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Maxim Suchkov discusses perspectives and scenarios in U.S.-Russia relations
On October 27, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Maxim A. Suchkov, a Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Studies and an Associate Professor...
Propaganda, Political Apathy, and Authoritarianism in Russia
Russian propaganda derives its effectiveness from political apathy rather than its ability to persuade. Because citizens understand that their actions cannot affect the autocrat’s policies, they invest only minimal resources...
The Competing Campaigns of the Russian Opposition
Next year, opponents of the Kremlin are hoping to recreate the success they achieved during the 2017 municipal election in Moscow — this time in Russia’s northern capital, St. Petersburg....
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.
The Soviet Moral Gray Zone: From Kantian Deontology to Maternal Ethics in Vassily Grossman’s "Everything Flows"
In the context of the Holocaust and other twentieth-century mass traumas, the Kantian Categorical Imperative, which underscores ethical transgression, can at times appear inadequate.
Yuz Aleshkovsky’s “Song about Stalin”
Many took Aleshkovsky's song to be a folk composition, but no ordinary criminal — not even a gang of them — could have produced so elaborate a political satire. Aleshkovsky...
The Last Will and Testament of Sergei Esenin: Cultural History of a Mystification, Part III
In the end, he was released as partially insane, for it was noted that he considered himself an incarnation of the Buddha and believed that he desperately needed money to...
Robert Crews revisits Afghan history in a global context
On Wednesday, March 9, 2016, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Robert Crews, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Abbasi Program in Islamic...
“The Meeting of the Faculty Senate” From “Universitetskaia Pravda,” October 32, 1936
Down with humanist-saboteurs! Long live impactfulness!
Rereading Akunin: A Conversation with Eliot Borenstein
Fandorin is just not a joiner. And specifically, if there’s one principle to which he’s committed above all others, it’s this notion of “personal human dignity” and the individual's prerogative...
Nadya Tolokno: Pussy Riot's Fashion Icon or Fashion Victim?
It’s not easy being punk. It’s even harder to keep believing in punk (or, by extension, anarchism, activism, and the like). For a style of life and art that seems...
Overkill as Governance: How I Spent my Summer in Moscow (Part I)
It's no secret to those who study Russia that the culture of vertical control here affects everyone – not least human rights workers and lawyers fighting good fights.
Snowden in Moscow: The Interview
"I’ve been recognized every now and then. It’s always in computer stores. It’s something like brain associations, because I’ll be in the grocery store and nobody will recognize me. Even...
Marital Happy Endings and Cultural Politics in a Contemporary Australian Adaptation of Anna Karenina
In our time, there is a definite expectation that people know what they want and ensure their own happiness.
Wright's Wrongs: Filming and Failing Anna Karenina
They couldn't have reproduced all of Tolstoy's intricate balance, but they could certainly have tried harder.
What the Soviet Story Teaches Us about Sincerity
The Soviet story is an instructive reminder of the risky dynamics that can unfold between claims to sincere expression, political pressure, and media manipulation.
The Imponderabilia of Immigrant Life: An Immigrant Story
I think of immigration in my subsequent, adult life, not as a determinant but something akin to the zodiac sign if one believes in astrology.
Film Review: Sarik Andreasian's "Guardians" (2016)
With "Guardians," cinemas saw a Russian superhero team at last. Most of them wished they could unsee it.
The Leviathan and the Gutter: Gefter.ru interviews NYU's Mikhail Iampolski (Part I)
There’s no law, Putin is absolutely impotent, he can’t do anything. That’s it. All that’s left is to sit there, like a medieval serf, and hope to God that you...
Formalism and the Future (Part I)
In the field of Russian literary studies, there has been a recent move towards reviving turn of the century Russian literary theoretical approaches – specifically that of Yuri Tynianov's formalist...