Journal articles on the topic 'Music – Soviet Union – History and criticism'

Between 1962 and 1963 the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev launched several campaigns against abstractionists and formalists in Moscow, thus marking the end of the so-called Thaw throughout the Soviet Union. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia also started a campaign against national abstractionists and formalists. On the 22nd and 28th of March 1963 the works of the new poets Vizma Belševica, Monta Kroma, Ojārs Vācietis as well as writer Ēvalds Vilks came under the criticism cross-fire at the Intelligentsia Meeting of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the criticism from the Communist Party the above mentioned authors also had to be discussed at the Board meetings of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the local organization meetings of the Party. The article examines the attitude of the Board of Soviet Writers’ Union towards the campaign initiated by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia in March 1963 by looking at the documents of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union and the Union’s local organization of the Communist Party that are available at the State Archives of Latvia. Crucial and artistic aspects of the works of the above-mentioned authors have not been included in the analysis. Examining the debates that evolved in the Writers’ Union within the ideological campaign, it is possible to state that the Board, which was loyal to the Communist Party, kept its official stance in line with the Party principles, hereafter paying special attention to the ideologically artistic achievements of particular authors. Generally, the position of the Board of the Latvian Soviet Writers’ Union in respect to the criticized authors can be evaluated as passive, because no repressions were carried out against the new authors and no creative activities were completely suspended by the Board. The campaign of 1963 strongly demonstrates the differences between the generations and the views of the writers. It also reveals the older generation’s struggle for keeping their position and prestige in the field of literature while the younger generation took an increasing opposition.

Educational conditions reflect society’s cultural traditions and political system, in turn affecting society’s development. The development of the younger generation is guided by way of education, for which reason working out educational policy requires the participation of society’s various interest groups. This article analyses changes in the teaching of history in the transitional period from the Soviet era to restored independent statehood. The development of subject content, the complicated role of the history teacher, the training of history teachers, and the start of the renewal of textbooks and educational literature are examined. The aim is to ascertain in retrospect the developments that took place prior to the restoration of Estonia’s independence, in other words the first steps that laid the foundation for today’s educational system. Legislation, documents, publications, and media reports preserved in the archives of the Ministry of Education and Research and the Archival Museum of Estonian Pedagogics were drawn upon in writing this article, along with the recollections of teachers who worked in schools in that complicated period. These recollections were gathered by way of interviews (10) and questionnaires (127). Electronic correspondence has been conducted with key persons who participated in changes in education in order to clarify information, facts, conditions and circumstances. The discussion in education began with a congress of teachers in 1987, where the excessive regulation of education was criticised, along with school subjects with outdated content, and the curriculum that was in effect for the entire Soviet Union. The resolution of the congress presented the task of building a national and independent Estonian school system. The congress provided an impetus for increasing social activeness. An abundance of associations and unions of teachers and schools emerged in the course of the educational reform of the subsequent years. After the congress, the Minister of Education, Elsa Gretškina, initiated a series of expert consultations at the Republic-wide Institute for In-service Training of Teachers (VÕT) for reorganising general education. The pedagogical experience of Estonia and other countries was analysed, new curricula were drawn up and evaluated, and new programmes were designed for school subjects. The solution was seen in democratising education: in shaping the distinctive character of schools, taking into account specific local peculiarities, establishing alternative schools, differentiating study, increasing awareness and the relative proportion of humanities subjects and foreign language study, better integrating school subjects, and ethical upbringing. The problems of schools where Russian was the language of instruction were also discussed. The Ministry of Education announced a competition for school programmes in 1988 to find innovative ideas for carrying out educational reform. The winning programme prescribed compulsory basic education until the end of the 9th grade, and opportunities for specialisation starting in the second year of study in secondary school, that is starting in the 11th grade. Additionally, the programme prescribed a transition to a 12-grade system of study. Schools where Russian was the language of instruction were to operate separately, but were obliged to teach the Estonian language and Estonian literature, history, music and other subjects. Hitherto devised innovative ideas for developing Estonian education were summed up in the education platform, which is a consensual document that was approved at the end of 1988 at the conference of Estonian educators and in 1989 by the board of the ESSR State Education Committee. The constant reorganisation of institutions hindered development in educational conditions. The activity of the Education Committee, which had been formed in 1988 and brought together different spheres of educational policy, was terminated at the end of 1989, when the tasks of the committee were once again transferred to the Ministry of Education. The Republic-wide Institute for In-service Training of Teachers, the ESSR Scientific-Methodical Cabinet for Higher and Secondary Education, the ESSR Teaching Methodology Cabinet, the ESSR Preschool Upbringing Methodology Cabinet, and the ESSR Vocational Education Teaching and Methodology Cabinet were all closed down in 1989. The Estonian Centre for the Development of Education was formed in July of 1989 in place of the institutions that were closed down. The Institute for Pedagogical Research was founded on 1 April 1991 as a structural subunit of the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute, and was given the task of developing study programmes for general education schools. The Institute for the Scientific Research of Pedagogy (PTUI) was also closed down as part of the same reorganisation. The work of history and social studies teachers was considered particularly complicated and responsible in that period. The salary rate of history teachers working in secondary schools was raised in 1988 by 15% over that of teachers of other subjects, since their workload was greater than that of teachers of other subjects – the renewal of teaching materials did not catch up with the changes that were taking place in society and teachers themselves had to draw up pertinent teaching materials in place of Soviet era textbooks. Articles published in the press, newer viewpoints found in the media, published collections of documents, national radio broadcasts, historical literature and school textbooks from before the Second World War, and writings of notable historians, including those that were published in the press throughout the Soviet Union, were used for this purpose. Teachers had extensive freedom in deciding on the content of their subject matter, since initially there were no definite arrangements in that regard. A history programme group consisting of volunteer enthusiasts took shape at a brainstorming session held after the teachers’ congress. This group started renewing subject matter content and working out a new programme. The PTUI had already launched developmental work. There in the PTUI, Silvia Õispuu coordinated the development of history subject matter content (this work continued until 1993, when this activity became the task of the National Bureau of Schools). The curriculum for 1988 still remained based on history programmes that were in effect throughout the Soviet Union. The greatest change was the teaching of history as a unified course in world history together with themes from the history of the Estonian SSR. The first new curriculum was approved in the spring of 1989, according to which the academic year was divided up into three trimesters. The school week was already a five-day week by then, which ensured 175 days of study per year. The teaching of history began in the 5th grade and it was taught two hours per week until the end of basic school (grades 5 – 9). Compulsory teaching of history was specified for everyone in the 10th grade in secondary school, so-called basic education for two hours a week. The general and humanities educational branches had to study history three hours a week while the sciences branch only had to study history for two hours a week. Students were left to decide on optional subjects and elective subjects based on their own preferences and on what the school was able to offer. The new conception of teaching history envisaged that students learn to know the past through teaching both in the form of a general overview as well as on the basis of events and phenomena that most characterise the particular era under consideration. The teacher was responsible for choosing how in-depth the treatment of the subject matter would be. The new programmes were implemented in their entirety in the academic year of 1990/1991. At the same time, work continued on improving subject programmes. After ideological treatments were discarded, the aim became to make teaching practice learner-oriented. The new curriculum was optional for schools where the language of instruction was Russian. Recommendations for working with renewed subject content regarding Estonian themes in particular were conveyed by way of translated materials. These schools mostly continued to work on the basis of the structure and subject content that was in effect in the Soviet Union, teaching only the history of the Soviet Union and general history. Certain themes from Estonian history were considered in parallel with and on the basis of the course on the history of the Soviet Union. The number of lessons teaching the national official language (Estonian) was increased in the academic year of 1989/1990 and a year later, subjects from the Estonian curriculum started being taught, including Estonian history. The national curriculum for Estonian basic education and secondary education was finally unified once and for all in Estonia’s educational system in 1996. During the Soviet era, the authorities attempted to make the teaching profession attractive by offering long summer breaks, pension insurance, subsidised heating and electricity for teachers in the countryside, and apartments free of charge. This did not compensate the lack of professional freedom – teachers worked under the supervision of inspectors since the Soviet system required history teachers to justify Soviet ideology. The effectiveness of each teacher’s work was assessed on the basis of social activeness and the grades of their students. The content and form of Sovietera teacher training were the object of criticism. They were assessed as not meeting the requirements of the times and the needs of schools. Changes took place in the curricula of teacher training in 1990/1991. Teachers had to reassess and expand their knowledge of history during the transitional period. Participation in social movements such as the cultural heritage preservation movement also shaped their mentality. The key question was educational literature. The government launched competitions and scholarships in order to speed up the completion of educational literature. A teaching aid for secondary school Estonian history was published in 1989 with the participation of 18 authors. Its aim was set as the presentation of historical facts that are as truthful as possible from the standpoint of the Estonian people. Eesti ajalugu (The History of Estonia) is more of a teacher’s handbook filled with facts that lacks a methodical part, and does not include maps, explanations of terms or illustrations meant for students. The compendious treatment of Estonian history Kodulugu I and II (History of our Homeland) by Mart Laar, Lauri Vahtre and Heiki Valk that was published in the Loomingu Raamatukogu series was also used as a textbook in 1989. It was not possible to publish all planned textbooks during the transitional period. The first round of textbooks with renewed content reached schools by 1994. Since the authors had no prior experience and it was difficult to obtain original material, the authors of the first textbooks were primarily academic historians and the textbooks had a scholarly slant. They were voluminous and filled with facts, and their wording was complicated, which their weak methodical part did not compensate. Here and there the effect of the Soviet era could still be felt in both assessments and the use of terminology. There were also problems with textbook design and their printing quality. Changes in education did not take place overnight. Both Soviet era tradition that had become ingrained over decades as well as innovative ideas could be encountered simultaneously in the transitional period. The problem that the teaching of history faced in the period that has been analysed here was the wording of the focus and objectives of teaching the subject, and the balancing of knowledge of history, skills, values and attitudes in the subject syllabus. First of all, Soviet rhetoric and the viewpoint centring on the Soviet Union were abandoned. The so-called blank gaps in Estonian history were restored in the content of teaching history since it was not possible to study the history of the independent Republic of Estonia during the Soviet era or to gain an overview of deportations and the different regimes that occupied Estonia. Subject content initially occupied a central position, yet numerous principles that have remained topical to this day made their way into the subject syllabus, such as the development of critical thinking in students and other such principles. It is noteworthy that programmes for teaching history changed before the restoration of Estonia’s independence, when society, including education, still operated according to Soviet laws. A great deal of work was done over the course of a couple of years. The subsequent development of the teaching of history has been affected by social processes as well as by the didactic development of the teaching of the subject. The school reform that was implemented in 1987–1989 achieved relative independence from the Soviet Union’s educational institutions, and the opportunity emerged for self-determination on the basis of curricula and the organisation of education.

