapers. The study will be both a social history of inter-ethnic coexistence and an analysis of daily acts of resistance and strategies of anti-fascism.

Dr. Stephen Jones
Mt. Holyoke College, Russian and Eurasian Department
Georgia (Tbilisi, Zugdidi, Marnuelj, Chiatura)
What's Going on in the Provinces? An Investigation of Local Government, Political Opinion, and Grassroots Organizations in Georgia Regions.

Abstract: There can be no proper analysis of the workings of national political life or the prospects for civil society without observing the activities of political parties, the media, interest groups, and informal networks of power outside the capital. Focusing on four Georgian districts, this project will investigate the interconnections between popular values, local government institutions and political behavior at the regional level. This will include an examination of the workings of local government, the practice of local elections, the nature and activities of political and professional groups, the local media, and the public and private attitudes of the population to the political system.

K

Ms. Sharon Kowalsky
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Department of History
Russia (Moscow)
Making Crime and Sex Soviet: Women, Deviance, and the Development of Soviet Criminology, 1921-1931

Abstract: Kowalsky's dissertation uses criminology as a lens through which to explore gender differences and cultural developments in Soviet society between 1921 and 1931. It examines Russian criminologists' interpretations of female sexuality and criminality, seeing gender and deviance as ways to measure the extent of Soviet efforts to modernize Russian society, and points to larger trends prevalent in the 1920s that led to the Stalin Revolution of the 1930s. It also analyzes the ideological beliefs and social backgrounds of the criminologists to determine the nature of the "old" professionals' relationship with the Soviet government, discussing the position of these "bourgeois specialists," whose expertise the regime needed to rebuild Soviet society after war and revolution, in the "new" Soviet state.

L

Ms. Ann Livschiz
Stanford University, Department of History
Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg)
Grades, Games, and Socially Useful Labor: Soviet Childhood as a Cultural Institution, 1918-1958

Abstract: From the moment of its inception, the Soviet state worked on designing and implementing an all-embracing program of moral upbringing aimed at molding the young generation, their way of thinking and conducting human relations. For her dissertation, Livschiz will examine the evolution in the relationship between the state and children, children and parents and among children themselves, as well as changes and transformations of the idea of the correct Soviet childhood in the years 1918-1958. This study will provide the view of Soviet society through the site for manufacturing legitimacy-childhood-as it evolved under the impact of major formative events of Soviet history from the Revolution through the early phases of the post-Stalinist thaw.

M

Mr. Matt Murphy
University of California-San Diego, Department of Political Science
Poland (Warsaw, Krakow)
Transitional Justice and Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe: Comparing the Consequences of Dealing with the Past in Poland and Germany

Abstract: This project will study the impact of different transitional justice policies (i.e. trials and screening of former communists) on the development of three aspects of democratic consolidation: the rule of law, political society, and civil society in Poland. This research, which will be analyzed in a comparative context with Germany, addresses three contradictory predictions in the social science literature: either transitional justice policies are necessary for, hinder, or are not causally related to successful democratization. In contrast to much recent scholarship, the project will study the concrete effects of transitional justice policies on the ground, rather than arguing a case for or against such policies, or leaving assumptions about their effects untested.

N

Ms. Vasiliki Neofotistos
Harvard University, Department of Anthropology
Macedonia (Skopje)
Ehtnic Identity in the Post-Socialist World Order: The Creation of Difference Between Ethnic Macedonians and Ethnic Albanians in Skopye, Macedonia

Abstract: This is a fieldwork research project in Skopje, Macedonia, which will examine the social processes of ethnic identification and differentiation between ethnic Macedonians, and ethnic Albanians. Despite the fact that the study of ethnic identity has had a central place within anthropology, much more needs to be done towards understanding the relationship between ethnicity and the social, political and economic developments within the context of Eastern Europe after the collapse of socialism. By using ethnographic methods, the project will shed light on wider processes of ethnic identification in the fragile area of the Balkans. The study is also intended as a contribution to a larger study of the meanings of 'Westernization' within countries in transition to capitalism.

