Did women have better sex under communism?
Continue reading...Joshua Tucker introduces new book on how communism’s legacy shapes present attitudes
Nigar Hacizade
Jordan Center Director Joshua Tucker delivered the NESEEES keynote address on his new book, “Communism’s Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes” (co-authored with Grigore Pop-Eleches).
Continue reading...A Soviet Theory of Broken Windows: Prophylactic Policing and the KGB’s Struggle with Dissent in the Baltic States
Ilaria Parogni
Stalin and the Struggle for Supremacy in Eurasia
Ilaria Parogni
Soviet historian Sheila Fitzpatrick speaks on collective leadership after Stalin’s death
Natasha Bluth
On November 23, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed historian Sheila Fitzpatrick, Professor at the University of Sydney and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita of the University of Chicago. Fitzpatrick, who has worked since the 1970s in the Soviet field, presented her research on “The Team Without Stalin: ‘Collective Leadership’ 1953-7.” Introducing the speaker, Jordan Center Director Yanni Kotsonis praised Fitzpatrick’s comprehensive scholarship. “No one else has mastered the Soviet field as Sheila Fitzpatrick,” Kotsonis said. She “singlehandedly transformed the way we did Soviet history because first of all, she treated it as history, and second of all, she […] put forth the proposition—which was very controversial in the middle of the Cold War—that the Soviet Union was a country” that was comparable to other countries.
Irina Sandomirskaja discusses cultural significance of Russian icon in Soviet context
Anastassia Kostrioukova
On March 13, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Irina Sandomirskaja, Professor of Cultural Studies at Södertörn University, to present a paper entitled “Originating in Return: Russian Past, Soviet Legacy, and Critical Cultural Heritage Theory.” After a brief introduction by Professor Anne Lounsbery, chair of the NYU department of Russian and Slavic Studies, Sandomirskaja stated that in the past she has worked extensively on the relationship between image and word; now she has set off to study the object. In particular, she focused her study on the Russian Orthodox icon and its re-appropriation in Soviet cultural politics.
Stephen Kotkin on Stalin: Geopolitics, Ideas, Power
Anastassia Kostrioukova
Sept. 26, 2014, marked the first of the Distinguished Lecture series at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. As director Yanni Kotsonis pointed out, the lectures as well as the Center itself are meant to “protect conversations about Russia. If one wants to speak of Russia these days, you need protection; if one wants to speak against, you also need protection.” He added: “The only criterion here is intelligence.”
Noncompetitive elections and dissent: Evidence from the USSR
Anastassia Kostrioukova
Sept. 12 marked the opening of the Jordan Center’s Fall 2014 Colloquium Series with a presentation by Arturas Rozenas, Assistant Professor at the NYU Department of Politics, whose current research focuses on authoritarian states, electoral competitions and statistical methodology. Rozenas presented a paper on the nature of Soviet elections, which he had written several years ago and currently wishes to revive with newly gathered data from the KGB and Communist Party archives in Lithuania.
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