Eugenics in Russia and the Soviet Union

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolai Krementsov
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The history of eugenics in Russia has attracted relatively little scholarly attention. Eugenics garnered a warm reception among Russian hygienists and public health doctors. This article is concerned with the rise and fall of medical genetics in Soviet Russia and identifies three key components of eugenics. It further proceeds with the discussion of eugenics in revolutionary society and mentions that Russian eugenics' life span, institutional and disciplinary composition, patronage pattern, and research foci differed substantially from those in other countries. It discusses the relative weight of structures and historic contingencies in shaping the history of eugenics during the three distinct periods of its existence in Russia. It also mentions the relative role of international contacts and local traditions in molding Russian eugenics' institutions and activities.

Understanding Russia’s Low Rate of Acquittal: Pretrial Screening and the Problem of Accusatorial Bias

2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Prosecutorial Discretion ◽  
Western Countries ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Low Rate

The Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia alike have had extremely low rates of acquittal in criminal cases, which conventional wisdom associates with an accusatorial bias. But other countries like Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, and France also have low rates of acquittal without the perception of bias. This article argues that the key difference lies in the presence or absence of pretrial screening—through the withdrawal of charges, diversion, and/or dispositions imposed by prosecutors. After a brief history of the low acquittal rate in Russia, the article documents the use of prosecutorial discretion to screen cases before trial in those four Western countries, especially through the exercise by prosecutors of quasi-judicial functions. The article goes on to demonstrate the absence of significant pretrial filtering of cases in Russia and to explore the implications for understanding the rate of acquittal.

Taranchis, Kashgaris, and the ‘Uyghur Question’ in Soviet Central Asia

Inner Asia ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Brophy
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Standard Account ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Eastern Turkestan ◽  
Key Events

AbstractUp till now, the problem of Uyghur identity construction has been studied from an almost exclusively anthropological perspective. Little Western research has been done on the history of the Uyghur community in the Soviet Union during the period of national delimitation, and the process by which a re-invented ‘Uyghur’ identity was fostered among settled Turkicspeakers of East Turkestani origin. In this paper I have set out to trace some of the key events and debates which formed part of that process. In doing so I provide evidence that challenges certain aspects of the standard account of this period, in particular the role of the 1921 Tashkent conference. In 1921 the term ‘Uyghur’ was not used an ethnic designation, but as an umbrella term for various peoples with family roots in Eastern Turkestan. It was not until several years later that the term took its place beside other ethnonyms in the Soviet Union, provoking debate and opposition in the Soviet Uyghur press. This paper is largely based on the recently republished writings of leading Uyghur activists and journalists from the 1920s, and focuses on the role of the Uyghur Communist Abdulla Rozibaqiev. My paper attempts to demonstrate the importance of basing the study of Uyghur history on Uyghur language sources, rather than Russian or Chinese materials alone.

scholarly journals Comparative Religion and Anti-Religious Museums of Soviet Russia in the 1920s

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
Marianna Shakhnovich
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Comparative Religion ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Historical Museums ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Selection Of

By the end of the 1920s, more than 100 anti-religious museums had been opened in the Soviet Union. In addition, anti-religious departments appeared in the exhibitions of many local historical museums. In Moscow, the Central Anti-Religious Museum was opened in the Cathedral of the Strastnoi Monastery. At that time, the first museum promoting a comparative and historical approach to the study and presentation of religious artifacts was opened in Petrograd in 1922. The formation of Museum of Comparative Religion was based on the conjunction of the activities of the Petrograd Excursion Institute, the Academy of Sciences, and the Ethnographic department of Petrograd University. In this paper, based on archival materials, we analyze the methodological principles of the formation of the exhibitions at the newly founded museum, along with its themes, structure, and selection of exhibits. The Museum of Comparative Religion had a very short life before it was transformed into the Leningrad anti-religious museum, but its principles were inherited by the Museum of the History of Religion, which was opened in 1932.

ISAAK RUBIN: HISTORIAN OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT DURING THE STALINIZATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN SOVIET RUSSIA

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Boldyrev ◽  
Martin Kragh
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Fundamental Uncertainty ◽  
Soviet Russia

Research within the history of economic thought has focused only little on the development of economics under dictatorship. This paper attempts to show how a country with a relatively large and internationally established community of social scientists in the 1920s, the Soviet Union, was subjected to repression. We tell this story through the case of Isaak Il’ich Rubin, a prominent Russian economist and historian of economic thought, who in the late 1920s was denounced by rival scholars and repressed by the political system. By focusing not only on his life and work, but also on that of his opponents and institutional clashes, we show how the decline of a social science tradition in Russia and the USSR as well as the Stalinization of Soviet social sciences emerged as a process over time. We analyze the complex interplay of ideas, scholars, and their institutional context, and conclude that subsequent repression was arbitrary, suggesting that no clear survival or career strategy existed in the Stalinist system, due to a situation of fundamental uncertainty.

