“Russian Intervention in Post-Soviet Ethnic Conflict”
Olivia Route“Time, Space, and the Consciousness in the World of Joseph Brodsky”
Hanna Kereszturi“Strange Loner and Tormented Soul: Lermontov Revealed in «Выхожу один я на дорогу»
Laura Christians“I Suffer, Therefore I Live”
Claire Jenets“Learning to Have the Courage of Ceaseless Happiness”: High Stalinism, Thermidor, and Andrei Platonov’s Happy Moscow”
Pavel Khazanov“Liza and Svidrigaylov: Suicide as Escape from the Self”
Adam Zachar“The Irrationality of Morality in The Brothers Karamazov: Using Evolutionary Psychology to Illuminate Ivan's Internal Struggles”
Melissa Beswick“Dostoevsky’s Gospel: The Function of Biblical Quotation in The Brothers Karamazov”
Alex Droznin-IzraelOlivia Route, “Russian Intervention in Post-Soviet Ethnic Conflict”
When the Soviet Union fell in 1991, it left behind a group of countries unsure of their new places in the world. The most powerful piece amongst the shattered collective, the Russian Federation, seemed reluctant to leave behind its former status as the most powerful player in one of the largest unions in the world. Since the collapse, Russia has involved itself in a number of other post-Soviet states’ affairs, reminding its neighbors that although the Union has fallen, Russian power has not diminished.
After the fall, inter-ethnic tensions led to a number of violent conflicts, like in Moldova (1992), Georgia (2008), and the Kyrgyz Republic (2010). Though outside of its sovereign territory, Russia sent troops into Moldova and Georgia to fight on the side of the ethnic minorities, and then to support the establishment of breakaway regions governed by those minorities. When ethnic conflict broke out in the Kyrgyz Republic, local government expected an influx of Russian military, but they never came.
This paper explores the differences and similarities between these three cases, and the Russian involvement (or lack thereof) in their conflicts. Using Mearsheimer’s Offensive Neorealist theory as its hypothetical framework, I argue that Russia seizes opportunities to reassert regional dominance and pull these former Soviet states back into the Russian зона влияния (zona vliianiia – area of influence/power). These cases provide strong evidence for Waltz’s Defensive Neorealist theory – Russia is more motivated to intervene militarily in an ethnic conflict if it has the ability to, at the same time, halt the growth of encroaching Western “zona vliianiia” in its neighborhood. Russia dwells on the big break up, making sure that if it can’t have influence over its regional neighbors, no one can.Hanna Kereszturi, “Time, Space, and the Consciousness in the World of Joseph Brodsky”
Iosif Alexandrovich Brodsky, writing also under the name of Joseph Brodsky, was exiled from the Soviet Union for writing poetry characterized by ironic wit and a spirit of fiery independence. Even though Brodsky’s poetry was largely apolitical—he dealt mostly with metaphysical issues such as life, death and myth—it was rejected by Soviet authorities. “To Urania” was published in 1988 and is one of Brodsky’s most well-known poems. This close reading of “To Urania” analyzes both the original poem and its English translation (done by the author himself), paying attention to significant differences between the two. In this poem, Brodsky dwells on metaphysical issues, concentrating on the individual’s relationship to the external world. While in the beginning these two things seem absolutely irreconcilable, and inflict deep sorrow upon the narrator, the transforming themes, diction and structure portray an ascent in the narrator’s mood. Although in “To Urania” Brodsky explores several dichotomies, they ultimately all pose the question of how the internal, fleeting, human world can coexist with the external, spacious and eternal one.
Laura Christians, “Strange Loner and Tormented Soul: Lermontov Revealed in «Выхожу один я на дорогу»
Mikhail Yur’evich Lermontov (1814-1841), the greatest Romantic of the Golden Age of Russian Poetry has been called “a Romantic in the Byronic mode, whose powerful, uncompromising, and always dissatisfied persona dominated his verse.” Consumed by themes of hopelessness, isolation, demonism, and fatalism, he is cast as the detached loner and the tormented soul of Russian poetry. While there are particular works that are more closely associated with each of these themes, his poem “Выхожу один я на дорогу” or “Alone I set out on the road,” contains traces of each of them, and vividly illustrates Lermontov’s poetic method and mindset. This poetical analysis strives to assess the extent to which this poem can be seen as representative of his poetry by examining three motifs that run through, not only this poem, but three other of his most significant works, namely “Русалка” (“Rusalka”), “Парус” (“The Sail”), and “Демон” (“Demon”). The dominant motifs are the futility of hope, an egocentric isolation of the author from all around him, and the anguish created by the strife between the heavenly and the demonic. “Выхожу один я на дорогу” reveals the deep suffering and mental strife of Lermontov and paints its self-absorbed creator as devoid of hope, alone, and grieving his paradise lost. It is this distinctive persona of Lermontov that makes its mark in Russian poetry and characterizes its Romantic movement.
