Congratulations to Lirsen Myrtaj
who won an Honorable Mention at
the Fourteenth Annual ACTR NATIONAL Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest. This year they had 946 contestants from 47 universities.
Author: lschamberlain
The selection committee has awarded the 2013 Dobro Slovo Scholarship to Taylor Lain. The Dobro Slovo Scholarship was established in 2005.
The Scholarship is funded by the donations of Russian alumni and faculty and is intended for students studying on the W & M Summer
Study Abroad Program in St. Petersburg.
Kristine Mosuela has been selected for a Fulbright U.S. Student award for 2013-2014 to Mongolia.
On April 22nd, 5 students and the Russian House Tutor, Victoria, were inducted into Dobro Slovo, the National Slavic Honor Society. Congratulations to them on this honor!
Congratulations to Rianna Jansen who just learned that she has been awarded the prestigious Boren Scholarship to study in Vladimir, Russia next year!
Concert by the Russian folk group, ‘Золотой плёс’!
Thursday, March 28, 7:00 pm, Andrews 101
The RPSS Executive Committee is happy to announce that the RPSS Excellence Awards for the year 2013 will go to
Andrew Andell and Matthew Levey.
The RPSS Excellence Award seeks to provide recognition for the best Russian Studies senior majors and minors who made a major contribution to the Russian Studies program in the areas of research, language and culture studies.
Alex McGrath has been selected to receive the Post Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award!
Organized under the auspices of ACTR (the American Council of Teachers of Russian), this national award seeks to provide recognition for the best Russian Studies senior students nationwide–those students who best embody an enthusiasm for and love of things Russian. Congratulations to Alex!
Saturday, March 23, 12:00 – 4:00 pm, McGlothlin 20
Students of different levels will compete in a variety of events connected with Russian language and culture. It should be awesome! Follow the link below to watch our promotional video (the running of the Olympic torch!).
On Thursday, March 21st, Professor Irina Paperno (U. of California) will be giving a talk entitled, “How We Used to Live: Survivors of the Soviet regime.” The talk will be held in Wash 201, from 5 – 6 pm. Here is a brief description: Since the collapse of communism, there has been an outpouring of personal documents about life under the Soviet regime. The talk discusses such stories of the Soviet experiences–memoirs, diaries, blogs, and recorded dreams–and suggests ways of seeing them as a cultural trend.
In “Russia’s Digital Revolution,” Michael S. Gorham, University of Florida, examines political communication in the age of the internet and new media technologies, considering a wide range of strategies—rhetorical, political, and technological—that have helped shape, for better or for worse, civic culture in Russia today.
Recent world events have shown that new media technologies are neither “democratic” nor “authoritarian” by nature or design. Depending on a variety of factors—cultural, political, and technological—they have the capacity to both aid and suppress revolution. That being said, Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, social networking, and crowdsourcing sites nearly always begin as alternative spaces and, as such, naturally attract oppositional voices. In the United States political blogging grew out of a frustration with the mainstream coverage of the television and print media for being (from either left or right) too “mainstream.” This has especially been the case in Russia, where Vladimir Putin and associates have maintained tight control over print media and broadcast television especially. Be it in the transformation of the ruling United Russia party into the “Party Swindlers and Thieves,” state-sponsored “e-Government” projects, or behind-the-scenes hacking and “botnet” attacks, the Russian-language internet (or “Runet”) has assumed an increasingly critical role in rewriting the rules of civil discourse. Particularly as the Russian internet continues to grow and compete with mainstream broadcast media for the public eye, how public virtual space comes to be designed, defined, occupied, and contained will have a considerable impact on the political language and the polity itself for years to come.
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Valerie Hopkins
Valerie Hopkins is pursuing an MA in Journalism at Columbia University. She posted her recent article on FB today (http://www.opendemocracy.net/
The first of three film screenings in this exciting series is Wednesday, Jan. 30th, 7 pm in Wash 201. The focus of this week’s screening is Russian Animation pre-1960: Fairy Tales.
