This thesis is an historical and literary investigation of the treatment of the 1979- 89 Soviet-Afghan War in contemporary Russian literature. The texts chosen for study include official and unofficial literature, written within the former USSR as well as abroad, and cover publicistic writing, poetry, and prose fiction. These works are described and analyzed with a two-fold purpose: to explore creative trends found in the literature of this subject, and to evaluate the extent to which the genre of Afghan War literature in Russian has changed over the past decade. In order to provide a context for this literature, the introduction describes the method of socialist realism as it applies to military themes, and the legacy of World War Two novels in Russian. The first chapter provides a brief history of Russian-Afghan relations, and an account of the ten-year intervention. The second chapter documents the dissolution of official censorship during the 1980s, revealing dissent over the Soviet military role in Afghanistan. Chapter Three discusses the evolution of the genre of publicistic writing, and documents its unprecedented frankness through revelations made in Soviet journalistic investigations. Chapter Four provides an overview of song and poetry about the conflict, beginning with magnitizdat produced by amateur songwriters, and later including works by professional poets. Chapter Five discusses novels and short stories about the war. A range of fictional works is traced, from propagandistic portrayals, both pro-and anti-Soviet, to non-ideological, personal interpretations which incorporate lyricism, satire, and fantasy. Chapter Six focuses on the works of Aleksandr Prokhanov, a writer who initially used his fiction to support the war effort, and whose oeuvre charts the disintegration of Party consensus on interpretation and depiction of the events in Afghanistan. The final three chapters treat the works of Oleg Ermakov, whose lyricism and stylistic experimentation mark a new direction for recent Russian war fiction. The analysis shows Afghan War literature to signal a radical break with recent official Soviet military writing as shaped by socialist realism. This break is evident in the frankness and subjectivity of publicistic writing, and the anti-war sentiment found in a significant minority of published songs and poems. In particular, Oleg Ermakov's prose continues the past legacy of unofficial, dissident war fiction.

Magister Artium - MA / This study, in contrast to contemporary held views relating to the US policy premises, aimed to look at the inherent disabilities and inconsistencies of the policies of successive Washington administrations. More so, it investigated the US interventionist strategies to perceived threats from communist regimes and their allies, especially in Southern Africa. To be able to embark on such an investigation, Namibia and the Soviet-Cuban involvement in Southern Africa were selected as a special focus of this study. / South Africa

Cette recherche se propose d'étudier le rôle et l'évolution de l'union des cinéastes en urss puis dans la nouvelle russie pour comprendre ses effets sur la gestion du cinéma, ses modes d'intervention à différents moments clés de l'urss pour reconstituer à la fois l'aspect macro-social de cette union des cinéastes, son véritable rôle et fonctionnement et l'aspect micro-social, le parcours de ses membres au travers de l'évolution de certaines carrières à la fois emblématiques comme anonymes. Ces deux terrains d'études seront menés conjointement. il s'agira de comprendre comment l'union des cinéastes a contribué sur 50 ans (2 générations) à structurer tout un champ entre 1957 et 2009 ; quels ont été les modes d'adhésion comme d'exclusion; quels ont été les acteurs collectifs impliqués dans le processus ; quels ont été les principaux clivages ou coalitions à différents moments de cette histoire ; quels types de ressources ont été mobilisés au-delà même de ce que représente le cinéma et sa fonction en urss? Dans quelle mesure l'union des cinéastes a pu agir ou pas sur les transformations intervenues en russie sur cette période, au regard aussi du rôle qu'a pu jouer le cinéma dans la société soviétique et post-soviétique ? Comment mesurer à postériori l'impact réel de l'union dans l'organisation de la vie de ses membres au quotidien et comprendre comment ses différents acteurs ont été directement impliqués par cette organisation, s'y sont mobilisés ou même opposés à certains moments de l'histoire soviétique pour l'infléchir ? Nous nous demanderons enfin comment l'union des cinéastes peut être réévaluée à partir d'une recherche de terrain qui permettra de comprendre les ressorts de l'activité cinématographique en urss et en russie, le passage à la professionnalisation et sa légitimation par l'union, les processus de décomposition et recomposition organisationnels. / The Filmmakers Union was created in 1957 at the request of film professionals : by joining forces, they aimed atbringing the Party to recognize the collective aspect of their sphere of activity. This Union gradually gatheredall the professionals of the cinematographic sphere in addition to the sole filmmakers (critiques, teachers at theVGIK, technicians . . .). However it was quickly exploited by the Communist Party, who tried hard to controlfilmmakers more efficiently once they were grouped in a single structure. Thus, the Union members had tobalance their status of civil servant and that of representative of the artistic intelligentsia. The history of theFilmmakers Union, from its institutionalization until now can first be seen as a struggle to influence decisionson film production, and to obtain more freedom in the sphere of collective creation.Despite the internal conflicts stirred up by this ambiguous status, engaging the various actors involved in thesystem, within the framework of the Soviet and post-Soviet history, the Filmmakers Union survived on newfoundations inherited from the past. Its history enables us to understand the existence of a consensus beyondthe question of the work of art. The cinema agents, divided by the conflicts, are held together by their professionalismand by their vocation. The Union provides them with a strong identity within the Russian and Sovietsociety. Through some analysis of movies, emblematic of this period, and using our field research in Russia,the intention is to trace the history of this specific organization in order to put Soviet and Russian cinema intoperspective with a different approach.

