You can't rid a song of its words: notes on the hegemony of lyrics in Russian rock songs

Popular Music ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yngvar B. Steinholt
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
The Core ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
National Characteristics

From the mid-1980s, rock music emerged as the leading musical culture in the major cities of the Soviet Union. In writings and research on this ‘Soundtrack of Perestroika’, attention has been primarily paid to the words rather than the sounds. Russian rock critics and academics, as well as those who participate in Russian rock culture, persistently emphasise the literary qualities of Russian rock music and most still prefer to approach rock as a form of musical poetry - ‘Rok poèziya’. This seems out of step with the growing emphasis on an interdisciplinary approach within popular music studies. The aim of this article is to investigate and discuss some of the core arguments that underpin notions of Russian rock music's literary qualities. This may help to uncover some specific national characteristics of rock in Russia, whilst at the same time questioning the need for, and value of, a literary approach to the study of Russian rock.

Comintern Aesthetics in the Andes: The Indigenous Revolutionary

2021 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-473
Author(s):  
Anna Björk Einarsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
World System ◽  
Political Connections ◽  
Cesar Vallejo ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Andes ◽  
The Soviet Union

The fight against imperialism and racism was central to the Comintern's political and cultural program of the interwar period. Although the more immediate interests of the Soviet state would come to overshadow such causes, the cultural and political connections forged during this time influenced later forms of organizing. Throughout the interwar period (1918-39), the Soviet Union served as the core location of a newly formed world-system of socialist and communist radicalism. The origin of Latin American Marxism in the work of the Peruvian theorist and political organizer José Carlos Mariátegui, as well as the politically committed literature associated with the interwar communist left in the Andean region of Latin America, shows how literature and theory devoted to the indigenous revolutionary contributed to interwar Marxist debates. The interwar influence of Mariátegui and César Vallejo makes clear the importance of resisting attempts to drive a wedge between the two authors and the broader communist movement at the time.

scholarly journals “Honeymoon” of the Russian Empire and the United States during WWI

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-292
Author(s):  
Victoria I. Zhuravleva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
The United States ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
The Russian Empire

The article focuses on the debatable issues of Russian-American relations from 1914 until the fall of Tsarism, such as the degree of the two countries’ rapprochement, ethnic questions, the positive dynamics of mutual images and the intensified process of Russians and Americans studying each other. Based on primary and secondary sources, this work intends to emphasize that the conflict element in bilateral relations did not hamper cooperation between the two states. The author’s multipronged and interdisciplinary approach allowed her to conclude that the United Sates was ready to engage in wide-ranging interaction with the Russian Empire regardless of their ideological differences. From the author’s point of view, it was the pragmatic agenda that aided the states’ mutual interest in destroying the stereotypes of their counterpart and stimulated Russian Studies in the US and American Studies in Russia. Therefore, the “honeymoon” between the two states had started long before the 1917 February Revolution. However, Wilson strove to turn Russia not so much into an object of US’ “dollar diplomacy”, but into a destination of its “crusade” for democracy. The collapse of the monarchy provided an additional impetus for liberal internationalism by integrating the Russian “Other” into US foreign policy. Ultimately, an ideological (value-based) approach emerged as a stable trend in structuring America’s attitude toward Russia (be it the Soviet Union or post-Soviet Russia).

Popular Music, the Devil, and Aerobics

2021 ◽  
pp. 141-194
Author(s):  
Peter J. Schmelz
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Piano Concerto ◽  
Film Scores ◽  
Concerto Grosso ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Entire Career ◽  
First Time ◽  
Group Center

This chapter advances the argument of Sonic Overload by turning to the interactions between art and popular music in Schnittke’s Symphony No. 1, Requiem (1975), Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1977), Piano Concerto (1979), Symphony no. 3 (1976–81), and Faust Cantata (Seid nüchtern und wachet, 1983), as well as several of his film scores. It considers for the first time Schnittke’s ongoing negotiations between high and low across his entire career, giving careful scrutiny to his declaration in the late 1980s that “pop culture is a good disguise for any kind of devilry.” Schnittke’s change of heart, from embracing popular music—and specifically jazz and rock—from the late 1960s through the 1970s, to expressing grave concerns about its effects a decade later, mirrored the sentiments of many. In the turbulent final years of the Soviet Union, rock supplanted poetry as the conscience of the nation yet it still inspired deep anxiety among those embracing traditional Soviet conceptions of being “cultured.” Schnittke’s apprehensions about popular music in the 1980s stemmed from its growing presence in the fragmented late-Soviet soundscape and its growing prestige among newly influential tastemakers, chief among them younger intellectuals and other cultural figures. The elevation of pop music in the USSR (as in the West) expanded a growing generational divide. Schnittke’s own rejection of popular music seems to have been instigated in part by his son, Andrey, who in the early 1980s was a member of the noted Moscow rock group Center (Tsentr), a fact overlooked by previous scholars.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ngoc Son Bui
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Comparative Constitutional Law ◽  
Legal Forms

This book seeks to fill the academic gap in the existing literature on comparative constitutional law by examining how and why five current socialist countries (China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam) have changed their constitutions after the fall of the Soviet Union. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach which integrates comparative constitutional law with social sciences (particularly political science and sociology), this book explores and explains: the progressive function; institutional and socio-economic causes; legal forms, processes, and powers; and five variations (universal, integration, reservation, exceptional, and personal) of socialist constitutional change. It uses qualitative methodology, including the support of fieldwork. It contributes to a better understanding of dynamic socioeconomic, legal, and constitutional change in socialist countries and comparative constitutional law and theory, generally.

