This thesis examines the applicability of the postmodern theories of consumerism and simulacra to the post-Soviet Russian context by undertaking a case study of Viktor Pelevin's novel Generation "Π". In today's environment of economic globalisation and its accompanying global culture, Western theories concerning the postmodern condition have attempted to explain social dynamics in regions outside of their native context. This thesis seeks to contribute to the debate regarding the global applicability of the postmodem theoretical models by applying the perspectives of Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard to post-Soviet Russian cultural material. Such an analysis will help offer an indication as to whether Russia is merely a regional variant of a larger Western-oriented social paradigm, or a society and culture seeking to follow its own distinctive path of development. Generation "Π" portrays Russia in terms of its post-Soviet experiences of globalisation and media simulation. This novel engages the theories of the postmodern and their application into the post-Soviet Russian context and offers an effective depiction of Russian culture in terms of its similarities and differences to the West. In addition, Pelevin's disenchantment with the cultural dominants within post-Soviet Russia and global culture in general are strongly expressed. This thesis argues that while Pelevin's engagement with, the totality of post-Soviet consumerism and media simulation supports the applicability of many of the discussed theoretical concepts to the post-Soviet context, his work also highlights the distinctiveness of the postmodern cultural condition in Russia. This distinctiveness is not only a result of Russia's transition to the market economy but also stems from Russia's literary quest for an organic culture.

The everyday practices of maternity and beauty are important for the enactment of femininity. This dissertation deals with femininities created in the context of changing ideas about “normality” in Soviet Russia during the mid 1930s-1960s and explores a diversity of norms, discourses and rituals. The main sources are women’s magazines, advice books, and interviews with women living now in three different cities of the Russian Federation – Moscow, Saratov (Volga region) and Ufa (capital of Bashkortostan Republic). The results of the research suggest that some parts of the Soviet discourses on maternity and beauty turn out to be similar to those that were characteristic for other European countries of the same historical period. At the same time the interviews show that the modern practices of medical and welfare institutions, the consumption of clothes as well as advice about appearance and childcare were situated in the context of shortages of goods, women’s work outside of home, rhetorics of the “naturalness” of maternity for every woman as well as that of a woman’s particular need to care about looking nice. Together with the home reproduction of many rural/patriarchal rituals of maternity and beauty it led to a contradictory everyday performance of femininity. Fluctuating categories of social status, ethnical belonging, geographical location and generation also contributed to a diversity of femininity constructions. Common sense normativities concerning practices of becoming a mother, caring for a baby and making oneself beautiful suggest that Soviet discourses on maternity and beauty were only partly accepted and reproduced by women. They were also partly rejected and subverted in everyday practices. The analysis of maternity and beauty practices shows that performative femininities were utterly complex. / <p>Boken innehåller en sammanfattning på ryska.</p>

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Ce travail de thèse questionne la place que les dispositifs numériques d'information et de communication occupent dans la reconfiguration de l'espace public (Habermas, 1991) contemporaine post-soviétique. Il étudie également l'émergence, l'inscription sociale et l'usage politique des espaces participatifs du web - tels que les blogs, les forums ou les réseaux sociaux, au sein de cette société. Aussi, nous explorons le processus de la médiation, tel qu'il s'exerce à l'extérieur de la médiatisation classique dans la sphère publique nationale post-soviétique. Après avoir appliqué les différentes méthodes d'analyse des réseaux (cartographie, entretiens semi-directifs, observation participative), nous pouvons constater qu'actuellement en Russie contemporaine nous observons l'éclatement de l'espace public unique et le retour au modèle de double espace public: officiel « dominant », constitué en grande partie des médias audio-visuels, la presse écrite nationale et des partis politiques institutionnalisés et l'espace « parallèle » constitué des « nouveaux » médias numériques (Kiriya, 2012). Ces tendances nous montrent la persistance des formes et des configurations de l'espace public dans la société malgré les changements économiques et sociaux. Dans le contexte post-soviétique, les « nouveaux » médias numérisés soutiennent à la fracture sociale et politique dans la société et épargnent l'espace public officiel des discours et des débats oppositionnels. En même temps, ces dispositifs contribuent à l'apparition des nouveaux acteurs des débats et de la production