scholarly journals Crossing Ethnic Barriers Enforced by the KGB: Kharkiv Writers' Lives in the 1960s-70s

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-54
Author(s):  
Olga Bertelsen

This study analyzes the foundations of unity developed by the Kharkiv multi-ethnic community of writers, and explores post-Khrushchev Kharkiv as a political space and a place of state violence aimed at combating Ukrainian nationalism and Zionism, two major targets in the 1960s-70s. Despite their various cultural and social backgrounds, the Kharkiv literati might be identified as a distinct bohemian group possessing shared aesthetic and political values that emerged as the result of de-Stalinization under Khrushchev. Archival documents, diaries, and memoirs suggest that the 1960s-70s was a period of intense covert KGB operations and “active measures” designed to disrupt a community of intellectuals and to fragment friendships, bonds, and support among Ukrainians, Russians, and Jews along ethnic lines. The history of the literati residing in Kharkiv in the 1960s-70s, their formal and informal practices and rituals, and their strategies of coping with state antisemitism, anti-Ukrainianism, terror, and waves of repression demonstrate that the immutability of ethnic barriers, often attributed to Ukrainian-Russian-Jewish encounters and systematically reinforced by the KGB, seems to be a myth and a stereotype. The writers negated them, escaping from and at the same time augmenting the politics of the place. Their spatial and social practices and habits helped them create a cohesive community grounded in shared history, shared interests in literature and dedication to it, and shared threats emanating from city politics and the KGB. They transcended ethnic boundaries constructed by the authorities, striving for unity, free from Soviet definitions.

2006 ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Ewa Sławkowa

The article presents a lexical and semantic study of the discourse, one of the most widespread terms of modern human sciences. We begin with etymology, and then demonstrate various stages of the development of the meaning of the term in the history of Polish. The lexem “discourse”, well established in the linguistic tradition of Polish, has undergone a characteristic evolution: first, a borrowing from Latin (discurere – “go in diverse directions”), it then became popular in the 16th through 18th centuries as a rhetorically marked Polish (particularly with the view of political speeches and sermons) to signal a kind of discussion and logical exposition of argumentation. Recent contemporary Polish gives this term a slightly archaic and bookish sense. At the same time, however, “discourse” has become a strictly scientific, scholarly term which carved for itself a special discipline of research (discourse studies). In the 1960s and 1970s the work of such linguists as Emile Benveniste or Roman Jakobsen helped to shape the meaning of discourse as a process of speaking, an interactive and dialogic communicative behaviour which sees language as conditioned by diverse social practices and/or ideologies (e.g. historical, scholarly, or feminist discourse).


Leadership ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 174271502097620
Author(s):  
Nikki A Pieratos ◽  
Sarah S Manning ◽  
Nick Tilsen

Present political climate and an increase in visibility and voice for Indigenous people are being leveraged to attract attention to dire social, environmental, and political issues. However, we need a more unified, organized, and coordinated policy platform, strategy, and public response. NDN Collective, an all Indigenous-led and staffed organization devoted to building Indigenous self-determination and power across Turtle Island, provides cohesion through a strong meta narrative of its Land Back campaign and an ecosystem of resources for Native Nations and peoples built around its three pillars: Defend, Develop, and Decolonize. This article shares a brief history of colonization and the lasting impacts of the American Indian Movement of the 1960s and what is needed from Indigenous leadership today. In recognizing that the collective liberation of Indigenous people is bound together with those of other Black and brown relatives, this article also explores our shared history with Black Americans and the success of the Black Lives Matter movement.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Biggs

In recent years, American diplomatic and military historians have begun to reexamine Cold War-era nation-building efforts in Vietnam and elsewhere. This essay explores the contested and contingent meanings of some US-sponsored nation-building programs established in the Republic of Vietnam during the 1960s. By focusing on nation-building activities in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang during the peak years of the Vietnam War, this essay suggests how historians may begin to assess these indirect effects of the war within a more nuanced, local Vietnamese historical framework. Such a history necessarily focuses on particular places and on the specific social and environmental conditions that shaped the course and outcome of nation-building projects undertaken there. Despite the universalist aspirations inherent in nation building, its effects varied widely from one place to another. In assessing the course and fate of these nation-building initiatives, this essay draws from the varied archival documents produced and collected by American provincial advisors during their stays in An Giang. A close reading of these reports reveals why the history of American nation-building programs in the Republic of Vietnam cannot be explained solely by reference to ideologies of modernization and counterinsurgency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 391-412
Author(s):  
Chuan Xu

Abstract This article examines the roles of magnetic recording in China’s sound governance. Through analyses of archival documents and personal accounts, this article argues that in the early 1980s, the magnetic recording infrastructure and its common usage underwent dramatic transformations. In the 1960s and 1970s, state officials and language educators configured the magnetic recording infrastructure to propagandize authoritative and normative sounds while maintaining strict hierarchical distinctions between those who recorded and those who listened. In the early 1980s, with the rapid popularization of compact cassettes and recorders, these distinctions dissolved as millions of people began to produce and exchange dubbed cassettes. Widespread home dubbing created a decentralized network of sound production and circulation that not only defied government regulation, but also fueled the anxieties that moral, social, and ideological catastrophes would soon descend on the country. Through this media history of magnetic tape, this article shows how the governance of sound infrastructure and protocols was integral to the governance of people.