The current standing of the Estonian-born composer Arvo Pärt (b.1935) rests almost exclusively on the works he has composed since 1976, the year the composer unveiled the first fruits of his newly-discovered modal formulae, or what has now become known as the ‘tintinnabuli’ style. There is, however, a large, important and up until now relatively unexplored series of experimental works that predate this seemingly radical change of style. For example, Pärt's first orchestral piece, Nekrolog (1960), was the very first piece of Estonian music to employ the 12-note technique, incurring the wrath of no less a person than Tikhon Khrennikov, the all-powerful general secretary of the Soviet Composers’ Union. Indeed at the Third All– Union Congress of Soviet Composers held in Moscow in March 1962 Khrennikov singled out Pärt for criticism.

The study of musical signification constitutes an important key for the comprehension of Shostakovich’s music. This becomes particularly evident when one observes that social and political background plays an important role in his compositional process through the configuration of specific musical topics on structural positions of his music. These specific topics have arisen after cultural and social events during the establishment of the Soviet Union and became typical elements of the Soviet Music. This paper aims to show the function of these elements as compositional roots in the creative concept of Shostakovich’s music. The rising of the concept of musical topic after Leonard Ratner (1980) has opened new paths for a consistent comprehension of the musical discourse, identifying social and cultural signs that may articulate ideas which go beyond the music itself: ideology, criticism and politics became elements of musical expression, composing a new soundscape of music in Revolutionary Russia.

Abstract This article examines the compositional history and early reception of Soviet composer Andrey Volkonsky's two earliest and most important serial compositions, Musica Stricta and Suite of Mirrors (Syuita zerkal). These two works spurred on the formation of an unofficial music culture in the Soviet Union during the Thaw of the late 1950s and 1960s. Volkonsky (b. 1933) was the first and initially the most visible of a group of young Soviets known by officialdom as the “young composers” (“molodïïye kompozitorïï”). These “young composers”—among them Sofia Gubaidulina, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, and Edison Denisov—came of age in the years following Stalin's death in 1953. Their compositions reflected their attempts to “catch up” with the Western avant-garde following decades of musical development that had been denied them under Stalin. The first “new” technique these composers adopted was serialism, and Volkonsky's early compositions illustrate the specifically Soviet approach to the method and demonstrate the meanings it held for Soviet officials and Soviet audiences. Volkonsky's early works also force a broadening of current interpretations of postwar European and American serialism. Much of the information in the article stems from personal interviews with Volkonsky and the other leading composers and performers of the Thaw, as well as archival research conducted in Russia.

The article is devoted to the history of the creation and music score of the ballet Twelve based on the poem by A. Blok by the outstanding Russian composer of the second half of the twentieth century Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko. The ballet was staged by the famous Soviet choreographer Leonid Jacobson back in 1964 and became, in fact, the first avant-garde ballet in the Soviet Union. Critics noted Tishchenko’s bright modern symphonic music and Jacobson’s free plastics, which “became a breath of clean air in the rarefied atmosphere of classical epigonism”.

AbstractScholars have explored the use of Breen-Davis's Porgy and Bess and its stellar ensemble cast to counter Soviet criticism of US race relations during the Cold War—but an equally prominent theme in contemporary coverage of the production is spirituality. Onstage as well as off, the Soviet tour of Porgy and Bess reflected both American and Soviet ideas about religion's role in international diplomacy in the mid-1950s. This article explores religiosity in the Breen-Davis production as well as the reception of the 1955–56 Soviet tour both in the United States, where the production represented a hopeful vision of the nation's racial tolerance and religious pluralism, and in the USSR, where the tour's twin messages of American spiritual superiority and racial equality were challenged by Soviet authorities. Drawing on materials from the Robert Breen Archives housed in the Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee Theatre Research Institute at Ohio State University, this article considers Breen-Davis's Porgy and Bess as a religious export to the USSR, enriching our understanding of US cultural diplomacy and Cold War–era musical exchange with broader implications for American–Soviet history, religious studies, and opera analysis.

A war of history and memory over the Great Patriotic War (WWII) between the Soviet Union and Germany has been raging in Vladimir Putin’s Russia for almost two decades. Putin’s Kremlin deploys all of the mythmaking machinery at its disposal to correct narratives that demonize the Soviet Union and reflect badly on post-Soviet Russia. Victory Day, celebrated annually on 9 May with parades, concerts, films, theatre, art, and music, plays a crucial role in disseminating the Kremlin’s counter narratives.

In 1980 Soviet Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov began a series of “postludes,” a genre representing, in his words, a “collecting of echoes, a form opening not to the end, as is more usual, but to the beginning.” This article examines Silvestrov’s Symphony no. 5 (1980–82), and the theory, practice, and reception of his evolving “post” style. The symphony represents a unique congruence of modernism and postmodernism, nostalgia and continuity, expressed at the end of the Soviet Union, the end of the twentieth century, and what many believed to be the end of history. Completed near the conclusion of the Brezhnev period of stagnation, the symphony was intended to assuage the public’s acute dissatisfaction with life in the USSR. Yet when it was first heard in the mid-1980s, it offered a comforting familiarity amid the bewildering acceleration of perestroika. Examining Silvestrov’s “post” style requires considering the sociocultural impact of his sense of ending by treating his eschatology as a useful fiction that illuminates the conflicting sensations of stasis and acceleration during the last decades of the USSR. This article draws on interviews with Silvestrov and his close associates, as well as the Silvestrov Collection at the Paul Sacher Stiftung.

