Featured
Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and the Small of this World: Robin Feuer Miller discusses her upcoming book
Robin Feuer Miller, professor of Humanities and Russian Literature at Brandeis University, led a lively discussion at the Jordan Center on Friday of her new book Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and the...
War and Pestilence: The Epidemiological Motif in L. N. Tolstoy's Historical Epic
In the motivic structure of "War and Peace," the “mythical” French "grippe" of Anna Petrovna Scherer occupies a unique position. It is a simultaneously socio-linguistic, satirical, historical, moral, and providential...
Why no mass protests in Russia? Sociologist Greg Yudin Demonstrated Against the Invasion and Ended up in the Hospital. He Says We’re Living in a New Era.
The whole world is already realizing that February 24 marked the end of an entire huge postwar period, and now we’re living in a new era.
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...
Pregnancy and Writing the Female Body in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s "The Kukotsky Case”
In her 2001 novel, Ulitskaya uses the medical gaze to bring the pregnant woman closer to her child.
Narratives of Childbirth in Tolstoy’s "War and Peace"
I started to wonder if the very fact that there is not much to Liza’s birth scene might precisely be the point. Because, while a birth scene can be understood...
2014 Sochi Olympics: A chance for more Democracy or Repression?
Roughly 30 years ago, the Soviet Union staged the Moscow Olympics. This winter, Russia’s resort town of Sochi will play the host. One commonality is clear; the Kremlin is using...
Minds and Bodies in the World, or: Learning to Love Dostoevsky
I'm not one of those American Slavists who came to the study of Russian literature by way of Dostoevsky. For a long time, I wasn’t even particularly interested—I’m afraid that...
Lamas, Leaders, and Lay Believers: A History of Buddhists in Russia
On November 2nd, 2021, the Jordan Center hosted Dr. Melissa Chakars, an associate professor and Chair of the Department of History at Saint Joseph’s University. Dr. Chakars research focuses on...
Gothic Doubling and The Double, Gothically
Dostoevsky was well aware of the power of the gothic.
New Book, New Blog: Plots against Russia
I'm posting my new book to a blog as I write it, in real time.
Candid about the Camera: Tolstoy Scholars on Adapting Anna Karenina
Tolstoy can be so unforgiving with his ladies.
A New Companion for Readers of Dostoevskii
Today, "All the Russias" features an interview with the editors of "A Dostoevskii Companion: Texts and Contexts," a new volume out this month from Academic Studies Press.
Putin’s Y2024 Problem
There is no doubt that Putin has a succession plan – but he has not yet revealed what it is. During his June 2018 call-in program, Putin said in response...
Utopia Interrupted
When I was designing "Utopia Interrupted," my main goal was to foreground the diversity of voices and forms of difference of Soviet and post-Soviet literature and culture that is often...
“Spiritual Materialism” and Realist Discourse
"To endlessly describe nothing but priests/ In my opinion, is boring and out of fashion;/ Now you’re writing in a declining family;/ Don’t blow it, L—v."
The Future is Feudal (Unstuck in Time)
The medieval future, far from being always dystopian, might not even be that bad.
In Putin’s Vision of Ukraine’s Past, A Warning About Russia’s Future
On 12 July 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin published a historical essay titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” He frames the essay as a follow-up to a...