Jenö Varga, The Hungarian Soviet Republic and the Development of Psychoanalysis in the Soviet Union

2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christfried Tögel
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Soviet Republic ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ambivalent Attitude ◽  
Soviet Russia

The paper explores – on the basis of archival sources, memoirs and interviews – the strange career of the economist Jenö Varga (1879–1964), an early Hungarian sympathizer of psychoanalysis. Varga became a member of the Hungarian Psychoanalytic Association in 1918 and, in 1919, was appointed People's Commissar for Finances during the Hungarian Councils' Republic, the first Communist regime in the country. After the failure of the Commune, he emigrated to Soviet Russia. In the 1920s, he worked at the Soviet commercial mission in Berlin, and maintained contact with Freud until the late 1920s. Later, he became one of the leading economists of the Soviet Union, an expert on the political economy of capitalism. Though he never publicly opposed Stalinism, an ambivalent attitude toward the totalitarian regime can be reconstructed from his memoirs as well as from interviews with family members and friends.

Translation and Transformation: English-Language Children's Literature in (Soviet) Russian Guise

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Inggs
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
English Language ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Philosophy Of Action ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Free Translation ◽  
Soviet Russia

This article investigates the perceived image of English-language children's literature in Soviet Russia. Framed by Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and Bourdieu's philosophy of action, the discussion takes into account the ideological constraints of the practice of translation and the manipulation of texts. Several factors involved in creating the perceived character of a body of literature are identified, such as the requirements of socialist realism, publishing practices in the Soviet Union, the tradition of free translation and accessibility in the translation of children's literature. This study explores these factors and, with reference to selected examples, illustrates how the political and sociological climate of translation in the Soviet Union influenced the translation practices and the field of translated children's literature, creating a particular image of English-language children's literature in (Soviet) Russia.

Dissent and Consent under State Socialism

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
David Lane
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
State Socialist

Professor Bauman's article is certainly a welcome contribution to the analysis of state socialist societies. He succeeds in breaking away from the myopic Kremlinological study of individuals and he also conducts his argument on a comparative sociological plane transcending the Sovietologist's ideographic viewpoint. However, he may be criticised at many points: it is very doubtful whether the state under capitalism is as ‘autonomous’ an institution as Bauman suggests; distinctions should be made between the socialist states of Eastern Europe, for what may be true of Poland and Rumania may not be true of the Soviet Union; international relations, particularly those between the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe and between East and West, have important effects on the political culture and significantly restrict the possibilities for social change; the diachronic development of the societies under consideration needs to be given more prominence, for what may have been the case in Soviet Russia in 1920 or in Poland in 1948 may not be so for either society in 1971. Here, I shall have to leave on one side such general criticisms to concentrate on a number of specific points in Bauman's argument relating to stratification in Eastern Europe which seem to me to be debatable.

scholarly journals Adrift in Turbulent Seas: The Political and Ideological Struggles of Ivan Kuz'mich Polozkov

1993 ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Jonathan Harris
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

In the winter of 1989-90 the unintended consequences of Mikhail S. Gorbachev's program of political and economic refonn had become obvious to all but his most optimistic spokesmen. The General Secretary's attempt to create a new ideology of perestroika by grafting "bourgeois" and "social democratic" concepts onto the conventional ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) had divided the party, created immense ideological confusion, and led to the formation of non-Communist and anti-Communist political organizations. The attempt to shift authority from party officials to elected soviets on the union and republican levels had led to the emergence of separatist and nationalist movements in many of the USSR's republics, including the RSFSR. The decentralization of the state's administration of the economy and the encouragement of both private and cooperative economic activity had failed to reverse the deterioration of economic conditions. As anxiety swept through the CPSU, orthodox party leaders called for the establishment of an autonomous Communist Party for the RSFSR to counter Gorbachev's policies and to "save Soviet Russia" from destruction.

“The Heroine of Post-Stalin Russia,” 1960–67

2020 ◽  
pp. 283-295
Author(s):  
Ann Jefferson
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia

This chapter discusses the new dimension that was added to Nathalie Sarraute's life when she renewed contact with Russia after the political climate in the Soviet Union has eased. It details her visit to Russia as a tourist to visit friends and reconnect links with surviving relatives whom she had not seen for twenty years. It also mentions that Nathalie's brief stay in Russia left her with two very different visions of her native country. The first was of a Soviet Russia bearing few signs of any relaxation despite Joseph Stallin's death, while the other vision was of a traditional and timeless Russia, which was vividly captured in a scene that she described to Claude Mauriac. The chapter concludes with a description of the Russian dimension of Nathalie's life that was once again a world of exiles and émigrés after her last visit to the Soviet Union in 1967.

scholarly journals If really “without school and inheritors”?