This article examines the development of social control in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982. Historians have largely neglected this question, especially with regard to its evolution and efficiency. Research is based on sources in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the Moscow Central State Archive (TSGAM). During Brezhnevs rule, Soviet propaganda reached the peak of its development. However, despite the fact that authorities tried to improve it, the system was ritualistic, unconvincing, unwieldy, and favored quantity over quality. The same was true for political education, which did little more than inspire sullen passivity in its students. Although officials recognized these failings, their response was ineffective, and over time Soviet propaganda increasingly lost its potency. At the same time, there were new trends in the system of social control. Authorities tried to have a foot in both camps - to strengthen censorship, and at the same time to get feedback from the public. However, many were afraid to express any criticism openly. In turn, the government used data on peoples sentiments only to try to control their thoughts. As a result, it did not respond to matters that concerned the public. These problems only increased during the era of stagnation and contributed to the decline and subsequent collapse of the Soviet system.

Aim. To show the short history of the origin and development of the eugenic ideas at the beginning of the 20th century. Methods. Historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods were used. Results. The article presents the results of historical and medical research that demonstrated that close by the tasks to medicine eugenics studied inherited properties, their social manifestations and historical changes. Science eugenics gained wide circulation and recognition in 1920s in USSR. The ideas became popular that achievements of the Soviet health care, its preventive direction lead to creation of higher sanitary culture and realization of eugenic tasks for creation of the harmonious Soviet identity. Since the early 1930s in the Soviet Union the eugenics underwent severe criticism. The eugenic ideas were completely discredited by Nazi programs of fascist Germany in 1933-1945 when millions of people were exterminated. In the end of the 20th century interest in eugenics has renewed because of development of genetics. Conclusion. Despite the ambiguous past, the eugenics had played a certain positive role as it allowed understanding genetic and anthropological human features, and served as an incentive for development of medical genetics and study of genetic diseases.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the Communist Party of Great Britain was a significant force in Britain on the left-wing of the labour movement and among intellectuals, despite its relatively small membership. The narrative it provided on developments in Palestine and on the Arab nationalist movements contested Zionist accounts. After the 1941 German attack on the Soviet Union, the party, to gain the support of the Jewish community for a broad anti-fascist alliance, toned down its criticism of Zionism and, in the immediate post-war period, to accord with the Soviet Union's strategic objectives in the Middle East, it reversed its earlier opposition to Zionism. During the 1948 war and for some years thereafter it largely ignored the plight of the Palestinians and their nationalist aspirations.

This paper focuses on the development of the political thought of Czech Marxist philosopher Egon Bondy. It examines his criticism of state socialism in the Eastern Block from a Marxist perspective, and it outlines the development of his analysis. The study covers the period from the late 1960s until the Velvet Revolution in 1989, a period during which Bondy explored the historical constitution and nature of a ‘new ruling class’ in the USSR, as well as deeper trends of convergence between Eastern and Western politico-economical systems. In the 1980s Bondy analysed the reasons for the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. Even though Bondy was, during most of the period of state socialism between 1948–89, a forbidden author, he was also one of the main critics of the political approach of Charta 77 and Václav Havel. This criticism is also outlined in the paper.

This article looks at the experiences of foreigners in the Soviet Union of the 1930s, focusing on the divide between the public and the private. For Party members it was assumed that nothing could remain private or personal. In sessions of “criticism and self-criticism”, even intimate questions had to be put into the public domain, since a Party member's private life had to be exemplary. From a gender perspective, it is interesting to note that the leading justification for the public handling of private affairs in Party forums was the equality postulated between women and men, or more precisely between female and male Party members. In that sense, these discussions can be interpreted as potential tools in the hands of women to stigmatize “noncommunist” male behaviour, that is behaviour that degraded women. But the official attention given to private matters also served other means. For the Party leadership, these discussions proved instrumental in disciplining Party members, and in a particularly effective way, inasmuch as the persons concerned participated in the process. Despite the assumed gender equality, however, Soviet notions of private and public were not only constantly changing but also highly gendered. During the Terror, women and men became victims in different ways, thereby also highlighting their different social positions and functions.

The Dissolution of the Soviet Union has inspired a growing awareness of the dynamic cultures of Central Asia accompanied by an expanding catalogue of resources for use in teaching and research. Among these resources are an abundance of excellent recordings of Central Asian music available on compact disc. This review serves as an introductory guide to recordings of Central Asian music that will enrich personal collections, serve as excellent teaching materials, and enhance possibilities for research. The CDs recommended here are anthologies that have been chosen for the artistic quality of the recorded performances, broad and representative coverage of relevant musical genres, and above all for the reliable commentary that accompanies these productions.

Caught between political allegiance to the Soviet Union and a shared history with West Germany, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) occupied an awkward position in Cold War Europe. While other countries in the Eastern Bloc already existed as nation-states before coming under Soviet control, the GDR was the product of Germany's arbitrary division. There was no specifically East German culture in 1945—only a German culture. When it came to matters of national identity, officials in the GDR's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) could not posit a unique quality of “East Germanness,” but could only highlight East Germany's difference from its western neighbor. This difference did not stem from the language and culture of the past, but the politics and ideology of the present: East Germany was socialist Germany.

Examining the history of jazz in the Soviet Union between 1948 and 1953, this essay sheds light on the role of popular music in the cultural competition of the early Cold War. While the Soviet authorities pursued a tolerant policy toward jazz during World War II because of its wartime alliance with the United States, the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s led to a decisive turn against this music. The Communist Party condemned jazz as the music of the “foreign bourgeoisie,” instead calling for patriotic Soviet music. Building on previous studies of the complex fate of western music in the USSR during the postwar decades, this article highlights a previously unexamined youth counterculture of jazz enthusiasts, exploring the impact of anti-jazz initiatives on grassroots cultural institutions, on the everyday cultural practices of young people, and on the Cold War’s cultural front in the USSR. It relies on sources from central and regional archives, official publications, and memoirs, alongside oral interviews with jazz musicians and cultural officials.

lmost all estimates of the figure of Alexander Solzhenitsyn are not related to literary criticism. Most studies evaluate his role, intentions and results. His figure is assessed in the context of the fate of the country, public perception and attitude to the country, which is Motherland for some, and mental and political enemy for the others. And for this purpose it is not even important who is right from the historical and political point of view. The point is who and how perceived the USSR and the entire Soviet project. Solzhenitsyn is seen as the enemy of the USSR and the Soviet project by those who popularized and helped him, and also according to his self-evaluation. Therefore, for those who identify themselves with the Soviet Union, its heritage and the entire Soviet project Solzhenitsyn represents the enemy and bearer of evil. For those who are hostile to the Soviet Union and the Soviet project, Solzhenitsyn is an ally in their struggle and bearer of good. Which of these parties is right is the issue of history and morality. 66% of Russian citizens support the first point of view, and the second point of view is supported by 25% of the population. Nowadays 88 % of Russian citizens know who Solzhenitsyn was. 31% consider him to be moral authority for them. 8% of the people believe that Solzhenitsyn presented true facts in his books.

AbstractBandura art is a unique phenomenon of Ukrainian culture, inextricably linked with the history of the Ukrainian people. The study is dedicated to one of the most tragic periods in the history of bandura art, that of the 1920s–1940s, during which the Bolsheviks were creating, expanding and strengthening the Soviet Union. Art in a multinational state at this time was supposed to be national by form and socialist by content in accordance with the concept of Bolshevik cultural policy; it also had to serve Soviet propaganda. Bandura art has always been national by its content, and professional by its form, so conflict was inevitable. The Bolsheviks embodied their cultural policy through administrative and power methods: they created numerous bandurist ensembles and imposed a repertoire that glorified the Communist Party and the Soviet system. As a result, the development of bandura art stagnated significantly, although it did not die completely. At the same time, in the post-war years this policy provoked the emigration of many professional bandurists to the USA and Canada, thus promoting the active spread of bandura art in the Ukrainian Diaspora.

