bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Van Oudenaren John
Published: October 2024

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the role of the Librarian of Congress. The Librarian of Congress is one of the few individuals in the federal government with a mandate and a budget to work in the area of culture. The international cultural role of the Librarian of Congress was never more evident than in the period between 1987 and 2015, when James H. Billington served as Librarian. Billington played a large role in the United States' engagement with Russia as it transitioned from communism to democracy under Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin and then back to authoritarianism under Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin. Although the Library of Congress was a relatively small institution as US government agencies go and, with limited exceptions, had no explicit legal or budgetary mandate to involve itself in foreign policy, Billington continued efforts almost to the end of his tenure as Librarian of Congress to do what he could to promote the best and avoid the worst of the outcomes that were possible for Russia in those years.
Boris Yeltsin, 1991–1996
Authors: Van Oudenaren John
Published: October 2024

This chapter evaluates the period from late 1991 to 1996, when, following the unexpected breakup of the USSR, Boris Yeltsin dominated the politics of the Russian Federation and sought to rebuild Russia along democratic free market lines patterned after the United States and Western Europe. Throughout this period, the Library of Congress worked with a range of institutions in Russia on projects that provided material and, perhaps as importantly, moral support. These projects included two major exhibitions that brought influential Russians to Washington, archival acquisition projects that fed resources to otherwise bankrupt cultural institutions, assistance to the Russian parliament, and fellowships and internships that brought individual Russians to the United States and the Library of Congress. The Library also used this time to continue building its own research collections. Ultimately, the Library of Congress had a considerable influence on Russian cultural institutions in this period. As a government official, an adviser to Congress and the executive branch, and a public intellectual, James H. Billington continued to offer policy advice on how the United States should deal with Russia.
Attention
Authors: Wankhammer Johannes
Published: October 2024

This introductory chapter explains attention as a new faculty of the soul. It also considers attention as a normative performance of mindedness lodged at the intersection of social and discursive practices. Although the problem of attention was by no means restricted to Germany, German thinkers were able to draw on a theory of mind that facilitated their paradigmatic articulation of a general problem of European modernity. The chapter details how Christian Wolff established the foundation for eighteenth-century discussions of attention in Germany and beyond. It explains that in matters of practical conduct, learning to pay attention enabled a new model of rational agency.
Poetics
Authors: Wankhammer Johannes
Published: October 2024

This chapter references poetry as an education of attentiveness. It features poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes and the poetic theorist Johann Jakob Breitinger as representatives of poetics of the marvelous (das Wunderbare) highlighting the power of the rare, strange, and extraordinary to captivate an audience. In their poetic theory and practice, Breitinger and Brockes eventually discover that all perception may rely on a contingent pattern of habituated attention. The chapter explains that Breitinger and Brockes modeled their respective renovations of poetry and poetics on the rationalist concept of attention. It cites that both of them, in different degrees, seized attention as a nonmimetic element in cognition to carve out a place for artifice in poetic representation.
Capitalizing Development
Authors: Chen Muyang
Published: October 2024

This chapter illustrates how policy banks, primarily the China Development Bank (CDB), developed their unique fundraising mechanism, which is selling state-guaranteed bonds on a domestic market to other Chinese financial agencies, mainly commercial banks. While bond issuance is a common way of raising capital nowadays, a “market” where financial agencies could trade bonds barely existed in China back in the early 1990s. Integrating a government-coordinated approach reflected in Japan's Fiscal and Investment Loan Program (FILP) and a market-based bond-issuance approach practiced by Germany's national development bank, the CDB facilitated the creation of a domestic interbank bond market to raise capital for China's urbanization and industrialization. By doing so, the CDB transformed a traditional means of policy–bank funding into a market-based means of funding. In this process, the state transferred the tasks of allocating and pricing bonds to the newly crafted market and empowered bond transactions by offering sovereign guarantees.
Mission Manifest
Authors: Shannon Matthew K.
Published: October 2024

