“You have gay parades, and we have the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity.”
Continue reading...Barriers to Entry: AIDS, Condoms and Rank Stupidity in Russia
Eliot Borenstein
Throw out your condoms and pick up your Bibles (but try not to confuse the two, or you’ll run afoul of Russian laws protecting the delicate feelings of religious believers): HIV is a medical problem whose only solution is spiritual.
Continue reading...Thomas Bremer discusses religious dimension of Russian World
Anastassia Kostrioukova
On April 29, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Thomas Bremer – a current Jordan Center Fellow and a Professor of Ecumenical Theology, Eastern Churches Studies and Peace Studies at Münster University, Germany – to speak about the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards Russian World (Russkii mir), a foundation instituted by Vladimir Putin in 2007. In his brief introduction, Jordan Center Director Yanni Kotsonis expressed his excitement in welcoming Bremer to present on the subject, since not many people work on questions of religion.
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.
Day 2 – Two-day workshop starts new conversations on Russia`s Races
Anastassia Kostrioukova
On February 27, 2015 the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia hosted the second part of its two-day workshop Russia’s Races: Meanings and Practices of Race in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, convened by David Rainbow, a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies, and co-sponsored by NYU Department of History, Global Research Initiatives (NYU Provost), the Harriman Institute, and the Humanities Initiative (NYU).
The Eye of Sauron over Moscow, or, Revenge of the Orcs
Eliot Borenstein
Orthodox Awakening: The Fraying of Russia’s Church-State Alliance
Nadieszda Kizenko
To conclude that the Russian Orthodox Church is nothing more than a bastion of extreme conservatives is to miss the many ways that change is being forced upon it.
Continue reading...The Final Battle between Good and Neutrality?
Mark Galeotti
Today, the Leninskii District court in Kirov (what would those two Bolsheviks have made of it all?) is due to see the start of Alexei Navalny’s case, as he faces charges of embezzling $500,000 through timber sales from the KirovLes enterprise.
Continue reading...Sobchak interviews Nezvorov and my head explodes
Eliot Borenstein
Nevzorov’s responses to Socbchak’s pointed questions are a study in raw cynicism.
Continue reading...Tsar Nicholas Putin: Continuity or Coincidence?
Nathaniel Knight
On a cold December morning in the capital city a crowd gathered to protest Russia’s new ruler. Slogans and cheers sounded through the winter air as the people awaited the regime’s response…
Continue reading...Russia greets the end of the world
Eliot Borenstein
For those of you not already consumed by fire in the molten pits or, worse, living without wi-fi, there are no more shopping days left before the Mayan Apocalypse.
Continue reading...Living in Cossackworld
Mark Galeotti
Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at the NYU SCPS Center for Global Affairs. He blogs at In Moscow’s Shadows.
When is a Cossack not a Cossack? When he’s a metaphor.
Continue reading...Reintroducing Russia
Eliot BorensteinShow of hands by all the Russia watchers out there: in any of the scenarios in which Russia not only returned to the news, but became a cultural flashpoint, did anyone imagine that the key words would be “pussy riot?” “Riot,” perhaps, but… Here I’ll leave it to my readers to complete the thought.
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