Dissertations / Theses: 'Soviet Studies'

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Atkins, Andrea N. "Discretion in Russian Librarianship: Pre-Soviet, Soviet, Post-Soviet." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1343769040.

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Batjargal, B. "New entrepreneurs in post-Soviet Russia." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.390290.

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Gentile, Michael. "Studies in the Transformation of Post-Soviet Cities : Case Studies from Kazakhstan." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala : Dept. of Social and Economic Geography [Kulturgeografiska institutionen], Univ, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-4306.

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Craciun, Emil. "Dissidence within the Soviet Bloc : the case of Romania." FIU Digital Commons, 1986. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2662.

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This study examines why Romania's dissidence within the Soviet bloc has not provoked a military response from the Soviet Union during the 1965-1985 period. The hypothesis assumed is that Soviet tolerance is granted to Romania in exchange for its internal orthodoxy. Based on English and Romanian sources of information and on the author's experience having lived in Romania, the following factors are analyzed: Party internal control, its organization, leadership and ideology. The study concludes that Romania's internal orthodoxy, closely resembling Soviet society, has neutralized the country's dissident foreign policy saving it from a Soviet military intervention.

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Gatling, Benjamin. "Post-Soviet Sufism: Texts and the Performance of Tradition in Tajikistan." The Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1345143093.

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Copp, John W. "Egypt and the Soviet Union, 1953-1970." PDXScholar, 1986. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3797.

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The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze in detail the many aspects of the Soviet-Egyptian friendship as it developed from 1953 to 1970. The relationship between the two is extremely important because it provides insight into the roles of both Egypt and the Soviet Union in both the history of the Middle East and in world politics. The period from 1953 to 1970 is key in understanding the relationship between the two states because it is the period of the genesis of the relationship and a period in which both nations went through marked changes in both internal policy and their external relations.

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Bayerl, Elizabeth. "USAID projects in the former Soviet Union: policy case studies." Thesis, Boston University, 2002. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/32740.

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Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University
The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War are widely recognized as watershed events in the history of world affairs. Decision-makers and scholars in many fields are only beginning to understand the profound shifts and realignments in global political and economic relationships in a post-Cold War world. An important link between the United States and the former Soviet republics is the foreign assistance program in the region, since assistance efforts often serve as an important lens through which to view strategic relationships between nations. This evaluative policy research explores that link through qualitative case studies of three US Agency for International Development (USAID) projects in the region. Each qualitative case study represents a distinct approach to foreign assistance delivery in the region: classical technical assistance (represented by ZdravReform in contracts with Abt Associates), formal site partnership (in cooperative agreements with the American International Health Alliance), and experimental technology (a cooperative agreement with the former Selentec, Inc.). Three policy context chapters (Chapters I, II, and III) introduce the case studies, in which historical trends of the assistance effort and of the domestic foreign policy-making framework in Washington, DC, are highlighted. A final chapter (VII) examines the findings from the study and recommends a refocusing of the foreign assistance effort in the NIS toward more long-term developmental strategies. Theoretical and methodological assumptions in the study are informed by the constructionist approach to policy evaluation described by Guba and Lincoln (1989). This broad approach assumes that different constructions or interpretations exist concerning the nature and goals of projects. Unlike typical project evaluations, this approach does not assume that stakeholders in projects share common perceptions of the expected goals for and outcomes of their projects. Constructionist approaches to qualitative study fall within the interpretative stream of social science explored by theorists and researchers from a number of disciplines (Geertz, 1973; Denzin, 1992; Hammersley, 1989; Bruner, 1990). More specific conceptual assumptions also are explored in Chapter I, drawn from the literature on institutional research . Emphasis is placed in the evaluative analysis on how effectively conflicts that arose among the multiple stakeholders in each project were addressed.

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Yando, Lisa Elizabeth. "Comecon: its Function as a Soviet Political Instrument." W&M ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625679.

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Morriss, Anthony Douglas. "Russia, the Soviet Union and Arms Control 1899-1987." W&M ScholarWorks, 1990. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625609.

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Lenard, Brittney A. "Outsiders in an Inside Game: The Effects of the Traditional Soviet Economy of Favors on Foreigners Doing Business in Contemporary Russia." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/67.

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Blat, or the exchange of favors among friends, played a key role in the Soviet Union. The ability to use connections to gain access to hard-to-find goods or services was practically indispensible in the shortage economy. But blat has also been important in the post-Soviet environment, particularly in business. People with powerful connections have achieved success, while those outside of the business networks have been left behind. Thus, the ability to establish and maintain connections determines who succeeds in Russian business today. I argue that this dynamic significantly disadvantages foreign businesses in Russia because it favors insiders, is difficult for foreigners to understand, and most importantly, leads foreign companies into ethically questionable practices that are unacceptable in international business. Using the case of IKEA’s experiences in the Russian market, I hope to investigate whether this theory can inform our understanding of foreign businesses’ experiences in Russia.

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Perrella, Samuel Victor. "Legacy of the Bear: How Contemporary Russia-NATO Tensions Have Been Shaped by Soviet Politico- Military Security Considerations and the Fall of the Soviet Union." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1084.