After Nikita Khrushchev's condemnation of some of Stalin's crimes in 1956, the Mongolian People's Republic, following in the footsteps of the “fraternal” Soviet Union, also succumbed to the “thaw.” Khrushchev used de Stalinization to discredit his hardline opponents. Mongolia's leader, Yumjaagiyn Tsedenbal, was a Stalin-era holdover who came under criticism from his rivals for being unenthusiastic about political reforms. Tsedenbal had good reason to downplay de-Stalinization:He shared responsibility with Marshal Horloogiyn Choibalsan for violent repressions in the 1940s. But Tsedenbal outmaneuvered and eliminated his opponents in the late 1950s and early 1960s and consolidated his grip on power by 1964.Toward the end of that year, however, Tsedenbal once again was challenged, this time from an unexpected direction. Several members of the Central Committee of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) used the precedent of Khrushchev's forced retirement from his leadership posts in Moscow in October 1964 as a pretext to overthrow Tsedenbal. At a plenum of the MPRP Central Committee in December 1964, Tsedenbal was accused of incompetence, corruption, disrespect for principles of “party democracy,” lack of economic discipline, and overreliance on the Soviet Union for credits. But Tsedenbal rebuffed the “anti-party group” and depicted the affair as an attempted coup engineered by pro-Chinese sympathizers and spies. Soviet leaders were wary of Chinese efforts to “subvert” Moscow's in fluence in the socialist camp and were therefore willing to endorse Tsedenbal's version of events.

This article analyzes the portrayal of the Eastern Front of World War II on early American television, specifically the documentary anthology series The Twentieth Century . It explores how most early portrayals of World War II on television excised or minimized the Eastern Front in response to the Second Red Scare. Although The Twentieth Century was one of the first to display the Eastern Front in detail, its portrayal paralleled Cold War propaganda of the Soviet Union and its people. This work analyzes three episodes of the series devoted to the Soviet Union’s role in the war and notes how each utilized certain traits of U.S. anti-communist propaganda. Other matters considered are the mediators in the crafting the display of the war and the way the history was presented to satisfy the interests of the sponsor and the network. It concludes that the presentation of the Soviet people responded to Cold War imperatives with episodes produced in times when tensions were high having sharper criticism, whilst periods of eased relations leading to less propagandistic depictions.

AbstractIn Russia, trust management (doveritel'noe upravlenie) is a civil-law institution regulated by the 1994 Russian Civil Code (Chap.53). There has been no small amount of criticism by Russian scholars of the trust doctrine. In part, this is a function of the fact that trust management of property in Russia has common-law roots, based on the fundamental principles of trust. Furthermore, trust management differs from the (Soviet) concepts of 'economic ownership' (khoziaistvennoe vedenie) and 'administrative (operative) management' (operativnoe upravlenie), on the one hand, and from the classic common-law form of trust, on the other. The transplant of foreign experience into Russia has had an influence on the restructuring of the Russian economy as a result of the intent of Russian legislators to introduce legal institutions that work in other legal systems embedded in market economies. In political terms, this has led to a legal model of trust management of property in Russian legislation that is a competitive and alternative legal model to the right of economic ownership and operative management. These latter two constructs traditionally enjoyed exclusive and absolute domination in the sphere of managing state property in the administrative-command economic system in the Soviet Union, and still predominate in Russia today.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of Latvia, a minority group became a majority and a majority group became a minority. This has been the situation for Latvians and Russians after August 1991. The Baltic States led the way towards first autonomy and then independence. The nationalist movement in the Latvian SSR was primarily a minority nationalist movement. Why do minorities mobilise? Gurr finds that minorities rebel for two reasons: relative deprivation and group mobilisation. Relative deprivation answers the question of why and it characterizes the status of the Latvian language and culture vis-à-vis that of Russia during the Soviet period. While relative deprivation has come under considerable criticism because of its inability to explain when a group will mobilise, the notion can be found in the nationalist rhetoric before and since the restoration of Latvian independence. Group mobilisation goes further in explaining when minorities may assert political claims. Considered in terms of changes in the political opportunity structure, the changing politics of glasnost allowed the nationalist movements to mobilise in the Baltic States.

The Spanish Civil War played a unique role in the Soviet Union’s geo-political strategies in the second half of the 1930s. The conflict marked the first occasion that Moscow had participated in a foreign war beyond its traditional spheres of influence. But Soviet involvement in the Spanish war went far beyond the sale of armor and aviation to the beleaguered Spanish Republic. While Moscow organized and supported the creation of the International Brigades, on the cultural front, the Soviets sought to roll out a broad program of propaganda, employing film, poster art and music to link the destinies of the Slavic and Hispanic peoples. If scholars have succeeded in recent years to rewrite the history of many components of Soviet participation in the Spanish Civil War, diplomatic relations between the Republic and Moscow remain an unexplored theme. This is the first instalment of a two-part article, unpublished official documents, as well as memoirs, newsreels, private letters and the press, to offer the first narrative history of the Republican embassy in Moscow. The diplomatic rapprochement between the USSR and Spain in 1933 is explored as a prelude to the exchange of ambassadors following the outbreak of the Civil War in summer 1936. The appointment of the young Spanish doctor Marcelino Pascua to a newly recreated Moscow embassy is examined in detail, up to autumn 1937. This article allows the reader hitherto unavailable access to the daily trials, disappointments and occasional breakthroughs experienced by the Spanish Republican ambassador in Stalin’s Soviet Union.

Between the two World Wars, in Belgrade and Serbia, seven musical journals were published: ?Musical Gazette? (1922), ?Music? (1928-1929), ?Herald of the Musical Society Stankovic? (1928-1934, 1938-1941; renamed to ?Musical Herald? in january 1931), ?Sound? (1932-1936), ?Journal of The South Slav Choral Union? (1935-1936, 1938), ?Slavic Music? (1939-1941) and ?Music Review? (1940). The influence of marxism can be observed in ?Musical Herald? (in the series from 1938), ?Sound? and ?Slavic Music?. A Marxist influence is obvious through indications of determinism. Namely, some writers (Dragutin Colic) observed elements of musical art and its history as (indirect) consequences of sociopolitical and economic processes. Still, journals published articles of domestic and foreign authors who interpreted the relation between music, society and economy in a much more moderate and subtle manner (D.Cvetko, A.Schering). Editors and associates of these journals also had proscriptive ambitions - they recommended and even determined regulations for composers about what kind of music to write according to social goals and needs. According to tendencies in Marxism, there was a follow up of musical work in the Soviet Union. Editors tried not to be one-sided. There were writings about the USSR by left orientated associates as much as emigrants from that country, and articles of Soviet authors were translated. Also, there were critical tones about musical development in the first country of socialism. Serbian musical periodicals recognized the enormous threat from fascism. Also, there were articles about influence of Nazi ideology and dictatorship on musical prospects in Germany. Since Germany annexed Sudetenland in 1938, ?Musical Herald? expressed support to musicians and people of that friendly country by devoting the October and November 1938 issue to Czechoslovak music, along with an appropriate introduction by the editor, Stana Djuric-Klajn.

AbstractDaniel Chwolson (1819–1911) made a huge impact upon the research of Hebrew epigraphy from the Crimea and Caucasus. Despite that, his role in the more-than-a-century-long controversy regarding Crimean Hebrew tomb inscriptions has not been well studied. Chwolson, at first, adopted Abraham Firkowicz’s forgeries, and then quickly realized his mistake; however, he could not back up. Th e criticism by both Abraham Harkavy and German Hebraists questioned Chwolson’s scholarly qualifications and integrity. Consequently, the interference of political pressure into the academic argument resulted in the prevailing of the scholarly flawed opinion. We revisit the interpretation of these findings by Russian, Jewish, Karaite and Georgian historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the Soviet period, Jewish Studies in the USSR were in neglect and nobody seriously studied the whole complex of the inscriptions from the South of Russia / the Soviet Union. The remnants of the scholarly community were hypnotized by Chwolson’s authority, who was the teacher of their teachers’ teachers. At the same time, Western scholars did not have access to these materials and/or lacked the understanding of the broader context, and thus a number of erroneous Chwolson’s conclusion have entered academic literature for decades.

