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Articles published in Eurozine
"Why did they need to chop down the trees?"
An interview with Mavis Gallant
As an ex patriot in Paris, Canadian novelist Mavis Gallant experienced May '68 first hand, keeping a diary of the events that was published two decades later. In interview with her Russian translator, she bemusedly recalls the revolutionary fervour of the day. [more]
Everyday ideology: Life during Stalinism
Postmodernist historians of totalitarian societies underrate the role of ideology at the individual level, preferring a performative reading of subjectivity. This fails to explain why the Soviet and Nazi regimes generated absolute commitment, writes Jochen Hellbeck. [Russian version added] [more]
Holocaust: The ignored reality
Auschwitz and the Gulag are generally taken to be adequate or even final symbols of the evil of mass slaughter. But they are only the beginning of knowledge, a hint of the true reckoning with the past still to come, writes Timothy Snyder. [more]
A comment on Claus Leggewie's article
How would NGOs that promote democracy per se fit in to a system of democracy where coalitions representing specific publics compete for official status? [more]
Transnationalization's dead ends
Is transnationalism premised on the politically correct precepts of western European liberalism? And might transnational NGOs become a way of laundering corporate cultural and political capital? [more]
An anthropology of NGOs
Organizations calling themselves "movements" are by no means always popular. Placing the legitimacy of the nation-state at the mercy of such ambiguous entitites would be ill-advised. [more]
Buried feelings
German authors' handling of the Allied bombing in World War II
W.G. Sebald claimed that the Allied bombing was hushed up in postwar German literature. Not entirely true, responds Volker Hage: there are a number of novels outside the canon in which the experience of the bombing comes to light. [more]
Transnational movements and the question of democracy
Social movements can provide an early warning system to mainstream politics. But once institutionalized, their lack of democratic mandate raises problems of legitimacy. This paradox must be negotiated if democracy is to respond to the global situation. [more]
Racism and migrants
Russian society is deeply divided amongst "ethno-centric lines". Bureaucracy and the police possess intricate means with which to discriminate against immigrants whilst the media reinforces stereotypes about non-Slavic minorities. [more]
Ukraine at the crossroads
Can a state based on blackmail be reformed?
What will it take to really change the Ukrainian political system? [more]
The regulation of pain
Coping with traumatic experiences in Soviet war literature
Soviet writers' expression of existential insecurity caused by their experiences in World War II signalled a liberation from the censorship of the 1930s. But the Brezhnev regime put an end to that. Only since the 1990s have Russian writers been able to explore openly the subject of war. [more]
State visits
Internationalized commemoration of WWII in Russia and Germany
European politicians attending the ceremonies in Moscow encountered a brand of patriotism unthinkable in western Europe. What does this say about the West's own traditions of commemoration? [more]
The fetters of victory
How the war provides Russia with its identity
The commemoration of victory in the "Great Patriotic War" serves the centralist and repressive social order imposed in the post-totalitarian culture and society under Vladimir Putin. Lev Gudkov desribes the taboos in Russia surrounding the underside of victory. [more]
Adidas, Nike, and the origins of athletic fashion
How did sportswear become fashionable? [more]
Liberal tendencies in the Russian Orthodox Church
An introduction
Kyrlezhev searches for the liberal tendencies in the Orthodox church. He also shows where they are mere projections from outside. [more]
The reproducible city
Will mass tourism and the impacts of globalisation spin out cities that are increasingly similar? [more]
Oasis in the desert
A conversation with Kevin Klose, President of the American National Public Radio
How NPR, the virtually only outlet for fact-based journalism in the US radio market, continues to increase its listenership. [more]
Europe reaches its limits
From the dynamic of expansion to different degrees of integration
Squaring the circle between further enlargement and deeper integration. [more]
Elusive common dreams
The perils and hopes of a European identity
Western Europe lives like a family without feelings for the post-communist states on the same continent. A more diverse concept of Europe is needed for a European identity worthy of its name. [more]
Mandela: Humanitarian Hero
Nelson Mandela has been one of the few contemporary heroes whose reputation and idolized status has always remained intact. Jyoti Mistry asks why. [more]
Moscow and Berlin in the 20th century
The fortunes of two cities
Moscow and Berlin on their way to becoming global cities. [more]
In search of Europe
Russian political discourse and the outside world
Russia is softening its stance on Europe. [more]
Notes from the Rubble
To describe as "conflicted" the political feelings of Americans these days is to make an almost comic understatement: everybody thinks everything simultaneously, writes George Blecher as he reflects on the atmosphere in the US after September 11th. [more]
Is Russia a European country?
A correspondence
While Russia has always had a special relationship with Europe, is it marked by a "civilizational instability" and "incapacity for political modernisation" that fundamentally set it apart? [more]
February and August: A view from 2002
Wittenberg traces the remarkable historical similarities of the 1917 and 1991 revolutions in Russia. [more]
Middle Europe: On the way home
As several countries from 'Middle Europe' are about to join the European Union, what are the lessons to be learned from history? [more]
The Soviet Middle Class
Maya Turovskaya examines what constituted the "Soviet middle class' survival kit". In a society in which even basic commodities had to be secured through a series of complex and lengthy exchanges, not luxury goods but the enjoyment of culture was at the core of the middle class identity. [more]
The Middle Class: Expenditure and Self-Understanding
An Interview with Sergei Parkhomenko
Sergei Parkhomenko argues that a new middle class is emerging in Russia but its definition depends on much more than just economic factors. A changing self-perception plays a vital part in reshaping the economic and social structures of the Soviet Union. How will this affect the democratisation of the Russian society? [more]
On freedom
A discussion between Svetlana Boym and Boris Groys
Freedom: Elusive concept, nostalgic longing or inalienable civic right? [more]
Proposed Circumstances
Revekka Frumkina investigates the point made by Maya Turovskaya in her article "The Soviet Middle Class". Frumkina argues that while culture was a central concern, cultural status could not necessarily be conversed into commodities and services. [more]
Old intelligentsia and new intellectuals: The Georgian experience
How English is replacing Russian as the language of choice amongst Georgia's intellectuals. [more]
Contemporary Russian text books: Many-faced truth or yet another national idea?
Do Russian history text books lie on the same scale as their recent Soviet precursors? [more]
Russian conceptions of statehood and Western political theory
In the first of a three-part series debate, Axel Kaehne asks how concepts of liberal statehood can be defined with regard to Russia. And how do such concepts shift the parameters of Western political theory? [more]
How different are we?
Akhiezer's answer to Kaehne's article looks at the sociocultural rifts that permeate Russian society and the implications for political theory. [more]
Russian statehood revisited
Reply to Akhiezer
In this last part of the debate, Kaehne considers the societal schism between Russia and Europe. [more]
War, the Authorities and the New Administrators
Dubin analyses the political and sociological implications of the fast changing media landscape in Russia. [more]
Eastern Europe: Imagining Anew
Can Ukraine ever become a member of the European Union? [more]
Who needs it
The Russian sociologist Alexei Levinson argues that the Russian society has learned to live with the Chechen war. Medical doctors, university professors and others benefit from it in indirect ways. [more]
New anti-Semitism and old delusions
Is the new wave of anti-Semitism in Europe a serious threat or largely unfounded hysteria? [more]
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