Workshop Series

In Russian/Soviet studies in the West, historians and literature scholars have played central roles. Social scientists, mostly in political science, stepped into the ring after World War II, often pursuing modernization and totalitarian theories whose insights ultimately were overshadowed by errors of logic and fact. Political scientists have returned with useful insights on political economy, voting, and policy-making. But what about sociology-what has it offered in the past, and what can it offer in the future?

How was it to live in the collapsing Soviet Union as a 24 years old foreign correspondent in 1990? What did glasnost mean for the work of a Finnish journalist and how is it to work now in Russia, when journalists are harassed by pro-Kremlin activists?

The most compelling answer to the question in the title is in three parts:

Dr. Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, Professor at the University of Helsinki who specializes in Environmental Planning and Sustainable Development in Russia, will be analyzing Russia’s arctic energy policies and its paradoxes on Wednesday Oct 26th, 2016 at 4:30-6:00 in the Golden Hall. All are invited.

Matthew Bodner will speak about his experiences as a reporter in Russia: including differences between Russian and Western media cultures, the so-called information war between east and west, and the nature of truth (kidding, hopefully). The talk will closely follow developments in Ukraine and Syria and how Russian media and official narratives corresponded to those events.

18 апреля, 17:30, аудитория 414.

8 апреля, 17:30, Золотой зал, с открытой лекцией выступил Посол Ирана в России Мехди Санаи.

5 апреля, 17:30, Золотой зал, с открытой лекцией выступил главный редактор журнала «Россия в глобальной политике» Фёдор Лукьянов. Russian foreign policy is closely connected both to domestic political needs and dynamics of external situation. Both those factors are now rapidly developing. Domestic consolidation is solid, but lacks long-term vision, while international trends are out of anybody's control. Next couple of years will be decisive both in terms of global power constellation and in the context of Russian external vectors.

In the 1880s and 1890s the “sexual question” began to occupy the Russian intelligentsia. Writers addressed the inequities between the sexes, raising questions about the very nature of love and marriage. These debates intensified in the early twentieth century and revolutionary period. In this talk, I will address two fictional texts which can be viewed as bookends to this discussion: Lev Tolstoy’s “Kreutzer Sonata” (1889) and Abram Room’s “Bed and Sofa” («Третья Мещанская») (1927).

Akifumi SHIOYA, PhD (2012) and assistant professor of University of Tsukuba (Japan), is currently working on the political and societal upheavals in the local society of Central Asia before and after its conquest by Imperial Russia, focusing on the development of irrigation and environmental changes.