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The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the root causes of Russia’s recent aggressive regionalism. Russia’s revival and corresponding military, political, and informational offensives have shaken European security in a way few thought it was capable of following the USSR’s dissolution and Russia’s subsequent fall into ineptitude. At first glance, this shift in Russia’s posture appears to come as a result of an uptick in nationalism driven by the chauvinistic revanchism of its leader, Vladimir Putin. However, this thesis finds that the eastward expansion of NATO’s membership and transition to a more offensive force posture, augmented by the placement of missile defense infrastructure in Europe, has contributed to a Russian impression of besiegement and corresponding sense that its security and sovereignty are threatened. Russia’s perception that NATO is acting to replace Russia in its perceived sphere of influence has been shaped by the fall of the Soviet Union and Soviet security considerations. This thesis recommends that, to prevent the further deterioration of the relationship between Russia and the West, the following policies should be enacted. First, NATO should reestablish relations with Russia and partner with it on the European ballistic missile defense shield as a confidence building measure. Second, NATO should halt the eastward expansion of its traditional collective security membership and instead rely on NATO’s Partnership for Peace program to support democratization efforts in the former Eastern Bloc. While these policies cannot eliminate the historical context that the NATO-Russia relationship is shaped by, they can serve as the beginning of a shift away from mutual antagonism by defusing tensions between NATO and Russia.

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Goodfellow, Catherine Elizabeth. "Online gaming in post-Soviet Russia : practices, contexts and discourses." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/online-gaming-in-postsoviet-russia-practices-contexts-and-discourses(43d061dd-5108-42e5-b0b1-87d396a53c0c).html.

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In terms of both production and consumption, video games and gaming are a significant phenomenon in Russia, a fact acknowledged by the authorities and mainstream media. Although internet use in Russia has been a point of academic interest over the past few years, scholars have been slower to research video games despite their increasingly popular position in the media ecology of the region. Similarly, despite the abundance of theory and data on gaming in North America and Europe, game studies researchers have hardly skimmed the surface of the cultures, preferences and activities of gamers further afield. This dissertation investigates the online gaming sphere in Russia, presenting an empirical study of the industry, providing insight into gamers themselves, and analysing the media and political discourses surrounding gaming in Russia. In this study, I draw upon survey data, forum, website, and blog posts, user comments from gaming forums and analyses of local games to construct a picture of gaming activity and identity amongst gamers. In particular, I show how Russian-speaking gamers present themselves as members of a distinct subcultural group. Online gamers who participated in this study are shown to consume and discuss games in ways that can differ from elsewhere in the world, but they still retain common beliefs about the importance of expertise, taste and self-discipline within the gaming community. They display a great deal of knowledge about the games and communities available to them locally, while also consuming foreign games in selective and critical ways. For the reader conversant with game studies work, the dissertation constitutes a challenge to West-centric theories of gaming and gamers and demonstrates the importance of cultural context in shaping gaming practice. Throughout the dissertation, interactions between global and local, media and subcultural definitions of ‘gamer’ are crucial to understanding how gaming plays out in a Russian context. The self-definition of gamers differs greatly from mainstream media concepts of gamers. I contextualise discourses of the gaming self within an analysis of how the Russian media presents gamers as young people in need of moral and emotional guidance. Moreover, I show how contemporary media assessments of games and gamers have much in common with earlier moral panics about Western-inflected media and subcultures, such as rock music and style. Ultimately the gaming landscape in Russia is shown to be full of tensions, and the task of this dissertation is to identify, assess and compare these disparate discourses.

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Whitsel, Christopher M. "Growing inequality Post-Soviet transition and educational participation in Tajikistan /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2009. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3380138.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Sociology, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 14, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-12, Section: A, page: 4635. Adviser: Maurice Garnier.

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Iandolo, Alessandro. "Soviet policy in West Africa, 1957-64." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2f17b326-8c4e-427a-8ce4-040c34582083.

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Between 1957 and 1964 the Soviet Union sought to export to West Africa a model of economic and social development. Moscow’s policy was driven by the conviction that socialism was a superior economic system, and could be replicated in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. However, Soviet confidence in the project was undermined by the unreliability of local leaders, and then by the Congo crisis. The setback in West Africa taught the Soviet leadership crucial lessons, including the importance of supporting ideologically reliable leaders, and the necessity of building military strength to bolster intervention. Combining Soviet and Ghanaian sources with those more readily available in the UK and the US, this thesis shows the importance of modernisation of the Third World for Moscow’s foreign policy during the Khrushchev era, and contributes to the new sets of literature on the cold war in the third world, and on the Soviet Union’s foreign policy.

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Jebsen, Peter. "Bolshevik for Capitalism: Ayn Rand & Soviet Socialist Realism." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/134.

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Since the late 1950s, Russian-American novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand has been “the ultimate gateway drug to life on the right.” Her philosophy – “Objectivism” – combined militant atheism, libertarian natural rights, and a philosophical commitment to what she called “the virtue of selfishness,” and earned her the admiration of such luminaries as Alan Greenspan: a remarkable achievement for an immigrant woman who learned to speak English in her late 20s. What is less-often observed is that Rand’s work, especially her mature novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), bear a close stylistic resemblance to the Soviet Socialist Realist novel. This thesis identifies these similarities and attempts to answer the question of why a heavily Soviet-inflected writer was able to reach such cultural and political prominence in, of all places, America.

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Granados, Juana. "Looking Beyond Shostakovich's Thirteenth Symphony." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1729.

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The objective of this thesis is to explain how Dmitrii Shostakovich used Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poetry to create the Thirteenth Symphony. This collaboration between two arts, poetry and music, reflects more than just separate ideas. The five movements of the symphony bring to public conscience the political opinions of Shostakovich regarding life in the Soviet Union.

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O'Neal, Kelsey L. "The Ties that Bind: Russian Aid to Ukraine." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/331.

