Pentecostals from the former Soviet Union are the most recent and fastest growing refugee group in Oregon. Because the refugee population's low English skills may increase their dependence upon welfare assistance, their nonparticipation in ESL programs is treated as a social issue. Efforts to increase the English literacy levels of Russian-speaking Pentecostal refugees are limited by lack of empirical data regarding forces that affect this population's decision to participate or not to participate in educational activities. The purpose of this study was to gather information about barriers to participation in ESL programs by adult Russian-speaking Pentecostal refugees. To this end the present research sought to determine (1) the importance of individual reasons for nonparticipation; (2) whether there was an underlying structure to those reasons; and (3) whether socio-demographic variables were associated with reasons for nonparticipation. The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 143 Russian-speaking Pentecostal adults in the Portland, Oregon area. Data were obtained with the Deterrents to Participation Scale - Form LLR (adapted from Hayes & Darkenwald, 1988) which had two parts: socio-demographic information and 35 items which operationalized the concept "reasons for nonparticipation." Factor analysis of the 35 items resulted in six factors: School/Self Incongruence, Low Priority of Education, Negative Attitude Towards Classes, Low SelfConfidence, Situational Barriers, and Social Disapproval. The socio-demographic variables and factors were found to relate in logical ways. School/Self Incongruence correlated with age and number of dependent children; Low Priority of Education correlated with number of children and unemployment; Low Self-Confidence was shown to be related to age; Situational Barriers related to number of children, educational attainment and unemployment; and Social Disapproval correlated with period of attendance of ESL classes. With the data gathered from the research, implications for practice were drawn which can be used as the basis for developing programs to meet the ESL needs of the Russian-speaking Pentecostal adults.

This dissertation aims to discuss the incorporation of the &ldquo / nationalist&rdquo / Kazak intellectuals of Alash Orda to the Soviet Socialist Republics and their role in the establishment of the Kazak ASSR. In the course of events they acted first together with Russian liberal democrats, then they sought to establish a national government and fought against the Bolsheviks, but after 1920 they chose to stay in the USSR and join the modernization process of their homeland alongside the Bolsheviks. In the mainstream academic discourse the local leaders in the republics of the USSR are generally considered as passive victims of the Soviet policies. The members of the Kazak national movement of Alash Orda are also neglected as weak political figures after they had accepted the Soviet rule. But they continued their struggle for enlightening the Kazak people in 1920s. Their collaboration with the Bolsheviks was concomitant to their motives of modernizing the Kazaks. Their role in the Soviet Kazakstan did not come to an end after their acceptance of the Soviet sovereignty but it continued. My argument is that the struggle of the members of Alash Orda was in continuity with their program before the revolution, and their cooperation with the Bolsheviks was a way to realize their objectives, and it opened a sphere for them to have a role in the formation of the Kazak ASSR.

A presente pesquisa é uma abordagem geográfica da revolução russa. Mais precisamente um enfoque sobre o movimento dos sovietes dentro daquela ruptura social, cujo recorte temporal situa-se entre 1905-1921 e o âmbito espacial, o território do antigo império czarista. Para tanto, este trabalho partirá do pressuposto de que o movimento de conselhos que surgiu durante a conjuntura revolucionária na formação territorial russa, representou o engendramento de novas territorialidades em um cenário de definhamento da territorialidade estatal. Nessa perspectiva, nossa dissertação considerará ainda que as territorialidades sovietes foram um importante eixo estratégico que os bolcheviques - enquanto agentes da ruptura mobilizaram para a reafirmação da autoridade do Estado no âmbito geográfico da antiga soberania czarista. / The present research is a geographical approach of the Russian revolution. More precisely it is focused on the soviets movement within that social disruption, whose time frame lies between 1905 and 1921 and, its spatial ambit, the territory of the ancient tsarist empire. Therefore, this work starts from the assumption that the councils movement that emerged during the revolutionary conjuncture, in Russian territorial formation , represented the engendering of new territorialities, in a scenery of dwindling of the state-owned territoriality. In this perspective, our dissertation still considers that the soviets territorialities were important strategic axis that the Bolsheviks, as agents of the disruption, mobilized to reassertion of State authority, within the geographical ambit of the ancient tsarist sovereignty.