Mr. Christian Nielsen
Columbia University, Department of History
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Belgrade, Podgorica), Croatia (Zagreb)
Codifying Yugoslavia: The Origins and Ideology of King Aleksandar's Dictatorship, 1926-1934

Abstract: Nielsen's project examines the origins and ideology of King Aleksandar’s dictatorship in Yugoslavia from 1926 to 1934. King Aleksandar’s regime embarked upon an ambitious campaign to impose and foster Yugoslav identity from above, which permanently affected the meaning and viability of Yugoslavism. Nielsen will conduct dissertation research in Croatia and in Serbia-Montenegro. The dissertation combines approaches of diplomatic, intellectual, political, and social history. In both countries, he will utilize the state archives, the archives of the academies of arts and sciences, and the main university libraries.

P

Dr. Petr Pavlinek
University of Nebraska - Omaha, Department of Geography and Geology
Czech Republic (Prague, Ostrava, Most)
Environmental Change and Post-Communist Transformation in the Czech Republic

Abstract: This research investigates implications of the post-1989 economic and political transformation for the quality of the physical environment in the Czech Republic. The project has three primary goals. First, to examine the environmental legacy of central planning and the communist system of environmental management in former Czechoslovakia. Second, to account for and analyze the ways in which these legacies of environmental crisis have been addressed in the Czech Republic after 1989. Third, to analyze the efficacy of these efforts in environmental reconstruction. The project is based on three research methodologies: in-depth interviews of key informants; content analysis of newspapers and written documents; and collection and analysis of statistical information.

R

Dr. Sabrina Ramet
University of Washington, Department of International Studies
Croatia (Zagreb, Ljubljana)
The Failure of State-Building Among the South Slavs, from 1918 to the Present

Abstract: While the national question bedeviled the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and socialist Yugoslavia alike, and has also played its role in the political life of most of the Yugoslav successor states since 1990 (all except Slovenia), it is another matter as to why Yugoslav politicians have failed, for so long, to build stable, valued institutions capable of resolving national and other issues. This project seeks to investigate this failure of state building. The project may shed light on the nature of system legitimization broadly, as well as on the consequences (and symptoms) of the failure of system legitimization.

Mr. Michael Reynolds
Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies Department
Russia (Moscow, Makhachkala)
Ottoman Foreign Policy Toward Russia, 1908-1922: Identity, Ideology, and Geopolitics

Abstract: This project seeks to use both Ottoman and Russian archival sources to research the evolution of Ottoman foreign policy toward Russia from the time of the Young Turk revolution in 1908 to the end of the Ottoman empire in 1922. The study will compare the relative influences of Panislamic and Panturkist ideologies and traditional geopolitical imperatives on the evolution of Ottoman and Turkiish policies toward Russia. The study simultaneously will probe the evolution of Bolshevik policies toward Turkey, the Caucasus, and the Near East and seek to relate those policies to the evolution of overall Bolshevik policies. It will also address the nature, motives, and actions of the indigenous North Caucasian resistance to Russian rule in this period.

Mr. Andrew Roberts
Princeton University, Department of Politics
Czech Republic (Prague), Slovakia (Bratislava)
Social Policy Reform in Eastern Europe

Abstract: The countries of the former Soviet bloc were among the world's most generous welfare states. Today these countries face a double challenge: they must both scale back or restructure a variety of popular programs and create new programs to deal with unemployment and poverty. Academic research on these countries, however, has largely ignored social policy reform. This project attempts to fill this gap by answering two questions: (1) What factors explain country differences in social policy reform? (2) What makes some areas of social policy easier to reform than others? The countries are the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. The areas of social policy are housing, health care, pensions, and social safety nets.

Mr. Douglas Rogers
University of Michigan, Department of Anthropology
Russia (Moscow, Vereshagino)
Conversion to Old Belief: Critiques of Modernity and Individualism in Postsocialist Russia

Abstract: This project investigates conversions to Old Belief in post-Soviet Russia. Whereas many anthropologists of religion have explored conversions to modern and individualistic religions in the context of transitions to capitalist political economy, Old Belief in recently capitalist Russia appears to present the opposite: conversion to a religion known for its strident critiques of modernity and individualism. To address these issues, Rogers will conduct ethnographic field research in two communities of Russian Old Believers, -one in Moscow, and one in the Perm Region. He will observe classes and services, conduct semi-structured interviews with recent converts, and collect conversion narratives. During the time of my research, Rogers will be affiliated with the Archeographical Laboratory of the Moscow Lomonosov State University.

