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<p> This treatise focuses on the evolution of the xylophone in the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. The xylophone occupied an important position in Shostakovich's aesthetic, evidenced in the exposed solos of the first <i>Jazz Suite </i> and the <i>Polka from The Golden Age.</i> In his symphonies, Shostakovich's use of the xylophone expands the role of the instrument from a demarcation or coloristic device to a vehicle of complex cultural and personal ideas ranging from the struggle of the Soviet people under Joseph Stalin, the composer's own hatred of war, and prominently, the multi-faceted idea of betrayal. This document presents a biographical overview of Shostakovich's life, an overview of the history of the xylophone from antiquity through the Twentieth Century, and an analysis of the use of the xylophone in Shostakovich's symphonies. Rhythmic and melodic motives, orchestrational effects, and pitch class relationships are examined in addition to specific score examples.</p>

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This thesis presents a two-stage economic and policy analysis of the impact of European Union (EU) accession upon crude oil production and transportation policy in Lithuania. The first stage provides the theoretical framework for the research. The analysis begins with the overview of the Russian oil industry, as for over 50 years Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union and thus its oil industry was largely controlled by Russian interests. Although Lithuania became independent in 1991, the dependency on Russia in terms of energy remains until today. The following chapters introduce Lithuania's development since its independence, outline the relationship with the EU and present Lithuania's intentions to become a member of the European Union. More specific issues discussed include the interdependence between Russia and the European Union in terms of crude oil and natural gas supplies and the impact of this phenomenon upon the Lithuanian oil industry. Particular emphasis is placed upon the political significance of oil in Lithuania including the ramifications of the sale of the state-owned oil transit and refining interest to USA investors and the consequences in terms of reaction from Russian crude oil suppliers. The second stage centers upon two techniques - content analysis and a scaling approach. The former was used to derive a set of the important issues within the Lithuanian oil industry, whilst the latter employed these issues in order to construct a scale for assessing the opinion of the industry's leading experts. The results of the Likert scale questionnaire were analyzed using a number of techniques and this identified a series of policies relating to crude oil and oil production in Lithuania. These policies take into account the experts' opinion, the process of EU accession and the politico-economic context of the research period, which places particular emphasis on relations between Lithuania and Russia. The final part of this thesis concludes the analysis, presents the implications as well as provides a number of suggestions for further research possibilities in this field.

The priestless Old believers did not have the sacrament of marriage because they did not have a priesthood. Unions between men and women were therefore regarded as sinful, and this difficult situation caused much debate. In this dissertation, the history of the debate itself is studied both for its Intrinsic interest and as a means to explore the development of the ideas, beliefs and behaviour of priestless Old Believers. Chapter 1 is devoted to the resolutions of the Novgorod council of 1694, including the prohibition of marriage, and to Feodosy Vasil'ev (1661-1711), who was an active participant in the council and the founder of the Theodosian branch of the Old Believers. Chapter 2 deals with the first debate on the nature of marriage between Andrey Denisov (1674-1730) of the Vyg community and the already mentioned Feodosy Vasil'ev. Chapter 3 examines the doctrines of Ivan Alekseev (1709-1776) who polemicized against the priestly Old Believers, but also tried to find some arguments in favour of marriage for the priestless. Chapter 4 is an attempt to show the practical implications of the prohibition of marriage, and of the meaning of the doctrine within the Old Believer communities. Other Old Believers who took part in the debate are briefly mentioned. Chapter 5 is dedicated to Pavel Onufrevich Lyubopytny (1772-1848) and his radical revision of Old Believer conceptions of religion, the church, ritual, history and marriage. Chapter 6 expounds the ideas and writings of Sergey Semenovich Gnusin (?-1839), the most prominent ideologist of Theodosian conservatism. Chapter 7 shows how the debates among the priestless Old Believers were misunderstood by the Government, causing unjustified alarm which resulted in the setting up in 1820 of a Secret Committee on the Old Believers and in a partial return to policies of intolerance and persecution. The dissertation is based on both published and unpublished sources, and on archival materials.

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The teaching of modern foreign languages within Swedish educational system has been a subject of a number of alarming reports in recent years. Several studies have shown that students lack motivation to learn any language but English. Of particular concern is the young males’ underachieving and disinterest in foreign languages.  In the meantime, a number of international studies and the statistical data from Swedish national agencies of secondary and higher education (Skolverket and Högskoleverket) have indicated that Russian is one of the languages that are favoured by males. The primary goal of my case study was, therefore, to examine students’ motivation to learn Russian and their attitudes towards language, community and Russian-speaking people. Another objective was to investigate gender differences in motivational factors. The study was conducted at the Department of modern languages of Uppsala University and the empirical data was collected using a mixed methodology. The questionnaire for the students was based on Gardner’s Attitude / Motivation test battery (AMTB), adapted for the goals and objectives of my research. To place the students’ responses in a wider context, semi-structured interviews with teachers of Russian were conducted. The analysis revealed a high level of both integrative and instrumental motivation for students of both genders as well as intrinsic motivation towards learning Russian. It is seen as a challenging subject to master but this is not perceived as an obstacle; rather, a stimulating factor (especially for males). The results indicate that although male students think of themselves as less motivated than females, the gender differences, in general, were not significant.  Both male and female participants are integrative-orientated. However, women are more likely to identify themselves with the country (or its culture), while men are more fascinated by the language itself.

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Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references.