Volume 1, Number 4 April 1997
[Umom Rossiiu nel'zia poniat']. This nineteenth-century admonition framed my understanding of what I observed in Moscow and Saratov when I traveled to Russia during spring break to work out the details of a language exchange between UNC and Saratov University. With the exception of last summer, I have visited this Volga sister-city of Chapel Hill-Carrboro yearly since 1990. Victimized by the myopic reporting of the Western media that remains Moscow-centered, I leave for Russia each time apprehensive, but return home charged with cautious optimism. Rising out of the ruins of the Soviet empire, a new society has already emerged. It is full of paradoxes. It is full of contradictions. And its fate is being decided in the provinces. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, political power has devolved to the locales. Running against the defining impulse of centuries of experience, this phenomenon represents one of the most consequential developments in modern Russian history. As provincial authorities negotiate new power relationships with the center and learn how to play local constituencies, Moscow's efforts to control the periphery further diminish. Despite the significance of this political dynamic, few Westerners have even a casual familiarity with provincial Russia.
Political humor has always served as a barometer of the mass mood in Russia, and for this reason I took notice of the recent appearance of a genre of jokes about the nouveau riche, the "New Russians." Depicted as gauche, narrow-minded, poorly educated, and naive, the New Russian is consumerism and bad taste gone rampant, post-Soviet meshchantsvo adorned with gold chains and Rolex watches. The anecdotes suggest the New Russians made their fortunes not owing to a quick mind or entrepreneurial skill but owing to something illicit, immoral, or accidental. The very existence of this latest form of humor demonstrates that a commercial class has exploded onto the scene. In the long run, the question of how the New Russians amassed their fortunes might prove irrelevant: what is important is that they are promoting the rule of law to protect their rights--and property. Given Soviet realities, it's hard to imagine how this might have evolved otherwise.
But I was more interested in Russia's middle class. Here I would caution the reader to take aggregate statistics on the state of the economy with a huge grain--a block-- of salt. The entire country conspires not to pay taxes, making the statistical evidence of economic activity suspect. There's my friend who officially earns the equivalent of $50 a month from the newspaper that employs him, but who receives an additional $550 from his editor, "on the side." There are my friends who proudly showed me (Kodak) photographs of last fall's family vacation to Spain while complaining they had not been paid since November. There are my university colleagues who since 1994 have traveled to Europe and beyond and who communicate with me via e-mail. Those without a personal computer learn word processing in the History Department's new computer center, while a desk-top publishing operation prints their textbooks and other pedagogical materials. There are the women, for the most part still reeling from the double burden of work at home and on the job, apologizing for feeding me prepared foods. Canning fruits and vegetables is rapidly becoming a relic of the past. To be sure, Russia's transformation has victimized pensioners, invalids, single mothers with large families to support, and others, reminding us of the need for all societies to continue to find ways to guarantee social justice and equality. But they are not the whole story.
Economic--not political--issues dominated recent local elections, when Saratov voters backed D. F. Ayatskov, an ambitious mover and shaker from the village of Stolypino and Yeltsin appointee who was in office a few months before he had to face a disenchanted electorate. Determined to transform Saratov into the capital of the Volga (and himself into a modern-day Stolypin?), Ayatskov paved the city's pock-marked streets, brought in builders to finish a maternity hospital that had been under construction for as long as people could remember, and paid back wages. He banned vendors from Saratov's pedestrian mall and suggested that the clunky Lenin statue hovering over Theater (former Revolutionary) Square be replaced with a monument to Petr Stolypin, governor of Saratov province during the Revolution of 1905-06.
While Ayatskov spruced up Saratov, local entrepreneurs opened up new food stores, drugstores, and jewelry shops. If my ten-year-old son Adam travels with me to Saratov this summer he'll be able to breakfast on Quaker Instant Oatmeal, squirt Heinz Ketchup on his hot-dog from Frankfurt, or munch Planter's Cheese Curls. The image of Saratovites taking the train to Moscow to stock up on kolbasa and sosiski has become as unimaginable as Soviet power.
I would urge all of our students studying Russian to perfect their language skills in Saratov. Students will receive top-notch instruction at reasonable cost. They will live with local families in the heart of town. They will enjoy a richly diverse cultural life. They will have more opportunity (out of necessity) to practice and develop their language skills. More important, they will experience the new Russia that remains outside our everyday view, without the hype and superficial glitz that Moscow has to offer.
Donald J. Raleigh
Professor, History Department
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
The Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies is pleased to announce the start of a new exchange program between UNC-CH and Saratov State University. An ancient Russian city on the Volga river and sister city of Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Saratov is an overnight train ride from Moscow and several hours north of Volgograd. Founded in 1590, Saratov has a long history and Saratov State University is one of the oldest in Russia.