Mr. Michael Rouland
Georgetown University, Department of History
Kazakhstan (Almaty, Aktiubinsk, Shymkent), Russia (Moscow)
From Narod to Natsional'nost': Soviet Power and the Creation of Kazakh National Identity, 1918-1936

Abstract: This study, by evaluating the layers of inter-ethnic, localized, and ideological interpretations of Kazak national identity, 1918-1936, will examine the peculiar formation of Central Asian nationalities in these first vibrant years of Soviet rule. By integrating both local reactions in the villages and official policies on nationalities, Rouland's work will shed light on the larger question of the cultural hegemony of Soviet imperialism. Understanding that Russian colonization and the Soviet consolidation of power in Kazakstan resulted in a crisis of Kazak national self-consciousness, there is a new urgency to resolve this complicated history within contemporary Kazak nationalism. Moreover, as Kazakstan plays a vital geopolitical role in an unstable region, the perception of Kazak nationality will continue to be significant.

S

Ms. Heidi Sherman
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Department of History
Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Petrazovodsk)
Staraia Ladoga and the Origins of Early Medieval Rus' Urbanization

Abstract: Sherman's dissertation examines the origins of Northern Rus' early medieval urbanization through a case study of its first town, Staraia Ladoga. This challenges two prevailing assumptions: first, that Novgorod was Russia's fist town and, second, that the first towns were exclusively Slavic or Scandinavian products. Northern Russia's ethnic makeup was extremely complex and also included Finns, Balts, and Western Slavs. Sherman's work will examine what a multi-ethnic town looked like in the 8th and 9th centuries, an attempt made possible by Ladoga's unparalleled preservation for this period. She will suggest that Ladoga was a synthesis of town types characteristic of Swedish, Gotlandic, and Finno-Ugrian settlements located on the Volga-Oka Basin. These types will be explored and contrasted with Ladoga's characteristics.

Ms. Elena Shulman
University of California-Riverside, Department of History
Russia (Moscow, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk)
Pacifying a Marvelous Land: Gender, Terror and Settlement in the Soviet Far East, 1937-1939

Abstract: This project explores the significance of a Stalin-era program, the Khetagurovite Movement, which facilitated a voluntary relocation of women to colonize the Soviet Far East between 1937-39. The contrast between the public text of the campaign, that beckoned for the civilizing influence of Soviet womanhood for a Soviet Arcadia, and the volatility, terror, and tensions of Far Eastern reality provide an excellent setting for the study of gender, politics and culture in the late 1930s. One line of inquiry will focus on the meaning and construction of Soviet womanhood as it was reflected and renegotiated in the process of migration. The second line of inquiry will analyze the role of women in the short, and long-term development of the Far Eastern region.

T

Mr. David Tompkins
Columbia University, Department of History
Poland (Warsaw, Krakow)
The Politics of Music in the GDP and Poland: Composers and the Party, 1948-1956

Abstract: The project will be a comparative study of musical life in Poland and the German Democratic Republic from roughly 1948 to 1956. It will center on the complex relationship between party authorities and composers by looking at archival materials associated with government and party organizations, the Composer's Unions, publishing houses, music festivals, concerts, and competitions. The project will incorporate information from the musical and popular press, limited musical analysis, and interviews. The privileged place of culture in the socialist project, the dynamic between communist policies and artistic production, the way music was utilized and manipulated to assist in establishing dominance over society, and the various responses of composers to political control over their artistic activity will all be examined.

Dr. Robert Thurston
Miami University, Department of History
Russia (Moscow), Ukraine (Kyiv, Kharkiv)
A Case Study of Soviet Terror: Identity, Culture, and Violence in Khar'kov, 1880-1941

Abstract: The project investigates the background and course of the Soviet Terror of the late 1930s in the city of Khar'kov (Kharkiv in Ukrainian). Recent studies suggest important junctures between official culture and workers' culture; this project will probe those links by looking at workers favored symbols and language 1880-1941. How and to what extent did such links provide a popular foundation for Stalinism, even (or especially) for the Terror? Khar'kov is suitable for this study because of its long history of labor strife and its position in the midst of key developments after 1917. Sources accessible in archives in Kiev, Khar'kov, and Moscow include records of Communist Party organizations, local newspapers, and police reports on the popular mood.

