This dissertation of limited scope traces the attempts by Gorbachev (1985-1991) to reform an economic, political and social system which was in a state of terminal decline. The origins of its demise, it is argued, lay in the ossified command economy inherited from Stalin. The enormous damage inflicted on Soviet agriculture during collectivisation in the 1930s~ when millions of productive peasants died, proved to be a fatal blow to that sector. Tlms, Gorbachev followed a two-fold strategy ofrefonn. Glasnost (openness) was introduced to allow constructive debate on economic and social matters. Despite a hesitant beginning, the right to criticise allowed the emergence of more radical campaigners, such as Yeltsin who demanded greater democracy. Significantly, the revival of ethnic nationalist demands in the republics led to disintegration. Perestroika (restructuring) was intended to modernise and boost living standards. The economy faltered but the market was not yet in place / History / M.A. (History)

This dissertation deals with the concepts glasnost and perestroika during the Gorbachev era 1985–1991. It offers an explanation to the rise and fall of these concepts and casts light on their modern and postmodern implications, as well as their historical and generational preconditions. In light of the Soviet and Russian conceptual history, Gorbachev’s articulation of glasnost and perestroika is contrasted with the reception of these concepts in what at that time came to be called Russian postmodernism. Glasnost and perestroika both confirm and transcend Soviet modernity. They are both future-oriented but at the same time possess retrospective anchorage. The present study reconstructs the experience encapsulated in the concepts, the expectations they unleashed and the tensions they triggered. The Gorbachev era signaled a rupture in the temporal order of modernity. During this time Soviet modernity lost confidence in its self. With glasnost and perestroika a suppressed past opened up which blocked the futurist potential inherent in the present. The concept-theoretical perspective assumed in the dissertation helps explain essential aspects of the dramatic turn of events. Postmodernism’s relationship to the concepts is mainly antagonistic. At the same time glasnost and perestroika were essential to the self-identity creating process of postmodernism and its development of an understanding of a specific late Soviet postmodern situation. Beneath the surface a conflict evolves, constituted in intergenerational terms. The vast differences in deployment of the two key notions appear related to generation specific historical experiences. This is apparent in the glasnost- and perestroika discussions of the 19th and 20th centuries. In several respects the 20th century discourse reflects that of the 19th century. The analysis in the present dissertation demonstrates how Gorbachev, on the basis of his generation-specific experience as a man of the 1960s actively sought to articulate an alternative reconstruction (perestroika) and did so with a distinct ideological accent. The postmodernists, the last Soviet generation, bore the imprint of the stagnation of the Brezhnev era and had no ideal past to resuscitate. Instead of reconstructing social reality they tried to place themselves outside it. This apolitical stance however embodied both anti-political and political implications.

The diploma thesis aims to capture and explain the changes in the milieu of nonconformist rock music in relation to the policy of Perestroika in Czechoslovakia during the years 1986- 89. The primary methodological framework is created by an interpretive trichotomy where each perspective includes various historiographical approaches (sociology of Ivo Možný, postmodern deconstruction of authoritarian discourse, so-called totality from below, etc.). The chapter dealing with the repression of rock music analyses the working methods of secret police (StB) in the 1980s while revealing the background of several typical cases (Pražský výběr, Visací zámek, Michael's Uncle). Next chapter explains the differing approaches of nonconformist rockers towards the cultural relief represented by the official festival "Rockfest". The last analytical chapter deals with perception of contemporary authorities. In conclusion it turns out that the relationship to the authoritarian horizons underwent the most fundamental transformation. The disintegration of those authoritarian horizons led to transformations inside the social field and contributed to the decline of the regime of state socialism.