Participants on the study abroad program will receive intensive Russian language training, including conversation, composition and grammar, with emphasis on everyday situations and use. Russian literature and area studies subjects will also be covered to facilitate the student's complete immersion into Russian culture and language, in addition to excursions and trips to museums and theaters in the city.
Students may choose to spend 6 weeks over the summer or an academic semester in Saratov. Housing and meals are provided with a Russian family, but students may request to live in a private apartment. Transportation from Moscow to Saratov will be by overnight train, accompanied by a representative from the University. All programs carry university credit. For more information on this program and other opportunities to study abroad, please contact the Study Abroad Office, 12 Caldwell Hall, CB#3130, tel. 962-7001.
As we note the passing of Deng Xiaoping everybody seems to be quoting his 1961 remark "I don't care whether the cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice" as an indication of Deng's pragmatic approach to policy. I cannot fail but to recall a dinner speech given in the early 1990s at the Thomas Center at Duke University in English by Gennadiy I. Gerasimov, Gorbachev's advisor on foreign relations and one of his main spokesmen. Explaining to us how pragmatic Gorbachev was, Gerasimov said that Deng's remark could have easily been made by Mikhail Sergeevich, and he quoted, "I don't care whether the cat is white or black, until it catches the mouse..." Gerasimov's English was excellent; in fact he was honored with the title of the "Communicator of the Year" by the National Association of Public Speakers. Was what he said an inadvertent mistake in English? A Freudian slip? Or was he telling us something? Or, maybe that's exactly what Deng (or Gerasimov) wanted to say?
Vladimir G. Treml
Department of Economics
Duke University
A day-long conference on "Pushkin to Pulp Fiction: New Readings of Russian Popular Culture" will be held Saturday, April 26 in Toy Lounge, Day Hall, UNC. Featured speakers at the conference shall be Nancy Condee, Helena Goscilo and Volodya Padunov (all from the University of Pittsburgh), Susan Larsen (University of California, San Diego), Louise McReynolds (University of Hawaii), and Jim von Geldern (Macalester College). This event is sponsored by the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies. For more information, contact 962-7554.
The UNC-CH Humanities Program, Vacation College 1997, is sponsoring a seminar on "The Romanovs: Tsarist Russia Down through the Ages" to be held July 13-16, 1997. Led by David Griffiths, Professor of History, UNC-CH, the seminar will examine the Romanov dynasty as a whole and its individual rulers, and trace lines of continuity between the tsars and the Soviet kommissars. Topics will include Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Pugachev, the Arts, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Women, Nicholas II, and Stalin. Other featured speakers will be E. Willis Brooks, Donald Raleigh, Beth Holmgren (all from UNC-CH), and George Munro (Virginia Commonwealth University). Several Russian films will be shown in conjunction with the seminar. For more information please contact the Humanities Program (tel..962-1544, fax 962-4318, human@unc.edu).
Micole Hutchison, graduate student in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, received a 1997 Tanner Award for excellence in teaching.
Paul Debreczeny's new book, Social Functions of Literature: Alexander Pushkin and Russian Culture, has been published by Stanford University Press.
Vasa D. Mihailovich has co-edited and translated with Milne Holton, University of Maryland, Songs of the Serbian People: From the Collections of Vuk Karadzic as part of the Pittsburgh Series in Russian and East European Studies, due out in April.
Robert D. Greenberg received a fellowship from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities for the Spring 1997 term to study the language situation and policy in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. His recent publications include The Balkan Slavic Appellative (Munich and Newcastle: Lincom Eueropa, 1996) and "The Politics of Dialects Among Serbs, Croats, and Muslims in the Former Yugoslavia," East European Politics and Societies, 10:3.
Check out the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, UNC-CH, new web page: http://www.unc.edu/~slavic.
The Bohemia Corps, a legacy organization of the Peace Corps, will bring qualified teachers of various foreign languages to the Czech Republic for periods of 1 year to provide instruction in their specialty. Salary commensurate with experience and hours spent teaching. For information, contact Lida Horakova, TEFL Program Manager, US Peace Corps, Sinkulova 48/329, 140 00 Praha 4, Ceska republika, tel. 42-2-433151, fax 42-2-439070, lhorakova@peacecorps.cz.
The Archival Summer School and Research Opportunity in Moscow offers graduate students and post-doctoral scholars visas, housing, access to archives and orientation, and support for research in Russia. For information, contact (graduate students) Jeffrey Burds, Department of History, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, tel. 315-754-8202, burds@troi.cc.rochester.edu or (post-doctoral) J. Arch Getty, Department of History, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, tel. 909-686-1299, arch.getty@ucr.edu.
