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Plato’s Republic of Zavolshsk (Pelagia and the White Bulldog 6)
We’ve wandered onto territory somewhere between the Beiils Affair and the Pussy Riot trial
Vanishing Act: Evasive Storytelling in Platonov’s “The Lunar Bomb” (1926)
Andrei Platonov's fictional works are difficult to categorize squarely within one genre. While his later works adhere more closely to realism, his works from the 1920s range from science fiction...
Socratic Dialogue in the Admissions Office: The Allegory of the Russian Major
The Russian major is hostile to a liberal arts education because he is not interested in gold.
“Dead Men Don’t Read Tolstoy. A Philip Marlowe Mystery”
“And the students? Didn’t they deserve a little Nabokov?”
Soviet Bullsh*t and New Russian Spell-Casting (Russia's Alien Nations)
Green is not just the color of the crocodile, it is the color of the money that he conjures out of thin air.
Socrates in Russia, Part I
The story of Socrates has long been a vessel for interpretation. Philosophers, writers, and artists in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Soviet and post-Soviet space have actively participated in this process,...
Is a Crocodile Longer Than It Is Green? (Russia's Alien Nations)
On the level of logic, you can prove anything.
The Class of 2021 Looks Back
I remember the truck taking away the last books to the recycling center because we had a strict green policy and I remember the last prof who the cops had...
How Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ Can Inspire Those Who Fear Trump’s America
I can’t see Tolstoy wearing a pink pussy hat.
Socrates in Russia, Part III
My chapter draws on Skovoroda’s metaphysics and epistemology to articulate a conception of Dostoevsky's Zosima as a Russian Socrates.
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...
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...
Spring Reading Series: Andrei Egunov-Nikolev's "Beyond Tula," Part I
"Beyond Tula" has a transparently insignificant plot: a young writer from the city comes to visit his engineer friend in the country for a couple of days, and everything ends...
Katniss in the Underground (A Pedagogical Field Note)
Here's a question for you post-new critics out there: if a student completely misunderstands the historical context of a novel, but is otherwise on target, how severe should the consequence...
“The Meeting of the Faculty Senate” From “Universitetskaia Pravda,” October 32, 1936
Down with humanist-saboteurs! Long live impactfulness!
Progress: Threat or Menace? (WQ 15)
We can all learn something from villains.
All or Nothing: The Literary Significance of Proper Names
The philosopher Vladimir Soloviev (1853-1900) had a habit of naming each object he owned. According to émigré theologian Vladimir Lossky (1903-1958), Soloviev’s satchel was named "Grigory" and his pencil "Andrey."
Luck Be a Lady Tonight (Akunin WQ 4)
The Winter Queen is less a first installment than it is a prequel
The Dialectical Images of Russian History
When university students are first introduced to the discipline of history, it is often as a practice of grand narratives – the surveying and engineering of broad explanatory models about...
Reading Nabokov in Greenwich Village (A Pedagogical Field Note*)
Forget Reading Lolita in Tehran--the strangest place I found myself reading Nabokov was in a Russian literature class.