This book argues that American evangelicals were central to American–Iranian relations during the decades leading up to the 1979 revolution. These Presbyterian missionaries and other Americans with ideals worked with US government officials, nongovernmental organizations, and their Iranian counterparts as cultural and political brokers—the living sinews of a binational relationship during the Second World War and early Cold War. As US global hegemony peaked between the 1940s and the 1960s, the religious authority of the Presbyterian Mission merged with the material power of the American state to infuse US foreign relations with the messianic ideals of Christian evangelicalism. In Tehran, the missions of American evangelicals became manifest in the realms of religion, development programs, international education, and cultural associations. Americans who lived in Iran also returned to the United States to inform the growth of the national security state, higher education, and evangelical culture. The literal and figurative missions of American evangelicals in late Pahlavi Iran had consequences for the binational relationship, the global evangelical movement, and individual Americans and Iranians. The book offers a history of living, breathing people who shared personal, professional, and political aims in Iran at the height of American global power.
“Something Other Than Ordinary Education”
Authors: Shannon Matthew K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores how the old and new missions of American evangelicals were embodied in two educational initiatives of the Presbyterian Mission in Tehran: Community School and Iran Bethel. Community School focused on preuniversity English-language coeducation, while Iran Bethel emphasized a religious “House of God” ethos. The chapter notes how both schools, located in the heart of Tehran, adapted to their surroundings and were influenced by the socio-political climate under Mohammad Reza Shah. Despite differing educational models and missions, Community School and Iran Bethel evolved into international institutions after the Presbyterian Mission closed in 1965, continuing to impact Iranian and American educational contexts. The chapter highlights the interplay of mission and place, demonstrating how these schools fostered new social practices and forms of interaction and shaped the Del Be Del network's broader educational mission in mid-twentieth-century Tehran.
“These Young Persian Friends of Mine”
Authors: Shannon Matthew K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter investigates the American–Iranian relations through the lens of associationalist traditions, emphasizing the Del Be Del network's “friendship evangelism.” This form of witness, inspired by the Gospel of Matthew, encouraged interactions beyond the covenant community, fostering connections between Americans and Iranians. The chapter discusses the concept of friendship evangelism, which was embodied in global organizations like the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and was integral to the Presbyterian Mission's activities in Tehran. The chapter analyzes the crucial role associationalism played in the American global mission, including supporting democracy and public–private cooperation that influenced institutions like the Iran–America Society during the Cold War. Iranian associationalist traditions, such as the anjoman and dowreh, intersected with American efforts, creating a complex interplay of friendship and power politics that shaped binational relationships and sociocultural exchanges.
The Persian “Boomerang”
Authors: Shannon Matthew K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the migration and adaptation of the Del Be Del network to the United States after the Presbyterian Mission in Iran closed in 1965. Many members, known as “Iranis,” settled in Southern California and Wooster, Ohio, maintaining their collective experiences and cultural ties to Iran. The chapter profiles Theodore Cuyler Young and Edwin Milton Wright, who transitioned to careers in intelligence and academia and Walter Alexander Groves, Ralph Cooper Hutchison, and Herrick Black Young, who continued their educational missions at Presbyterian colleges in the United States. It also mentions John Elder and William Miller, who brought their evangelical zeal into American neo-evangelical culture. The chapter describes the “Persian boomerang,” which carried the Del Be Del network's mission from Iran to the United States and influenced national security, higher education, and religious discourse.
Conclusion
Authors: Shannon Matthew K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter reviews the Del Be Del network's mission in Tehran, shaped by the interdependent relationship between American evangelicals, US global power, and Pahlavi nation-building. This relationship is akin to musical “counterpoint,” where distinct voices contribute to the same composition while maintaining their unique rhythms and sounds. The chapter points out how the Del Be Del network's mission manifested in various aspects of national and international life, including churches, development programs, schools, and associations. The chapter discusses that the intensity of the American moment in Iran was keenly felt by all participants, despite their differing perspectives. The Del Be Del network's efforts were central to an encounter between people of different faiths and nationalities, impacting Tehran's physical and emotional worlds, the milieus of Christian and American internationalism, and various levels of US–Iran relations.
Shell Is Other People
Authors: Grillo Tyran
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses Kitano Yūsaku's 2001 award-winning novel Mr. Turtle. It elaborates on how science fiction (SF) reinforces the otherness of animals by treating them as backyard enigmas. Mr. Turtle redraws the parameters and phenomenology of artificial intelligence (AI) around questions of animality and designer consciousness. Moreover, the novel makes a nuanced point about transhumanism, which burdens android populations with the human fear of death. While some people interpret the novel as an allegory between work and retirement, the author disagrees with this notion and believes that Mr. Turtle evokes the integrity of the common novel more than the ethos of the anime generation.
Postanimalism
Authors: Grillo Tyran
Published: October 2024

