Soviet Photography in America: An Introduction to the New York Public Library’s Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary Slavic,East European,and Baltic Collection

ABSTRACT

This article is an introduction to the New York Public Library’s revolutionary and post-revolutionary Soviet and East European photography holdings. It outlines the materials available to researchers from both the large and smaller collections, particularly those that are useful for studies of Revolutionary Russia and the History or World War II in Russia and Eastern Europe. Of particular note is the NYPL’s wealth of images documenting Poland during the Second World War and the Bessie Beatty album The Russian Revolution: An Album of Photographs.     

Collecting History Imprints from Russia in the Age of the New Official Historiographic Agenda

The selection and acquisition of contemporary research-quality Russian and Soviet history imprints from Russia is presenting increasingly formidable challenges for institutions with mandates to collect and preserve this category of material. This situation promises to worsen, as, increasingly, the administration of the Russian Federation appears to be preparing to enforce an official historiographic agenda. The agenda, inferred over the past several years by many professional observers and interpreters of the Russian administration’s words and deeds, is to promote a view of the country’s twentieth-century history which reactivates World War II-era nationalist narratives, justifies a centralized authoritarian model of government, and cultivates a sense of estrangement from the West. Anticipating that high-level historical scholarship on particular aspects of Russian history might become an endangered genre in the Russian publishing arena—and that such publications might become increasingly difficult to identify and acquire—collectors should begin strategizing for a potentially challenging marketplace.     

Women in Russian and Soviet History

Abstract

This is a second part of a bibliography of books and articles on women in Russia, published in the early 1990s. While the first part dealt with the women's issues of the 1990s, the second part concentrates on the evaluation and re-evaluation of Russian history as related to the woman's question. The emphasis has been on scholarly works.     

Google and Libraries in Russia: First Experience

The paper describes the Russian library system's current landscape and outlines its relationship with electronic technologies and Internet technologies in particular. The author discusses Google projects in Russia, and then analyzes possibilities for more substantial and elaborate Google activities in the Russian and CIS library and information sector. The paper concludes with specific project proposals.     

Fake News

The crisis in Ukraine has accentuated the position of Russian television as the government’s strongest asset in its information warfare. The internet, however, allows other players to challenge the Kremlin’s narrative by providing counter-narratives and debunking distorted information and fake images. Accounting for the new media ecology—through which strategic narratives are created and interpreted, this article scrutinizes the narratives of allegedly fake news on Channel One, perceiving the fabricated stories as extreme projections of Russia’s strategic narratives, and the attempts of the Ukrainian fact-checking website Stopfake.org to counter the Russian narrative by refuting misinformation and exposing misleading images about Ukraine. Secondly, it analyses how Twitter users judged the veracity of these news stories and contributed to the perpetuation of strategic narratives.     

The Russian Book Market in 2006

The authors examine trends in Russian book publishing in 2006, including statistics and subjects covered. Russia has been the guest of honor at several recent international book fairs, a testament to the vibrancy of its publishing culture. Major prizes and anniversaries related to books, journalism, and scholarship are discussed. The article concludes with a consideration of past, present, and future price increases for books and serials—wholesale prices in Russia and Russian Press Service's prices for its library customers.     

Libraries,Lectures, and Talk Shows: Some Russian Internet Resources for Research,Teaching, and Learning

ABSTRACT

Ethnocentrism affects perception and choices, and scholars, teachers, and students may not see or seek the “global” in our “global information revolution,” especially in such vast monolingual social spaces as the United States and the Anglophone world. Russia illuminates how unfortunate this state of affairs is because perceptions of Russia are so negative; whereas online information and open access there are so plentiful. Elibrary.ru offers free, full-text access to Russia’s periodical scholarship in all disciplines. Postnauka.ru is a lecture platform for Russian academics that rivals TED Talks in scale and production quality. Kul’tura is a federal television channel devoted entirely to education. Academic talk shows constitute part of the programming there and elsewhere. High-quality and reliable online tools such as these can enhance “Western” scholars’ and educators’ resource repertoires.     

俄罗斯信息立法理论与实践探析

从世界范围内来看,俄罗斯在信息立法方面的研究成果和实践进展不及欧美等发达国家卓有成效,但是俄罗斯曾经对我国政治、经济和文化产生过特殊影响,以俄罗斯作为研究对象,具有一定的理论意义和现实意义。从理论探讨、立法实践两个方面入手,系统梳理俄罗斯近十年信息立法研究的相关文献,分析和总结俄罗斯信息立法的特点和规律及其对我国信息立法研究的启示。     

In Memory of the Czar: A Review of the Memoirs of Witnesses and Contemporaries of Emperor Nicholas II

ABSTRACT

This article surveys the collection devoted to the memory of Emperor Nicholas II held at the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco. The author describes the cataloged materials of a unique collection of materials passed on to the Museum by Russian emigrants of the first and second waves, many of whom worked to preserve the memory of Russia’s last Sovereign and also made a significant contribution to the creation of the Museum and its archival collections.     

Wolfgang Kasack (1927–2003): A Bio-Bibliography

ABSTRACT

A leading Slavist in Europe and North America, Wolfgang Kasack promoted a unified vision of Russian literature for the twentieth century. In addition to his prolific scholarship, he wrote over eighty reviews of reference works in Russian literature for research libraries for the print and online journal Informationsmittel: IFB between 1996 and 2003. Many of these reviews were published in English in abridged form in the journal Reference Reviews Europe Annual during that same period.     