Author(s):  
Anna Vasil'evna Kuz'mina ◽  
Vadim Sergeevich Komogaev

This article is dedicated to the peculiarities of the use of archival documents in studying the history of Soviet industrial enterprises based on the large, city-planning enterprise of the local traditional industry – Sevastopol plant of shipboard lighting engineering “Mayak”. The authors meticulously examine different types of archival documents and their informational potential for studying operation of the enterprise. The focus of attention is the acts of acceptance and transfer report, annual reports on the workforce, salaries and regulation, as well as the materials of the trade union, and other documents. The article is based on previously unpublished archival documents on the history of Sevastopol industry that have not been previously introduced into the scientific discourse. The author explore separate episodes of the history of the plant, its establishment, evolution, and key results. The main conclusions lies in determination of the types of archival documents, which were most informative in studying the history of the enterprise. The authors indicate that archival funds, and annual reports in particular, are well preserved and contribute to examination of operation of the enterprise. It is underlined that Sevastopol plant of shipboard lighting engineering “Mayak”, which virtually ceased to operate after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, was one of the most significant and dynamically developing industrial enterprises of the city in the 1960s – 1970s. It is worth noting that currently there are projects aimed at the revival of industrial potential of Sevastopol, one of which is the technology part on the territory of the former plant “Mayak”.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
Nikolay F. Bugay ◽  

The proposed article, based on new archival documents identified in the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with the involvement of researchers in the history of ethnic minorities on the territory of the USSR, Russia, reveals the role and place of the Laz ethnic minority in the south within Abkhazia and Georgia. Laz, as an ethnic minority, have undergone all those difficulties of transformation, including negative ones. Destructive measures were taken against them by the Government of the USSR – forced resettlement, deportation. Mohamed Vanlishi, Laz by nationality, being a member of the government of the Adjarian ASSR, minister, writer, sent a letter to L. Be-ria, the content of which touched Beria's feelings. The Lazes were returned from the special resettlement to their own homes. This side of the life of the ethnic minority of Georgia – Laz was reflected in the documents of "Stalin's special folder" The publication mentions many of the current representatives of the Laz in different periods of the his-tory of Georgia and Abkhazia and ethnic minorities living on their territory. The life of the Laz was also influenced by the policy carried out in Georgia to implement the "crys-tallization of society", pursuing the formation of statehood with one ethnic community, one culture. Introduction. The development of the problem itself in the scientific works of the author and other researchers is briefly stated. This is also a kind of reaction to complaints from the Laz themselves that the history of the ethnic minority is not being paid enough attention to. Little is known in the historiography of the Laz and their leaders, who led various kinds of movements for freedom and justice, the solution of social problems in society, the involvement of the Laz in party and state building. The content of punitive measures taken against Laz is partially revealed, the reasons and possibilities to overcome the built system in relations between the state and society, ethnic minorities are shown. Methods. The content of the article is based on different research methods. First of all, the method of historicism, a sequential presentation of the series of events that charac-terize the content of historical events, their relationship with accompanying events. It is also important to use the prosopographic method of presenting material about the main political figure of the Laz, representatives of the highest authorities. By using the narrative method, the ethnic community of the Laz is more widely represented and its participation in solving many issues in national state policy, the interaction of the ethnic community itself in the system of interethnic ties. The use of the information method is of particular value for building up an event series. This method is also quite applicable to the analysis of national processes taking place in the region where the Laz live. In the presentation of the article, the method of comparative historical analysis was also ap-plied. Results. This article was based primarily on archival documents about the holes, identi-fied in the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This allowed a broader charac-terization of the Laz as an ethnic minority. Along with the well-known materials, show the settlement of Laz in the territory of the regions of residence. The documents of the archive make it possible to reveal the role and place of the Section for the Study of the National Question created in the structure of the Communist Academy. The forms and methods of work in the Communist Academy in the study of the history of the national question and ethnic minorities have been clarified.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Alexandr V. Zorin ◽  
Alla A. Sizova