What better way to end a semester studying the works of Leo Tolstoy than to go see the most recent Hollywood adaptation of his Anna Karenina? On December 10th, Professor John Lyles took 8 students to Richmond for a screening of the Oscar-nominated film starring, among others, Keira Knightely and Jude Law. And while many Russian critics have reacted negatively to the film, John and his students enjoyed it. Here are some of the reactions from those who went:
“I thought that the film did a very good job of adapting such a long book into a movie. The way that they filmed it, as if the whole story took place on a stage, was a really clever way to manage abrupt changes in scene and character feelings. The drama of the story was also especially poignant because of this theater-like style. I would definitely recommend this movie!”
– Megan Fitzpatrick
“The interpretation Anna Karenina showed a sensitivity to the falseness of most interactions in the novel.”
– Emily Durbin
“I really enjoyed the styling of the film. I thought it was a nice visual interpretation of the underlying themes of Tolstoy’s novel.”
– Kait Armstrong
“Anna Karenina captivates the eye in capturing Tolstoy’s voice, his resplendent comment on Russian society and love. Perhaps no movie could hope to breathe the genius of the original, and yet with seamless aesthetics and deliberation, the savor of the sauce in this adaptation leaves one full with joy and an aftertaste of charm. It is a thing of art, valiant and mellifluous.”
– Adam Jack
“I really liked the movie Anna Karenina. It seemed to me that the director and the screenwriter must have both really loved the book because they seemed so dedicated to keeping the characters human, both tragic and charming, just like Tolstoy does. I also thought it was visually very beautiful and the transitions between scenes added to the drama of the film.”
– Stephanie Lash
by Sagra Alvarado ’15 | November 7, 2012
Privet. That is the Russian word for “hello.”
Speaking a different language, meeting new people from another culture and visiting new sites are all part of the adventure one undergoes when exploring a foreign country. It can be an exciting – and intimidating – experience.
Now take all of these components and add a research project that Professor Sasha Prokhorov describes as “unique and original.”
The result is a summer experience told by William & Mary students Andrew Andell ’13 and Rachel Faith ’14. The duo – both second-year Russian studies students – conducted oral history interviews on movie-going in Russia.
“We interviewed Russians about their experiences with Russian movie theaters – what were the theaters like, who did they go with, how has the experience changed, etc.,” said Andell. On-the-street interviews were captured with teachers such as their Russian language professor from St. Petersburg State Univeristy, Irina Leventhal, and also more familiar individuals such as Rachel’s host mother Natalia Alyrzaeva.
As these two members of the Tribe scurried about the streets of Russia, they were digging deep into the heart of an issue that made an impact on many people in a not too distant past. Their research investigates the impact the film industry had on Russians before, during, and after the Soviet Union.
“Initially, doing the interviews themselves was daunting idea,” said Faith. “Neither Andrew nor I had any acquaintances in St. Petersburg (or Russia in general) besides our Russian tutor Vika, and I personally had no idea how we were going to find someone to interview.”
Faith’s anxieties and fears gradually subsided as the students received guidance from Prokhorov to develop the research skills necessary for the project. They enrolled in his course, “Russian Movie Theater Project,” where they read about oral history scholarship and acquired the necessary research tools to complete the project.
Their first task was to create a questionnaire – which served as a blueprint – for the interviews. They also learned how to use cameras and microphones, and how to archive the research they collected in the Swem Digital Archive as well as the Russian Movie Theatre Project blog site.
Prokhorov says that he couldn’t be prouder of his students and their scholarly accomplishments.
“Andrew’s and Rachel’s oral history research provides scholars with firsthand viewers’ testimony on what films were popular at the time,” Prokhorov said.
Prokorhov explained that when people talk about the 1970s and 1980s they remember better such American films as “King Kong” (the 1976 feature) or “Some Like it Hot” (a 1959 film released in the USSR in the late 1980s) than Soviet big budget features.
“The picture of what constitutes the national cinema of the Soviet Union at the time becomes more complex and multidimensional,” said Prokorhov. “The viewers receive the voice in the creating this picture, not only filmmakers and film critics.”
As part of their research, Andell and Faith had the opportunity to attend the Moscow International Film Festival. While there they viewed films entered into the competition.