Claire Jenets, “I Suffer, Therefore I Live”
The role of suffering in human life has been widely debated throughout history, with various scholars asserting both the futility and benefits of hardship. Articulating much of Western thought is Nikolay Chernyshevsky in his work, What is to Be Done? Chernyshevsky creates the image of the “Crystal Palace,” in which humanity can live without conventional forms of suffering, such as lack of food or shelter. Chernyshevsky believes that this model of life is the way to ensure the greatest amount of human happiness. Fyodor Dostoevsky vehemently opposes this way of thinking, and directly contradicts Chernyshevsky in his short story Notes from the Underground. He establishes the concept of the “hencoop,” which shows the futility of the Crystal Palace and the necessity of suffering for true life. Dostoevsky expands upon these ideas in The Brothers Karamazov, and through the lives of Alyosha, Ivan, and Dmitri Karamazov, asserts the importance of suffering as a purification experience that brings humanity closer to God. Alyosha learns to accept the suffering of others as his own, because he believes that if he were properly acting as a model or morality for others, they would not sin as much and therefore suffer less. Ivan Karamazov cannot reconcile the notion of suffering with the guiltless nature of innocent children, and proposes an edited version of the “Crystal Palace.” Lastly, Dmitri Karamazov has his own relationship with suffering, as he accepts his unfair fate as an act of penance for the sins of his past. The story ends with ambiguity regarding Dmitri’s actions, and shows the constant struggle that comes with the vitality of a life of hardship, but also clearly displays the spiritually purifying nature of suffering.
Pavel Khazanov, “Learning to Have the Courage of Ceaseless Happiness”: High Stalinism, Thermidor, and Andrei Platonov’s Happy Moscow”
This paper aims to develop a better understanding of Andrei Platonov’s mature view of Soviet socialism by considering his unfinished novel, Happy Moscow (1931-1936) in the context of Mikhail Lifshits’ and Georg Lukács’ philosophical movement of the 1930s, known as the Current. In light of the Current’s conceptualization of Stalinism as a peculiar form of Thermidor that did not spell an unequivocal end to the Russian Revolution, I argue that Platonov’s Happy Moscow articulates an enduring commitment to Soviet socialism and its utopian possibilities. To do so, Happy Moscow deploys the notion of a tragic confrontation between humankind and nature as a cornerstone for elaborating a model of a radically socialist “difficult happiness,” a view onto which had been made possible for the author as a result of the transformations of the 1930s. By positing socialist becoming as an inherently tragic activity, Happy Moscow overcomes the totalizing temporality of official Stalinist ideology. In its stead, the novel posits a radically open future of perpetual transformation, which is to be pursued by an infinite collective of human beings, who are brought together on the basis of the human body’s essential proletarianness.
Adam Zachar, “Liza and Svidrigaylov: Suicide as Escape from the Self”
This paper examines the similarities and differences between Liza's suicide portrayed in Karamazin's “Poor Liza” and Svidrigailov's in Crime and Punishment, with a special focus on those suicides' motivations. I conclude they were driven to take their own lives because of a need to escape themselves, not the world around them, based on an analysis of the character's internal and external environments, as well as the way in which they killed themselves.
Melissa Beswick, “The Irrationality of Morality in The Brothers Karamazov: Using Evolutionary Psychology to Illuminate Ivan's Internal Struggles”
The depth and emotions of Dostoevsky's characters illuminate some of the most fundamental aspects of what it means to be human. Consequently, Dostoevsky has frequently been referred to as a "psychologist," and many of his works have been analyzed through the lens of individuals like Sigmund Freud. However, Dostoevsky's works have yet to be contextualized in terms of more recent developments in the field of experimental psychology. Specifically, evolutionary psychology seeks to explain human cognition and behavior as products of Darwinian evolution by natural selection. This burgeoning field has the potential to help readers better understand the psychology of Dostoevsky's characters, such as Ivan's internal struggles in The Brothers Karamazov regarding the irrationality of morality. Together, Ivan's moral dilemmas and recent evolutionary explanations highlight Dostoevsky's intuitive understanding of and profound appreciation for the complex nature of the human mind.
Alex Droznin-Izrael, “Dostoevsky’s Gospel: The Function of Biblical Quotation in The Brothers Karamazov”
Although Dostoevsky’s idiosyncratic Russian Orthodox faith informs many of his works, it is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in The Brothers Karamazov. The structure of the novel’s plot, the descriptions and relationships of its main characters -- effectively, the entire world that it creates -- are deeply connected to the Gospel. From the novel’s introductory epigraph (John 12:24) to Alyosha’s concluding remarks to the group of boys after Ilyushechka’s funeral, the novel is informed by the constant presence of Biblical quotation. In order to understand the compositional function of the arrangement of these quotations, it is necessary to trace Dostoevsky’s use of partial and full Biblical excerpts throughout the novel, paying special attention to a) the characters that use them; b) the setting or context in which they are used; and c) their syntactical arrangement. Through this kind of analysis, it becomes clear that Dostoevsky’s references to the Gospel in The Brothers Karamazov play a significant role in the compositional structure of the novel, and their primary function is to create an intertextual text in which seemingly unrelated parts of the literal plot are actually connected on the allegorical, moral, and anagogical levels. It should also be noted that the majority of these references occur in the speech of the novel’s characters (and so are not part of the narrator’s text), which serves Dostoevsky’s purpose of creating a polyphonic, intertextual novel without the author’s overt, artificial meddling.
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