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Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation has struggled to construct a new foreign policy paradigm in a world that is no longer bipolar. Instead of the Cold War era arms stockpiles, Moscow has signed multiple Strategic Arms Reduction Treaties (START), and instead of physically taking over neighboring territories, increasing diplomacy and economic incentives have become Moscow’s primary tool to garner and maintain influence in its near abroad. Soft power initiatives, that can all roughly fit into a foreign aid model, from the Russian Federation to the near abroad come in different forms: oil subsidies, aid in kind, and direct financial investment. The Russian Federation has used all three of these strategies in Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union in an attempt to keep the country in its sphere of influence. The use of foreign aid, be it oil subsides, aid in kind, or direct financial aid, all work towards the same goal of promoting Russian policies and interests in the near abroad. Ukraine, with its unique political, cultural and geographical importance, demonstrates the new struggle between Russia and the West. The struggle’s main actors are the Russian Federation against the eastern half of NATO and the EU, and the conclusion is unclear. Foreign aid and soft power are now playing a critical role in the outcome.

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Jones, Sarah Jessica. "Under the Permafrost: Uncovering a Social Movement in the Soviet Union." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366211237.

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Goldman, Lawrence R. "An Analysis of the Relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union: 1959-1990." W&M ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625685.

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Zasoba, Ievgeniia. "Migration, Individualism and Dependency| Experiences of Skilled Women from the Former Soviet Union in Silicon Valley." Thesis, San Jose State University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10829111.

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An academic dialog concerning the intersectionality of national origin, economic class and gender, as mutually constitutive elements of migration, set the context for my inquiry into the experiences of wives who are barred from paid labor by their restricted visa status. Guided by grounded theory, I conducted seventeen semi-structured qualitative interviews to examine ways in which a move to Silicon Valley under a restricted visa class changes the self-image of women, and how they evaluate this change. I found that the ambiguous agency construct of women socialized in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras facilitated their choice to migrate despite the visa restrictions. After emigrating, the women tended to embrace values of individualism and self-reliance, which reinforced their professional ambitions. However, the absence of professional options created a split between the women’s lived experiences and their self-representation. In addition, I found that a visa that prohibits employment creates a homogenizing effect on women’s self-images, putting them on similar personal and professional tracks and making their legal and economic status less predictable. These findings suggest that structural strategies might be adopted to help these women reclaim their self-images and exert more control over the selection and pursuit of their goals.

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Clement, Victoria. "The politics of script reform in Soviet Turkmenistan: alphabet and national identity formation." The Ohio State University, 1999. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1399625234.

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Dollar, Alena Victoria. "The Complexity of Human Nature in the Portraits of the Marginalized in Yuri Kazakov’s Village Prose." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1020.

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One of the first Village Prose writers was Yuri Kazakov. In his short stories about life in remote Russian villages, Kazakov was able to combine traditions of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky with traditions of Turgenev and Bunin and created a unique style using psychological parallelism in lyrical prose. Through the aspects of village, nature, time, and native language, Yuri Kazakov exposed the life of the marginals. He was interested in individuals and their personal feelings and thoughts. He did not look at individuals as a part of society but rather as a part of and the creation of nature. Therefore, he found his characters in the remote Siberian villages where the Soviet regime and propaganda minimally influenced people’s lives and their traditional values. His characters cannot be characterized as simply good or bad. Through his characters, Kazakov investigated and explored the complexity of human nature, emotions, and motifs. In his stories, he was able to masterfully unfold human souls and draw their psychological portraits to address timeless philosophical questions about the purpose of live, moral choices, unity of people and nature

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Ter-Grigoryan, Svetlana Yuriyevna. "A Soviet Parade of Horribles: Conservatism in Glasnost-Era Discourses on Sex, 1987-1991." TopSCHOLAR®, 2016. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1564.

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Between 1987 and 1991, Soviet filmmakers and journalists utilized Gorbachev’s glasnost reform policy to depict or discuss sexuality in cinema and the popular press. I argue that Soviet film and popular press discourses on sex in this period reveal a continuity of conservative sexual mores, which were interwoven with social and moral conservatism regarding the centerpiece of Soviet society, the Soviet family. Furthermore, these discourses take on a fundamentally misogynistic tone, in that women are tasked with defending sexual purity, and thus familial integrity, while simultaneously being cast as those most susceptible to the power of sexual enticement. Thus, the comparatively permissive discourse about sex and sexuality in the 1980s can be interpreted not as a “sexual revolution,” but as an explosion in social and moral anxieties, that were unique to the glasnost period, about the Soviet way of life. Additionally, this study challenges the concept of the totalitarian Soviet system by highlighting intellectuals’ persevering conservatism during a period where the state did not expressly govern or censor discourses on sex and sexuality.

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Quilitzsch, Anya. "Everyday Judaism on the soviet periphery| Life and identity of Transcarpathian Jewry after World War II." Thesis, Indiana University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10144214.

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This dissertation investigates how the Holocaust and postwar sovietization shaped the dynamics of Jewish communities and ordinary life in southwestern Ukraine. I examine the relationship between state policy and the sphere of Jewish religious practice. Two research questions motivated this study: (1) What was the trajectory of the lives of Eastern European Jews who came back from Nazi concentration camps? and (2) How did Jews negotiate their religious and public identities in an everyday setting? To examine these questions, the study illuminates the postwar life of one group of Jewish Holocaust survivors in the periphery of the Soviet Union. Literature on postwar Soviet Jewry has focused almost exclusively on the lives of elites in the center. This study enhances our understanding of Jewish integration into Soviet society.

I used oral history, collected during my own ethnographic fieldwork in Israel and Ukraine, as well as state archives to analyze processes of return and integration. Interviews with ordinary people permit a social perspective on political developments and communal reconstruction. Statistical data and official communication provide the framework necessary to show the dynamics of Jewish life. Combining archival material with oral history demonstrates that the impact of Soviet rule on Jewish life after World War II is more complex than previously portrayed. Topics examined include the liberation from Nazi concentration camps, arrival experiences in Transcarpathia, the reconstruction of private and public Jewish life in the late 1940s and everyday Jewish practice in the 1950s and early 60s.

