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Excerpt from Emil Draitser's "In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir," Part I
“So, young man,” the KGB major says, stretching his hand toward my briefcase, “let’s see what you’ve tried to smuggle into the embassy of a foreign power.”
Excerpt from Emil Draitser's "In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir," Part II
Because Soviet life has made me accustomed to standing in lines of any length, I gird myself with patience and ask the usual question, “Who’s last in line?”
Excerpt from Emil Draitser's "In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir," Part III
What else do I have in my briefcase?
Excerpt from Emil Draitser's "In the Jaws of the Crocodile: A Soviet Memoir," Part IV
On the eve of my emigration, I was convinced I should say farewell to my writing life once and for all. I was sure that leaving the country where my...
Winter Reading Series: Emil Draitser's "Farewell, Mama Odessa," Part I
I couldn’t believe total strangers on the other side of the globe not only thought of us but also fought for our freedom.
Winter Reading Series: Emil Draitser's "Farewell, Mama Odessa," Part II
When the Bolshoi Ballet came to town, Si and Zev printed their own playbills and, at the theater entrance, handed them to the theatergoers. Below the ballet cast of "Sleeping...
Winter Reading Series: Emil Draitser's "Farewell, Mama Odessa," Part III
The more I learn about Si, the more he keeps amazing me…
Winter Reading Series: Emil Draitser's "Farewell, Mama Odessa," Part IV
So, Boris, when you are finally here, you must meet Si and Zev. We should do whatever we can to express our gratitude for all they have done—and are still...
Interrogating the Declining Significance of Pushkin’s Blackness: Henry James, Ivan Turgenev, and Literary Nationalism (with Korey Garibaldi and Emily Wang)
On October 14th, Professors Korey Garibaldi and Emily Wang, both of Notre Dame, joined the Jordan Center to speak about their collaborative work on race and literature in talk entitled...
Our Pushkin?
Pushkinists know that today is a holiday. The first graduating class of the Tsarkoe Selo Lyceum annually celebrated the anniversary of their first day of school by gathering, drinking, and...
Jokes and the New Russian Body
The New Russian is a nightmare vision of the Posthuman
Bad Taste, Revisited (Russia's Alien Nations)
Тhe New Russian resembles the American stereotypes of lottery winners
Play Based on Venedikt Erofeev's "Moskva-Petushki" Debuts at the East Village Playhouse
Like Erofeev's Venya, our own contemporaries seem to suffer from strong disillusionment with authority — an unsurprising outcome in the face of the degradation of discourse, institutions, and stable employment....
Why We Should be Paying Attention to Russian Economic Statecraft
The rise of corruption and kleptocracy associated with right-wing populism only gives Moscow further opportunities to use economic levers to pursue foreign policy goals. As new tools of financial globalization...
Civic Poetry and the Decembrist Revolt: Pushkin, Virtue Signaling, and Liberal Vibes
Pushkin’s political verse helped shape a subgenre of civic poetry and was subsequently interpreted in the context of this broader corpus and its increasingly radical opposition to the state.
Open Letter on the Termination of Russian Studies Faculty at Ohio University
Like you, we are wholeheartedly invested in the survival and recovery of higher education in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That recovery depends on the will of universities...
Excerpt from "Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective," Part I
The character of the female sex worker has recurred pervasively across time, space, and genre, repeatedly used by writers, filmmakers, artists, intellectuals, and politicians to explore anxieties about the disruptive...
Excerpt from "Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective," Part II
The sex industry in Russia is multiethnic, with scholars estimating a significant number of female migrants (from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia) working as sex workers, especially in...
Excerpt from "Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective," Part III
Prostitution existed in Russia for several centuries but became a widespread phenomenon during Peter I’s rule (1683–1725), with the first brothel or “public house” reportedly established by a German in...
The St. George's Ribbon and National Insanity
Today’s owner of a German car shares his identity with his grandfather, who fought the Nazis.