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This thesis examines the censorship of translated literature in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and the 1960s. Reconsidering traditional understandings of censorship, I employ a theoretical approach influenced by Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu in order to understand censorship as a set of inter-related practices enacted by multiple agents, occupying points on a continuum of censorship that ranges from external authoritarian intervention to internalised, unconscious norms. An analysis of literary texts translated from English into Russian in the literary journals Internatsional’naia literatura and Inostrannaia literatura is supplemented by examination of archival material from these journals and the censorship agency, Glavlit; I aim to reconstruct the various layers of censorship carried out by translator, editor or external agents. My analysis begins with a study of the publications patterns of the journals, examining the inclusion and exclusion of texts as an attempt to impose a canon of foreign literature. Employing internal reviews and records of editorial meetings, I demonstrate that ideological control of foreign literature was not completely repressive, and that a number of texts not conforming to Soviet standards found their way onto the pages of the journal. The next chapters study censorship on the textual level. A chapter on puritanical censorship discusses how sexual and vulgar language was removed from the texts, noting the relative easing of censorship in the post-Stalin era. Puritanical censorship was often incomplete, inviting the reader to reconstruct the original meaning. The chapter on political censorship shows how taboo topics were removed or entirely misrepresented in the Stalin era, but modified less drastically in the post-Stalin texts. The following study of the censorship of ideologically marked language examines how censorship aimed to erase unorthodox uses of certain terms, imposing an authoritative meaning on these texts, and ensuring the continued circulation of canonical symbols in a limited discursive framework. Ideological censorship also created intertextuality between the English texts and the Soviet context, attempting to make those texts a part of Soviet discourse. Through an examination of these intersecting censorship practices I problematise the phenomenon, highlighting ways in which the regulation of foreign texts could be incomplete, and ways in which censorial agents often sought to undermine censorship, even as they acted as censors.

The breakup of the Soviet Union into fifteen autonomous republics marked the end of an era of atomic superpowers born in the first half of the twentieth century. As the Communist Party relinquished its hold on the reigns of power, the Soviet Union changed in profound ways, economically, politically, and socially. Strongly isolationist policies which kept the U.S.S.R. separate from its neighbors in Western Europe and North America loosened significantly. Those isolationist policies encouraged a Soviet technological and industrial economy based almost entirely on locally developed materials and expertise--an economy which Western analysts found inferior in technological development, manufacturing capabilities, and absorption of information technologies in comparison to other industrialized nations. Networks can be a metric to measure technological capabilities and absorption. Networks cannot be a priority project of a single ministry: they depend on hardware, software, training, and telecommunications infrastructure throughout the country. Thus, they act as an indicator of the capability of the economy to develop, distribute, and absorb new technologies. The absorption of networks indicates the capability of an economy to absorb similar new and recently-developed technologies. Networks are valuable tools for inter-organizational and international information transfer. How the Soviets use networks both internally and in external communications can indicate the amount of change, both in attitude and implementation. This study examines the development, manufacture, dissemination, and absorption of computer network technologies in two environments: the pre-1990 Soviet Union and the post-1990 former Soviet republics. This study relies on detailed technical examination of the manufacturing technology, equipment choices and capabilities, and observed installation and use. In situ visits, reviews of open literature, interviews with Soviets, and, above all, networks themselves, are woven together to form a technological picture of how networks were, are, and can be used. Using a model for the use and absorption of computer networks, this study presents extensive evidence showing the status of the former Soviet republics. It is concluded that: (1) Changes in the post-U.S.S.R. economy have been to the detriment of Soviet network development and manufacturing capabilities; (2) Absorption of computer networks is largely restricted to a few cities and republics; and (3) Growth of computer networks has been explosive, although the total scale of absorption remains very small.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: No public access is forecasted for this work. To request access, please click on the locked Download file link and fill out the appropriate web form. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

The Problem Investigated: This thesis is conceived as: [1] a work of scholarship and exegesis [2] an examination of more recent scientific works which use similar metaphors or concepts, eg. Cooperation, that are central to Kropotkin's thinking. As a work of scholarship and exegesis this thesis is an attempt to present the many areas/dimensions of Kropotkin's philosophy and thinking in a systematic way. I do not believe that this has been attempted previously in any language. Although his political, social and economic theories have generated a substantial secondary literature, Kropotkin's scientific works and philosophy of science, with the exception of his famous book, Mutual Aid, have received virtually no attention. In consequence of this the emphasis of this work will be upon his scientific writings. However, his political writings will also be examined as well as related to his broad scientific outlook. In addition to evaluating Kropotkin's scientific works in relation to his period I also discuss them in relation to contemporary debates. Although not strictly true, the second half of this thesis is not a work of historical scholarship but an attempt to bring together the ideas of scientists that in one way or another support a Kropotkinesque characterisation of natural processes. Although Kropotkin is often rightly regarded as a founder of modern environmentalism, this is difficult to substantiate from his purely political and social writings. Thus I will attempt to present the core concepts of Kropotkin's anarchism in a coherent and succinct way with an emphasis upon showing how they relate to contemporary debates and perspectives within the environmental movement. The Procedures Followed: The thesis will be introduced biographically. This seemed the best way to introduce Kropotkin's works to the reader and place them in relation to one another and in their historical context. Thus the primary purpose of this historical section is to contextualise the great diversity of works by Kropotkin. As I do not have a science background, but also for reasons of clarity, the remainder of the analysis shall be based upon the least technical and most accessible scientific literature in the various disciplines investigated. I will begin by systematically collecting, cataloguing and analysing both Kropotkin's works as well as the secondary literature and then proceed to make some overall sense of them and then relate them to contemporary debates upon process and organisation in nature and society. The General Results Obtained: My research has revealed a large body of scientific work by Kropotkin. My analysis of them shows that he had a deep understanding of the role of mutualism, symbiosis, dynamism, group and social behaviour etc., in relation to physical and biological processes. His ideas, although necessarily containing errors, are broadly, as well as in many detailed aspects, consistent with the findings of professional, though often unorthodox, scientists of the present day. The main faults of Kropotkin's approach was a fundamental failure to appreciate the role of territories and hierarchies in animal groups and his excessive progressivism. My research also reveals how Kropotkin's social vision, although somewhat utopian, can be sympathetically interpreted in terms of modern environmentalist perspectives. The Major Conclusions Reached: Kropotkin's diverse works in science and social theory when presented systematically reveals that he is a philosopher of considerable interest in respect to both contemporary and historical debates concerning sociality and its influence upon the evolution of life on Earth.