KrytykaEurozineKrytyka2014-01-28Summary of Krytyka 9-10/2013The September-October 2013 issue of Krytyka opens with "A framework for the Post-Soviet demodernization" by the Ukrainian political analyst and director of the Krytyka Institute, Mykhailo Minakov. He examines both the phenomenon of post-Soviet demodernization, particularly its use by power elites to hold on to their power, and also the modernization discourse in Russia and Ukraine during the last 20 years.The discussion on modernization is continued by Szabolsc Pogonyj's "After democratic transition" and Volker Weichsel's "The outdatedness of human beings." Pogonyj, Assistant Professor at the Central European University Nationalism Studies Program, and editor of BudaPost and Metazin web-magazines, analyzes the role and the balancing potential of democratic institutions in post-Communist countries, taking into account the economic challenge and the lack of favourable factors that they enjoyed two decades ago. The editor of Osteuropa magazine, Volker Weichsel, notes that all countries freed from communism were in a process of catching up on modernization, and "the aim was to make the East into an image of the West as soon as possible, largely in the matter of civil liberties and political rights, but most of all in fulfilling the wishes of the consumer."Both articles are based on speeches delivered at the 3rd Annual Free Speech Partnership conference "Discourses of modernization" (October 25--27, 2013, Kyiv). The conference was organized by Res Publica Nowa magazine (Poland) in cooperation with Krytyka.Yulia Iemets-Dobronosova, a poet and philosopher, reviews the Ukrainian translations of several books by the well-known futurologist Michio Kaku, i. e., Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century; Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes; Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension; and Physics of the Future. In her review "Toward a stupendous future" she examines the context of popular science as well as Kaku's strategy for popularizing science and underscores his optimism.In "The "Eurasian" orientation and its discontents" Igor Torbakov, senior fellow at the Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Uppsala University and the Center for Baltic and East European Studies, Södertörn University (Stockholm), challenges the notions of "Eurasia" and "Eurasian integration" as "the only game in town" for Russia. The author believes that it will be ceding ground to the rise of Russian ethnic nationalism in the long run. The essay was presented at the 13th Annual Aleksanteri Istitute's Conference "Russia and the World," (October 2013, Helsinki, Finland).In his article "Gagging for God" Frederik Stjernfelt, Professor at the Centre for Semiotics at the University of Aarhus and the editor of the periodical KRITIK (Denmark), challenges the uncritical and complacent approach to multiculturalism in today's Europe. He urges all to stand up for Enlightenment values, above all free speech and secularism.In her "Are we puppets in a wired world?" Sue Halpern, a scholar and The New York Review of Books editor, gives an overview of the newest books on the history of the Internet and on the great stories of failure and victory in Silicon Valley, the high-speed journey from the Department of Defense to Wall Street and back, and the recent controversy about privacy. The article first appeared in The New York Review of Books (vol. 60, No. 17) and Krytyka presents it in Ukrainian translation as the exclusive partner of the NYRB in Ukraine.Alexander Dmitriev of the Moscow Higher School of Economics explores the fascinating story of the intellectual paths of three prominent scholars through the 20th century: Aleksander Lappo-Danilevskii, a historian and "change agent" for Russian academia, Pitirim Sorokin, a sociologist, Russian émigré, and chairman of the American Sociological Association, and Mykhajlo Hrushevsky, the Ukrainian historian, reformer of academia and the first president of the country. In "History, sociology, and a "national science" -- to-be," modernization and westernization are again at center focus.In "Ukrainian Soviet kitsch, Veriovka Style" the Ukrainian musicologist Olesya Naydiuk examines the Soviet phenomenon of the famous Ukrainian Hryhory Veriovka chorus and its unique blend of pseudo-folklore and kitsch. In her article "A collective body of Chinese culture" Olga Kyrylova, Ukrainian cultural studies scholar and a Ph.D. Candidate at Herzen State Pedagogical University (Saint Petersburg, Russia), explores the collective corporeality of contemporary Chinese art, as determined by political and ethical factors, and the conflicts between private and corporate, and individuality and the collective.Martin Scorsese, a highly regarded film director, writes on the power of cinema, his early fascination with it, and addresses the questions "What was it about cinema? Whatwas so special about it?" His article, "The persisting vision: Reading the language of cinema," first appeared in The New York Review of Books (vol. 60, No. 13) and Krytyka presents it in Ukrainian translation as the exclusive partner of the NYRB in Ukraine.Oleksandr Bojchenko, a Ukrainian literary critic and essayist, the senior editor for Krytyka's "Critical solutions" web-project, explains "Why Grabowicz?" His article is a small fragment of Bojchenko's intellectual biography in late 1990s, the time when he had first read the works of George G. Grabowicz, editor-in-chief of Krytyka. Bojchenko reflects on the scholar's impact not only on his personal perception of Shevchenko's poetry, but also on Ukrainian literary studies as a whole.The issue concludes with "A university inside out: Notes from the expedition," a collection of short stories on the odd, sometimes absurd reality of post-Soviet Ukrainian universities by Ukrainian author Olha Demianenko (a pseudonym).The full table of contents of Krytyka 9-10/2014