"Ballet to literature to icons to onion domes"
By Caroline Moseley
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Vance Serchuk '01 (l), Boris Fishman '01 and Sophie Pateman '00, students in the Program in Russian Studies, talk with history professors Laura Engelstein and Stephen Kotkin and Assistant Professor of Politics Kathryn Stoner-Weiss (r), at a lecture on the Russian elections. (Photo by Denise Applewhite) |
"After Sputnik went up in 1957, there was a flurry of activity and investment of government funds to study the Russians, in order to compete more effectively." Expanding from language teaching into a broader study of the Soviet Union, Princeton's program was established in the early 1960s.
Since then, Princeton's Russian Studies Program has become one of the premier programs in the country, Kotkin says. It examines "the economic, political, social and cultural aspects of contemporary Russia and its history, including areas of Russian power and influence outside of Russia: for example, in Central Asia, the
Far East, Southeast Europe and the Balkans, and the Caucasus." There are 300 million people in the territories of the former Soviet Union, Kotkin points out, as well as large émigré communities in Paris, Berlin and New York.
"Russia is far more than simply a country," he notes. "Russia is both a geopolitical entity with vast resources and interests, and a civilization and a culture that is quite deep."
Evolution since 1991
The concept and content of Russian Studies have evolved since 1991, the year that marked the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Cold War pressures to study Russia as an inimical superpower have diminished, resulting in "less exclusive focus on security issues, less preoccupation with the military and military capabilities," Kotkin says.
Instead, current focuses are "the study of imperfect market relations in Russia, its bad banking industry, elections, the democratic process and violations of it, and Russia's relations with territories it no longer controls." In addition, "There is ever-increasing interest in issues having to do with Russian civilization and culture, from ballet to literature to icons to onion domes."
The term "Soviet," Kotkin says, now refers primarily to "the period in Russian history from 1922 to 1991, or from 1917 to 1991, depending on how you measure it (the Soviet Union didn't come into existence immediately after the 1917 Russian Revolution)."
Basis for further study
Princeton's interdisciplinary program stresses the study of Russian language, says Kotkin, as the basis for any further study. To earn a certificate in Russian Studies, undergraduates must take a minimum of six semesters of Russian language; one course in Russian literature; one in Russian history; one in the economics, politics or sociology of Russia; and one in an approved related field. Students write a thesis on a Russian topic within their field of concentration and complete their own departmental requirements.
In a given year there are about 40 students in the program, with between 10 and 15 seniors receiving certificates at graduation. "Because Russian Studies is a small program, I think it also offers a sense of family difficult to find in larger departments," says Vance Serchuk '01, a history major who is also earning certificates in European Cultural Studies, Slavic Languages and Literatures, and Near Eastern Studies.
Field study is an important part of the Russian Studies Program. "We encourage our students to travel to Russia for at least a summer," Kotkin notes, "so they have experience in the country, as well as the opportunity to enhance their language skills."
Dire predictions of friends
Sophie Pateman '00, a history major, spent last spring in St. Petersburg studying Russian and last summer with the CBS News Bureau in Moscow. Living in Russia, she says, "has provided me with a context within which I can place my Russia-related classes and has given me a deeper understanding of the life and culture."
Serchuk also studied Russian in St. Petersburg. Despite "the dire predictions of my friends," he says, "international tension translated to more interesting and topical conversations around the dinner table with my 'family.'"
Besides offering an array of courses to students and providing them study and work opportunities in Russia, the program sponsors or cosponsors many outside speakers and special events. Recent visitors have included filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov; economist Yegor Gaidar; and Boris Berezovsky, whom Kotkin describes as Russia's "most prominent and controversial tycoon."
One of Kotkin's goals for the program is to increase the number of visitors and visiting scholars and the length of time they can stay on campus.
"Lost in Siberia"
Kotkin, who has been at Princeton since 1989, teaches European history; this semester he is offering a course called Cultural Systems: Cultural Explosion: Avant Garde and Dictatorship in the Soviet Union. In 1994 he received a President's Award for Distinguished Teaching. He is writing a history of the Ob River valley to be called "Lost in Siberia."
Detailing the various faculty who teach in the program and their specializations, Kotkin points to program strength in literature, film, music, Russian regionalism, the history of Russian liberalism, sociology, politics and economics.
"We feel there's a greater need than ever to understand other parts of the world," he says. "The Russian Studies program is an important part of the increasing internationalization of Princeton."
Serchuk agrees.
"Russia is fascinating to study, because so many of the universal concepts--nationhood, modernity and so forth, aren't quite so clearly defined as in Western Europe. As a result, the problems that come up, and the way we untangle them, are a window, not just into a foreign culture but into our own as well."
Still, it is the complexities of Russia itself that draw students to the program. Boris Fishman '01, a Slavic Languages and Literatures major, was born in Belarus but came to the United States in 1988 and says he is "fully Americanized."
He plans to return to Russia for the first time this summer to work in the US Embassy and do research for a thesis on "how Soviet translators 'sovietized' Western novels." He is studying Russian literature and culture "to determine what it means to be Russian, a hundred years ago as well as today."
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