Crossing the Channel: Publishing Translated German Fiction in the UK

In a review of Hans Fallada’s novel Alone in Berlin—finally translated into English after 62 years—Sam Jordison stated, “[I]t’s an important book that no English writer could have written—and so another resounding argument for the importance of taking in translations. It makes me wonder what else we’ve been missing.” Translated fiction plays a minimal role in the UK. Scholars are increasingly directing their attention towards this deficit. This paper will consider the culture of translation in the UK and Ireland, with a particular focus on translated German fiction.

     

Tasks of information support of innovative economic development and the role of engineering

The determining factors of the pattern of innovative development of Russia’s economy are considered. The structural functional insufficiency of the current interactions between basic science and industry is shown. The steady upward trend in exports of software and IT services of Russian companies is analyzed. The role and potential of innovation engineering companies in the field of information technologies is emphasized. The current relevant tasks of information support of innovative research, development, and technology transfer are discussed. Prospective areas for improving the efficiency of the national information structure are presented.     

A Research Guide on Islam in the Russian Federation

As the Muslim population grows in Russia, and along with it questions of radical Islam and the role of Islam in Russian society and government, it has become increasingly important for scholars, students, and policy makers to be able to conduct research effectively on the presence of Islam in Russia. English‐language literature devoted to the topic is infrequent and often difficult to locate and access. This research guide points to important and recent books, reference works, periodicals, periodical databases, Internet resources, electronic discussion lists, and scholarly organizations to help identify relevant quality research material.     

Lost in Translation or Lost in Publishing: Introduction of World Literature in Early Modern Bulgarian Publishing via Russian Language Editions

Bulgarian book publishing starts developing as commercial system as early as the second half of nineteenth century. With the increasing of competition after the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, as main problem the lack of texts for publishing emerges. The Bulgarian literature was still too young to provide texts for the publishers with the required quality and quantity. That’s why the publisher’s main goal remains the translation of popular (in any sense of meaning) foreign authors. In relation with this policy two main problems emerged—the lack of translators from the main European and World languages and appearance of many intellectuals who pretended to have good Russian language skills. This resulted in Russian book editions of world literature being the main source for Bulgarian translations. The paper focuses on to the process of retransmission and republishing of texts from language to language and from place to place. Interesting conclusions are made on how the publishing market strategies affect readers and their perception of the most popular titles of world literature. The main thesis is that the language skills (or lack of skills) of the translator are important for the reader’s perception of the text but the publisher’s choice of foreign editions through the mediation of second country’s publishing system had critical importance for the perception of Bulgarian readers of classical and popular examples of Western literature.     

The problems associated with the evaluation of world-class competitiveness of Russia’s science, as illustrated by clinical medicine

The main vectors for reforming Russia??s scientific-technological and innovative spheres, which are reflected in program documents that were adopted in late 2011 and early 2012, are discussed in the article. The authors propose to formalize the concepts that were used in these documents, such as world-class research competence and world-leading science and technology sectors. Using the Field Normalized Citation Score (NCSf) as a bibliometric indicator for the analysis of different research areas of Russia??s clinical medicine, the authors show the degree of variance between individual research areas within the same national subject field in terms of their correspondence to world-class excellence. The authors also emphasize the necessity of developing Russia??s national methodology for auditing Russian science, which will take its Russian-language segment into account where the world??s recognized methodologies are not always adequately applicable.     

Encounters in the District Six Museum

Abstract This reflection seeks to provide you, the reader, with some insight into the nature and intention of the work of the District Six Museum. It seeks to do so by presenting a composite collage of activities which form part of the organization’s offering at various times. Originally intended as a virtual visual walk though the museum—a presentation piece to provide the backdrop for discussion—it has been adapted for Curator: The Museum Journal.     

Custom Publishing in the UK: Rise of a Silent Giant

This paper examines and portrays the production side of the custom publishing field with a primary focus on the UK, especially Greater London. Despite its prevalence, custom publishing has not received the same attention from media scholars, which is mirrored by the sometimes inappropriate, and even confusing terminologies attached to it. Hence, this paper aims to offer definitions characterizing the custom publishing branch whilst assessing the weaknesses and ambiguities in current definitions used in marketing and communications literature. Whereas a number of themes emerge from the study, the main focus is to locate the industry within the broader field of cultural production. Based on sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory, the study looks at the heteronomous—and hence externally determined—principle inherent in the relationship between the contracting companies and the contracted writers. Furthermore, the research details the resources or capital, which form the basis of the publishers’ work, and how the struggle between the economic and symbolic capitals is manifested in the three pillars (the account managers, the editorial, and the design teams). Finally, it is argued that despite displaying many of the traits Bourdieu’s associates with a heteronomous field, custom publishers rely on an important degree of autonomy, which is institutionalized within the field itself.     

The making of Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals

Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals are a series of paintings on canvas commissioned by Harvard University and created in the early 1960s. The present study investigates Rothko's creative process, materials, and technique with ultraviolet and infrared imaging, analytical chemistry, cross-sectional analysis, and comparisons with the literature. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy imaging of cross sections help with the chemical mapping of the paint stratifications. A comparison of paper studies, studies on canvas, and the final five works installed give a detailed insight into Rothko's editing process. The intimate relationship between works on paper and canvas is traced by uncovering a back and forth between the two media, and the mixing of dry pigment with binder is a common theme for works on both supports. Motif developments, changes, and distinct painting campaigns become apparent with ultraviolet induced visible fluorescence imaging and infrared reflected infrared digital photography. Color measurements and microfading experiments give insight into the stability and light sensitivity of the materials used by Rothko in the Harvard Murals.