Drawing on the methods of feminist art history and my own knowledge of the field, this PhD gives an overview of “Russian” (Russian Empire, Soviet, post-Soviet) art history with women at its center. Starting in the late 18th century and spanning to the present-day, I critically examine women’s artworks, the social contexts in which those women find themselves, as well as their biographies. Thus, this thesis extends beyond strict media analysis as a central concern of feminist criticism. This text consist of five chapters. Chapter One begins at the end of the 18th century and covers women artists working throughout the Russian Empire up through the beginning of the 20th century. Thesis looks at specific women artists and how the path to professionalization opened up new doors while women were still largely excluded from elite artistic circles. This overview demonstrates how this occurred both in explicit social exclusion as well as implicitly – specifically in the ways that the portrayals of women in professional art shifted throughout the 19th century. The ambivalent nature of women’s simultaneous inclusion and exclusion from leading art institutions and groups serves as a defining feature of the art world of the Russian Empire. Chapter Two examines women’s roles in the avant-garde at the beginning of the 20th century. As has been recognized in much popular scholarship, women served as key players in the so-called “Russian Avant-Garde”. For instance, while many Western European artists at the time turned to the colonies of their respective empires for stimulation, many Russian avant-garde artists turned to local peasants. Precisely because of their more differentiated relationships, Chapter Two argues that these women artists produced very dissimilar work from their Western European counterparts. This was due both to questions of gender as well as power and colonialism. From there, thesis shows the ways in which women avant-garde artists made use of various media – especially textiles, porcelain, and book design. Chapter Three revolves around women artists in the Soviet Union. At first it examines how women were portrayed in Socialist Realism, which followed largely three archetypes: the collective farm woman, the sportswoman, and the ballerina. In this chapter focus is on how women navigated the slippery terrain of the social world of Socialist Realism by highlighting the role of its most successful example – Vera Mukhina. Tracing through Mukhina’s path from the avant-garde to Socialist Realism’s most famous female artists, the text reveals continuities between the two genres that have typically been overlooked in the literature. Indeed, Mukhina’s development suggests much more in common between the avant-garde and Socialist Realism than most male artists’ careers would indicate. Finally, this chapter discusses women artists who rejected Socialist Realism and produced so-called “unofficial” art – focusing on the (in)famous Bulldozer Exhibition of 1974. Chapter Four illuminates how women artists negotiated the enormous socio-political changes during Perestroika through past the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In the 1990’s, three prominent all-women art collectives emerged: the Factory of Found Clothes, the Cyber-Femin Club, and the Fourth Height. Based largely on interviews with the women who participated in the groups, text sketches out a general history of how they formed, produced art, and confronted questions of gender and society. Then, chapter four turns to women artists who worked mostly individually throughout the same period. In this thesis women artists from the 90’s are categorized based on their concepts of gender – women who flipped gender dynamics through their art, women who took radical stances toward gender through their art, and women who did not clearly challenge ideas of gender. In the text they are called the “flip-floppers”, the “radicals”, and the “quietists”, respectively. In Chapter Five, there is a break with the chronological approach of the previous chapters. Instead, first part compares the trial of Iuliia Tsvetkova in 2019 and the trial of Natalia Goncharova in 1910. Both women were accused of producing pornography and thus subject to prosecution. Through this comparison, one can see the continuities and ruptures of the gender dynamics in broader society then and now, particularly in relationship to art and art production. Second part of the chapter five, compares the so-called “Leningrad Feminists” of the 1970’s and Pussy Riot from the 2010’s. By highlighting how these two collectives used the imagery of the Virgin Mary in their work, the text draws out parallels between the two that have gone unnoticed, even by the artists themselves. This dissertation is thus fundamentally about connections. Connections, both visible and invisible, define the social constellations in which women artists participate. By drawing out these connections, this thesis reimagines Russian art history and propose new, albeit imperfect, in the words of Amelia Jones, genealogies. Such genealogies open the space for a deep reckoning with the canon.:Table of Contents Introduction But What is a Russian Woman Artist Anyway? Literature Review & Methodology Chapter Outline Chapter 1: Woman as Artist in the Russian Empire Imperialism and Internal Colonization Bridging Art Histories: Between the Russian Empire and the Western Empires The “Russian Empire” periods of Marie-Anne Collot, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, and Kristina Robertson Independent Foreign Women Artists, Operating Beyond Royal Patronage: Maria Gomion and Julie Hagen-Schwarz Representations of Local and European Women Artists in the Russian Empire: Comparing article “Russkie Khudozhnitsy” [Russian Women Artists] and Somov’s article “Zhenshchiny Khudozhnitsy” [Women Artists] Paths to Professional Art for Women Artists in the late Russian Empire