This chapter concludes with the key themes of postanimalism. It explains how productive error has been a vital ingredient within Japanese literary studies. If posthumanism is understood to be a radical enmeshment of bioforms and inanimates, then it necessarily depends on species narcissism and denial of error. Thus, postanimalism is the next logical step toward the realization of an interspecies world which is also a testimony of the treatment of animals as egomorphic images. The chapter also discusses that postanimalism recognizes the productive errors not only of texts but also of people's reactions to them while moving the storytelling beyond the threshold of circumstance into a universal truth.
The Soviet POW Camp System
Authors: Grunewald Susan C. I.
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on international law and daily life within the Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) camp system. It discusses the Politburo's establishment of the Gulag to conserve state resources and colonize remote areas of the nation. Soviet leaders used the structure of the preexisting Gulag forced-labor camp system to shape the treatment of German POWs. After World War II, various nations again met in 1949 to refine the Geneva Conventions and shape international law based on their wartime experiences. Although experiences from World War I and international law informed how Soviet officials treated German captives, labor needs ultimately shaped much of the POW camp life experience.
The Politics of Repatriation
Authors: Grunewald Susan C. I.
Published: October 2024

This chapter expounds on the politics of repatriation, highlighting the role of prisoners of war (POWs) as political pawns between the two German states and the USSR. The Soviet Union steadily returned POWs after Germany's capitulation, referencing its motivation focused on the economy and changes in Soviet domestic and international politics. After the death of Stalin, Soviet leaders used the release of the POWs to build pro-Soviet public sentiment. The chapter cites that the repatriation of German POWs became a major diplomatic issue. It explains that POWs' long-lasting captivity continued to condition German and Soviet domestic and international politics well until the collapse of the USSR.
Conclusion
Authors: Grunewald Susan C. I.
Published: October 2024

This chapter concludes the legacy of German prisoners of war (POWs). It highlights how German POWs shaped the politics of the Soviet Union and will continue to shape those of Russia for many years to come. The long-lasting incarceration of the German POWs stemmed from a need to rebuild the Soviet Union until 1949. Initially, the POWs symbolized military victory and the superiority of socialism. Later, in the mid-1980s, they served to illustrate long-lasting Soviet–German cooperation and the German commitment to socialism. The chapter then provides an overview of the five major waves of POW repatriations signifying the end of captivity and an economic and political process.
America's Cold Warrior
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