Ordinary Jews fully integrated into society, succeeded in their careers and expressed their Jewish identity through religious practice. The findings include individual negotiation of demands in secular society and the methods of circumventing obstacles that restricted religious practice. The analysis of the interviews, however, prompts a reconsideration of postwar Soviet Jewish life with regard to persecution and emigration narratives.

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Pozdorovkin, Maxim. "Khronika: Soviet Newsreel at the Dawn of the Information Age." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10628.

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This dissertation considers ten years in the life of one word. Between 1918 and 1928, khronika—the Russian word that describes newsreel filmmaking—became the site of extensive debates about the aesthetics and social responsibilities of the documentary film. Following the February revolution of 1917, khronika was promoted as the privileged record keeper of a new historical era, catalyzing a period of unprecedented formal innovation. During this period, Soviet documentarians transform the relationship between text and image, developing a film style that integrated verbal and visual material. In newsreel journal such as Kino-Pravda, images cease to be passive illustrations accompanying text and are for the first time treated as equally capable of delivering propositional content. Like other modernist art practices, khronika develops in dialogue with attempts to define its essence as a film genre and its medium specificity. Falling under the influence of competing strains within Constructivism, khronika is first conceived as a purely visual medium and then again as a purely factual one. Made up of seventeen variations on the social, political, and aesthetic aspects of khronika's evolution, the dissertation makes a crucial revision of documentary history. Rather than focus on the first instances of non-fiction films that adapt the narrative conventions of fiction film, Khronika examines the origins of documentary as an informational medium. Drawing on film theory, history of science, and philosophy, Khronika asks what it was that film learned to express during the first tumultuous decade when documentaries ceased to be windows onto a world and become the active interpreters of the reality captured by motion picture cameras.
Slavic Languages and Literatures

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Chehabi, Hikmat. "Russian Foreign Policy in the Middle East: A Case Study of Syria." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/876.

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Goodwin-Kucinsky, Molly. "Filling the Gaps: How Women’s Groups Meet Changing Needs in Post-Soviet Russia." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243868760.

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Osmar, Christopher M. "Vanguard of Genocide: The Einsatzgruppen in the Soviet Union." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1281029869.

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Olsson, Rasmus. "Fashioning Socialism At Home : Exploring the smock-dress in Soviet-Estonia." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Modevetenskap, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-184729.

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This thesis aims to highlight the smock-dress within the context of Soviet-Estonia during the post-war epoch, ca. 1950s until 1990s. Through Mauss’s socio-anthropological tripoint view, the concepts and identities of the smock-dress are studied from the angles of biology, sociology and psychology. The intention is to show its widespread use amongst Soviet- Estonian women and their remembrance of it, in accordance with the Soviet ideological structures. Using semi-structured interviews, I have assembled oral history from women who attain this historical retrospective, aiming to depict the smock-dress as both a concept and an object, thus functioning as an emblem of Soviet society rather than a historical artefact. Relying on the terms nostalgia, socio-cultural belonging and phenomenology, I seek to capture the smock-dress as both a vestiary phenomenon and representation of social structures. Thus, creating a dual identity, individual and collective, through its usage, showing that sartorial fashion encompasses more than just emotions and promoted stylistics.

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Freire, Maria Raquel de Sousa. "Conflict and security in the former Soviet Union : the role of the OSCE." Thesis, University of Kent, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.369605.

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This thesis aims to clarify the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)'s approach to post-Cold War tensions and conflicts in the former Soviet area, the extent to which the new procedures, mechanisms and instruments developed by the organisation are useful, and how the OSCE's activities may reveal innovative contributions to conflict studies. An integrating analysis is needed, not only of the OSCE's development. but also of the numerous aspects conditioning OSCE approaches in the former Soviet space. particularly the involvement of other international organisations and the role of the Russian Federation. In this sense. OSCE activities take place in a complex environment that demands a comprehensive addressing of the different factors. at times limiting and at others strengthening the organisation's reach. How this interplay takes place and the extent to which it affects the OSCE's role in the former Soviet space is a fundamental question. Starting from the theoretical conceptualisation where the OSCE's approaches and procedures fit. this analysis includes the organisation's new tools to address conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. How it renders the new procedures and instruments operational, how its institutions inter-relate and the extent to which its principles and activities are extended to its wide area are analysed. The role of the OSCE Field Missions in the former Soviet Union is stressed in this regard. demonstrating how the organisation applies commitments to reality. The focus on the Republic of Estonia and the Republic of Moldova, as two case-studies of OSCE involvement in the former Soviet Union area, show the organisation's preventive efforts and crisis settlement tools in practical terms. The case-studies demonstrate the encompassing approaches of the organisation in the field, permitting us to infer on its limits and possibilities and to shed light on the OSCE's possible innovative contributions to conflict studies.

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Skvarek, Anne Marie. "Beauty in post-Soviet Russia: A contradictory freedom. An analysis of Russian teen magazines from 2003." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291982.

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This thesis is an exploration of the content of Russian teen magazines published in 2003 meant for a female audience. Given that glossy magazines for female teenagers did not appear in Russia until 1991, the long-term effect of the messages these magazines engender is yet to fully be seen in the generations coming of age in post-Soviet society. This thesis is a first attempt to speculate on the effect these magazines are having on Russian teen girls. By analyzing the strategies used in these magazines to promote fashion, cosmetics, skin care and body image, we can perceive the ways in which Western norms of feminine beauty have been successfully imported to Russia during the last 15 years. This study examines the ideal of the "beautiful" female body propagated throughout the Soviet era, and how this ideal changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Implications for further research are discussed.