Abstract: Mechanisms, strategies and taboo topics of Soviet censorship in Estonian theatre Since theatre in the Soviet Union had to be first of all a propaganda and educational institution, the activity, repertoire and every single production of the theatre was subject to certain ideological and artistic prescriptions. Theatre artists were not subject to any official regulations regarding forbidden topics or ways of representation, thus the nature of censorship manifested itself to them in practice. Lists of forbidden authors and works greatly affected politics related to repertoire until the mid-1950s but much less afterwards. Research on censorship is hampered by the fact that it was predominately oral, based on phone or face-to-face conversations, and corresponding documentation has been systematically destroyed. This article is primarily based on memoirs and research conducted by people who were active in the Soviet theatre system. It systematises the empirical material into four parts: 1) mechanisms of censorship, 2) forms and strategies, 3) counter-strategies against censorship and 4) taboo topics. Despite the attempt to map theatre censorship in Estonia after the Second World War (1945–1990), most of the material concerns the period from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. This can be explained by the age of the respondents, but it can also be related to the fact that the Soviet control system became more liberal or ambiguous after the Khrushchev thaw encouraged theatre artists and officials to test the limits of freedom. The mechanisms of theatre censorship were multifaceted. Ideological correctness and the artistic maturity of repertoire and single productions were officially controlled by the Arts Administration (1940–1975) and afterwards by the Theatre Administration (1975–1990) under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture. Performing rights for new texts were allocated by the Main Administration for Literary and Publishing Affairs (Glavlit): texts by foreign authors were approved by the central office in Moscow, and texts by local authors were approved by local offices. The third censorship agency was the artistic committee that operated in every single theatre. Nevertheless, the most powerful institution was the Department of Culture of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, whose influence on artistic issues had to be kept confidential by the parties involved. On top of all this, there was the hidden power and omnipresent network of agents of the Committee for State Security (KGB). Some audience members also acted as self-appointed censors. The network and system of censorship made the control system almost total and permanent, also enforcing self-censorship. Forms of censorship can be divided into preventive and punitive censorship, and strategies into direct and indirect censorship. Soviet censorship institutions mostly applied preventive censorship to plays or parts of productions, but hardly any production was cancelled before its premiere because that would have had undesirable financial consequences. Punitive censorship after the premiere was meant for correcting mistakes when the political climate changed or if a censor had been too reckless/lenient/clever, or if actors/audiences had started emphasising implicit meanings. Preventive censorship was predominantly direct and punitive censorship indirect (compelling directors to change mise en scènes or prescribing the number of performances). Indirect censorship can be characterised by ambiguity and allusions. A distinction can be made between preventive and punitive censorship in the context of single productions, but when forbidden authors, works or topics were involved, these two forms often merged. The plurality of censorship institutions or mechanisms, and shared responsibility led to a playful situation where parties on both sides of the front line were constantly changing, enabling theatre artists to use different counter-strategies against censorship. Two main battlefields were the mass media and meetings of the artistic committees, where new productions were introduced. The most common counter-strategies were the empowerment of productions and directors with opinions from experts and public figures (used also as a tool of censorship), providing ideologically correct interpretations of productions, overstated/insincere self-criticism on the part of theatre artists, concealing dangerous information (names of authors, original titles of texts, etc.), establishing relationships based on mutual trust with representatives of censorship institutions for greater artistic freedom, applying for help from central institutions of the Soviet Union against local authorities, and delating on censors. At the same time, a censor could fight for freedom of expression or a critic could work ambivalently as support or protection. In addition to forbidden authors whose biography, world view or works were unacceptable to Soviet authorities, there was an implicit list of dangerous topics: criticism of the Soviet Union as a state and a representative of the socialist way of life, positive representations of capitalist countries and their lifestyles, national independence and symbols of the independent Republic of Estonia (incl. blue-black-white colour combinations), idealisation of the past and the bourgeoisie, derogation of the Russian language and nation, violence and harassment by Soviet authorities, pessimism and lack of positive character, religious propaganda, sexuality and intimacy. When comparing the list of forbidden topics with analogous ones in other countries, for example in the United Kingdom where censorship was abolished in 1968, it appears that at a general level the topics are quite similar, but priorities are reversed: Western censorship was dealing with moral issues while its Eastern counterpart was engaged with political issues. It can be concluded that all censorship systems are somehow similar, embracing both the areas of restrictions and the areas of freedom and role play, providing individuals on both sides of the front line with opportunities to interpret and embody their roles according their world view and ethics. Censorship of arts is still an issue nowadays, even when it is hidden or neglected.

During the first two decades of the 21st century, an increasing interest of Russian policymakers towards the Soviet past can be recorded, which is reflected in the modern Russian mass culture (movies, literature, music) providing more and more often a fruitful approach to reappraise the role of pioneer camps in the Soviet Union to its people. Based on an example of two significant mass culture products of the 2010s with different languages ‒ Aleksandr Karpilovskiy’s movie “Private Word of a Pioneer 2“ (2015) (rus. “Chastnoe pionerskoe. Ura kanikuly!!!”) and the novel “Food Block“ (2018) (rus. “Pishcheblok”) by Aleksey Ivanov, this article for the first time illustrates the image of two late Soviet pioneer camps “Youth” (1979) and “The Stormy Petrel” (1980) and gives analysis of their features with the help of descriptive-functional and comparative research methods. As a result, the semantics shows that one pioneer camp is a safe place for everyone and another one poses risks and it is more dangerous to be within the camp than outside. While in the “Youth” camp, the teaching staff devotes much attention to health promotion and cultural development of young pioneers, the main purpose of “The Stormy Petrel” is the ideological education. In both cases, we see educational formalism in the work of educators. Children and teenagers of the late Soviet era are seemingly burdened with playing young Leninists. The protagonist in the movie puts his personal goals far above the public interests in his personal hierarchy. By contrast, the protagonist of the novel is seeking for a true community in the pioneer camp and causes rejection and misunderstanding by others. In both late Soviet camps, the value of pioneer attributes (ties and badges) is noticeably decreased. In “Stormy Petrel”, their meaning is even audaciously perverted. Unreserved nostalgia for childhood, dominating in two works, does not prevent their creators to a greater (novel) or lesser (movie) extent to make a critical assessment of the late Soviet pioneer camps. Keywords: Soviet pioneer camp, A. Karpilovskiy “Private Word of a Pioneer 2”, A. Ivanov “Food Block”, late Soviet era, nostalgia, criticism

The disagreements and rupture between the Chinese Communist Party and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) were the most important event in the history of the International Communist Movement in the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, which had a huge impact on the fate of communist parties around the world. Latin America has become a place of fierce rivalry between Moscow and Beijing for influence on the political left flank. Moscow's tough opposition to any attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to increase its influence in the continent's communist parties without resorting to splitting them caused a backlash and a change in the policy of criticism within the parties to a policy of secession of independent “anti-revisionist” communist parties. Maoist communist parties emerged in all countries of the continent, opposing their policies to the pro-Moscow left parties. Maoism was able to penetrate not only the old communist movement but also the ranks of socialists, leftist nationalists and even Christian democrats. It often became the ideological and political basis for a break with the “traditional” left parties, a kind of transit bridge towards the “new left”. The ideas of Maoism were partly accepted by the trend of the “new left”, which gained special weight among the intelligentsia and students of the continent. This article is devoted to the emergence and development of the Maoist Communist Parties, the reaction of Moscow and Havana in the political circumstances of Latin America in the 60s of the 20th century.

The article provides evidence of eyewitnesses and performers about the history of performance in China of PI Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin", the first acquaintance with which the Chinese audience took place back in the 20s of the last century. It is noted that the premiere of "Eugene Onegin" in Chinese was held in an abridged version at the Central Music Conservatory of Tianjin on May 26, 1956 by the efforts of teachers and students under the leadership of Huang Lifay. Professors and vocal teachers from the Soviet Union - PM Medvedev and NK Kuklina-Vrana - contributed to the first production. The historical significance of the first production of Eugene Onegin is that it was performed in Chinese. It was difficult to translate the literary text of the opera due to the need to correlate the Chinese verbal text with musically complex opera parts and at the same time preserve the charm of Pushkin's poetry. The production of the opera in Chinese made it more accessible to music lovers. It is noted that the opera "Eugene Onegin" without any cuts saw the light of the footlights of the Beijing Tian Qiao Theater in August 1962.

