Neprikosnovennij Zapas
eurozine
Neprikosnovennij Zapas
2001-02-01
Summary for Neprikosnovennij Zapas 1/2001
Private Stock (NZ) No. 1 (15) opens with an article called Big Business: America's Persecuted Minority by Ayn Rand, a major figure in American liberal thought. In her passionate and convincing essay, the famous radical philosopher advocates the right of big entrepreneurs to freedom and independence from the state. Foreworded by Russian scholar Alexander Etkind, the essay looks at the American antitrust campaigns of the 1950s, a highly relevant theme in Russia today.
The first thematic section in this issue consists of essays by leading Russian sociologists Yuri Levada and Boris Dubin, and an article by the journal's columnist Alexei Levinson (The Year 2001) devoted to the past century and its representations in present-day Russia. Levada's essay Public Opinion in a Century's Perspective focuses on the qualitatively new phenomena that have emerged in the 20th century, such as attempts at mass mobilizations, "the pressures on the average person", general elections, and the role of mass media. In his essay The End of the Century, Dubin notes an increased presence of state and military symbols in 20th century Russian mentality. The American Landscape after the Presidential Battle, by American writer and literary critic George Blecher, and a dialogue by two Finnish intellectuals, Kristina and Anna Rotkirch, are devoted to the recent election campaigns in the USA and Finland respectively.
There follows a large section on the adoption of the USSR's state anthem as the new anthem of Russia. What stands behind the fierce campaign against the Soviet anthem in the Russian press? What were the circumstances accompanying the adoption of the first Russian anthem, "God Protect the Tsar", and what connotations did it carry? How was it possible for Tchaikovsky's music to turn into a symbol of Soviet state power? These and other questions are discussed by the musical critics Tatyana Cherednichenko (Hymnopaedia) and Marina Raku (Metamorphoses of the Swan Lake), and by the historian Lyubov Kiseleva (God Protect the Tsar: On the Evolution of the Anthem as a National Symbol). The journal's columnist Andrei Zorin (The Three-Faced Symbol of our Times) interprets the new, and apparently eclectic, symbolism of Russia - the Soviet anthem, the double-headed eagle and the tricolour banner - as a non-contradictory symbol of a centralized despotic empire.
The next thematic block of texts deals with the problem of national identity in Europe and Asia. It anticipates on future thematic issues on Russian national questions. The Finnish scholar Niilo Kauppi examines the rhetoric of the French president, and the French public's belief in France's leading role in the construction of a united Europe. Simon Critchley's Let's Stop Talking About Europe maintains that the term Europe is an artificial construct, concealing the dynamic and varied ethnic life which goes beyond both state boundaries and the traditional cultural stereotypes. Andrei Paribok describes the main components of national identity in India, where this notion carries a significance different from its European one. Alexander Martynov discusses the national question in China, where people identify themselves with a single political civilization, while the entire range of ethnic issues has shifted to the realm of culture.
The issue concludes with a section on Morals and Mores, raising the problems of the incompatibility of political correctness with feminist rhetoric in different cultures. Vladimir Uspensky describes a scandal he unwittingly provoked among an American university audience by quoting a joke by Russian mathematician Kolmogorov about "female logic". Maria Zavyalova writes about African feminists and a feminist conference in Africa. The journal ends with book reviews on new American and West European publications about Russia, as well as some recent Russian books on social issues. These include books about everyday life in communal apartments, Stalin's political rhetoric, and polemics on nationalities problems in the 1910s and 20s.