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Ainslie, Jessica. "Populist Power- Examining the Rise of PiS and Fidesz in Poland and Hungary." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2193.

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This study examines the rise of populism in Hungary and Poland through the Fidesz and Law and Justice (PiS) parties. As a relatively new terminology, the study begins by dissecting the various definitions of populism to establish a universal set of criteria to define the ideology. The majority of experts suggest that populist leaders campaign using a rhetoric of “us versus them” that encourages the population to feel that its general will is not being accurately represented. This strategy is particularly effective in Eastern European nations whose USSR roots makes them skeptical of globalization and paranoid of any loss of sovereignty. The study outlines three major underlying themes that led to the rise of populist parties in Poland and Hungary. First, the neoliberal reforms enacted during a post-communism shock therapy era created a level of poverty and wealth disparity that made citizens eager to return to the leftist economic platforms of Fidesz and PiS. Second, the newness of Poland and Hungary’s political system and continued communist elite system led to a level of corruption in the new government that left citizens with a growing distrust towards more traditional parties. Finally, both PiS and Fidesz capitalized off of the European migration crisis to stoke socially conservative fears and rally nativism. This study finds that these populist parties are successful due to their ability to capitalize off of the frustrations and fears of the common citizen who feels forgotten in a globalized society.

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Niyozov, Sarfaroz. "Understanding teaching in post-Soviet, rural, mountainous Tajikistan, case studies of teachers' life and work." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/NQ63627.pdf.

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Mendez, Alexa J. "People as Propaganda: Personifications of Homeland in Nazi German and Soviet Russian Cinema." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1439280003.

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Galash, Anastasiya V. "The Strength of the Russian Energy Weapon in Ukraine." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/306.

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The Russian implementation of the "energy weapon" plays an important role in understanding the complex Eurasian political dynamism that exists and influences relationships. Endowed with a greater amount of gas supplies, Russia has utilized its natural monopoly in an endeavor to maneuver its political objectives within the international scene. Its drive to espouse the "energy weapon" envelopes itself within Russia’s turbulent past and desire to regain political prominence experienced throughout much of the twentieth century. Thus, studying Russian motivations in employing gas resources allows political scientists, statespersons and other government intellectuals to better understand the economic backdrop affecting Eurasian affairs and potentially formulate strategic policy that would garner net positive outcomes with little to no negative externalities. Studying such information would prove to enhance relations, positively or negatively, for Ukrainian, Russian, and European authorities when conducting domestic and foreign policy.

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Davlyatova, Nodira. "In search of better lives: analyzing post-soviet migration from Tajikistan to Russia." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/18667.

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Master of Arts
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work
Nadezda Shapkina
With the collapse of the socialist model in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991 which was followed by Civil War (1992-1997), Tajikistan has undergone profound social, economic, and political transformation. Persistent impoverishment, political and economic instability, and discrimination of ethnic minorities have resulted in out-migration of Tajik population to Russia. In this study, labor migration (survival driven, seasonal, and chain) is discussed. Even though Tajik migrants face challenges such as segregation, xenophobia, sexism, and intolerance working abroad, they continue to migrate to Russia in order to seek a better quality of life. This is closely linked to migration policy and regulations that have been implemented by the governments of these countries which allow free movement across the borders. Although these migration policies promote legal migration, they create favorable conditions for inequality (such as structural, social, and global) as well as illegal migratory flows. However, little scholarly work has been focused on how migration policy contributes to structural inequality and leads to illegal migration in the former Soviet Republics. In my study, I seek to add to the limited existing literature about these phenomena. I examine the social context of Tajik labor migration, legal framework, migration policy and regulations, and its implications. Specifically, I analyze the case of Tajikistan and Russia’s migration policies and regulations as they are proposed and implemented by governmental agencies in collaboration and consultation with civil society organizations (local and international) including the Tajik diasporas.

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Decker, Pamela. "Theatrical Spectatorship in the United States and Soviet Union, 1921-1936: A Cognitive Approach to Comedy, Identity, and Nation." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1371461287.

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Woolf, Alan. "Groupthink Among German, British, American, and Soviet Leaders During the Holocaust." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5673.

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Understanding the psychology behind the perpetrators of the Holocaust has been difficult because experiments on conformity and obedience cannot readily simulate the reality of the Holocaust. There exists historical documentation surrounding the leaders of the Nazi organization instrumental for the perpetration of the Holocaust, but the underlying motives of Hitler's leaders relating to governmental policies of systematic extermination of the Jews in Europe, are not known, as the strategy and operationalization of the actions were kept extremely secret, disguised by euphemisms, or only discussed verbally. This research study was to further understand the thought processes behind the manipulation tactics applied by leaders of the Nazi organization, and the leaders of Britain, America, and the Soviet Union during the Holocaust, by reviewing their personal writings, communiques, and orders. The theoretical base used was the theory of groupthink by Janis, because it is most applicable to understanding complex human psychology. The research questions of the study were: a) to find the origins of the Final Solution, why it gained acceptance by the Nazis, and the role of anti-Semitism ; and b) to identify groupthink symptom language relating to German, British, American, and Soviet leaders during the Holocaust. A qualitative multiple retro-historical case study methodology was selected. Data were collected and analyzed from archival material and groupthink theory was found to be ideally suited to the study of the Holocaust. Translation of a period of Alfred Rosenberg's diary relating to Hitler's issuance of the 'Hitler Extermination Order,' was discovered. The results show areas for further research, including the translation into English of the Alfred Rosenberg diary that was lost to history for over 60 years. The findings of this research study will hopefully help organizational psychologists to better remedy groupthink practices.

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Blomstedt, Yulia. "Self-reported health among immigrants from the former Soviet Union : quantitative and qualitative studies in Sweden /." Stockholm, 2007. http://diss.kib.ki.se/2007/978-91-7357-108-1/.