Serving in eight presidential administrations, Paul Nitze commanded White House attention even when he was out of government, especially with his withering criticism of Jimmy Carter during Carter's presidency. While Nitze is perhaps best known for leading the formulation of NSC-68, which Harry Truman signed in 1950, this book contends that Nitze's most significant contribution to American peace and security came in the painstaking work done in the 1980s to negotiate successful treaties with the Soviets to reduce nuclear weapons while simultaneously deflecting skeptics surrounding Ronald Reagan. This book connects Nitze's career and concerns about strategic vulnerability to the post-9/11 era and the challenges of the 2020s, where the United States finds itself locked in geopolitical competition with the People's Republic of China and Russia.
Introduction
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides a background on the life and career of Paul Nitze, a pivotal figure in US national security whose influence spanned from World War I to the post-9/11 era. Born into a family that vacationed in Tyrol within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nitze's early experiences included witnessing the mobilization of Emperor Franz Joseph's army following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which marked the beginning of World War I. The chapter highlights Nitze's attendance at elite academic institutions and time spent on Wall Street before dedicating himself to US national security. The chapter also reveals the pivotal role Nitze played in shaping Cold War policies and US nuclear strategy, advocating for strategic superiority and the use of ballistic missile defense. It reviews Nitze's work, which emphasized the tension between democracy and Cold War threats and reflected his belief in nonpartisan expertise and the American way of life.
NSC-68
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on Paul Nitze's pivotal role in shaping US national security strategy, particularly through his involvement with NSC-68 during the early years of the Cold War. Although he didn't write all of it, Nitze oversaw the drafting of this influential document, which emphasized the need for increased defense spending and framed the struggle against communism as a global battle between freedom and slavery. The chapter highlights Nitze's efforts to have NSC-68 adopted as official US strategy were initially met with resistance from President Harry Truman. It recounts the outbreak of the Korean War that led to the eventual approval of NSC-68. Nitze's work on NSC-68 reflected his belief in the necessity of maintaining US strength to deter potential threats, a view that guided his approach to national security throughout his career.
No Exile
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter details Paul Nitze's tenure as director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff until June 1953, after which he focused on developing the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) into a policy think tank for national security practitioners. The chapter recounts how Nitze assembled a team of former State Department officials and maintained strong connections with key figures like Dean Acheson and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Despite personal differences, Dulles often sought Nitze's expertise on national security issues during the Eisenhower administration. The chapter scrutinizes the work of Nitze that primarily revolved around formulating US grand strategy, addressed foreign policy challenges, and recognized the geopolitical implications of thermonuclear weapons. Throughout 1953 to 1960, Nitze demonstrated significant influence without holding a government position, leveraging his experience and access to classified information to impact US national security policy.
Preponderance Lost
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter gives an account of Paul Nitze's tenure under President Lyndon B. Johnson, where he ascended to the role of deputy secretary of defense but remained outside Johnson's inner circle. During his earlier years as secretary of the navy, he witnessed Robert McNamara's pivotal decisions on US nuclear strategy. The chapter highlights Nitze's interpretation of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which emphasized the necessity of US nuclear and conventional superiority to deter Soviet aggression and reflected his belief that US weakness invites foreign threats. Despite the collapse of the Cold War consensus by 1968 and the divisive impact of the Vietnam War, Nitze remained steadfast in his conviction that US strength ensured stability. The chapter discusses Nitze's commitment to maintaining strategic advantages and his extensive knowledge of nuclear policy, which made him a key figure in national security.
Negotiating from Weakness, 1969–1975
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter covers Paul Nitze's role during Richard Nixon's administration, focusing on his efforts to negotiate limits on strategic nuclear forces between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although Nitze served as the Department of Defense representative to the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT), he differed fundamentally from Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who prioritized a nuclear arms deal to support Nixon's re-election campaign. The chapter explores Nitze's belief that the US needed to reverse Soviet gains since the Cuban Missile Crisis and to maintain overwhelming US strength to ensure strategic stability. The chapter mentions the 1972 Interim Agreement and the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) Treaty, which did not meet Nitze's objectives as the Soviet deployment of SS-18 ICBMs in 1975 confirmed his fears about US vulnerabilities and the destabilizing effects of heavy land-based missiles. The chapter further notes Nitze's insistence on overwhelming US strength as a prerequisite for arms control contrasted with their politically motivated approach to SALT.
A Walk in the Woods, 1981–1984
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter details Paul Nitze's central role in the US nuclear weapons debate during the early 1980s. From 1981 to 1983, Nitze led the US delegation to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) negotiations, attempting to broker a deal with his Soviet counterpart, Yuli Kvitsinsky. The chapter looks at the critical role Nitze played in shaping the administration's responses, emphasizing the importance of not appearing weak and ensuring comprehensive negotiations that included the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and INF. The chapter discusses how Nitze's ideas gained traction, leading to high-level engagements and a broader scope of negotiations, despite political headwinds and skepticism about Soviet intentions. Nitze's enduring impact and direct link to Cold War principles earned him a special assistant appointment by President Ronald Reagan.
No Retirement, 1989–2004
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on Paul Nitze's resignation and transition at the end of the Reagan administration following the election of George H. W. Bush. It details how Nitze continued to influence national security debates and opposed the Persian Gulf War while recognizing the potential of precision-guided weapons. Nitze opposed NATO expansion and humanitarian interventions, identifying global environmental degradation as the primary post-Cold War threat. The chapter describes Nitze's later years which were marked by caution against global ideological struggles and concern over climate change. After his death in 2004, Nitze was honored by figures such as Colin Powell and remembered for his significant contributions to US national security strategy, a legacy that continues to shape policy.
Conclusion
Authors: Wilson James Graham
Published: October 2024

