Prokofiev and the Development of Soviet Composition in the 1920s and 1930s

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-38
Author(s):  
Patrick Zuk
Keyword(s):  
Reception History ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Periodical Literature ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Musical Creativity ◽  
Source Materials

Chapter 2 examines the influence and reception history of Prokofiev’s music in his homeland from the 1920s until his death in 1953—a subject of absorbing interest for the light it sheds on the factors shaping Soviet musical creativity during the Stalinist period. His output became central to discussions of the ways in which Soviet composition could and should develop. However, Soviet responses to Prokofiev’s work were complex; it was regarded by some as evincing traits that were to be repudiated, and by others as displaying approaches worthy of emulation. The source materials consulted for this chapter include the contemporary musicological and periodical literature, as well as letters, diaries, and reminiscences of Prokofiev’s colleagues. The chapter also draws on unpublished archival documents from the late Soviet period, among them the reminiscences of Evgeny Golubev, Olga Lamm, and Iulian Krein.

RUSSIAN DIASPORA. SUMMATION AND RESEARCH PROSPECTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 130-143
Author(s):  
Irina V. Sabennikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Third Stage ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Significant Phenomenon ◽  
History Of ◽  
Methodological Principles

The historiography of any historically significant phenomenon goes through several stages in its development. At the beginning − it is the reaction of contemporaries to the event they experienced, which is emotional in nature and is expressed in a journalistic form. The next stage can be called a retrospective understanding of the event by its actual participants or witnesses, and only at the third stage there does appear the objective scientific research bringing value-neutral assessments of the phenomenon under study and belonging to subsequent generations of researchers. The history of The Russian Diaspora and most notably of the Russian post-revolutionary emigration passed to the full through all the stages of the issue historiography. The third stage of its studying dates from the late 1980s and is characterized by a scientific, politically unbiased study of the phenomenon of the Russian emigration community, expanding the source base and scientific research methods. During the Soviet period in Russian historiography, owing to ideological reasons, researchers ‘ access to archival documents was limited, which is why scientific study of the history of the Russian Diaspora was not possible. Western researchers also could not fully develop that issue, since they were deprived of important sources kept in Russian archives. Political changes in the perestroika years and especially in the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union increased attention to the Russian Diaspora, which was facilitated by a change in scientific paradigms, methodological principles, the opening of archives and, as a result, the expansion of the source base necessary for studying that issue. The historiography of the Russian Diaspora, which has been formed for more than thirty years, needs to be understood. The article provides a brief analysis of the historiography, identifies the main directions of its development, the research problematics, and defines shortcomings and prospects.

scholarly journals The History of the Aginsk Steppe Duma in the Documents from the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatiya (1839-1904) Has Been Published

2020 ◽  
pp. 950-959
Author(s):  
Victor N. Kazarin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Development ◽  
The State ◽  
Information Value ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
East Russia ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The 19Th Century

The review of an anthology on the history of the Aginsk Steppe Duma published by drs. B.V. Bazarov, B.T. Zhalsanova, L.V.Kuras notes that hundreds the new archival documents offer a holistic view on the governmental politics concerning one of large ingenious peoples of East Russia. The composers have identified and presented documents reflecting various aspects of local self-government of the Aginsk Duma created on the basis of M.M. Speransky’s Statute on the Inorodtsy of 1822. The review contains a brief characteristic of the archival documents corpus systematized in volumes and argues their information value. The documents contain data on the officials of the Duma, personnel structure in dynamics from its foundation to its termination. The edition offers an array of documents on tax policy pertaining to indigenous population, public censures, correspondence on administrative and land disputes at the turn of the 19th century. Authors-composers have published family lists of the Aginsk buryats. The review underscores the information value of the commentary included in all volumes of the edition, the nominal indexes numbering hundreds of surnames. The illustrative component of this three-volume edition is also emphasized: there are rare photos of officials of the Aginsk department, meetings of tsesarevitch Nikolai Aleksandrovich in Transbaikalia in 1892, deputy of the State Duma, descendants of families from the Transbaikal steppes in the Soviet period. The review emphasizes the importance of such edition for studying governmental policies concerning ingenious peoples, balance of government and local self- government, social and economic and cultural development of East regions in the Imperial period. Materials of the three-volume edition open numerous unpublished documents to researchers. The review notes its value for historians, local historians, archivists, museums employees, and those researching their family tree.