Variety of Professional Strategies for Women Artists in the Russian Empire Challenges Faced by Women in the Imperial Academy of Arts: Marfa Dovgaleva, Avdotia Mikhailovna Bakunina, Sofia Sukhovo-Kobylina, and Katerina Khilkova Women Artists from the Russian Empire in the Académie Julian: Maria Bashkirtseff, Princess Maria Tenisheva, Maria Iakunchikova, and Elizaveta Zvantseva Female and Male Paths to Becoming an Artist: The Cases of Elena Polenova and Vasilii Polenov Women in the Wanderers and the World of Art Two Women Wanderers: Emily Shanks and Antonina Rzhevskaia Women in the World of Art and Related Circles: Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Elizaveta Kruglikova, Elena Polenova, Maria Yakunchikova, and Zinaida Serebriakova Between Artist, Mother, and Model: Self-Representations of Women Artists Insisting on the Professional Self: Katerina Dolgorukaia, Katerina Chikhacheva, Sofia Sukhovo-Kobylina, Maria Bashkirtseff, Elizaveta Kruglikova, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, Marianne Werefkin, and Teresa Ries The Fe[male] Gaze: Ol’ga Della-Vos-Kardovskaia, Tamara de Lempicka, and Zinaida Serebriakova Chapter 2: Women Artists Shaping the Avant-Garde Conceptualizing Avant-Garde in the Russian Empire Framing the “Feminine”: Noble and Peasant Femininities Women Artists and Religion: Natalia Goncharova and Marianne Werefkin Women Artists and Lubok: Sofia Kalinkina, Elizaveta Bem, and Maria Siniakova The Case of Natalia Goncharova: Between Two Worlds Looking West: Goncharova and Gauguin Looking East: Goncharova and Peasant Culture Craft in the Foreground: Women in Textile, Porcelain, and Book Design Women in Textile Design, Embroidery, and Factory Production: Natalia Davidova, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Vera Pestel, Ol’ga Rozanova, Varvara Stepanova, and Lubov Popova Women in Costume Design in the Early Soviet Union: Natalia Goncharova, Nina Genke-Meller, Alexandra Exter, Nadezhda Lamanova, Varvara Stepanova, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Vera Mukhina Women Artists and Futurist Books: Elena Guro, Natalia Goncharova, and Ol’ga Rozanova Women Artists and Children’s Book Illustration: Vera Ermolaeva, Elena Safronova, Alisa Poret, Tatjana Glebova, Maria Siniakova, Galina and Ol’ga Chichagovy, and others Women artists and Small Sculptural Forms (porcelain and ceramics): Natalia Danko and Alexandra Shekotikhina-Potozkaia Chapter 3: Women Artists in Socialist Realism and Unofficial Art Aligning Art History of the Soviet Union and Gender Studies Official Images of Women in the Soviet Union Kolkhoznitsa [Collective Farm Woman] Sportsmenka [Sportswoman] Balerina [Ballet Dancer] Socialist Realist Women Painters Women Artists in the Moscow School of Socialist Realism: Vera Orlova, Ekaterina Zernova, and Serafima Riangina Women Artists and the Leningrad School of Painting: Nadezhda Steinmiller, Evgenia Antipova, Vera Nazina, and others Women Socialist Realist painters from the Soviet Republics: Tetiana Iablonska, Vaiiha Samadova, the Sisters Aslamazian, Elene Akhvlediani, and others Women Artists as Soviet Sculptors Women as Sculptors before the Soviet Union: Elena Luksch-Makovskii, Maria Dillon, Teresa Ries, and Anna Golubkina A Case Study: Vera Mukhina the Soviet Sculptor – Between the Street and the Household Women Artists in Unofficial Art Some Aspects of Canonization of Women Artists of the Bulldozer Exhibit: Nadezhda Elskaia and Lydia Masterkova Artistic Couples in Soviet Unofficial Art and Their Visions of Eden Chapter 4: Women Artists in the Late Soviet Union and after Its Dissolution The Emergence of Women-Only Groups in the Post-Soviet Space: the Factory of Found Clothes (FFC), Cyber-Femin Club, the Fourth Height The Factory of Found Clothes (FFC): Ol’ga Tsaplia-Egorova and Natalia Gluklia-Pershina-Yakimanskaia The Cyber-Femin-Club: Alla Mitrofanova, Irina Aktuganova, Lena Ivanova, and Ol’ga Levina Chetvertaia Vysota [The Fourth Height]: Ekaterina Kameneva, Dina Kim, and Galina Smirnskaia Resisting Erasure: Women Artists from the 1990’s The Mirror Game or the Flip-Floppers: Anna Alchuk and Tania Antoshina The Radicals: Alena Martynova and Elena Kovylina The Quietists: Marina Perchikhina and Liza Morozova Curating the “Gender Turn” in the post-Soviet art: Natalia Kamenetskaia and others Chapter 5: Creating Parallel Histories Unacceptable Bodies: Trials against Natalia Goncharova in 1910 and Iuliia Tsvetkova in 2019 Bogoroditsa stan’ Feministkoi? Comparing the Leningrad Feminists and Pussy Riot Conclusion Illustrations Bibliography Additional Materials. Interviews.

Bibliographic record: Michal MACHÁČEK: Gustáv Husák. A Political Biography with Special Emphasis on Czech-Slovak Relations in 20th Century, PhD. thesis, The Faculty of Arts at Charles University 2017, 476pp. [784 standard pages]. Abstract The dissertation thesis discusses public activities, thoughts and the political life of JUDr. Gustáv Husák, CSc. (1913-1991), who was involved in the Czech-Slovak public space for sixty years with a significant footprint even today. The text is based on a thorough research and is chronologically structured, intertwined with thematic areas, however an analytical approach prevails. The first chapter focuses on Husák's youth, the factors that led him to the communist movement, and his early activism. This is followed by a portrayal of the Husák's activities during the Second World War, his role in the resistance, participation in a propaganda trip to the Nazi conquered Ukraine, and his vision of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. His later involvement in the Slovak National Uprising provided the legitimacy of his later political career in the post-war era, when he successfully led the struggle for the communist monopoly of political power in Czechoslovakia and attempts to present the Communist Party of Slovakia as a national party. Next two chapters show the origins...

