Author Archives: canavans

The Stylehunters of Soviet Russia    

In the recollections of both Pasha Angelina and Ludmilla Alexeveya, getting together with groups of like-minded young people played a pivotal role in their early adulthood. Both women were about twenty when Komosol meetings and kompaniya helped solidify their respective … Continue reading →

It is hard to read about Russian imperialism and without comparing it to what I readily know about western European imperialism.* My sense of European imperialisation is characterized by the exploitation of primarily natural resources and secondarily, the exploitation of … Continue reading →

I am wondering about Jone’s conclusions about the difference between Soviet people’s reaction to de-Stalinization in 1956 and 1961. She tells us that the evidence in 1961 suggests far less resistance than in 1956. Her first hypothesis is that the … Continue reading →

The new perspective on the political thinkers of the Enlightenment that is gained when looking from Catherine the Great and a Russian direction is exciting. These philosophes’ writing had, if any, an elusive effect on the European monarchies under which … Continue reading →