This chapter highlights Paul Nitze's enduring influence on US national security, emphasized by Condoleezza Rice in her 2002 speech at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), initially intended to promote ballistic missile defense but revised to address the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent global war on terror. Despite the Bush administration's shift in focus to terrorism and rogue states, Nitze's strategic concepts, particularly from the Cold War era, continued to shape policy debates. The chapter describes Nitze's pragmatic, non-ideological approach to national security that underpinned his belief in the strength derived from the United States' founding values. The chapter discusses Nitze's contribution to the US national security architecture and its response to nuclear threats, leaving a legacy that informed policies well into the 2020s. It highlights Nitze's work that laid a foundation for addressing modern security challenges, ensuring his impact on American strategic thinking.
Rachmaninov
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter introduces Sergei Rachmaninov, whom Ivan Bunin met in Yalta. Bunin and Rachmaninov spent entire nights talking about the splendid, eternal, and high art until his final departure to America. Both men sat next to each other, drank Abrau-Durso champagne, and then went out onto the terrace, continuing to talk about the decline in poetry and prose in Russian literature. Despite the declaration of being friends forever, their life paths remained different and apart, so their coincidental meetings were mostly accidental and short. The chapter notes that Rachmaninov recited a poem by Maykov that he had put to music at the time.
Kuprin
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses Ivan Bunin's friendship with Alexander Kuprin. Kuprin was secretive about many things in his personal life despite their long and close friendship. Critics have often compared Kuprin to Kipling, which is ill-chosen as several of Kipling's works reached the heights of genuine genius. Moreover, Kuprin's life changed after coming to Petersburg, entering the literary scene, marrying the daughter of Daydova, and then becoming the owner of God's World before he eventually returned to the USSR. The chapter notes that Bunin immensely supported Kuprin, referencing how he read and reread several of his stories.
Ertel
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter presents Ivan Bunin's opinion on Alexander Ertel. It explains that Ertel is almost forgotten and completely unknown, but it does not mean that he was lesser of a writer than presumed. A year after dying from heart failure, Ertel's collected works were published in seven volumes with an additional tome of writing, which included his novel The Gardenins prefaced by Tolstoy. The chapter also mentions that Ertel criticized the Russian intelligentsia severely from a practical point of view. It explains that Bunin believed that Ertel died too early at the age of fifty-two years old before indicating several quotes from Ertel's written works and beliefs.
Voloshin
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter introduces Maximilian Voloshin as one of the most prominent poets of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary years in Russia. Voloshin's poetry brought together many of the most typical features of most poets at their time, such as their aestheticism, snobbery, symbolism, and their enthusiasm for the Europeans. Ivan Bunin believed that Voloshin had another failing with extreme literary praise for the most terrible and bestial crimes of the Russian Revolution. The chapter notes that Voloshin arrived in Odessa from Crimea at the invitation of the Tseitlins and took up his usual activity of reciting poems and attending private clubs. It also presents the letter Voloshin sent that highlighted his strange behavior.
The “Third Tolstoy”
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses Count Alexei Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who was colloquially known as the Third Tolstoy. It explains that Tolstoy merged an exceptional lack of morality with his rare native talents and great artistic giftedness. Tolstoy wrote all kinds of things, beginning with street scenarios about Rasputin and the intimate life of the murdered tsar and the tsaritsa. The chapter also notes that the Bolsheviks were extremely proud of Tolstoy as the foremost Soviet writer. It then provides an overview of how Ivan Bunin met Tolstoy while also discussing their last meeting wherein Bunin realized Tolstoy's figure had become leaner and he could not drink due to doctor's orders.
Hegel, a Tailcoat, a Snowstorm
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses Ivan Bunin's experience with the revolution in Russia. It considers Bunin's belief in Georg Hegel and his notion of rationality. The Bulgarian government offered Bunin complimentary passage as far as Belgrade alongside a small sum of money. Eventually, Bunin found himself living in Paris where he sometimes received letters from Moscow with all kinds of truths and lies. The chapter provides some excerpts of the letters he received, most of which were from his nephew and the son of his cousin. It also notes the compliments to Alexei Sergeevich Suvorin, who later became a famous writer in the seventies, about his literary taste.
Nobel Days
Authors: Bunin Ivan
Published: October 2024