V

Ms. Michelle Viise
University of California-Berkeley, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
Poland (Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw)
Establishing Textual Authority in 17th Century Poland-Lithuania

Abstract: This research focuses on how writers in 17th century Poland-Lithuania project the authority of their texts. The 17th century is a unique period because during the Counter-reformation, increased sectarian strife throws suspicion on writers' motives and religious affiliations. The authority of the text-whether or not it is faithful to religious doctrine or respectful of secular authorities-becomes a matter of contention. The project already contains numerous literary and social conventions influencing the writer, and will also include examination of the institution of patronage to determine how writers might have appropriated their patrons' authority to justify and defend their texts. In support of this research, a database of 16th and 17th century literary dedicatees (patrons) will be built. Both the systematic cataloging of patrons and the examination of dedications should enable me to identify gestures in texts in which writers somehow appropriate their patrons' power (mimicking patron speech, concerns, antagonisms) in order to bolster their own authority.

W

Ms. Lisa Walker
University of California-Berkeley, Department of History
Russia (Nizhni Novgorod, Saratov, Moscow, St. Petersburg)
Regional Consciousness and Social Stability in Late Imperial Russia: Civic Organizations in Nizhnii Novgorod and Saratov, 1870-1914

Abstract: Walker argues that regional consciousness constituted a crucial element of local public life in Imperial Russia by profoundly shaping the interaction between social classes in provincial Russian towns. In her dissertation Walker will examine expressions of regional consciousness that evolved among civic organizations in two provincial capitals, Nizhnii Novgorod and Saratov, between 1870 and 1914. She hypothesizes that regional civic pride offered a form of rhetoric and a set of ideas that did not appear subversive to the state and could remain an organizing principle for moderate social and political activity. As such, regionalism delineated a forum within which social activism and public initiative continued to flourish among segments of the population throughout what is termed the Counter-Reform period.

Mr. Cory Welt
Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Department of Political Science
Georgia (Tbilisi), Azerbaijan (Baku)
Rejecting the State: Independence and Secession in Georgia and Azerbaijan

Abstract: Welt's project seeks to explain why three minority groups (Abkhaz, South Ossetians, and Karabagh Armenians) seceded from newly independent Georgia and Azerbaijan. To do so, it will explicitly test three "time-bound" sets of hypotheses: one that derives secessionist conflict from late-Soviet democratization and its consequences; one that sees it as a consequence of Soviet-era structures and processes; and one that finds a primary cause in pre-Soviet structures and processes. The purpose of the project is to determine whether today's conflicts can be fully explained on the basis of Soviet and/or post-Soviet factors, or if an explanation for the conflicts must take into consideration a first wave of secessionist wars, fought against the short-lived Georgian and Azerbaijani states of 1918-1921.

Dr. Paul Werth
University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Department of History
Russia (St. Petersburg, Kirov, Ufa)
Between Religious Toleration and Freedom of Conscience: Russian Discourses of Belief, Confessional Status, and Civic Inclusion, 1762-1914

Abstract: This project explores Russian discourses of religious toleration in the period 1762-1914 and relates them to the problem of the inclusion of confessionally diverse imperial subjects within the empire's developing civil order. Focusing on the tension in the state's aspiration to accommodate religious heterogeneity while maintaining the privileged status of Orthodoxy, Werth hypothesizes that despite some concessions to religious minorities by 1905, imperial law and practice progressed only marginally beyond a limited recognition of the collective rights of existing religious groups [veroterpimost'] towards a more individualistic conception of 'freedom of conscience' [svoboda sovesti]. The project draws on both archival and published material and offers comparisons with other multi-confessional states of Europe.

Ms. Suzanne Wertheim
University of California-Berkeley, Department of Linguistics
Russia (Kazan, Mabezhniye Chelny)
Language Choice, Change, and Viability: The Case of Tatar in Tatarstan

Abstract: This project examines language choice, language change, and language viability for the Tatar language-both the factors and symptoms of language shift. Wertheim will be working within the context of endangered language theory, sociolinguistics, and recent anthropological "transition studies" of post-socialist Eastern Europe. Now that there is a renewed interest and pride in Islam, the Tatar ethnicity, Tatar nationalism, and pan-Turkic culture, how has this reordering of the world affected the way that the residents of Tatarstan speak? Wertheim's dissertation will address this question in two major ways: 1) through an ethnolinguistic examination of Tatar, informed by pre-Soviet and Soviet history and 2) through a structural examination of linguistic innovations in the Tatar spoken by young people.