This qualitative research study, conducted at Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beersheva, Israel, examined the interrelationships between language, identity and power in the context of a modern, multicultural society. The study focused on the impact of language use and status on the cultural, political and social identities of female students belonging to the Bedouin and the former Soviet Union (FSU) immigrant communities. As members of an ethnic subgroup of the Arab minority, and as females subordinated within their own traditionally patriarchal society, women of the indigenous Bedouin tribes of the Negev region have been dubbed a 'doubly marginalized' minority. In 1989, following decades of religious persecution, Jews were allowed to leave the FSU en masse; nearly one million have immigrated to Israel. This massive immigration of Russian speakers, as well as programs promoting study for Arabic-speaking Bedouin women, have led to greater diversity and increased multilingualism at BGU. The university offers a unique microcosm in which to study the language use, attitudes and consequent impact on the identities of these two distinctive minority groups.This study explored the attitudes of six female Bedouin and FSU immigrant students of BGU residing in the Negev region of Israel toward their first, second and foreign languages. Using data collected from in-depth interviews, I linked informant attitudes to underlying issues of gender, social status, identity, power and empowerment. Language took on new meanings and status as these students utilized Hebrew and English for purposes of communication and knowledge acquisition at the university level. Moreover, the new linguistic scenarios faced by Bedouin and FSU immigrant informants raised complex social issues and tensions, and influenced their perceptions about language and identity.Themes that emerged concerning language use and status, and self-perceptions of identity led to conclusions involving issues related to gender, social status, community, nationality, ethnicity, globalism, and power relations, as well as to future prospects made possible by higher education. It was demonstrated that, like the process of language acquisition, perceptions of identity and culture are dynamic in nature and are continually being reinvented.

This thesis re-examines the Non-Aggression Treaty of August 1939 arrived at between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in light of the changes which occurred in Eastern Europe since 1989. It is based on a systematic analysis of primary and secondary source materials. It is demonstrated that, contrary to the popular viewpoint, the Soviet Union played a central role in the events leading up to the treaty and the outbreak of World War Two. Stalin's efforts to draw Germany into an agreement and its consequences are discussed.

The beginning of the twentieth century in Russia, especially the years around 1905, was a period of deep, severe economical and political crisis. It was heightened by the lost war against Japan in 1904-1905 and the violent social disturbances of 1904-1907. It was also a period of great social, political and ideological upheaval. Efforts were made to save and preserve the economical, social and political system, to reform it, to change it profoundly as well as to overthrow it through revolution. Those years can be described as a turning point in Russia's history, an era of struggle about the future direction of Russian society. / One of the attempted solutions to the most important Russian problems of that time was the set of measures and reforms proposed in 1906-1911 during the prime-ministership of Peter Arkad'evich Stolypin. His policies and his efforts to implement them have been the subject of heated discussion and controversy among politicians, political thinkers and historians, as well as among those they affected. / This thesis is devoted to an examination of Stolypin's reforms and their effect on the economic, social and political development of the Russian Empire. Their relevance today is suggested by the renewed attempts of the successor states of the Soviet Union to privatize land ownership and at last solve the agrarian problems which Stolypin's assassination and the coming of the First World War cut short. It is this that makes a fresh appraisal of Stolypin timely.

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This thesis analyzes the work of Vasily Shuksin, an actor, director and writer in the Soviet Union during the Khrushchev and early Brezhnev eras, roughly 1958-1974. Shukshin's short stories, in particular, are of great value to anyone interested in Soviet attitudes during this period. The research suggests that Shukshin's work represents a sort of underground history. While the writer's stories are fictional, the issues are very real. Much of Shukshin's work provided the means for discussion on important topics such as gender relationships, alcohol use, and religious worship.Under Communism, nearly all sources of information were unable to tell the truth about Soviet society, but Shukshin's depictions of Soviet life appear to present a truer picture of the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras. The author portrays women as "second class citizens" and often equates them with evil, while Shukshin's depictions of drunken males indicate that alcoholism was a serious problem in the Soviet Union. Finally, the author's religious symbolism provides evidence that Russian Orthodoxy was alive and well, despite a Communist government that continued to wage war against religion. / Department of History