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Bashirov, Galib. "US Foreign Policy toward Azerbaijan, 1991-2015." FIU Digital Commons, 2017. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3191.

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This dissertation aims to investigate the sources of United States (US) foreign policy toward Azerbaijan by examining the relative impact of domestic, geostrategic and structural factors in explaining US foreign policy toward the country. Azerbaijan is one of the newly independent states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite its small size, the country’s strategic location, vast oil and natural gas reserves, and its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno- Karabakh region elevated its importance and made Azerbaijan the center of interest for great powers. As the sole superpower after the end of the Cold War, the US has largely followed a unilateral foreign policy agenda. US foreign policy toward the South Caucasus in general, and Azerbaijan in particular, has been marked by inconsistencies, and by a lack of coordination and an unwillingness to take the initiative in crucial issue areas. Most importantly, experts have observed several important shifts in US policy toward Azerbaijan. These shifts can be conceptualized as critical junctures as they represent fundamental changes in the orientation of US policy. The dissertation is focused on these critical junctures as they relate to four main issue areas: the political economy of oil, the security partnership, economic reforms, and human rights. Why did the US disengage from Caspian energy issues after the successful completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline? Why did the US lose its commitment to Azerbaijani security, including the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict? Why did the US grow unhappy about the investment climate in Azerbaijan in the 2000s? Why did the Obama administration decide to shift to a “human rights policy” toward Baku, despite two decades of neglect of such issues by the Clinton and Bush Administrations? This dissertation follows a chronological format and analyzes the sources of US foreign policy towards Azerbaijan in three time periods: 1991-2001, 2002-2007, and 2008-2015.

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Davis, Richard Gary. "The Prospects for Economic Reform in the Soviet Union: What Can be Learned from Hungary and China?" W&M ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625682.

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Ter-Ghazaryan, Diana K. "Re-Imagining Yerevan in the Post-Soviet Era: Urban Symbolism and Narratives of the Nation in the Landscape of Armenia's Capital." FIU Digital Commons, 2010. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/261.

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The urban landscape of Yerevan has experienced tremendous changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Armenia’s independence in 1991. Domestic and foreign investments have poured into Yerevan’s building sector, converting many downtown neighborhoods into sleek modern districts that now cater to foreign investors, tourists, and the newly rich Armenian nationals. Large portions of the city’s green parks and other public spaces have been commercialized for private and exclusive use, creating zones that are accessible only to the affluent. In this dissertation I explore the rapidly transforming landscape of Yerevan and its connections to the development of contemporary Armenian national identity. This research was guided by principles of ethnographic inquiry, and I employed diverse methods, including document and archival research, structured and semi-structured interviews and content analysis of news media. I also used geographic information systems (GIS) and satellite images to represent and visualize the stark transformations of spaces in Yerevan. Informed by and contributing to three literatures—on the relationship between landscape and identity formation, on the construction of national identity, and on Soviet and post-Soviet cities—this dissertation investigates how messages about contemporary Armenian national identity are being expressed via the transforming landscape of Armenia’s national capital. In it I describe the ways in which abrupt transformations have resulted in the physical and symbolic eviction of residents, introducing fierce public debates about belonging and exclusion within the changing urban context. I demonstrate that the new additions to Yerevan’s landscape and the symbolic messages that they carry are hotly contested by many long-time residents, who struggle for inclusion of their opinions and interests in the process of re-imagining their national capital. This dissertation illustrates many of the trends that are apparent in post-Soviet and post-Socialist space, while at the same time exposing some unique characteristics of the Armenian case.

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Narbutaité, Aflaki Inga. "From the Soviet to the European Union : A Policy Study of SME Assistance Organising in Lithuania." Doctoral thesis, Karlstads universitet, Avdelningen för politiska och historiska studier, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-4830.

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Establishment of a policy linkage between particular outspoken societal needs and their realisation via the body political is critical for recently democratised polities. In Lithuania, a former Soviet bloc country undergoing a complex transition, an urge from various societal groups for successful and adequate policies exemplify the importance of this linkage. The study inquires into its establishment during the transition from the Soviet to the EU by exploring collective action to assist Lithuanian SMEs -a new group of economic actors -with their transition period needs. Policy linkage is operationalised in terms of successful and adequate policies. Methodologically, the study examines the usefulness of bottom-up approach to policy organising for revealing policy process in the transition context. Theoretically, the study tests the explanatory power of the major bottom-up assumptions regarding the preconditions for policy linkage in the Lithuanian transition. Especially the role of the government and formal politicaladministrative institutions is explored. The study findings indicate very limited government, EU and mandated actors’ success in organising adequate SME assistance policies. Ad hoc collective actions with mixed types of actors and alternative structurations were found to frequently supplement for the policy linkage. Useful explanations to this were provided by the employed context, structural and behavioural factors. Active selforganising of policy receivers was a precondition significantly increasing the adequacy of the collective assistance action. Also adherence to the rule of law principles in policy process should not be undermined to increase chances of policy adequacy. Especially a combination of behavioural factors characteristic of social capital in the localities studied was found important to consider further. Policy learning is yet underestimated as a factor structuring policy action and enabling policy linkage. Lack of policy structures has implications for policy learning. The study also proposes policy adequacy as a complimentary indicator of transition success.

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Torun, Nevzat. "Soviet Nationality Policy: Impact on Ethnic Conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia." Scholar Commons, 2019. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7972.