de l'information, et au maintien de la diversité des opinions. De ca fait, les dispositifs numériques de communication peuvent être insérés dans les espaces sociaux différents et d'accompagner les pratiques de libération et de domination en même temps. Notre travail montre que le déploiement des réseaux socionumériques et des médias numériques post-soviétiques participe aux évolutions plus générales de la société post-soviétique. Ils stabilisent et rendent visible la configuration des acteurs des espaces sociaux préexistants. L'étude de l'ancrage politique des réseaux socionumériques et des médias dans l'espace public officiel nous conduit à adopter une vision critique de la théorie « positiviste » des réseaux socionumériques en tant qu'outils de délibération et de débats argumentatifs. Ainsi, l'espace numérique post-soviétique est devenu une prolongation de l'espace public officiel de domination tout en assurant l'appropriation des discours étatiques propagandistes et leur pénétration dans l'espace privé. Ce travail montre que l'ancrage social (Miège, 2007) et politique de ces outils dans la société Russe est plutôt conservatif et ne contribue à la libération et démocratisation de la société. Bien au contraire – ces outils sont utilisés pour reproduire l'ordre politique dominant, diviser l'espace public etc. Les débats et les mobilisations sur le net ont faiblement contribué à l'émancipation et aux changements sociaux. Insérés dans les champs sociaux nationaux existants, ces médias numériques ont incité à la délibération et la maîtrise de la violence. En même temps, ils pouvaient être mobilisés par les acteurs dominants afin d'asseoir leur domination et leur violence. Dans le contexte post-soviétique, les technologies numériques ont contribué au déclin de la mobilisation politique d'opposition, renforçant l'isolement des acteurs politiques, exclus de l'espace public, et un contrôle social profitable aux autorités russes actuelles. L'expression « spontanée » de mouvements sociaux s'effectue selon les formes protestataires historiquement préexistantes (Bertrand Cabedoche, 2010) et notre étude du cas post-soviétique le confirme pleinement. / This PhD work questions the place of digital information and communication devices involved in the reconfiguration of the contemporary post-Soviet public sphere (Habermas, 1991). It also examines the emergence, social inclusion and the political use of web participatory spaces - such as blogs, forums and social networks, in this society. Also, we explore the process of mediation, as is carried outside the traditional media in the post-Soviet national public sphere. After applying the different analysis methods of networks (mapping, interviews, participant observation), we can conclude that in contemporary Russia we observe the return to dual model public space: Official "dominant" (consists largely of audio-visual media, papers; magazines, radio stations) and "parallel" (consists of the oppositional political parties, "new" digital media) (Kiriya, 2012). These trends confirm the persistence of forms and configurations of public space in society despite the social and economic changes. In the post-Soviet context, the "new" digital media support the social and political cleavage in. At the same time, these devices contribute to the appearance of new actors of debates and production of information, and the maintenance of the diversity of opinions. Thereby, digital communication devices can be inserted in different social spaces, accompany the liberation and domination practices at the same time. Our work shows that the deployment of digital networks and digital media accompanies the development of the post-Soviet society. They stabilize and make visible the configuration of preexisting actors in different social spaces. This study of political use of digital networks and media in the official public space lead us to adopt a critical view of the "positivist" perception of digital networks as tools of deliberation and argumentative discussions. Thus, the post-Soviet digital space has become a digital extension of the formal domination of public space while ensuring the appropriation of state propaganda speeches and their penetration into the private area. This work shows that the social use (Miège, 2007) and policy of these tools in Russian society is quite conservative and does not contribute to the liberation and democratization of society. Quite the contrary, these devices are used to reproduce the dominant political divide public space and so on. The debates and mobilizations on the Internet have slightly contributed to the emancipation and social change. Inserted into existing national social fields, these digital media has led to the deliberation and control of violence. At the same time, they could be mobilized by the dominant players in order to establish their domination and violence. In the post-Soviet context, digital technologies have contributed to the decline of the political opposition mobilization, reinforcing the isolation of political actors, excluded from the public space, and profitable social control for current Russian authorities. The "spontaneous" social movement is performed according to the historically pre-existing forms protesters (Cabedoche Bertrand, 2010) and our study of post-Soviet case fully confirms it.