“Rachel and I were fortunate to experience the film festival as part of the project,” said Andell. “We viewed two movies, ‘The Admirer,’ (directed by Vitalii Melnikov) and ‘Ana Bana,’ (directed by Eduard Oganesyan), each of which had the director and a large portion of the cast in attendance.”
Elaborating on her experience at the film festival Faith reminisced, “The film festival was one of my favorite parts of my summer trip, and one of the main things that helped me to fall quite madly in love with Moscow.
“There were all sorts of very official-looking film industry people all over the October Theater – which is an absolutely amazing theater complex – and the excitement was infectious. Once we got seated in the enormous hall where the film would be shown, it was all I could do to wait for it to start.”
Andell and Faith say they will always carry with them the memory of a summer spent immersed in the study of a different culture. Faith is currently studying abroad in Moscow this fall and Andell is back in the U.S. transcribing and archiving their research.
So for now, they’re not saying goodbye to their experience. Or “dasvidania,” as they would say in Russia.
Erin Alpert graduated from the College in 2007 with a degree in Russian and Post Soviet Studies. During her time at W&M, she studied abroad in Russia thanks, in part, to a scholarship she received from the Reves Center.
“One of the highlights of my college career was definitely my summer study abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia. I loved having the opportunity to live with a host family, study in a Russian university, and explore the country whose language I had been studying in the classroom.”
Currently, Erin is pursuing her Ph.D. in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. Despite living on a graduate student’s pay, Erin contributes something each year to the Dobro Slovo Scholarship Fund, which annually provides a scholarship to one W&M undergraduate who is studying at St. Petersburg State University through the department’s study abroad program. Watch a video about Erin’s graduate experiences below:
“Even though as a graduate student I don’t have much extra to spare, I always find a way to contribute to the Dobro Slovo Scholarship Fund so that other students can have the same opportunities that meant so much to me when I was at William and Mary.”
It is generous donors like Erin who give a little each year that allow RPSS to continue supporting deserving students in their pursuit of a truly globalized education. One such current student, Sophie Kosar (‘14), received just this kind of support for her trip to St. Petersburg in the summer of 2011, the results of which exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Modest Gifts Pay Big Dividends
Sophie’s 2011 summer trip to St. Petersburg featured many of the staple experiences students abroad have: classes in the target language, great times with the host family, and many fond memories of a city explored and friends made. Where her experience differed begins with the research and film project she and her fellow students were tasked with by their group leaders, Alexander Prokhorov and Jes Therkelsen .
According to Sasha Prokhorov, “In 2011 WM students made several key innovations in their research projects. First, they redefined their understanding of the sites of urban memory. Instead of focusing on the sites that interpreted the past, they examined the sites that create history in the present and define St. Petersburg’s future. For example, Alex McGrath analyzed the project for the new skyscraper The Gazprom Tower and Sophie Kosar studied the Marine Facade, St. Petersburg’s new seaport. Second, student added to their traditional tools of analysis, pen and paper, the new media, lapel microphone and digital camera. In addition to research papers, they produced documentary films. Third, students included in their film crews collaborators from St. Petersburg University School of Journalism. Russian students helped WM students and served as their field producers. The result of this genuinely international effort was a multimedia portal that combined the interactive potential of a blog, immediacy of a documentary and reflexive power of a research paper.”
Sophie and her partner’s film project approached the theme of memory through a somewhat non-traditional angle: the myth of St. Petersburg and the construction of the Marine Façade. “Our projects were supposed to be about sites of memory, which makes one usually immediately think history and monuments and things like that,” says Sophie, by way of introduction. “My project was on contemporary issues and contemporary problems.”
Sophie’s topic – the Marine Façade, a commercial port and business center meant to facilitate tourism and increase revenue in the city. While many Petersburg residents were onboard with the proposed plan, which would also include the building of new neighborhoods and expanding city transportation, some were less than excited about the prospect of such a Western urbanization of the traditional Vasilievsky Island, one of several islands making up St. Petersburg. This new, largely commercial and highly modernized region would clash with the city’s traditional aesthetic, thereby diverging with Petersburg as these residents viewed and remembered it.
