M.A. (Sociology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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One of the great superpowers in recent history experienced a tumultuous final decade, shining a light on several important policies of economic reform known as perestroika, championed by General Secretary of the USSR Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. According to, for instance, Stuart and Gregory, the reforms aimed at renewing making the Soviet economy more efficient. In this essay, the impact of the reform on the economy is subject of analysis.The subject is approached the topic via literature research on the topic of 1980s USSR economic problems, combined with key aggregate data on economic conditions (i.e. grain yield production, GDP per capita pre- and post-perestroika, foreign trade, life expectant pre-and post-perestroika). The thesis concluded that perestroika was unable to salvage the USSR, in fact, conditions only worsened after its administration, following into the 1990s.

This study argues that the American Relief Administration (ARA) operationally and culturally was defined by the character and experiences of First World War American military veterans. The historiography of the American Relief Administration in the last half-century has painted the ARA as a purely civilian organization greatly detached from the military sphere. By examining the military veterans of the ARA scholars can more accurately assess the image of the ARA, including what motivated their personnel and determined their relief mission conduct. Additionally, this study will properly explain how the ARA as an organization mutually benefited and suffered from its connection to the U.S. military throughout its European missions, in particular, the 1921 Russian famine relief expedition.

abstract: This dissertation explores the roles of ethnic minority cultural elites in the development of socialist culture in the Soviet Union from the mid-1930s through the late 1960s. Although Marxist ideology predicted the fading away of national allegiances under communism, Soviet authorities embraced a variety of administrative and educational policies dedicated to the political, economic, and cultural modernization of the country’s non-Russian populations. I analyze the nature and implementation of these policies from the perspective of ethnic Tatars, a Muslim Turkic group and contemporary Russia’s largest minority. Tatar cultural elites utilized Soviet-approved cultural forms and filled them with Tatar cultural content from both the pre-Revolutionary past and the socialist present, creating art and literature that they saw as contributing to both the Tatar nation and to Soviet socialism. I argue that these Tatar cultural elites believed in the emancipatory potential of Soviet socialism and that they felt that national liberation and national development were intrinsic parts of the Soviet experiment. Such idealism remained present in elite discourses through the 1930s, 1940s, and into the 1950s, but after Stalin’s death it was joined by open disillusionment with what some Tatars identified as a nascent Russocentrism in Soviet culture. The coexistence of these two strands of thought among Tatar cultural elites suggests that the integration of Tatar national culture into the broad, internationalist culture envisioned by Soviet authorities in Moscow was a complex and disputed process which produced a variety of outcomes that continue to characterize Tatar culture in the post-Soviet period. This dissertation is based on significant archival research and utilizes various state and Communist Party documents, as well as memoirs, letters, and other personal sources in both Russian and Tatar. It challenges traditional periodization by bridging the Stalin and post-Stalin eras and emphasizes on-the-ground developments rather than official state policy. Finally, it offers insight into the relationship between communism and ethnic difference and presents a nuanced vision of Soviet power that helps to explain the continuing role of nationalism in the contemporary Russian Federation and other post-communist states. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2019

Focusing on the post-communist developments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the research prevails why the transition was successful in the Baltic States? Analyzing "the Baltic way" to the European Union, the paper discusses the certain aspects of economic, political and social transition. Cultural trauma of social change will also be concerned. Conceptual part of the work focuses on the theory of modernization which is discussed in the civilizational context. It is assumed that modernization is rather multi-dimensional than universal, homogeneous process. The Baltic modernization shows the patterns of original western European type of modernization with clearly defined end-up goal: political and cultural "return to the West". Empirical part of the research focuses on the economic, political and social transformation processes in the Baltic States. The main discussions on Economic transition heated around the question: how to build capitalism? What was possible and desirable? What policy should have been chosen? Baltic States went through the radical economic reform called "shock therapy". The essence of "this program is discussed in contradiction with "gradualism'" - an alternative strategy of economic transition. Political transition encompasses the state-building, nation-building and society...

Humor as a Mirror of Political Reality: Anti-Communist humor in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in comparative perspective Author: Arevik Zadoyan Supervisor: Janusz Salamon, Ph.D. Academic Year: 2019/2020 Abstract Humor is an important part of our daily lives though sometimes it is overlooked by historians and those studying politics. This thesis explores anti-communist jokes in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia in order to answer the question of whether or not humor is able to accurately mirror the political reality of a given country. After an extensive research, this thesis supports the argument that political humor in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia provided an accurate description of the regime, meaning jokes were not only meant to humor the audience but they were also informative and touched upon questions such as foreign policies, domestic life, ethnic and religious issues, personality cults of their leaders, propaganda and censorship, and much more. But even though both countries had anti-communist jokes, some characteristics (e.g., context, form, length) varied. Furthermore, since jokes are time specific, the pattern of differentiation is also present chronologically.

When her father dies unexpectedly and under mysterious circumstances, Veronika embarks on a journey spanning three continents to uncover the truth about his life as well as her own hidden past growing up in the war-torn region of Moldova.

ii Abstract This research project explores the impact of Western broadcasting on the public opinion of the Soviet audience in the Perestroika and Glasnost periods. Specifically, it focuses on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) contribution to changing attitudes of the Soviet public to the communist regime and ruling party, and constructing a positive image of Western democratic values during the relevant period of study. The theoretical approach to the investigation of RFE/RL broadcasting is based on media effects theories, particularly agenda-setting and framing theories. According to them, the media are not simply a conduit of information, but able to shape public opinion. By emphasising the salience of topics and particular aspects and characteristics of the issues, the media set public agenda and influence on people's perceptions about these issues. The study to assess RFE/RL's impact draws on audience research, quantitative and qualitative data analysis. It examines geographical reach and transmission frequencies of the Radio's broadcasts and analyses the content of the most featured programmes to explore how they framed the reality. The findings from the quantitative and qualitative analysis, as well as the audience research data, demonstrate that RFE/RL's programming set anticommunist agenda...