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This study aims to answer two interlinked questions with respect to ethnic conflict in Georgia: Why and how two ethnic groups (Abkhazians and Ossetians) in Georgia sought secession in 1990s rather than accepting unity under a common Georgian roof, and what explains the occurrence of ethnic conflicts between the Abkhazians and Georgians and between the South Ossetians and Georgians? The central argument of this thesis is that Soviet nationality policy was a foremost driving force in shaping consciousness of being ethnic groups in Georgia and set the stage for the inter-ethnic conflicts of the post-Soviet era. A number of factors explain the particular inter-ethnic conflicts in Georgia among ethnic groups, including a long historical relationship between the Georgian people and the Abkhaz and Ossetian minorities, but I argue that the foremost factor was the role of Soviet nationality policy that evolved from Lenin to Gorbachev, a policy that granted ethnic groups some level of privileges and fostered a wave of national self-assertion, Soviet nationality policy and the Soviet federal structure created numerous ethnic- and territorial-based autonomous units during the Soviet era; these units shaped their own political institutions, national intelligentsias, and bureaucratic elites, forming the basis for later nationalistic movements and developing a wish for self-determination and full independence. These institutions and beliefs made ethnic conflict in a post-Soviet Georgia inevitable.

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Lundberg, Hillary E. "Moscow, We Have a Problem: Russia's Inconsistent Approach to the Evolving Concept of Sovereignty in the 21st Century." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/821.

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The 1648 Peace of Westphalia created an understanding of state sovereignty free from external interference that remained largely unaltered until the last century. The horrors of the Holocaust and the significant humanitarian crises of the 20th century have presented the international community with a new type of threat to international peace and security and have sparked an ongoing conversation about the limitations of traditional sovereignty. Russia has positioned itself as a firm supporter of a strict adherence to the Westphalian concept of sovereignty, but my thesis argues that Russians do not value this interpretation as much as they claim to, and that in fact Moscow recognizes that this definition is a thing of the past. I examine Russian actions surrounding the 2011 UN-sanctioned intervention in Libya and the ongoing conflict in Syria, particularly focusing on the major differences between Russian decision-making in the two cases. I analyze transcripts of Security Council meetings in order to demonstrate that there is far more to Russian actions in Syria than Moscow’s public position suggests, and I subsequently offer a number of alternative explanations for Russian decision-making surrounding Syria. These alternative explanations demonstrate that even the Russians, who have portrayed themselves as the great defenders of traditional state sovereignty, recognize the modern limitations to strict Westphalian sovereignty and understand that this traditional definition is a thing of the past. This conclusion is significant because in demonstrating that traditional sovereignty’s greatest champion acknowledges the modern shift in the concept, I prove that the departure from strict Westphalian sovereignty is not merely a theory, but a reality.

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Volkov, Denis Vladimirovich. "Oriental studies and foreign policy : Russian/Soviet 'Iranology' and Russo-Iranian relations in late Imperial Russia and the early USSR." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2015. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/oriental-studies-and-foreign-policy-russiansoviet-iranology-and-russoiranian-relations-in-late-imperial-russia-and-the-early-ussr(8e28977b-999b-419c-8721-b20f22e9b76a).html.

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Russia and Iran have been subject to mutual influence since the reign of Shah Abbas I (1588-1629). For most of the time this relationship was not one of equals: since the early nineteenth century and lasting at least until 1946, Russia and then the USSR, in strong competition with Britain, had been gradually, and for the most part steadily, increasing its political, cultural and economic influence within Iran up to very high levels. Nevertheless, the history of Russian/Soviet-Iranian relations still remains understudied, particularly in English-language scholarship. One of the main reasons for this gap must be sought in the hampered access of Western researchers to Russian archives during the Soviet time, which made them draw on Russian-language literature, traditionally pre-occupied with the history of social movements, and with the mechanical retelling of political and economic processes. Thus the cultural and political ties of the two countries on institutional and individual levels (especially during the period surrounding 1917), the influence of Russia, and then of the USSR, on Iran and vice versa, in political, economic and cultural spheres through the activities of individuals, as well as the methods and tools used by the “Big Northern neighbour” during the execution of its foreign policy towards Iran did not receive proper attention, and thus lack detailed analysis. This research addresses the lack of detailed analysis of the power/knowledge nexus in relation to Russia’s Persian/Iranian Studies – the largest and most influential sub-domain within Russia’s Oriental Studies during the late Imperial and the early Soviet periods. The specific focus of this study is the involvement of Russian ‘civilian’ (academic) and ‘practical’ (military officers, diplomats, and missionaries) Persian Studies scholarship in Russian foreign policy towards Persia/Iran from the end of the nineteenth century up to 1941 – a period witnessing some of the most crucial events in the history of both countries. It is during this period that Persia/Iran was the pivot of Russia’s Eastern foreign policy but at the same time almost every significant development inside Russia as well as in her Western policies also had an immediate impact on this country – the state of affairs that ultimately culminated in the second Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. My thesis is based on extensive research in eleven important political, military and academic archives of Russia and Georgia, which allowed me to consult a significant amount of hitherto unpublished, often still unprocessed and only recently declassified, primary sources. While engaging with notions such as Orientalism, my analysis aims at transcending Edward Said’s concept of a mere complicity of knowledge with imperial power. My theoretical approach builds on Michel Foucault’s conceptualisation of the interplay of power/knowledge relations, his notion of discourse, and his writings on the role of the intellectual. While demonstrating the full applicability of the Foucauldian model to the Russian case through the study of the power/knowledge nexus in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia’s Persian Studies, or Iranology, I focus on the activities of scholars and experts within their own professional domains and analyse what motivated them and how their own views, beliefs and intentions correlated with their work, how their activities were influenced by the hegemonic discourses within Russian society. I analyse the interaction of these intellectuals with state structures and their participation in the process of shaping and conducting foreign policy towards Iran, both as part of the Russian scholarly community as a whole and as individuals on the personal level. For the first time my work explores at such level of detail the specific institutional practices of Russia’s Oriental Studies, including the organisation of scholarly intelligence networks, the taking advantage of state power for the promotion of institutional interests, the profound engagement with Russia’s domestic and foreign policy discourses of the time, etc. In addition, the thesis presents a detailed assessment of the organisation of Iranology as a leading sub-domain within the broader scholarly field of Oriental Studies in the period from the end of the nineteenth century to 1941 and analyses the principles and mechanisms of its involvement in Russia’s foreign policy towards Persia/Iran.