The paper focuses on the rapid and short-living Soviet writing career of the British coal miner Harold Heslop. Between 1926 and 1931, three novels by Heslop were published in the USSR (in Russian translation) and the translation of a fourth was commissioned and completed, and in 1930 the author himself travelled to the USSR as one of two members of the British delegation at the Kharkov conference of the International Union of Revolutionary Writers (IURW). However, that was the end of his success: the translated novel Red Earth was not published nor were any of his later novels. The only venue for his rare shorter essays and occasional prose excerpts was the magazine International Literature. The paper discusses this curious writer’s biography from different perspectives. It analyzes at length the critical article by Anna Elistratova, published in Na literaturnom postu and International Literature, juxtaposing the two versions and the text of Heslop’s novel to contextualize the writer and his work in the Soviet literary criticism of the time. It explores archival materials—Heslop’s correspondence with different people and institutions as well as institutional papers—to discuss the case as personal as well as institutional history, representative of the situation of the 1930s. Finally the article shifts perspective to discuss the author and his work in the context of the British working-class literature of the time.

One question looms large in the early history of Soviet legal theory and practice: how and why did EvgenyPashukanis emerge as the pre-eminent Soviet jurist from 1924 to 1930, come under only minor criticism from 1930 to 1936 and then be denounced and executed in 1937 as a ‘Trotskyite saboteur’? Of course, Pashukanis was not alone. Virtually every leading figure associated with the October 1917 Russian Revolution and the early years of the Soviet Union fell victim to Stalin’s purges by 1937 (from Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin to thousands of less-known socialists). Yet, there are some particularly revealing aspects in the case of Pashukanis that have not been probed adequately by most Western or Soviet writers. His rise to leadership of Soviet legal work in 1924, with the publication of his The General Theory of Law and Marxism, coincided with Stalin’s initial victory over the Left Opposition and the enunciation of Stalin’s program of seeking to build ‘socialism in one country’. Pashukanis’ unexpected emergence from obscurity appears to be related to the fact that he publicly lined up against the Left Opposition as early as 1925. Pashukanis’ central theme in his General Theory, somewhat simplistically referred to as a ‘commodity-exchange’ theory of law, was related to the limited restoration of commercial property and market relations under the 1921 shift to the New Economic Policy. The dangers inherent in this temporary retreat became entrenched in Stalin’s bureaucratic elite after 1924. As discussed in this article, Pashukanis’ approach, which regarded commodity exchange as the essence of legal relations, to some extent reconciled Marxist theory with the official revival of economic relations based on private ownership and market forces.

The transition of the 19th into the 20th century in Serbian music history was a period of music criticism, journalism and essay writing. At that time, Serbian musicology had not yet been developed as an academic discipline. After WWI there were many more academic writings on this subject; therefore, the interwar period represents the beginning of Serbian music historiography. This paper analyses Serbian interwar music magazines as source material for the history of Serbian musicology. The following music magazines were published in Belgrade at the time: Muzicki glasnik (Music Herald, 1922), Muzika (Music, 1928-1929), Glasnik Muzickog drustva ?Stankovic? (Stankovic Music Society Herald, 1928-1934, 1938-1941; from January 1931. known as Muzicki glasnik /Music Herald/), Zvuk ( Sound, 1932-1936), Vesnik Juznoslovesnkog pevackog saveza (The South Slav Singing Union Courier, 1935-1936, 1938), Slavenska muzika ( Slavonic Music, 1939-1941), and Revija muzike (The Music Review, 1940). A great number of historical studies and writings on Serbian music were published in the interwar periodicals. A significant contribution was made above all to the study of Serbian musicians? biographies and bibliographies of the 19th century. Vladimir R. Djordjevic published several short biographies in Muzicki glasnik (1922) in an article called Ogled biografskog recnika srpskih muzicara (An Introduction to Serbian Musicians? Biographies). Writers on music obviously understood that the starting point in the study of Serbian music history had to be the composers? biographical data. Other magazines (such as Muzicki glasnik in 1928 and 1931, Zvuk, Vesnik Juznoslovenskog pevackog saveza, and Slavenska muzika) published a number of essays on distinguished Serbian and Yugoslav musicians of the 19th and 20th centuries, most of which deal with both composers? biographical data and analysis of their compositions. Their narrative style reflects the habits of 19th-century romanticism and positivism: in some of these writings the language also has an aesthetic function. Serbian interwar music magazines also published some archival documents contributing to the future research of Serbian music history. Interwar period in the then Yugoslavia was a time of rapid development and modernization in various fields of culture. There was a great demand for music writings of general interest. Therefore, Revija muzike (January - June 1940) was totally oriented towards the popularization of music and the arts (such as drama and film). This magazine also published some popular articles on music history. Serbian interwar music periodicals were least active in the field of musicological analysis. However, in 1934, Branko M. Dragutinovic published a detailed analytic study of Josip Slavenski?s composition Religiofonija (Religiophonics) in Zvuk. There were also some interdisciplinary history articles in Serbian interwar music magazines. Being well aware of the fact that music history comprises not only music itself, but also music writing, schools, institutions and music life, our music writers used ?indirect? sources, such as literature and art, as well as music. Serbian interwar music periodicals opened many fields of research, thus blazing a trail in postwar Serbian musicology.

The object of this research is the foreign policy of Denmark in the 1980s. The subject of this research on the one hand is the ideological foundations of Denmark's foreign policy during this period, which were strongly affected by the ideas of European social democracy, and on the other hand – the influence of the Danish Parliament (Folketing) upon the formation of Denmark’s official position on the issues of European security discussed within the framework of NATO. Denmark’s refutation of neutrality after the World War II and its entry into NATO in many ways determined the foreign policy position of Denmark throughout the Cold War as a small European state that perceived the Soviet Union as a threat to national security. At the same time, the desire of Denmark of maintain maximum flexibility and avoid making far-reaching commitments within the framework of NATO, led to the fact that Denmark was often perceived as an unreliable and inconvenient ally. The period from 1982 to 1988 indicates the Atlantic dissidence of Denmark and simultaneous improvement of relations with the Soviet Union), when Denmark’s representatives in the NATO sessions, being obliged to take into account the position of the parliamentary majority in the Folketing, were forced to make reservations to the final documents of the sessions, expressing disagreement or criticism of implemented measures. Among the Russian scholars dealing with the history of Denmark, this period has not yet received wide coverage. This article is an attempt to describe and explain the causes and consequences of the period of the “policy of reservations” for Denmark’s foreign policy in the context of the end of Cold War and in the conditions of transition towards the post-bipolar system of international relations.

Crimea is now an autonomous parliamentary republic which is governed by the Constitution of Crimea in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. But, Crimea has been home to different nations during the history, as a result of the cultural wealth and thisfactor has been moved to today patterns. Crimean Tatars is one of the important parts of this wealth. The Crimean Tatars were forcibly expelled to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's government after II. World War. After the fall of the Soviet Union, some Crimean Ta began to return to the region. Now, Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority in Crimea and make up about 13% of the population. So, Crimean Tatars’ music must be evaluated in two periods. Before exile and after exile. There are many networks in the music of Crimea, and these networks can continue their existence even in small villages. On the other hand, the effects of popular culture increasing on Crimean Tatars music. The aim of this paper is to explain the musical differences in the process of change Crimean Tatars from generation to generation; define the effects of the people, places and mass media that cause them, observe them in daily practice and analyze these type of issues.

In this article Alexander Golovlev offers a comparative examination of the theatre policies of Fascist Italy and Stalinist Soviet Union. He argues that, although the two regimes shared parallel time frames and gravitated around similar institutional solutions, Italian Fascism was fundamentally different in its reluctance to destroy the privately based theatre structure in favour of a state theatre and to impose a unified style, while Stalin carried out an ambitious and violent campaign to instil Socialist Realism through continuous disciplining, repression, and institutional supervision. In pursuing a nearly identical goal of achieving full obedience, the regimes used different means, and obtained similarly mixed results. While the Italian experience ended with the defeat of Fascism, Soviet theatres underwent de-Stalinization in the post-war decades, indicating the potential for sluggish stability in such frameworks of cultural-political control. Alexander Golovlev is Research Fellow at the International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and Its Consequences, National Research University, Higher School of Economics / Fondation de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, and ATLAS Fellow, Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines, Université de Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines/ Université Paris-Saclay. His most recent publications include ‘Sounds of Music from across the Sea: Musical Transnationality in Early Post-World-War-II Austria’, in Yearbook of Transnational History 1 (2018) and ‘Von der Seine an die Salzach: die Teilnahme vom Straßburger Domchor an den Salzburger Festspielen und die französische Musikdiplom atie in Österreich während der alliierten Besatzungs zeit’, Journal of Austrian Studies (2018). He is currently working on the political economy of the Bolshoi theatre under Stalinism.