However, as Sophie explores in the paper she wrote about her research into the Marine Façade, the myth and memory of St. Petersburg is a double-edged sword. The traditional Petersburg many of the Marine Façade’s opponents used to support their case was itself an example of an extremely modern, Western city planned and built by Tsar Peter the Great as a means of connecting Russia with Europe. Founded in 1703, Petersburg embodied from the very beginning the tensions between the old and the new, the East and the West. As Sophie explains, the Marine Façade is simply continuing this tradition.
Researching a site of memory and making a documentary about it led to more opportunities the average study abroad student does not have, like interviewing a variety of pivotal figures in the Marine Façade discussion. “First we interviewed an architect Rafail Dayanov who does historical restoration in the city,” describes Sophie. “Then we interviewed the PR manager for the Marine Façade managing company Alexander Shimberg who is doing all the port business, all of the current development, all of the land reclamation. And then we interviewed an opposition NGO leader Tatiana Sharagina.”
This experience, facilitated by the Dobro Slovo scholarship, not only did wonders for Sophie’s Russian, it gave her vital research and writing experience. “Going to St. Petersburg last year was great, not only because it helped me a lot with my Russian, it gave me more confidence definitely…Doing independent research, especially at the undergraduate level, is invaluable.” Watch excerpts from our interview with Sophie in Kazan via Skype:
Sophie’s hard work abroad has led to more unexpected and pleasant surprises. The research paper she wrote about the project has been published in Columbia University’s Birch, the first national undergraduate publication devoted exclusively to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian cultures. It has also been featured in Vestnik, the School of Russian and Asian Studies’ newsletter. Meanwhile, the documentary she and her partner made has been screened several times, including at the Global Film Festival, an international venue, in Feb 2012, where she got to walk the red carpet at the Kimball Theater in Colonial Williamsburg. It was also screened at the University of Virginia’s Slavic Forum.
And all this is thanks, in large part, to the scholarship alums like Erin contribute to every year. Such donations go far beyond the financial – they enable students to expand their horizons and inspire them to pursue new adventures and opportunities. Sophie is currently spending her junior year studying Russian in Kazan, something she would have been hesitant to do had she not been able to go to St. Petersburg the summer before. “I am so glad that I went last year. It’s so much better, so much better.”
For all those generous alums, Sophie, and others like her, appreciate all that you do for them and plan to pay it forward themselves. “I know that I for one, having received donations, definitely in the future am going to want to help out because it’s really important and I feel like if you can help other students, inspire their love of learning about x, y, or z, then it’s definitely worth it.”
So, thank you to all who contribute. Without you, many of our students would be unable to have the kind of amazing experiences abroad that Sophie has had. And don’t be strangers! Sophie perhaps says it best: “It was really cool to meet all of the alums at Homecoming.”
RPSS Faculty and Students Attend Play in Washington
On October 20, 2012, the students and faculty in the Russian and Post-Soviet Studies Program went to Washington, DC, to see a Russian classic performed in English – Nikolai Gogol’s The Inspector General. This new adaptation of the play is being performed by the Shakespeare Theatre Company at the Lansburgh Theater in Washington, DC.
Nikolai Gogol is one of the most influential Russian writers of the 19th century. Although his comedy, The Inspector General, is a satire of 19th-century Russian bureaucracy and provincial kowtowing, the play is so universal that over the last two centuries it has been performed all over the world and has inspired numerous film and stage adaptations.
Attending the matinee performance of this new adaptation of Gogol’s classic comedy was a unique opportunity for the students and faculty in our RPSS program! We are tremendously grateful to the Parents Association at the College of William & Mary and the Mellon Foundation Grant for making this trip possible. We also want to say a big thank you to Bella Ginzbursky-Blum for organizing the trip!
Here’s what some of those who went had to say about the experience:
“I thought the play was very interesting. I would really like to see how the version we saw compares to the play as it was originally written.”
~ Natalie Hulse
“The play, while clearly having been adapted for a modern, American audience, was still very enjoyable. This outing was an excellent opportunity to see one of Russia’s most famous works; I’m hoping more Russian works follow so the department can continue doing really cool field trips!”
~Jessica Parks
“The trip was a fantastic way to not only see a hilarious show but to also spend time with other Russian students. Special recognition goes to the superb timing of the actors/actresses as an ensemble and the generous affordability of the trip. Thank you for your help in preparing this outing!”