Soviet Evangelicals (a term inclusive of Pentecostals and other Christians of evangelical persuasion from former Soviet countries) are members of one of the most recent refugee-status groups to come to the United States. Being refugees, they are guaranteed, by the U.S. government, a degree of English language instruction. As a result, since 1989, adult ESL classes in the Pacific Northwest have had a large influx of Soviet Evangelical students. Because of the scant research as yet conducted on this student population, most ESL educators have had to rely on intuition and observations to interpret Soviet Evangelicals' needs, desires and behavior in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to discover and describe the cultural and educational values of Soviet Evangelicals that affect learning and impact student participation in ESL classes. Four questions were asked: 1) What are the Soviet Evangelicals' modes of learning? 2) What have been the Soviet Evangelicals' classroom experiences in teacher/student interaction patterns? 3) How do the Soviet Evangelicals view the teacher? 4) What are the cultural values of the Soviet Evangelicals that relate to teaching methods and classroom practice? Through a qualitative case study approach, two adult ESL classes were observed for a ten week period, using participant observation methodology. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with five students from one class and four students from a second class. And a survey, designed to elicit preferred modes of learning, was conducted with the students in both classes. With the data gathered from the research, a cultural framework was developed and implications for teaching were drawn; both of which can be used by ESL educators to make cross-cultural analyses of teaching methods and classroom activities.

This thesis investigates the formation of power structures in a revolutionary setting. It takes as a case study the central Siberian city of Krasnoiarsk, in which a powerful Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies emerged during the period March-October 1917. The Krasnoiarsk Soviet was an elective council established during the overthrow of Tsarist authorities. Throughout 1917, it became a vital component of an emerging local and regional power structure, assuming growing responsibility for a number of core state tasks. As well as providing a new empirical case study to English-language literature on 1917, the thesis employs a nuanced analytical approach which challenges existing conceptualisations of state power in revolution and the role played by local soviets. State power in revolutionary Russia has often been viewed as something to be contested between different political groupings and organisations seeking to assert their own outright control. This view is captured neatly by the formulation of “dual power”, in which soviets and Provisional Government organisations constructed alternative power bases in an attempt to wield outright control. Accordingly, the soviets’ growing political strength indicated an ability to marginalise other groups and organisations seeking to wield power. By contrast, this thesis does not seek to explain how power in revolutionary Krasnoiarsk was “captured” or otherwise controlled by the Soviet alone. Instead, it applies a critical interpretation of state power proposed by Bob Jessop and other theorists, who view the state as a site of interaction and negotiation between multiple autonomous organisations and social actors, all of which have a stake in the way it operates in practice. It focuses on the emergence of a “soviet power” writ small, in which the Krasnoiarsk Soviet became an authoritative organisation within a broader constellation of revolutionary actors. Without denying the Soviet’s centrality within this power structure, the thesis does not explain its role simply as the monopolisation of authority over other would-be contenders. Rather, it sees the Soviet’s importance in its ability to establish itself as a focal point for interactions between multiple actors which, collectively, shaped state power at a local and regional level. It considers how the forms and practices of revolutionary power developed through these interactions and how these interactions in turn transformed the roles of actors and organisations engaging them. In order to unpick the complex and dynamic processes of revolutionary power, the thesis employs three core methodological concepts: institutions, mobilisation, and ideology. It makes several important and original arguments. Firstly, it emphasises the autonomy of social actors which supported the Soviet and engaged in its politics, demonstrating the extent to which they were able to shape its political functions and structures according to their own concerns. Secondly, it reveals the importance of skilled administrative personnel to Soviet work, highlighting the invaluable practical roles they played in the regulation of provisions and their ability to influence Soviet policy measures on this issue. Thirdly, it demonstrates the close cooperation between the Soviet and other local governmental and administrative bodies, including the city Duma and provisions regulatory organisations, which remained vital to fulfilling state functions throughout 1917. Finally, it discusses how the Soviet and socialist activists challenged established power relationships between Krasnoiarsk, as a locality, and all-Russian state authorities, revealing the growing importance they attached to securing greater local autonomy in revolution and the changing ways local actors viewed their role in wider all-Russian politics.