Bc. Daniel Verner Vesmír z Bruselu Master's Thesis Abstract The master thesis analyzes reflections of exploration of the Outer Space in Czechoslovak art in years 1957-1963. The first part of this thesis summarizes the "Space Races" in said period, the main task, however, is to analyze space motives in Czechoslovak art and culture during those years; it also comments on possible interpretations and typologies. The research is based on contemporary magazines, illustrated books for children and grown-ups, toys, films, applicated art, design, architecture, paintings and sculptures.

The proposed thesis deals with informal political associations and organizations (so called informals) in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with a special focus on Leningrad in the second half of 1980s and at the beginning of 1990s. The thesis is trying to find a place of political informals within the Soviet society and within perestrojka as well as it is trying to portray informals as a pluralist element in the Soviet society, as a beginning of multipartism, as an alternative structure to official state organizations and as a strong politization and radicalization factor for masses of Soviet citizens. First part of the thesis is dedicated to the theoretical part of the problem and so it concentrates on basic characteristics of informals, its variety, ideological and social differences. Also the relations of informals and a disent movement, democratic movement, the attitudes of power structures towards informals and relations between informals themselves are assesed here. Apart from that, the fate of informals after the dissolution of the USSR and the place of informals within perestrojka are discussed. The second part of the thesis deals more specifically with a situation of political informals on the territory of Leningrad, which was a very important city from the point of view of...

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The diploma thesis focuses on the period of the superpower rivalry of the Cold War, respectively, on the 1960's, and an interesting phenomenon of the intermediary role. At that time, Canada and Czechoslovakia took on tasks far beyond the importance of their bilateral relations with Cuba. They often made significant efforts and spent considerable resources. Furthermore, the work compares the nature of mediation of relations between Cuba and the great powers on the examples of these countries and tries to reveal their connections. More precisely, the work is interested in deciphering the motivations of Canada and Czechoslovakia for the initiative of the role of mediator between Cuba and the individual blocs. These states played this role in the relationship between Cuba and the Western countries in the case of Canada and Cuba and the Eastern bloc in the case of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. The Kenneth Waltz's theoretical approach of bipolar equilibrium will be used and analyzed as one of the possible explanations. From a methodological point of view, the work uses the Mill's method of difference and comparative history. The work has also the ambition to contribute to an interesting topic that unjustly escapes the wider awareness of the general public. The main sources of data are secondary...

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Tsar Nicholas II was the last in a long line of Russian rulers. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest individual in the world. The Russian revolution brought about the massacre of Nicholas and his entire family. Following the revolution, the new Soviet leaders developed a series of plans to revitalize what remained of the economy and of foreign relations. Lenin’s plans included reverting to some methods seen under Tsarist rule, while Stalin’s plans hinged on pumping much needed financial resources into military, infrastructure, industry and agriculture and expansion into new areas of natural resources, including Mongolia. Much of the needed money for Stalin’s plans came from the dismantling and selling of the possessions of the former imperial family. The Soviet Government effectively liquidated and used the Tsarist wealth in the the improved development of economic conditions and diplomatic relations.

<p>The dissertation is a study of the 1985 alcohol policy reform in the Soviet Union. The task is to explain the making and failure of the policy, and to examine the policy as a case in rule creation in society. More specifically, I analyze the policy-making in terms of symbolic politics, moral entrepreneurship, and the prohibitive measures it led to a5 a reaction to alcohol abuse. Each of these concepts offers a partial explanation of rule creation. Yet, none adequately explains the policy repeal, much less the creation of informal social definitions of right and wrong. Similar to alcohol prohibitions in the USA, Finland and Canada, the Soviet alcohol reform effort attempted but ultimately did not succeed in changing the social definition of alcohol and drinking. This is in contrast to cannabis, opium and cocaine prohibitions that aimed to preserve existing definitions and have been largely successful around the world. The relationship between formal and informal definitions is addressed as a key element in any understanding of variations in the fate ofmoral reforms. From this standpoint, the post-reform period comes to be viewed as a distinct stage wherein the viability of a proposed definition is tested. Presently dominant approaches to the definitional process appear to limit their own potential in that they refuse to reconsider assumptions that can be shown erroneous, do not differentiate between dissimilar processes and settings, do not ask more pointed research questions and do not stimulate empirically grounded and verifiable explanations. To redress these limitations, I offer a critical reexamination of both the moral entrepreneur and claims-making approaches to social definition-making.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)