~ Matthew Baker
“I thought the play was excellent. It was both funny and relevant, and the overall trip was a great experience!”
~ Zach McCarty
“The trip to see The Government Inspector was an incredible experience for me. Absurdly funny and smart, this adaptation of Gogol’s famous play brought a tale set in 19th-century Russia to life on the modern stage, showing its stark portrayal of corruption, stupidity and hypocrisy in society is just as relevant now as it was then.”
~ Ben Raliski
“I thought this play was very funny and the characters were very interesting. However, I thought that this version was very Americanized and therefore Gogol’s original Russian text probably has quite a different tone.”
~ Ben Oelberg
“After arriving in D.C. all of the groups split up to grab a bite to eat before the show. My group ventured into China Town and had some delicious egg rolls, dumplings, noodles, and duck! Once we finished eating we headed out to the streets and took in the sights before our 2 o’clock show. The Government Inspector was by far one of the best plays I have seen this year! This was definitely a good investment on the Russian House’s part and I would recommend all students to attend similar events!”
~ Hallie Harriman
Homecoming Reception: Saturday, October 27, 4:30 – 7:30 pm — RPSS Annual Homecoming Reception at the Russian House (Pleasants Hall, 3rd floor). Come meet some alums, hang out with your professors and classmates, and eat some good food!
Erin Alpert (’07) Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, will give a talk titled, “The Truth”: Soviet and Post-Soviet Documentary Cinema. Here is a brief description: “
Documentary cinema played a key role in Soviet intellectuals’ fight against political censorship during Gorbachev’s perestroika. The lecture examines the evolution of Russo-Soviet documentary cinema as an art form and industry in the late USSR and post-Soviet Russia.”
Friday, Oct. 26th, 3:30 pm, Wash 301.
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Film Series: Jolly Fellows
Monday, Oct 1st, 3:30 pm. Jolly Fellows 2 (dir. Feliks Mikhailov 2009) Blair 205.
Professor John MacKay, of Yale University, will be giving a talk on Vertov’s groundbreaking film, Man with a Movie Camera (1929), on Thursday, September 27th, at 5 pm in Washington 201. Here is a brief description of what his talk will be about:
This talk will closely examine both the montage construction of Man with a Movie Camera and the film’s representation of women in light of a central ideological tension characteristic of early Soviet Marxism: specifically, between conceiving of subjectivity in terms of distinct and recognizable categories (such as class, gender, and ethnicity), and conceiving of subjectivity in terms of dynamics (of economic production and consumption, in particular) that bind everyone together. It will argue that the identity called “proletarian” was valorized by artists like Vertov, and that Man with a Movie Camera attempts, on a figurative level, to link the work of non-proletarians like filmmakers to proletarian labor, and especially that of industrial workers, in part through minutely organized montage that mimics machine rhythms.
Note: In anticipation of this talk, there will be a screening of Man with a Movie Camera on Wednesday, September 26th at 3:30 in Wash 320.
The selection committee has awarded the Russian Section Book Award to P.J. Prather for her hard work and dedication over the course of her time here at William & Mary.
The awards committee has selected Jacob Lassin
as one of two recipients for the Russian- and Post-Soviet Studies Excellence Award, which is given annually to students who have excelled in their time at W&M and who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to their studies.
The awards committee has selected Maggie Burke as one of two recipients for the Russian- and Post-Soviet Studies Excellence Award, which is given annually to students who have excelled in their time at W&M and who have demonstrated a high level of commitment to their studies
.
The selection committee has awarded the 2012 Dobro Slovo Scholarship to Rachel Faith. The Dobro Slovo Scholarship was established in 2005. The Scholarship is funded by the donations of Russian alumni and faculty and is intended for students studying on the W&M Summer Study Abroad Program in St. Petersburg.
Please join us for a talk by W&M alum Mary Catherine French titled, “From TASS to Twitter: Russian and Soviet Journalism in Historical Perspective.” The talk will be held on Tuesday, March 13th, at 4 pm in Washington 201. 
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Congratulations!!!!