The article provides an analysis of historical events in Russia in the 20th century from the point of view of the influence of the Russian intelligentsia on them, its the­oretical and practical activities. The starting point for the author is the collection Milestones (1909) and the criticism of the intelligentsia, which is the main meaning of the articles in this collection. The author shows that, despite the great influence of the intellectuals on the fate of Russia, they was not able to fully realize its ideals, and the fate of many of them was tragic. Their ideals were in contradiction with the real life of Russia, and later of the Soviet Union, they did not take into account the peculiarities of the development of the Russian and then the Soviet state and society. Their attempts to go against social practice inevitably ended in failure, while the de­sire to act in accordance with social practice often led to results that were contrary to their ideals. According to the author, the fate of the Russian intelligentsia in the 20th century confirmed the correctness of the materialist understanding of history, according to which, in the absence of ideals, movement forward has neither a driv­ing force nor a direction, and without reliance on practice, all ideals turn into utopia. Therefore, the correct solution to the problem of connecting excellent ideals and ob­jective practice is a matter of high political art. In the process of modernizing a backward state, the intelligentsia has a special mission.

The article is devoted to the history of the reception of the first edition of the story of Vsevolod Ivanov “Armored train 14, 69”, created by the writer in 1921 and first published in the first issue of the magazine “Krasnaya Nov” in 1922. The first edition is known in two versions: magazine and book: the story came out as a separate edition in the summer of that year. Until 1932, the story was printed in the first book edition, with minor variations. The same edition formed the basis of the modern scientific publication (2018). After 1932, the text of the story, which retained its “classic” name, was repeatedly redone by the author with the participation of editors and censorship. The article collected information and quotes from reviews, reviews, and reviews primarily from 1922–1925. It is shown that the first critics paid special attention to the politics and ideology of the story and its author. Only a few of them appreciated the truly revolutionary poetics and aesthetics of the story, written by the author in line with the plot and narrative experiment of the literary group “The Serapion Brothers”, to which Vsevolod Ivanov joined immediately after moving from Siberia to Petrograd. In many responses, the story was compared with the novel by Boris Pilnyak “The Naked Year”, excerpts from which were printed in the same issue of the magazine. Party and proletcult criticism was satisfied with the propaganda potential of the story, its “usefulness” for agitation in favor of the Soviet regime. However, both in the Soviet Union and in exile they often drew attention to the fact that the "red" and "white" ("White Guard") lines developed in the early edition on an equal footing, in the plot counterpoint. In later editions, the feeling of equality of two lines gave way to an unequivocal advantage in favor of the “reds." The author’s ideology was often read as peasant or neo-people’s (“Scythian”, “Socialist Revolutionary”), which also caused doubts among the literary ideologists of the country of the victorious proletariat. A simplification of the psychological portrait of the characters was noted, which was fundamentally important for the “Serapion Brothers”. The most insightful judgments about the story belonged to the member of this literary group, critic and literature historian Ilya Gruzdev and futurist poet Alexei Kruchenykh. Both drew attention to the dialectical interaction of storylines with extra-plot elements (phonetic zaum, imitation of vernacular and accents, onomatopoeia, etc.).

In this paper we focused on investigating how the sphere of musical amateurism functioned in Yugoslavia in the decades following the end of WWII. Observing through changes in the role and significance of amateur music ensembles, specifically choirs, in Yugoslav society from the late 1940s until the late 1960s/early 1970s that were manifest in their de-massification, gradual professionalisation and extensive use in cultural diplomacy, we sought to explain that this involved multiple factors - above all, the shifts in Yugoslav international policy after the confrontation with the Soviet Union in 1948, and, consequently, the revisions of its cultural policies. Their influence was observed through a detailed examination of the activities of the Beogradski madrigalisti choir, from its foundation in 1951 until the late 1960s/early 1970s. Although it was unique among Yugoslav choirs in many respects, the early history of this ensemble clearly reflected the demand for excellence in the sphere of amateur performance from the 1950s onwards, one of the most prominent indicators of its deep structural transformation.

The study presents an overview of the history of instrumental music in Ukraine, where choir and solo singing has always played a prominent role. Singing was a substantive part of the church life and folklore of the city and countryside. Thus, the more prominent was the distribution of instrumental music, which embodied cultural links between Ukraine and other European countries. Instrumental music tradition, more common for Catholic and Lutheran countries, came to Ukraine and brought some remarkable examples of brilliant composers with great theoretical and performing skills. Many important names, which belong to Ukrainian musical culture, have been known in the Western Europe as ‘Russian’. For many foreign researchers ‘The Former Soviet Union’ remains a terra incognita, where the national origin of an artist is some- times forgotten. In the past, for many years the most talented Ukrainian musicians were invited or came for fame and money to other countries and became popular there. Although they often got music education in Ukraine, they were often considered as representatives of the Russian culture. For some time, Ukraine was the source of specialists for nearby countries, so it was the ‘in-between’ between the Western European and Slavonic musical cultures. Rediscovering it by research, performing and elaborating is a very important task for modern Ukrainian per- forming musicians as well as for scholars. Historically Informed Performance in Ukraine nowadays is also an important field for research and promotion among professionals and non- professionals. Achievements in the field of rediscovering of early music are often unknown in the wide circle of musicologists and performing musicians. At the same time, this knowledge can turn out useful not only for early music lovers, but also for musicians who play classical repertoire. This path easily creates many opportunities for collaboration between Ukrainian and European musicians and forms a positive image for Ukraine on the world scene. It also explains the importance of the study.

Respecting the ideological aspects of the totalitarian regime and interpreting the most significant functions of the institution, the article provides an insight in one of the institutions under the supervision of the Latvian Republican branch of the USSR Foundation for Literature—the Polyclinic of Latvian Republican Branch of the USSR Foundation for Literature—locally the most important medical institution for the representatives of creative professions and related persons. This polyclinic was one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the entire Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and was commonly referred to as the Polyclinic of Writers or the Polyclinic of Lit-Foundation. In the framework of the functions of this institution, the article sheds light on various memories of the previous employees and patients looking into their memoirs, memory literature and interviews. The article briefly examines the importance of the two leading or key persons—the Director of the LSSR Foundation for Literature Elvīra Zaķe (1909–1992) and the Head of the Polyclinic, Head Doctor Vitāls Oga (1924–1984), as well as their role in the domestic lives of the creative individuals and cultural history of the Soviet period. The most essential five functions, which characterise the activities and existence of the Polyclinic are the following: 1) basic—service or treatment function; 2) the psychological support function; 3) (LSSR) the ideological-prestige function; 4) the function of sustaining Latvian cultural environment; 5) the function of a cultural sign (entails the processes of the respective period and the history of literary circles).

The article analyzes the foundations of the formation of the foreign policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which, first of all, are influenced by the traditions of the historical development of this country, its geopolitical location in the center of the Eurasian continent, transport and communication potential and the presence of large reserves of natural resources. It is emphasized that in modern Kazakhstan there is still no holistic perception of many historical events and processes, in particular those that were hushed up during the imperial and Soviet periods. At the same time, in the scientific discourse of the country, there is a rethinking of national history through criticism of the previous historical experience. It is noted that after the formation in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the Kazakh Khanate, the progressive development of statehood was replaced by a period of struggle against foreign invaders – first the Dzungars, and then the Russian Empire. It ended with the loss of statehood, the struggle for the restoration of which is presented in the form of a teleologically constructed narrative of the heroic struggle for independence, which includes a number of historical events and periods. The process of modern nation-state building in Kazakhstan is based on the consolidating role of the titular nation, which contributes to the growth of interest in historical issues and is accompanied by a gradual loss of the influence of Soviet-Russian narratives in political and historical discourse. A feature of the foreign policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan is a multi-vector approach, which has developed historically and is designed to ensure a balance between various geopolitical centers of power. The priorities of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy are determined: the development of allied relations with the Russian Federation, a comprehensive strategic partnership with the PRC, an expanded strategic partnership with the United States, strategic relations with the Central Asian states, an expanded partnership and cooperation with the European Union.