The Pulse in the Machine: Automating Tibetan Diagnostic Palpation in Postsocialist Russia

2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Chudakova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Diagnostic System ◽  
Diagnostic Techniques ◽  
Tibetan Medicine ◽  
The Core ◽  
System A ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
National Public Health ◽  
Knowledge And Practice ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

AbstractThis article analyzes efforts by Soviet and present-day scientists in Russia to “rationalize” and ultimately automate the diagnostic techniques of Tibetan medicine. It tracks the institutional and conceptual histories of designing a pulse diagnostic system, a project that began in the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. It has recently been re-enlivened in Buryatia, an ethnic minority region in Southeastern Siberia, in efforts to mobilize indigenous medical practices in response to local and national public health concerns. I focus on the translational ideologies that informed efforts to develop the pulsometer as a medical imaging technology, and analyze obstacles to these efforts found at the core of the device. Scientists working on the pulsometer have systematically tried to discern whether their measurements indicate sustained bodily pathologies, or instead reflect only technological white noise, and they still recruit and rely on the embodied expertise of practitioners of Tibetan medicine to validate their findings. In so doing they reaffirm claims that Tibetan medicine in Buryatia is inextricable from the forms of knowledge and practice that their projects work to standardize. I show how the apparent failures at perfect mechanization have made the pulsometer a surprisingly productive site for creating new kinds of expert communities and forms of knowledge making.

The Evolution of Centripetal Fraternalism: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

1985 ◽  
Vol 481 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-103
Author(s):  
MARCIN SAR
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Economic Independence ◽  
The West ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Soviet Union

The author comments on the dynamics of Moscow's effort to reconcile its pursuit of control over Eastern Europe with its interest in a viable Eastern Europe, one that is stable and capable of self-sustaining development. Although Moscow has always exercised control in military matters, it allowed some Eastern Europeans economic independence in the 1970s. Changing circumstances in the 1980s, however, have caused the Kremlin to rethink its relationships with its Eastern European “satallies”— half satellites, half allies. Moscow faces dilemmas in areas such as energy, agriculture, the Eastern European states' relations with the West, economic reforms occurring in Eastern Europe, and integration within COMECON. How Moscow resolves these dilemmas lies at the core of its future relationships with Eastern Europe. Other important factors include the lessons learned from Poland, East Germany's evolving relationship with the Federal Republic of Germany, and China's growing economic and political initiatives vis-à-vis Eastern Europe.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE LAW IN GEORGIA

2019 ◽  
pp. 28-42
Author(s):  
Ketevan Tskhadadze
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Administrative Law ◽  
Judicial Process ◽  
Important Place ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Administrative Body ◽  
Administrative Code ◽  
Administrative Justice

Purpose. In 1999 the adoption of the General Administrative Code and Administrative Procedure Code in Georgia gave basis for creation of the new administrative law, since before the entry into force of the above-mentioned codes, Georgia had no tradition of the administrative law and, hence, no practice of the administrative justice. In Georgia being part of the Soviet Union, and in the Soviet Union overall, the administrative law did not exist with the understanding that is regulated by the modern administrative law. The communist doctrine of the administrative law radically differs from the modern administrative law because in those times the administrative legislation was mainly defining the citizens’ obligations before the administration, rather than ensuring citizens’ rights and protection of their interests. Methods. Therefore, the article discusses development stages of the administrative law, the path gone through by the administrative law starting from the formulation until present time, also the Soviet heritage and its influence on the development of the administrative law is discussed, along with the influence of the European reception and establishment within the Georgian legislation, the core factors are analyzed, which caused the necessity of the creation of new administrative law. Results. The significant part in the article is devoted to the discussion of the subject of administrative law and system of administrative law on the example of the Georgian administrative law. The core elements of the implementation of public administration are discussed, the notion of the administrative body, forms of activity of the administrative body and basic principles that are characteristic to the Georgian administrative law. Conclusions. In this regard, the important place is given to particularities of the administrative proceeding and judicial process in Georgia, namely, so called “prejudicial” rule of appealing within the administrative body, suspensive effect of the administrative appeal, principles of disposition and inquisition in the administrative process, as well as the institute of the amicus curiae is discussed, as a particularity of the Georgian administrative justice.

Terror in Soviet Architecture: The Murder of Mikhail Okhitovich

Slavic Review ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh D. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
Common People ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Soviet Union

Throughout the 1920s and into the years of Stalinism, progressive architects in the Soviet Union sought to construct new forms of housing and settlement that would offer the best of modern technology and whose design would include provisioning of services that would allow all citizens, especially women, to partake in creative work. Schools, dining facilities, laundries, parks, cinemas, clubs and housing in a choice of styles formed the core of these architectural dreams. In the tradition of the Populists, modernist architects initially saw themselves as teachers but some came to appreciate the necessity of listening and began to learn from worker assessments of housing and urban design. This communication formed the basis for bridging, at least in housing, the cultural gap between revolutionary elites and common people. Inherent in the modernist movement in architecture, as reflected most eloquently in the work of the Association of Contemporary Architects (OSA), was a greater democratization of political and social life.

Dylan Goes Electric

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Kathryn Lofton
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Rock Music ◽  
Electric Guitar ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Moment

Within the study of rock music, religion appears as a racial marker or a biographical attribute. The concept of religion, and its co-produced opposite, the secular, needs critical analysis in popular music studies. To inaugurate this work this article returns to the moment in singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s career that is most unmarked by religion, namely his appearance with an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan’s going electric became, through subsequent years of narrative attention, a secularizing event. “Secularizing event” is a phrase coined to capture how certain epochal moments become transforming symbols of divestment; here, a commitment writ into rock criticism as one in which rock emerged by giving up something that had been holding it back. Through a study of this 1965 moment, as well as the history of electrification that preceded it and its subsequent commentarial reception, the unreflective secular of rock criticism is exposed.

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