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MacDonald, Mary Kathleen. "Songs of War: A Comparative Analysis of Soviet and American Popular Song During World War II." The Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555507523305065.

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Jerlei, Triin. "Industrial designers within the Soviet Estonian design ideology of the Late Socialist period, 1965-1988." Thesis, University of Brighton, 2015. https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/959e31ed-a3de-426b-a57a-4e2ede431495.

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This thesis argues that a unique design ideology manifested in Soviet Estonia during the Late Socialist period. It was a combination of broader Soviet design ideologies concerned with material practices and the control of production, and Western design influences that were more apparent in Estonia than elsewhere in the Soviet Union and provided aesthetic guidance in a vacuum of Soviet style. This research allows for the first time a determination of the characterising qualities of Estonia’s Late Socialist industrial design, as well as provision of a new contextual framework for considering Soviet design ideas more broadly. To date, studies of Soviet design have focused on object aesthetics, leaving authors who are then faced with the absence of a consistent Soviet style to assume an equally absent Soviet design ideology. However, while it is not necessarily visible in the appearance of products, a tangible Soviet design ideology existed in bureaucratic apparatuses, material practices and accompanying textual materials. This thesis uses oral history and archival research to provide a detailed analysis of the Soviet ideology operating within one cultural monad of the wider USSR. In doing so it breaks away from the emphasis on Russia as the totality of 20th century Soviet socialism to make a first important step toward a more substantial history of Soviet production. Estonia can be understood as a meeting point between two major world design cultures, and from its example we can better understand the characteristics, functioning, and impact of different design ideologies.

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Franzén, Carina, and Maria Koutcherova. "Bumpy road to democracy : A study of how communicative heritage affects democratical communication in post-Soviet countries." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-155643.

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In this thesis we have looked at the citizen communication of a former Soviet society. Moldova gained independence in 1991, and established their first democratic election the same year. However, the democratic progress of the nation has been slow and the society is still split between those who believe in the future, and those who experience nostalgia for the past. Our thesis concerns the capital of Moldova, Chisinau, and its City Hall (CCH), which has an expressed wish to communicate more democratically with their citizens. In order to gain ideas about how to communicate more democratically, we have turned to theories of marketing and communication. By comparing CCH’s citizen communication to western criteria of democratic citizen communication, we find that CCH has quite a long way to go before they can refer to their communication as democratic. However, we believe that these theories, developed in a western society, do not pay enough respect to the cultural and historical context. They rest on assumptions about what democracy is, and how to reach it. In order to find the reason to why CCH’s citizen communication does not measure up to the western ideal, we have looked deeper into the history and culture of the Chisinau society. By interviewing Chisinau citizens and politicians we have discovered that they posses a Communicative Heritage. This heritage is highly influenced by the nation’s experiences of Soviet. Citizens and politicians understanding of both each other, and communication itself constitute this heritage. What we suggest is that this Communicative Heritage also poses as a barrier for achieving democratic citizen communication.

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Moore, Eric D. "The Crisis of Cooperation: A Critical Analysis of Russian-Iranian Relations in the Post-Soviet Era." PDXScholar, 2012. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/902.

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In the study of contemporary politics few interstate relationships have proven more instrumental, controversial, and perplexing to global policy makers than that which has persisted between Moscow and Tehran since the collapse of the USSR. Despite the great importance of Russian-Iranian relations to questions of global and regional politics there has, to date, been very little in the way of critical scholarship performed on the subject. While a wide-array of accounts from subject analysts provide a wealth of data on contemporary and historical events which have presumably defined and conditioned bilateral relations, there has been relatively little effort to isolate, examine, test, and evaluate those conditions or variables that are deemed salient to cooperation. In light of these circumstances, this study seeks to initiate a tradition of scholarship on Russian-Iranian relations that appeals broadly to the use of a scientific methodology. The first step of any scientific inquiry requires attention devoted expressly to the development of a dependent variable of bilateral political affinity. While it remains outside the scope of this present investigation to analyze the host of factors/conditions capable of influencing bilateral relations, the formalization of a variable which records changing political affinity is a necessary first step and one that will fill-in a significant gap within the existing literary tradition. Rather than simply dismissing the extant tradition of literature on Russian-Iranian relations, this study seeks to aggregate and transform the subject's many diverse narratives into a user-friendly, quantitative, political metric which can form the basis for future empirical inquiry. Thus this study introduces a new approach to monitoring and measuring changes in Russian-Iranian cooperation known as General Political Affinity (GPA). Represented on the basis of a 21-point scaled indicator of bilateral affinity, GPA succinctly defines cooperation between Moscow and Tehran as the summation of three underlying, persistent issue dimensions: the trade in conventional weapons; cooperation in Iranian nuclear development; and level of agreement on matters of Caspian Sea delimitation. In more generic terms, these three criteria seek to evaluate interstate cooperation, generically, as a product of: defense cooperation; state-sponsored development assistance; and territorial agreement. The unique approach to operationalizing political affinity presented in this study not only functionally improves our ability to explain and predict the course of Russian-Iranian relations, but also provides a new schematic for evaluating bilateral relations among all political dyads.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Soviet Studies'

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