The camp courts have been an important element of the Soviet justice system. The purpose of the paper is to identify the main anomalies in the activities of camp courts. The work is based on unpublished documents stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), the Joint State Archive of the Chelyabinsk Region (OGACHO). The Department for Camp Courts (UDLS) of the Ministry of Justice of the USSR did not rate the activities of camp courts highly. The main complaints considered massive violations of the norms of substantive and procedural law, lack of generalization of judicial practice, poor organization of trials.In the early 1950s against the backdrop of increasing formal performance of the camp courts, the UDLS criticism became softer. However, it was not possible to maintain these indicators for a long period. Therefore, UDLS returned to the practice of identifying anomalies in the activities of camp courts and continued to criticize them harshly. The quality of investigative work carried out by the Prosecutor's office and the first departments of places of detention was low. Various conflicts and shifting of responsibility were observed in the camp justice bodies. The courts blamed the Prosecutor's offices and the first departments for the low performance of their work, and the latter reciprocated. As a result, the country's leadership concluded that it was necessary to eliminate camp courts as they failed to cope with the task of prompt consideration of cases.The identified anomalies can be explained by the harsh conditions of the camp courts. Their employees worked in an environment of high secrecy, could not exchange experience in periodicals. Regional and the All-Union meetings of workers of camp courts were quite rare. There was an acute shortage of legal literature.

The article is a cultural-historical study and a part of the project Uniting History, which aims to discover the multicultural aspect of performing art in pre-war Liepaja and summarize key facts about the history of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The study also seeks to identify the performing artists whose life was associated with Liepāja and who were repressed between 1941 and 1945, because of aggression by both the Soviet Union and National Socialist Germany. Until now, the cultural life of this period in Liepāja has been studied in a fragmentary way, and materials are scattered in various archives. There are inaccurate and even contradictory testimonies of events of that time. The study marks both the cultural and historical situation of the 1920s and the 1930s in Liepāja and tracks the fates of several artists in the period between 1939 and 1945. On the eve of World War II, Liepāja has an active cultural life, especially in theatre and music. Liepāja City Drama and Opera is in operation staging both dramatic performances, operas, and ballet, employing an orchestra. The symphony orchestra also operated at the Liepāja Philharmonic, where musicians were recruited every season according to the principles of contemporary festival orchestras. Liepāja Folk Conservatory (music school) had also formed an orchestra of students and teachers. Guest concerts were held regularly. A characteristic feature of performing arts in Liepaja was its multicultural character – musicians of different nationalities with experience from different schools of the world were encountered there. World War II not only disrupted the balance in society, but it also had a very concrete and tragic impact on the fates of the people, including the performing artists. Many were killed, many repressed and placed in prisons and camps, and many went to exile to the West. Others were forced to either co-operate with the occupation forces or give up their identity and, consequently, their career as an artist. Nevertheless, some artists risked their lives to save others.

The article examines the features of artistic perception and representation of the geographical and cultural space of Stalingrad-Volgograd in evolutionary development in 1940–2020; interaction between architectural and artistic texts of the city, the specifics of the Volgograd Union of Artists; the issues of changes in the artistic life of the city that took place in the post-Soviet period. The architecture, history and daily life of post-war Stalingrad are now of great scientific interest. In this article, for the first time, the artistic reflection of the life of the city of this and subsequent periods becomes the subject of independent research. The active work of Stalingrad and Volgograd artists was reflected in numerous publications: newspaper and magazine articles, exhibition catalogues, and monographic publications. A number of publications are devoted to the history of the Volgograd Union of artists. At the same time, relations between artistic creativity and location were not specifically considered. Until now, the issues of transformations of artistic life and art in Volgograd have also remained without proper attention. The work has been done mainly on the basis of the collection of the Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts named after I.I. Mashkov with a review of works from artist's studios. This group of works attracts interest not only from an art criticism point of view, but also from a cultural, sociological, and historical point of view. City views in painting and graphics are considered in chronological order and in accordance with the thematic principle. The methods of comparative analysis have been applied when comparing works of the Soviet period with modern ones. Materials of the imaginative and stylistic of paintings and graphics are compared with the memories of old residents of the city and interviews with contemporary artists. Works of painting and graphics by Stalingrad and Volgograd artists of the second half of the XX – early XXI centuries are introduced into the scientific circulation. The author focuses on native Stalingrad painters and graphic artists who took an active part in the formation of the local branch of the Union of Artists: N. Chernikov, A. Chervonenko, F. Sukhanov, A. Legenchenko, G. Pechennikov and A. Pechennikov, N. Pirogov, B. Osikov, P. Grechkin, V. Strigin, etc. Their works are compared with the works of contemporary artists: N. Zotov, Yu. Sorokin, etc. В статье рассматриваются в эволюционном развитии особенности художественного восприятия и репрезентации географического и культурного пространства Сталинграда-Волгограда в 1940–2020 годы. Затрагиваются вопросы взаимодействия архитектурного и художественного текстов города, специфики Волгоградского союза художников, перемен художественной жизни города, которые произошли в постсоветский период. Архитектура, история и повседневность послевоенного Сталинграда сейчас вызывают большой научный интерес. В настоящей статье впервые становится предметом самостоятельного исследования художественное отражение жизни города этого и последующих периодов. Деятельность сталинградских и волгоградских художников нашла отражение в многочисленных публикациях: газетных и журнальных статьях, каталогах выставок, монографических изданиях. Ряд публикаций посвящен истории Волгоградского союза художников. При этом вопросы связей художественного творчества и территории специально не рассматривались. До сих пор оставались без внимания и вопросы трансформаций художественной жизни и искусства Волгограда. Работа проделана в основном на материале собрания Волгоградского музея изобразительных искусств им. И.И. Машкова с привлечением произведений из мастерских художников. Данный пласт работ представляет интерес не только с искусствоведческой, но и культурологической, социологической, исторической точек зрения. В научный оборот вводятся произведения живописи и графики сталинградских и волгоградских художников второй половины XX – начала XXI веков. Живописные и графические пейзажи, запечатлевшие город, рассмотрены в хронологической последовательности и в соответствии с тематическим принципом. Методы сравнительного анализа были применены при сопоставлении произведений советского периода и работ о городе, созданных сегодня. Материалы образно-стилистического анализа произведений живописи и графики сопоставлены с воспоминаниями старожилов города и интервью с современными художниками.

AbstractThe article explores a specialized perspective of democratization and nation-building in one of the states restored from the former Soviet Union. The focus is on the reform of Lithuanian legal education. It regards the interaction between the two main national law faculties, on the one hand, and society and the profession on the other. There has been a rise in law work and the number of lawyers. Both legal education and the structure of the profession have undergone changes, facilitated by ways of regulation and the allocation of resources. The profession has become an active and necessary vehicle for institutional reform and European integration. The article covers the following areas: (1) the reconstruction of the legal professions and legal education; (2) the role of legal education in a changed society; and (3) a discussion of how law faculties educate lawyers to solve legal problems in a new state. The examination is based mainly on qualitative interviews, the respondents being elite members of the legal profession, students, and citizens engaged in public debate. This is supplemented with an overview of the regulatory framework, university study programs, and a few statistical data. A few comparisons are made to other similar reforms in post-socialist Europe. The conclusion is that the new nation-state has invested considerable regulation and resources into a project of creating a new generation of lawyers, hinged on western constitutional values, taking the Lithuanian heritage back to an earlier tradition of the normative values of law. Professional forums have been created, as well as professional debate over legal education and other professional issues. However, the project does not seem to have reached its goal. Members of the legal profession voices concern about the ability of the traditionally most prestigious law faculty to bring about the required changes of its performance. On the one hand, in pointing out the weaknesses, the profession renders a practical example of having established an open professional community debating professional issues, among them legal education. They take standpoints independent of the political level. On the other hand, the examination also indicates a lacking ability to deal with some general malfunctions. The most important one is that the community habors considerable mistrust which curbs responsiveness to suggestions from other professionals, not to mention willingness to listen to criticism. This makes it extremely diffi cult to deal in practical terms with a number of issues, such as how to safeguard a level of professionalization of law work, creating standards that can be benchmarked with other international systems, getting on with the disposal of repressive law remains, and securing independent law professors with relevant and adequate academic standing in their field.