This chapter explains how Ivan Bunin became the first Russian writer to ever receive the Nobel Prize. It provides an overview of how the ceremony proceeded, mentioning that the official invitation for the ceremony was written in French in full accord with that exactness that distinguishes all Swedish rituals. Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933 by the Swedish Academy. The chapter also notes that Bunin and his wife were invited to the king's palace for dinner alongside the other laureates. It mentions that Bunin visited the cemetery where he paid respects to Alfred Nobel on the anniversary of his death.
Introduction
Authors: Knight Claire
Published: October 2024

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the postwar Soviet film industry. Joseph Stalin had always been invested in cinema, but his involvement in the medium intensified after the war. In these years, the development of the cinema industry was marked by a cultural purge that he instigated, dramatic policy reversals that he supported, and a tightening of censorship and centralization that ensured that all roads in the production process led to him, culminating in private screenings at the Kremlin or his dacha. Stalin's presence on screen was likewise magnified in these years, as the Stalin cult film came into its own as a genre and cinema took on a leading role in proliferating the cult, showcasing the new postwar iteration of a Stalin who had escaped the shadow of Lenin to stand alone as the architect of victory. Late Stalin-era Soviet cinema was fundamentally Stalinist. However, Stalinism was not the sole driving force of postwar cinema nor even necessarily always the most salient. The chapter introduces the aim of the book, which is to bring these other plotlines into focus while also reexamining Stalin's role in cinema—both behind and before the camera—in order to highlight the depth that persisted in late Stalin-era films.
The Postwar Cinema Industry, 1945–1953
Authors: Knight Claire
Published: October 2024