Toward a History of the "Soviet Language" (Sovyaz): Archival Documents, Electronic Sources, and the National Corpus

2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-289
Author(s):  
Alexander Nakhimovsky
Keyword(s):  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research ◽  
Revolutionary Period ◽  
National Corpus

The subject matter of this paper is the "Soviet language" (SovYaz for short), a variety of Russian that was used in official contexts during the Soviet period. The use of the term "Soviet language" does not signify a commitment to viewing it as a language or a dialect in the linguistic sense. The question of whether SovYaz is, in fact, a social dialect sensu stricto, is beyond the scope of this paper and irrelevant to its purposes, although the materials presented here may help clarify the argument. This study of SovYaz seeks to utilize three relatively recent developments: newly opened archives with previously unimaginable sources of linguistic data; abundant searchable texts in electronic form; and a powerful new research tool, the National Corpus of the Russian Language (NCRL). The goal is methodological--to illustrate an approach to the study of SovYaz made possible by these new developments. The paper makes extensive use of the following procedure. First, a feature of SovYaz is identified in two documents selected for close reading, one a newspaper article, the other a top-secret NKVD report. That feature is then traced through other sources, including NCRL. The evolution of the feature is followed from the pre-revolutionary period to later times, sometimes all the way to the 21st century. Finally, the feature is described in some detail. In my experience, the emergence of the National Corpus makes possible a research methodology that transcends a close reading of selected documents but works well with it.

scholarly journals On the History of the Formation and Processing of the Collection of the Tibetan Texts from Khara-Khoto Kept at the IOM, RAS

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Alexandr V. Zorin ◽  
Alla A. Sizova
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Current State ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Post Soviet Period

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.

scholarly journals Catch a Sight of "Church": Amateur Photographs as a Window into the Life of Evangelical Christians of the USSR

TECHNOLOGOS ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
Glushaev Aleksey
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Evangelical Christians ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Perm Krai ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Archives ◽  
Confessional Literature

It is known that the documents from the State archives concerning the history of religious life in the USSR had the primary importance and they are remained the same. However, a significant part of historical documents are kept by believers. Film and photo documents are of particular interest. The “visual turn” in the historiography of the beginning of 2000s opened up new opportunities for studying film sources and photographic documents. The attention of historians has focused on the symbolic and linguistic systems of transmission of film and photographic messages, on the visualization of ethnic, confessional identities or cultural characteristics of various population groups. Thus, turn to the film and photo documents helps better understanding the collective self-perception of Soviet believers and finding the ways to present themselves to the surrounding world. The purpose of this study is to study the informational possibilities of photographic documents on the history of Evangelical Christian-Baptists in the USSR in the 1970s. The main historical sources in the study are two photographs from the mid-1970s. They are kept in the church of evangelistic Christians-Baptists in the city of Perm. Archival documents of the State Archives of Perm Krai and confessional literature helped to reconstruct the historical context of photography. Conversations with a presbyter of the Perm community of Evangelical Christians-Baptists helped in attribution of photographs. The author believes that these photographs formed the iconographic image of the ECB church in the space of the Soviet city. The active use of these photographs in the post-Soviet period testifies the high “symbolic efficiency” (P. Bourdieu) of photographic communication from the past.

scholarly journals KUIBYSHEV REGIONAL BRANCH OF THE NATURE PROTECTION SOCIETY: HISTORY OF ITS CREATION AND ACTIVITY IN THE 1950-1980s.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
E.D. Makeeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Education ◽  
Natural Resources ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Nature Protection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Regional Branch

The article is devoted to the history of the Samara nature protection movement which was based on the Kuibyshev regional branch of the All-Russian Society for Nature Protection in the Soviet period. On the base on archival documents, the author examines the activities of the society in the Kuibyshev region, analyzes the role of the public in preserving the region’s natural resources, environmental education of citizens and solving other problems in the field of nature protection in the 1950s and 1980s.

scholarly journals Restoration of national autonomies of repressed peoples in the RSFSR in the late 1950s in the context of legal succession theory

2020 ◽  
pp. 86-100
Author(s):  
Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Gunaev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Period ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Relevant Topic ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Succession Theory

The liquidation of autonomous republics, deportation of peoples to the Siberian and Central Asian regions, subsequent restoration of the national statehood in 1957-1958 remain relevant topic in studying the history of statehood of Russian peoples in the Soviet period. The subject of this article is examination of the question of continuity, legal succession and continuation of autonomies in southern of RSFSR after being restored in 1957. This is related to the fact that in discussing socially significant issues in the southern republics of Russia, arises the question of whether restoration (formation) of the autonomies of repressed peoples in the late 1950s should be considered the beginning of a new stage of statehood or continuation of the stage prior to deportation. Another aspect is territorial integrity of the republics, or rather the problem of territorial rehabilitation, when a number of territories during restoration in 1957 stayed in the neighboring regions. Analysis is conducted on the normative acts of USSR and the RSFSR, as well as archival documents on the history of national statehood of the regions. The author concludes on applicability of the concept of legal succession to the restored autonomous republics (Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Chechen-Ingushetia) of repressed peoples in comparison to those existed prior to deportation period. Karachay-Cherkessia marked succession to the former Karachay Autonomous Oblast and Cherkess National Okrug.