The Tibetan manuscripts and block prints from Khara-Khoto that were passed to the Asiatic Museum with other texts brought by P.K. Kozlov from his Mongolia and Sichuan Expedition have been insufficiently studied. Their processing was initiated in the second half of the 1960s and continued in the Post-Soviet period. The collection of the Tibetan Texts from Khara-Khoto, according to our analysis, included a number of documents from other sources. Trying to understand why it took place, we looked for and found some archival documents that shed light on the history of the formation of this collection and, simultaneously, helped to clarify some general issues concerning the fate of texts brought by P.K. Kozlov from Khara-Khoto. This paper presents the results of our study of the documents found in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Archives of the IOM, RAS, the Russian Ethnographic Museum and the Russian Geographic Society. The description of the events is divided into two parts: the first one reconstructs the chronology of the process of transferring manuscripts and block prints of P.K. Kozlovs Expedition to the Asiatic Museum; the second one deals with the history of the processing of the Tibetan texts from Khara- Khoto starting from the 1920s and up to present, when the contents of the collection have been critically revised. The table that reflects the current state of the Collection of the Tibetan Texts from Khara-Khoto kept at the IOM, RAS is provided in the appendix.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 386-404
Author(s):  
Igor Tchoukarine

This article presents the disparate, yet similar, stories of foreign tourist resorts built on Yugoslavia’s coast in the 1960s: two of them owned privately, by the French Club Méditerranée, in Pakoštane (Croatia) and on Sveti Marko island (Montenegro); one, in Bečići (Montenegro), the property of socialist Czechoslovakia and its Trade Union organization ( Revoluční Odborové Hnutí). Drawing on archival documents, newspapers, and magazine articles as well as interviews, I discuss why these resorts were established, and how they operated within their specific material, financial, and metaphorical contexts, while also examining how tourists and tourism planners assigned meanings to tourism, and envisioned it within its global context. The French-owned Club Med’s resorts were profit-oriented, private initiatives that catered toward individuals and families on vacations that were envisioned as a means of personal growth. Revoluční Odborové Hnutí’s resort, by contrast, was owned by socialist Czechoslovakia’s labor union. It served union members and their families, and was designed according to principles of social and collective tourism. Nevertheless, as this article argues, each of these resorts embodied core features of the modern, time-restricted, spatially managed, and pleasure-oriented experience of vacation abroad. Moreover, a concept of insularity—the comfort of sojourning in a self-contained space that was at once foreign and familiar—defined each resort’s conception and promotion of their seaside vacations, thus bridging the projects’ ideological and institutional differences, and superseding local understandings of place. The projects’ histories, finally, prefigured contemporary tourism’s contradictions and complexities, such as the dwindling of conventional distinctions (between home and abroad, for instance). At the background of this comparative analysis is the broader history of tourism in postwar Yugoslavia, which held high hopes for tourism as a vector for economic development and the promotion of good international relations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 117-122
Author(s):  
Sarah Farmer

The postwar history of rural France has often been experienced and analyzed as one of perpetual decline measured by rural outmigration and the death of the peasantry as a social class. While this book has underlined and explored these dislocations and ruptures, it has also pushed back against a declensionist narrative by showing ways in which the French countryside was renewed and changed in the decades of the 1960s ad 1970s by social practices and culture representations that attached symbolic and material value to rural life. Rural society did not die when the peasantry disappeared. Rather, it continued to be reinvented.


2021 ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
V. V. Levchenko

The article is devoted to the representation of letters of well-known Kyiv historians I. O. Gurzhii and I. D. Boyko to the Odessa colleague S. I.-Ya. Borovоy. These letters for the period of the first half of the 1960’s are stored in the State Archives of Odessa region, in the fund of personal origin of Professor S. I.-Ya. Borovоy. The letters are a valuable source for studying the scientific biography and communication network of historians of the 1960s. Little-known archival documents were first published – correspondence with the Odessa historian of Kyiv colleagues who worked in various structures of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the 1940s and 1960s. These sources reflect their activities and connections with a colleague from Odesa. The purpose of this archeographic exploration is to update little-known archival sources, which significantly supplement the information about cooperation and personal contacts between Odessa and Kyiv historians, whose biographies and certain aspects of their scientific activity are revealed in the comments. The letters shed light on their scientific plans and creative laboratory of correspondents, views on social and cultural issues. The article examines the informative possibilities of letters from leading Kyiv historians of this period on the situation in historical science and the socio-cultural situation in the country as a whole. The epistles of these historians are of undeniable interest in the history of Soviet historiography, in particular, and the history of historical science. The provided materials reflect separate fragments of professional activity of two scientists and their personal and scientific communicative communications with some representatives of the Soviet scientific community. Epistles allow to reproduce some details of the history of Soviet historical science, certain episodes of the biography of a number of Soviet scientists of those years against the background of the events of the socio-cultural environment. The letters of scientists, despite the presence of powerful personal qualities, are characterized by high organization of the text, the ability to see the main things in events, extreme clarity in assessing the situation and expressing their opinions. The publication of the letters is accompanied by fairly complete comments on their content and introduces into scientific circulation a valuable historical source.


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