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Mykola Ilnytskyi
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Early Death ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Geometric Patterns ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Real Objects ◽  
The 1960S

The paper analyzes the return of Bohdan Ihor Antonych’s name to the literature after several decades of suppression and prohibition by the Soviet totalitarian regime. The author also focuses on the interpretation of the poet’s work in Ukrainian and foreign literary studies. The researcher points out the following historical and cultural factors: partial liberalization of the communist regime in the Soviet Union; high appreciation of Antonych’s work by leading poets and literary critics in Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora; translations of works into foreign languages, in particular, Slavic ones; the influence of the poet’s work on the generations of the 1960s—1980s. Special attention is paid to the cooperation of American scholars and translators Watson Kirkconnell and Constantine H. Andrysyshen in translating the Ukrainian poet’s texts into English. The researcher traces the changes in views on Antonych’s poetry: the claims that he was a talented poet who did not have time to fully realize his talent due to his early death were eventually substituted by recognition of his poetry’s kinship with the works of Western European modernist poets such as R. M. Rilke, T. S. Eliot, F. G. Lorca, Cz. Miłosz. The paper also highlights the discussion on the stylistic dominant of Antonych’s poetry and focuses on the elements of different literary movements, namely futurism, imagism, and surrealism. It is emphasized that the poet was not only interested in the issues of style but also shaped the different styles of the time with his special features. He characterized impressionism as the relation of color to light, pointed out the idea of movement in futurism, focused on the geometric outlines of real objects in cubism, appreciated pure harmony of geometric patterns in suprematism. Moreover, Antonych’s poetry was related to creating myths, based on the tradition of the national folklore worldview.

scholarly journals Gorbachev versus Deng: A Review of Chris Miller’s The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 120-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergei Guriev
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Industrial Enterprise ◽  
The Political ◽  
Weak State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Enterprise Reforms

Chris Miller’s book is a historian’s account of Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to save the Soviet economy. Miller focuses on the question of why Gorbachev did not follow Deng Xiaoping and did not manage to reform the economy. Miller argues that it was not for the lack of understanding (Gorbachev did invest in learning China’s approach to reform and did understand it well), nor for the lack of trying. In fact, Gorbachev did try to implement Deng’s agricultural and industrial enterprise reforms. However, Gorbachev’s reforms were blocked by powerful vested interests. An inability to tackle the agricultural and industrial lobbies eventually resulted in the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet Union. While I generally agree with the political economy argument, I discuss a number of alternative explanations. I also discuss sources of Gorbachev’s weak state capacity and offer an evaluation of Gorbachev’s and post-Gorbachev reform efforts and mistakes based on the political economy research carried out in the last twenty-five years. ( JEL D72, O57, P21, P23, P24, P26)

The Baltic States and the Soviet Union

1935 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-615
Author(s):  
Gregory Rutenberg
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Republic ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
The Baltic

The development of political relations between the Baltic States and the Soviet Union has passed through two distinctive stages. The first began with the conclusion of treaties of peace signed in 1920 between Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland, and the then Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic. By the terms of these treaties Soviet Russia renounced all its previous rights of sovereignty over the territory of the Baltic States and unreservedly recognized their independence.

Nice to meet you, President Tito …

2019 ◽  
pp. 241-260
Author(s):  
Carla Konta
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Bridge Function ◽  
Liberal Internationalism ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
East And West

The chapter explores the political backgrounds, strategic interests, and diplomatic consequences of Senator J. William Fulbright’s visit to socialist Yugoslavia in November 1964 to chair the signing of the Yugoslav Fulbright agreement. The mission tackled two issues: as a US senator, Fulbright repaired misunderstandings and low points of previous US-Yugoslav bilateral relations; as a politician who was intellectually committed to liberal internationalism, he confirmed his support for Yugoslav independence from the Soviet Union and, by observing the Yugoslav Communist regime, convinced himself of a different solution for Vietnam’s emerging tangle. By examining Fulbright and Yugoslav papers, the chapter argues that Yugoslav experimentation with national communism and its possible bridge function between East and West framed the senator’s politics of dissent over Vietnam on the assumption that Communist movements were not as monolithic as most US policy makers viewed them. America’s soft approach to Yugoslav communism corroborated Fulbright’s convictions and persuaded him that Yugoslavia could serve as a case study for the impasse in Vietnam.

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