The Role of the Mongolian People’s Republic in the Korean War

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-130
Author(s):  
Denzenlkham Ulambayar
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Korean War ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Intelligence Agency ◽  
Intelligence Agency ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Korean War ◽  
History Of

Since the 1990s, when previously classified and top secret Russian archival documents on the Korean War became open and accessible, it has become clear for post-communist countries that Kim Il Sung, Stalin and Mao Zedong were the primary organizers of the war. It is now equally certain that tensions arising from Soviet and American struggle generated the origins of the Korean War, namely the Soviet Union’s occupation of the northern half of the Korean peninsula and the United States’ occupation of the southern half to the 38th parallel after 1945 as well as the emerging bipolar world order of international relations and Cold War. Newly available Russian archival documents produced much in the way of new energies and opportunities for international study and research into the Korean War.2 However, within this research few documents connected to Mongolia have so far been found, and little specific research has yet been done regarding why and how Mongolia participated in the Korean War. At the same time, it is becoming today more evident that both Soviet guidance and U.S. information reports (evaluated and unevaluated) regarding Mongolia were far different from the situation and developments of that period. New examples of this tendency are documents declassified in the early 2000s and released publicly from the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in December 2016 which contain inaccurate information. The original, uncorrupted sources about why, how and to what degree the Mongolian People’s Republic (MPR) became a participant in the Korean War are in fact in documents held within the Mongolian Central Archives of Foreign Affairs. These archives contain multiple documents in relation to North Korea. Prior to the 1990s Mongolian scholars Dr. B. Lkhamsuren,3 Dr. B. Ligden,4 Dr. Sh. Sandag,5 junior scholar J. Sukhee,6 and A. A. Osipov7 mention briefly in their writings the history of relations between the MPR and the DPRK during the Korean War. Since the 1990s the Korean War has also briefly been touched upon in the writings of B. Lkhamsuren,8 D. Ulambayar (the author of this paper),9 Ts. Batbayar,10 J. Battur,11 K. Demberel,12 Balảzs Szalontai,13 Sergey Radchenko14 and Li Narangoa.15 There have also been significant collections of documents about the two countries and a collection of memoirs published in 200716 and 2008.17 The author intends within this paper to discuss particularly about why, how and to what degree Mongolia participated in the Korean War, the rumors and realities of the war and its consequences for the MPR’s membership in the United Nations. The MPR was the second socialist country following the Soviet Union (the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics) to recognize the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and establish diplomatic ties. That was part of the initial stage of socialist system formation comprising the Soviet Union, nations in Eastern Europe, the MPR, the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and the DPRK. Accordingly between the MPR and the DPRK fraternal friendship and a framework of cooperation based on the principles of proletarian and socialist internationalism had been developed.18 In light of and as part of this framework, The Korean War has left its deep traces in the history of the MPR’s external diplomatic environment and state sovereignty

From Propaganda to Scholarship: Dr Joseph Schechtman and the Origins of Israeli Polemics on the Palestinian Refugees

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Masalha
Keyword(s):  
Right Wing ◽  
Population Transfer ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arab States ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
Secret History

In 1948 an official ‘Transfer Committee’ was appointed by the Israeli Cabinet to plan the Palestinian refugees' resettlement in the Arab states. Apart from doing everything possible to reduce the Arab population in Israel, the Transfer Committee sought to amplify and consolidate the demographic transformation of Palestine by: preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes; the destruction of Arab villages; settlement of Jews in Arab villages and towns; and launching a propaganda campaign to discourage Arab return. One of the Transfer Committee's initiatives was to invite Dr Joseph Schechtman, a right-wing Zionist Revisionist leader and expert on ‘population transfer’, to join its efforts. In 1952 Schechtman published a propagandists work entitled The Arab Refugee Problem. Since then Schechtman would become the single most influential propagator of the Zionist myth of ‘voluntary’ exodus in 1948. This article examines the leading role played by Schechtman in promoting Israeli propaganda and politics of denial. Relying on newly-discovered Israeli archival documents, the article deals with little known and new aspects of the secret history of the post-1948 period.

The Modernities of H. Lawrence Freeman

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 719-779
Author(s):  
David Gutkin
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New York ◽  
Reception History ◽  
Black Press ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
White Press ◽  
Grand Opera

H. Lawrence Freeman's “Negro Jazz Grand Opera,” Voodoo, was premiered in 1928 in Manhattan's Broadway district. Its reception bespoke competing, racially charged values that underpinned the idea of the “modern” in the 1920s. The white press critiqued the opera for its allegedly anxiety-ridden indebtedness to nineteenth-century European conventions, while the black press hailed it as the pathbreaking work of a “pioneer composer.” Taking the reception history of Voodoo as a starting point, this article shows how Freeman's lifelong project, the creation of what he would call “Negro Grand Opera,” mediated between disparate and sometimes apparently irreconcilable figurations of the modern that spanned the late nineteenth century through the interwar years: Wagnerism, uplift ideology, primitivism, and popular music (including, but not limited to, jazz). I focus on Freeman's inheritance of a worldview that could be called progressivist, evolutionist, or, to borrow a term from Wilson Moses, civilizationist. I then trace the complex relationship between this mode of imagining modernity and subsequent versions of modernism that Freeman engaged with during the first decades of the twentieth century. Through readings of Freeman's aesthetic manifestos and his stylistically syncretic musical corpus I show how ideas about race inflected the process by which the qualitatively modern slips out of joint with temporal modernity. The most substantial musical analysis examines leitmotivic transformations that play out across Freeman's jazz opera American Romance (1924–29): lions become subways; Mississippi becomes New York; and jazz, like modernity itself, keeps metamorphosing. A concluding section considers a broader set of questions concerning the historiography of modernism and modernity.

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