IUSB Department of History faculty publications and conference presentations

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/20032

Browse

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

The Bolshevik Revolution Centennial and the Disintegration of the Soviet Space
(Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program Joint Center, 2018-05-25) Shlapentokh, Dmitry
The centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution in November 2017 was a strange jubilee. Despite the revolution’s central importance in world history and its global importance, the centennial received scant attention in Russia. Most other post-Soviet countries plainly ignored it. The marginalization of the Revolution went along with a sharp decline in the popularity of Eurasianism, whose proponents emphasized the “symbiotic” or organic relationship between Russians and other ethnicities of the former USSR. Eurasianism also emphasized a Russia-centered historical narrative of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire. The decline of common historical space reflects a discursive and geopolitical vacuum, which the rising China will most likely fill.
Estonian Russians: The Success Story of Integration
(Estonian Academy Publishers, 2018) Shlapentokh, Dmitry
As was the case with many other post-Soviet states, including those in the Baltics, Estonia became a place for considerable numbers of ethnic Russians/Russianspeaking minorities. The relationship between Estonians and minorities was quite tense in the beginning of the post-Soviet era. Still, as time progressed, native Estonians, the Estonian government, and Russian Estonians all tried to accommodate each other. Economic, political, and geopolitical reasons and, most of all, understanding the importance of the accommodation of the Russian-speaking population by Estonian society, contributed to the slow progress in the accommodation of the two segments of the Estonian nation. And here, Estonia is clearly ahead of other Baltic nations, such as Latvia. Keywords: Estonia, Russian Estonian, minorities in the Baltic countries, Russia in the former Soviet Union
Empires and Opportunism: Russia, Iran, and China
(Asia Global Institute, 2020) Shlapentokh, Dmitry
As Iranian relations with the United States soured after the 1979 Islamic revolution, Tehran turned to the Soviet Union and then successor state Russia, hoping to find an ally with whom it shared a mutual distrust of Washington. But Moscow proved unreliable as its policies toward the US shifted dramatically and unpredictably, writes Dmitry Shlapentokh of Indiana University. Now, Tehran hopes to find a more solid partner in a China that is prepared to challenge and compete with a weakened US and Russia.
China, Leninism and the Pandemic
(Asia Global Institute, The University of Hong Kong, 2020) Shlapentokh, Dmitry
China appears to be dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic far more effectively than the United States. Could this asymmetry be due to Americans’ short memories, especially of intellectual history? Dmitry Shlapentokh of Indiana University suggests that postmodernism’s most popular assumption – that objective reality does not exist and is “constructed” to benefit the elite or experts – could be at fault.
Byzantine history and the discourse of the Russian political/intellectual underground
(Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2012) Shlapentokh, Dmitry
Historical subjects often seem to be unrelated to current political discourse still could be often politicized in present-day Russia. And Internet discussions on these historical subjects could well provide insight into the views of the various segments of the country’s population. These Internet discussions become especially important sources when one tries to look into the minds of the Russian underground, those who have practically no legal outlet for presenting their views. For this reason, the movie The Death of the Byzantine Empire, shown in the very end of the Putin presidency, is especially important. The movie, created the Orthodox priest Tikhon Shevkunov, (presumably Putin’s confessor) made clear references to contemporary Russia. In the view of the producer, the Byzantine Empire was strong when it followed its autocratic tradition and was attached to Orthodoxy. The movie generated extensive discussions, including among those who belong to Russia’s political and intellectual fringe. Quite a few of them were neo-pagans; for them, Christianity, including Orthodox Christianity, was Russia's curse. For them, it was an Asian creed foreign to Aryan Russians. The fact that it was accepted by Russians implied that Russians had been subjugated by an alien, Asiatic, force. Many of these neo-pagans were quite pessimistic in regard to the country’s future; and, indeed, their response indicates the deep alienation of quite a few Russians, which hardly bodes well for the country’s future.
Review of Performance Anxiety: Sport and Work in Germany from the Empire to Nazism by Michael Hau
(University of Chicago Press, 2019-03) Zwicker, Lisa Fetheringill, 1972-
Hau makes an important contribution to this literature in his examination of sports as a means to achieve biopolitical ends. Like the work of Corinna Treitel, Geoff Eley, and Ed-ward Ross Dickinson, Hau’s project encourages us to broaden our understanding of the diverse ways that biopolitical goals could be pursued, including housing policies, maternal care, early childhood education, personal hygiene, nutrition guidelines, welfare services, public health campaigns, health insurance regulations, tax policies, hospital administration, or medical guidelines
The Twisted Mirror of Perception: Social Science in Service of Political/Ideological Expediency -- The Case of Russian Eurasianism
(Comparative Civilizations Review, 2019) Shlapentokh, Dimtry
These specifics of Western historiography can be observed in the approach to Eurasianism, a peculiar philosophical-political creed. The goal of this article is to demonstrate how interest in this creed has changed in tune with the evolution of the political discourse or, to be precise, political/geopolitical needs; and how, in general, knowledge is produced in the modern West, especially in the USA.
Review of "Buffalo Bill on the Silver Screen: The Films of William F. Cody" by Sandra K. Sagala
(State Historical Society of Iowa, 2014) Murphy, Tom
A book review of Buffalo Bill on the Silver Screen: The Films of William F. Cody, by Sandra K. Sagala, published by University of Oklahoma Press in 2013.

Browse

Recent Submissions