Featured
A Look Back at the Early 1990s: Moscow Time Capsule, Part III
Did you spend time in Russia or elsewhere in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s? Have you saved an artifact, souvenir, kitschy trinket, book, or memento that embodies the spirit of that time?
A Look Back at the Early 1990s: Moscow Time Capsule, Part II
Objects I saved from 1991-93 reflect the advent of widening global travel, including to and from Russia.
A Look Back at the Early 1990s: Moscow Time Capsule, Part I
Svetlana Boym once wrote that “today’s everyday artifact can turn into tomorrow’s counterrevolutionary kitsch.” This project, focused as it is on yesterday’s everyday artifacts, could be considered “counterrevolutionary” relative to the current official narrative of the Russian 1990s.
A Conversation with Julia Phillips, Author of "Disappearing Earth"
Phillips set out to create a work of fiction for American readers set in what, for them, is exotic landscape. She devoted her time in Kamchatka to meeting people, traveling,...
The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects
Soldiers are constructing whatever they can: Oil cans become stoves, artillery shells become kerosene lamps, overcoat fabric becomes wicks. Government officials regularly checked these trench “cities” for proper ventilation, light,...
Energy Aesthetics: Force, Flow, and En-tropy in Russian Culture
Literature, visual arts, popular science brought together Russian scholars in fields ranging from visual arts to literature to anthropology. The aim of the interdisciplinary symposium was to examine “energy as...
The Great Chernobyl Acceleration
One researcher in search of definitive answers to long-term health effects from Chernobyl has a radical idea about how to accelerate cleanup of the accident’s contamination: Buy the radioactive berries...
Kvas Patriotism in Russia: Cultural Problems, Cultural Myths
Professor Brintlinger's argument is developed along three ideas: Russian ideas about food become heightened during times of war and conflict; specific foods embody meaning beyond their sustenance value, to include...