This thesis concerns Blessed Vasyl’ Velychkovs’kyi’s first arrest and imprisonment in the years 1945-1955. Based on the evidence in two volumes of SBU archival documents which were obtained in 2009 from the Kyiv SBU archives, it tells the story of his arrest, the investigation process, interrogation, trial and sentencing. The thesis provides the reader with a short introduction to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and its clergy in Galicia. It describes how the Soviet government, after it invaded Galicia in 1939, began to persecute the Catholic population, which was unwilling to switch to Russian Orthodoxy. A close examination of the SBU archival documents proves Velychkovs’kyi’s innocence and provides evidence of fabricated accusations, forced confessions, the use of physical and psychological abuse. These violations of criminal law and human rights were done in order to compel him to cooperate with the Soviet authorities. Velychkovs’kyi’s treatment is an example of what many prisoners who died for their faith suffered. In most cases their life stories will never be told.

This thesis is about the Soviet doctrine used to justify or threaten military intervention since 1945. This interventionist doctrine achieved greater currency in 1968 in the form of the "Brezhnev Doctrine". This doctrine, generally associated with the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, stipulated that Moscow reserved the right to intervene militarily or otherwise if developments in any given socialist country inflicted damage on socialism within that country or the basic interests of other socialist states. The ideological justification for the Soviet invasion was assumed by many observers to have been a quickly engineered reaction to the crisis, rather than a long-standing doctrine. This thesis suggests, however, that the "Brezhnev Doctrine" was not an original formula, but a newer version of a previous doctrine. The thesis traces the origins of the "Brezhnev Doctrine". It examines four crises in Soviet-East European relations for evidence of the doctrine. The thesis looks at how the effectiveness of the doctrine as a tool of Soviet foreign policy began to decline in the mid-1970s. While the doctrine appeared to be extended to the Third World - Afghanistan 1979 - and was "self-administered" by an East European country - Poland 1981 - it proved far less successful than in the past in suppressing opposition. Finally, the thesis examines the demise of the doctrine under Mikhail Gorbachev. The conclusions drawn by this thesis are: that the Soviet interventionist doctrine was not a new phenomenon; that it contained political, ideological, and military components; and, that it served a number of functions within the socialist community.

This thesis examines composer Nicolas Nabokov’s political involvement in the world of music in the 1940s and 1950s. In particular it concerns his attempt to use contemporary art music as a means of countering the influence of the Soviet Union, via the festivals he organised for the CIA-financed Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF). To the best of my knowledge both Nabokov and the musical activities of the CCF have previously been ignored by musical scholarship: this thesis therefore makes an important contribution to our understanding of the relationship between music and politics in the cold war period. My text divides into two halves: chapters 1 to 4 are broadly chronological, whilst chapters 5 to 8 analyse and evaluate Nabokov's project from various perspectives. The first chapter considers some aspects of his life in the 1940s which are relevant, in various ways, to the later career. Chapters 2 and 3 examine Nabokov's writings on music and politics, which began to appear in 1943, and fell largely within the following decade. The taking up of his CCF post in 1950 represented an opportunity to replace polemic with action, and Chapter 4 is concerned with the Paris festival of 1952 - L 'Oeuvre du XXeme Siecle - Nabokov's rationale for it, and the reactions it provoked. Chapter 5 looks at the CCF as part of an attempt to amend the widespread impression that the USA was ' lacking in culture', whilst chapter 6 examines the split Nabokov's policy produced between the CCF in Paris and its New York-based American affiliate. Finally, chapters 7 and 8 seek to consider whether there might be broader connections between this anti-communist project and the growing concerns of many intellectuals for the health - and even the survival - of high culture in general and art music in particular.