Le 27 août 1991, l’opinion publique internationale prenait acte de la naissance de la République de Moldavie, dont deux tiers du territoire ont constituées jusqu’en 1941 la province roumaine de Bessarabie. Depuis toujours, la Principauté de Moldavie se trouve dans une confluence de trois grandes cultures : slave, latine et orientale ; trois grandes religions : orthodoxe, catholique et musulmane ; trois grands peuples : slave, latin et turc et trois courants idéologiques : panslavisme, panturquisme et pan-latinisme. C’est pourquoi, à travers les siècles, la Principauté de Moldavie a manœuvré constamment entre ces Puissances et ces courants pour garder son identité nationale. Aujourd’hui, en principe, la Moldavie est toujours dans la situation de jongler entre la CEI et l’UE, entre Est et Ouest, sa situation géopolitique étant la même.Dans la Première partie de notre thèse nous avons étudié l’origine, la toponymie et les frontières de la Bessarabie, mais aussi l’engouement des Grandes Puissances pour ce territoire. Nous traiterons aussi les guerres et les négociations de paix qui la caractérisent, allant de la guerre russo-turque jusqu’au régime tsariste qui y régnait. Nous avons ensuite suivi les changements subis par la Bessarabie pendant la Première guerre mondiale, avec la création de la République Démocratique Moldave, tout en s’attardant sur le processus de la création de l’URSS avec ses répercussions sur l’évolution de la Moldavie soviétique poststalinienne. Nous avons finalement, étudié ici-même la question des nationalités, et les concepts de « nation », « nationalisme », « dénationalisation », « russification », « collectivisme », « moldovenisme » etc.La Deuxième partie démarre avec des questions sur l’identité nationale moldave, et l’éclatement des conflits régionaux. Nous décrivons les minorités séparatistes de Gagaouzie et de Transnistrie, qui n’acceptent pas la souveraineté de la Moldavie. Le régime de Tiraspol est un régime oppressif et totalitaire, qui doit être éloigné par l’action des facteurs externes. De plus, nous étudions la création de la CEI et GUAM, l’implication de l’OSCE, de l’UE, de la Russie, de l’Ukraine et de la Roumanie dans le processus de négociation pour la résolution du conflit transnistrien. Finalement, nous examinons la manière avec laquelle la « fédéralisation », et la « régionalisation » peuvent résoudre les conflits ethniques en Moldavie. En conclusion nous répondons aux questions centrales sur le territoire et la population moldave. / On August 27 1991, the international public opinion acknowledges the birth of the Republic of Moldova, which has represented two-thirds of the Romanian province of Bessarabia until 1941. During the history, Principality of Moldova is parting of the ways of three cultures: Slavic, Latin and Eastern; three great religions: Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim; three populations: Slavic, Latin and Turkish; and three ideologies: Pan-Slavism, Pan-Turkism and pan-Latin. Therefore, over the centuries, the Principality of Moldova has continuously handled these Great Powers and ideologies to keep its national identity. Nowadays, Moldova is still able to pursue between CIS and EU policies and between East and West geopolitical situation.In the first part of the thesis, we study the origin, toponyms and borders of Bessarabia, and we characterize the interest of the Great Powers for this territory. For it we describe, the wars and peace negotiations, starting with the Russo-Turkish war until the period of Bessarabia under the tsarist rule. Moreover, we treated the period of Bessarabia during the First World War, but also the creation of the Moldavian Democratic Republic, describing the process of foundation the USSR and its impact on the evolution of the post-Stalin Soviet Moldova. Finally, we studied the nationality question and the concepts like the "nation", the "nationalism", the "denationalization", the "Russification", the collectivism", the "moldovenism" etc...The Second Part starts with questions about the Moldovan national identity and the outbreaks of regional conflicts. We raise the issue of the separatist minorities of Gagauzia and Transnistria, which do not accept the sovereignty of Moldova. The Tiraspol regime is a totalitarian and oppressive regime, which must be removed by the action of external factors. Moreover, we study the creation of the CIS and GUAM and the involvement of the OSCE, EU, Russia, Ukraine and Romania in the negotiation process for the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict. Finally, we discuss the possibilities of how cans the "federalization" and "regionalization" solves the ethnic conflicts in Moldova. In conclusion, we answer to the questions dealing about the territory and the Moldovan population.