Congratulations to the following students who participated in last month’s 13th Annual ACTR National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest:
- Anna Kim,
- Kelly Okun,
- Alex McGrath,
- Megan Doneski,
- Raj Janis,
- Petar Yanev,
- Thomas Dziura,
- Sophie Kosar.
Winners will be announced later this Spring!
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Maslenitsa
Maslenitsa (Масленица) will be celebrated at the Russian House on Sunday, February 26th,
beginning at 4 pm.
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Film Screening: “Alexandra”
Please join the students of RUSN 308 this Sunday, February 26th, at 7 pm in Washington 201 for a screening of Alexander Sokurov’s Alexandra. 
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Film Series: “Another Sky”
Directed by Dmitry Mamulya (Russia 2010), “Another Sky” 
will be screened Thursday, Feb 23, at 5:30 in Washington 302. It will be introduced by Sophie Kosar.
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Film Series: “Another Sky”
Directed by Dmitry Mamulya (Russia 2010), “Another Sky” 
will be screened Thursday, Feb 23, at 5:30 in Washington 302. It will be introduced by Sophie Kosar.
Professor David Herman, Chair of the Slavic Department at the University of Virginia, will be giving a lecture about Tolstoy and his fiction on February 17th at 3 pm in Washington 315. His lecture is titled: “Tolstoy in Eden.” Here is a brief description of the content of the talk: “Virginia Woolf famously called Tolstoy the greatest of all novelists, and it may be that his gift was not just technical, but also an ability to interrogate the shared assumptions that ground modern subjectivity. Tolstoy’s fiction asks us to think about life as a repeating tragedy of innocence or ignorance ruined by a fall into knowledge and awareness, rather like the Biblical narrative of Adam and Eve, but endlessly renewed in each individual life. In so doing, Tolstoy’s works challenge us to ponder what innocence really entails and why we value it so much.“
The next film in this semester’s film series, Russians: Cinema, City, Migration, will be screened Thursday, Feb 16, at 5:30 pm in Washington 201. This week’s film is Eastern Promises (dir. David Cronenberg, Canada, USA, UK 2007), and it will be introduced by Rachel Faith.
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Film Screening: Brother 2
The next film in this semester’s film series, Russians: Cinema, City, Migration, will be screened this WEDNESDAY, February 8th, in the Williamsburg Regional Library Auditorium. The film is Brother 2 (dir. Aleksei Balabanov Russia, USA 2000) and it will be introduced by Sasha Prokhorov.
The first of four movies to be screened as part of the Russian Section’s Film Series:
RUSSIANS: CINEMA, CITY, MIGRATION. I Walk Around Moscow / Я шагаю по Москве will be shown on Thursday, February 2nd, at 5 pm in Washington 201. 
This is a national writing contest for Russian speakers of all levels, from 1st-year to heritage, and is judged by a panel of experts. Participants have the opportunity to receive 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, or honorable mention, among all US studen
ts of their same level. The deadline for registration is January 30th. The contest will take place February 9th, at 6 pm in Washington 317. If interested, please contact John Lyles at jhlyles@wm.edu.
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Film Series
The Russian Section will begin its Spring film series, Russians: Cinema, City, Migration, will begin next week (Thursday, February 2nd at 5 pm in Washington 201). Here is the list of all the movies to be screened, along with the dates and times:
Film Series:
RUSSIANS: CINEMA, CITY, MIGRATION
ДОРОГАГОРОД
RUSSIANS: CINEMA, CITY, MIGRATION
ДОРОГАГОРОД
Feb 2, Th 5:00 Washington 201
I Walk Around Moscow (Dir. Georgii Danelia USSR 1964)
Introduced by Vinny Rampino
Feb 8, Wed 6:30 Williamsburg Regional Library Auditorium
Brother 2 (dir. Aleksei Balabanov Russia, USA 2000)
Introduced by Sasha Prokhorov
Feb 16, Th 5:30 Washington 201
Eastern Promises (dir. David Cronenberg, Canada, USA, UK 2007)
Introduced by Rachel Faith
Feb 23, Th 5:30 Washington 302
Another Sky (dir. Dmitry Mamulya, Russia 2010)
Introduced by Sophie Kosar