This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917 covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from historic newspapers, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world's earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced as a response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: while before the regulation rents were increasing at a similar rapid pace as other consumer prices, the policy reversed this trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability among workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the prevailing problems. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Russia and Iran have been subject to mutual influence since the reign of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629). For most of the time this relationship was not one of equals: since the early nineteenth century and lasting at least until 1946, Russia and then the USSR, in strong competition with Britain, had been gradually, and for the most part steadily, increasing its political, cultural and economic influence within Iran up to very high levels. Nevertheless, the history of Russian/Soviet-Iranian relations still remains understudied, particularly in English-language scholarship. One of the main reasons for this gap must be sought in the hampered access of Western researchers to Russian archives during the Soviet time, which made them draw on Russian-language literature, traditionally pre-occupied with the history of social movements, and with the mechanical retelling of political and economic processes. Thus the cultural and political ties of the two countries on institutional and individual levels (especially during the period surrounding 1917), the influence of Russia, and then of the USSR, on Iran and vice versa, in political, economic and cultural spheres through the activities of individuals, as well as the methods and tools used by the “Big Northern neighbour” during the execution of its foreign policy towards Iran did not receive proper attention, and thus lack detailed analysis. This research addresses the lack of detailed analysis of the power/knowledge nexus in relation to Russia’s Persian/Iranian Studies – the largest and most influential sub-domain within Russia’s Oriental Studies during the late Imperial and the early Soviet periods. The specific focus of this study is the involvement of Russian ‘civilian’ (academic) and ‘practical’ (military officers, diplomats, and missionaries) Persian Studies scholarship in Russian foreign policy towards Persia/Iran from the end of the nineteenth century up to 1941 – a period witnessing some of the most crucial events in the history of both countries. It is during this period that Persia/Iran was the pivot of Russia’s Eastern foreign policy but at the same time almost every significant development inside Russia as well as in her Western policies also had an immediate impact on this country – the state of affairs that ultimately culminated in the second Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. My thesis is based on extensive research in eleven important political, military and academic archives of Russia and Georgia, which allowed me to consult a significant amount of hitherto unpublished, often still unprocessed and only recently declassified, primary sources. While engaging with notions such as Orientalism, my analysis aims at transcending Edward Said’s concept of a mere complicity of knowledge with imperial power. My theoretical approach builds on Michel Foucault’s conceptualisation of the interplay of power/knowledge relations, his notion of discourse, and his writings on the role of the intellectual. While demonstrating the full applicability of the Foucauldian model to the Russian case through the study of the power/knowledge nexus in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia’s Persian Studies, or Iranology, I focus on the activities of scholars and experts within their own professional domains and analyse what motivated them and how their own views, beliefs and intentions correlated with their work, how their activities were influenced by the hegemonic discourses within Russian society. I analyse the interaction of these intellectuals with state structures and their participation in the process of shaping and conducting foreign policy towards Iran, both as part of the Russian scholarly community as a whole and as individuals on the personal level. For the first time my work explores at such level of detail the specific institutional practices of Russia’s Oriental Studies, including the organisation of scholarly intelligence networks, the taking advantage of state power for the promotion of institutional interests, the profound engagement with Russia’s domestic and foreign policy discourses of the time, etc. In addition, the thesis presents a detailed assessment of the organisation of Iranology as a leading sub-domain within the broader scholarly field of Oriental Studies in the period from the end of the nineteenth century to 1941 and analyses the principles and mechanisms of its involvement in Russia’s foreign policy towards Persia/Iran.