A Separate Moldovan Language? The Sociolinguistics of Moldova'sLimba de Stat

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 575-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew H. Ciscel
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
The Past ◽  
Imperial Russia ◽  
Language And Power ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Soviet Russia

The politics of language identity have figured heavily in the history of the people of the Republic of Moldova. Indeed the region's status as a province of Russia, Romania, and then the Soviet Union over the past 200 years has consistently been justified and, at least partially, manipulated on the basis of language issues. At the center of these struggles over language and power has been the linguistic and cultural identity of the region's autochthonous ethnicity and current demographic majority, the Moldovans. In dispute is the degree to which these Moldovans are culturally, historically, and linguistically related to the other Moldovans and Romanians across the Prut River in Romania. Under imperial Russia from 1812 to 1918 and Soviet Russia from 1944 to 1991, a proto-Moldovan identity that eschewed connections to Romania and emphasized contact with Slavic peoples was promoted in the region. Meanwhile, experts from Romania and the West have regularly argued that the eastern Moldovans are indistinguishable, historically, culturally, and linguistically, from their Romanian cousins.

The Oil Deal: Nariman Narimanov and the Sovietization of Azerbaijan

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 372-394
Author(s):  
Sara Brinegar
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
The South ◽  
South Caucasus ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
Soviet History ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

This essay, with a focus on Baku, Azerbaijan, demonstrates that the need to secure and hold energy resources—and the infrastructures that support them—was critical to the formation of the Soviet Union. The Azerbaijani statesman Nariman Narimanov played a pivotal role in the establishment of Soviet power in Azerbaijan by attempting to use Baku's oil to secure prerogatives for the Azerbaijan SSR. In part, Narimanov gained his position by striking a deal with Vladimir Lenin in 1920, an arrangement that I am calling the oil deal. This deal lay the foundations of Soviet power in the south Caucasus. Lenin charged Narimanov with facilitating connections between the industrial stronghold of Baku and the rural countryside of Azerbaijan and Narimanov agreed to do what he could to help supply Soviet Russia with oil. Lenin put Narimanov in charge of the Soviet government of Azerbaijan, with the understanding that he would be granted significant leeway in cultural policies. Understanding the role of the south Caucasus in Soviet history, then, is also understanding how the extraction and use of oil and other natural resources were entangled with more familiar questions of nationalities policy and identity politics.

scholarly journals Assuming the Role of an Orientalist: Alexander Mishulin’s Articles about the History of the Ancient East

2021 ◽  
Vol 163 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-54
Author(s):  
S.B. Krikh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
School Textbook ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient States

The popular articles written by A.V. Mishulin (1901–1948), a Soviet historian of antiquity, were analyzed. These articles are focused on the history and culture of the Ancient East states (Egypt, India, and China) with account of their impact on the establishment of Soviet historical science. Their role in A.V. Mishulin’s research activity is very important, because they were used in his school textbook of ancient history. A.V. Mishulin consistently adhered to the idea that slavery was a common basis of all ancient states, but he also believed that the slave-owning systems in the Ancient East and Greco-Roman world were different. Through a brief description of the Ancient East states, he emphasized the following two main aspects: all ancient societies exploited slaves, which inevitably resulted in the mass uprisings as a consequence of exhaustion of the slave-owning mode of production. To prove the validity of his ideas, A.V. Mishulin used historical material (such as the Papyrus Leiden). Therefore, the history of the Ancient East and Greco-Roman world more or less correlated with each other in A.V. Mishulin’s school textbook, which influenced the subsequent organization of school textbooks of history in the Soviet Union.

СHILDREN'S LIBRARIES: THE CASE OF TOMSK, 1960–1970

2021 ◽  
pp. 272-282
Author(s):  
Alexsandra I. Ermolova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Public Libraries ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Tomsk Region ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The City

The paper discusses the activities of children's libraries in Tomsk in the 1960s and 70s. The main goal of this study is consider the history of children's libraries in the city and reveal the role of libraries in educational, cultural, political and ideological components of the everyday lives of young Tomsk residents. There are several reasons for addressing this problem. In the USSR, children were always not only in the care of the state, but also part of the political discourse about the happy childhood and the man of the future who was expected to live under communism. In this context, children's libraries were given a special status as places that successfully combined educational, cultural, political and ideological activities for children. The Tomsk Region has always been considered the intellectual center of Siberia. Therefore, it seems obvious that there has always been a special focus on the development of libraries in Tomsk. For example, the number of public libraries in the Tomsk Region increased from 135 in 1945 to 495 in 1964. This study addresses the history of children's libraries in the city. The thematic focus of their collections, and According to the regional archive, in the 1960– 70s, there were four active children's libraries in the city. The main ones were City Children's Library No. 1 located at 167 Lenin Avenue, and Marshak Children's Library No. 2 located at 17a Nikitina Street, The two other were smaller in size: Library No. 3 (81 Michurina) and City Children's Library No. 6 (9 Kolkhoznaya). The statistical reports of libraries demonstrate the increasing interest of young Tomsk residents in library activities: the number of readers, as well as number of visits grew from year to year. The libraries had quite diverse collections, which included not only books, but also periodicals. Some interesting observations can be made about the distribution of genres: socio-political publications are the second most popular genre, after fiction. Libraries were not only a place where children could receive and read books, but also hosted a variety of cultural, educational and leisure events, such as matinees, debates, exhibitions, and poetry evenings. There were Young Readers Clubs which arranged book discussions and meetings with interesting people. All this evidence suggests that children's libraries were an essential part of the city's social and cultural life. They acted as a kind of educational centers where young Tomsk residents could find answers to their questions. They were also places of leisure where children could spend their free time. Moreover, libraries inculcated some ideologically correct attitudes. Meetings, disputes, and quizzes held in libraries always addressed topics related to Lenin, communism, and activities of the Commuunist Party of the Soviet Union.

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