The University of Illinois Summer Research Laboratory on Russia and Eastern Europe, June 16 - August 8, provides the opportunity for scholars and dissertation-stage graduate students to use the resources of the University's Slavic and East European Library. For information, contact the University of Illinois, Russian and East European Center, 104 International Studies Building, 910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, tel. 217-333-1244, fax 217-333-1582, reec@uiuc.edu.
Excavate Medieval Moscow. Volunteers are invited to participate in excavations revealing several hundred years of Moscow's history, learning a variety of archaeological techniques, including dating methods, pottery restoration and section drawing. Site plans include the center of Medieval Moscow and tsar's wooden palace at Kolomenskoe. Application deadline is April 30. Contact Nicole Logan (tel. 860-767-1913, fax 860-767-0857) or Ada Beliaeva (tel. 609-279-2823, fax 609-924-8399, beliaev@math.ias.edu).
The Fulbright Scholar Program offers grants for US faculty and professionals holding Ph.D. degrees in nearly every discipline and specialization for lecturing and research in over 120 countries. Faculty in all academic ranks are eligible. Application deadline for 1998-99 is August 1, 1997. Contact USIA Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Box GPOS, 3007 Tilden Street, NW, Suite 5M, Washington, DC 20008-3009, tel. 202-686-7877, cies1@ciesnet.cies.org, http://www.cies.org.
The Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute offers intensive instruction in Ukrainian language, literature, history and politics, in addition to access to Harvard's extensive Ukrainian library collection. Application deadline is June 1. For more information, contact Patricia Coatsworth, Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute, 1583 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, tel. 617-495-7833, fax 617-495-8097, huri@fas.harvard.edu.
The Monterey Institute of International Studies, specializing in language instruction, sponsors intensive summer language study for all levels of Russian. The nine-week program runs June 17 - August 20 and offers small classes, intensive instruction and cultural enrichment. Application deadline is June 1. For more information, contact the Summer Session Office, 425 Van Buren Street, Monterey, CA 93940, tel. 408-647-4115, http://www.miis.edu.
The University of Michigan is sponsoring an Armenian Language Summer Institute in Yerevan from June 27 to August 23. Intensive language study will be supplemented with lectures on Armenian culture and history, excursions and cultural events. Enrollment is limited. Contact Maud Mandel, The Armenian Studies Program/Summer Institute, 216 Lane Hall, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, tel. 313-764-0351, fax 313-763-4765, mamandel@umich.edu.
Join the University of Pittsburgh for Summer Study in Serbia at Belgrade University. This five-week program introduces students to Serbian culture, life, politics and economics. Knowledge of Serbian is not required. Program fee includes university credit and scholarships may be available. The application deadline is May 1. For more information, contact Juliet Jacobson, Outreach Coordinator, Center for Russian and East European Studies, University of Pittsburgh, 4G-17 Forbes Quad, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, tel. 412-648-7418, fax: 412-648-2199, juliet+@pitt.edu.
ACTR/ACCELS, a private, non-profit, educational and exchange organization, offers services and programs to students and scholars of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, including language/culture programs, homestays, volunteer service opportunities and visa and other support for research trips. Financial assistance is available. Contact Russian-Eurasian Programs, 1776 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036, tel. 202-833-7522, fax 202-833-7523, stephens@actr.org, http://www.actr.org.
The Peter the Great Institute-Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, offers academic affiliation to scholars of Russian studies in various humanities areas. Services include invitation, registration, access to libraries and archives, assistance with accommodations, and more. Contact Tatyana Bogomazova, Universitetskaya nab. 3, Institute-Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, St. Petersburg 199034 Russia (fax 812-218-0811, tanya@task.spb.su).
Teaching opportunities in a variety of Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries are available through the Civic Education Project, in association with Yale University and Central European University. Contact info@cep.yale.edu or applic@cep.yale.edu, http://www.cep.yale.edu for information.
International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) 1997-1998 grant information for US scholars is now available on the web (http://www.irex.org/scholar.htm). Applications can be downloaded and printed from the site. The list of opportunities is also available in hard copy by writing irex@irex.org.
More information on any of the above opportunities can also be obtained at the UNC-CH Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies, 223 E. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill.
UNC at Chapel Hill Center
223 E. Franklin St. CB#5125
UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27599-5125
tel.: (919) 962-0901
fax: (919) 962-2494
e-mail: slavic@email.unc.edu
Duke University Center
302 Languages, Box 90260
Durham, NC 27708-0260
tel.: (919) 660-3157
fax: (919) 660-3188
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Institutions. This publication was produced without the use of State Funds.
inflections is a quarterly publication of the Joint Duke-UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European studies. Editor: Laura A. Janda; Associate Editor: Nicolae Harsanyi; Managing Editor: Sharon Kowalsky.