This chapter traces Soviet film industry history during the years 1945 through to March 1953. Cinema was subjected to the regime's efforts to reestablish Stalinist orthodoxy and facilitate financial recovery from the war during these years, and subsequently became a vital means by which the official line on such matters was propagated. This made for a period of cinema history that was rife with internal tensions and conflicting practical, ideological, and economic priorities. The result was a series of dramatic policy reversals that distinguish this period from what had gone before. While the chapter centers on the primary plotline of intensifying censorship and the resultant production slowdown and film famine, it also explores three lesser-known, pivotal subplots: the economics of film production, major policy reversals, and cinematic innovation. These three subplots enrich the story of the postwar film industry, revealing it to be a challenging yet nonetheless dynamic period for Soviet cinema.
Listening to The Young Guard
Authors: Knight Claire
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines Sergei Gerasimov's The Young Guard (1948)—a masterpiece in meaningful sound design. The Young Guard is an intriguing film not simply because of its popularity but due also to its nature as a film caught at the crossroads, both conforming to and circumventing the Stalinization of the war narrative that was well underway by 1948 with the development of the epic battle films. It is a film crafted amid multiple heated controversies: over the novel that formed its basis, the score that brought it to life, and the broader issue of “alien” cultural influence in the early Cold War USSR. Gerasimov's film is an ideal example of postwar censorship in action, since the plot, characters, and even score were redesigned in accordance with the emerging Stalinist orthodoxy. Rather than reducing war to a matter of enlightened leadership, military strategy, and heroic sacrifice, The Young Guard depicts the Great Patriotic War as a clash of cultures, with Krasnodon as a battlefield wherein cultural expression—particularly voiced and sounded expression—is the primary means of contestation between the Soviet Union and Germany.
The Twilight of Rockefeller-Era New York
Authors: Barrett Marsha E.
Published: October 2024

This chapter describes how, on January 3, 1973, Nelson Rockefeller announced the centerpiece of his legislative agenda: a program to end drug addiction by imposing life sentences for drug dealers. The Rockefeller drug laws were singular in their severity, but they were one of several examples of Rockefeller's record of seeking out solutions in the field of criminal justice that prioritized public alarm over data about crime or research on how best to address it. By looking at Rockefeller's approach to so-called urban problems, it becomes evident that he prioritized policies intended to appeal to nonurban, mostly white suburban New Yorkers. In an era when many Americans sought punitive responses to social problems, he produced what they wanted and contributed to the long-established criminalization of African Americans. In his final years as governor, Rockefeller appealed to the majority of New Yorkers by turning issues that were not inherently racialized or urban such as narcotics addiction, welfare reform, and the sale of illegal narcotics into tools to burnish his conservative credentials.
Becoming Crusaders
Authors: Norako Leila K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter presents a conceptual paradigm for understanding the cultural work performed by the emergent literary tradition of recovery romance. Undertaking a comparative analysis of three vernacular romances—Sir Isumbras, Sir Perceval of Galles, and Sir Degrevant—the chapter situates these texts within the cultural landscape of late medieval England in order to establish and illuminate the core narrative elements of recovery romance. While the provenance and presumed circulation of each text differs, and while they are distinct in several narrative and structural ways, the chapter contends that these three romances share and adopt recovery themes and impulses, and that all three are deeply invested in crusading ideologies and aspirations. Considering these texts as part of the recovery romance tradition proves vital, then, because it points to a cultural climate persistently inflected with anxieties about a “lost” Jerusalem and a retracting Christianitas. Isumbras, Degrevant, and Perceval proffer the same fantasy scenario that responds to those anxieties through their presentation of a singular and profoundly successful crusader-in-the-making.
King of the Future-Past
Authors: Norako Leila K.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines how Arthurian narratives were consistently repurposed and co-opted in order to promulgate cultural fantasies of Christian triumphalism and global dominion. It focuses on The Alliterative Morte Arthure, a text inflected with the nostalgic and anticipatory impulses that are essential to an efficacious recovery romance. It presents Arthur as a crusader-conqueror who has the potential to rule the entire world in Christ's—and England's—name but who is ultimately prevented from realizing that ambition. The Alliterative Morte Arthure intermixes discourses of Christian expansion with contemporary political materials—particularly those rooted in nationalistic desires born out of the Hundred Years' War. In both its transferal of imperial power from Rome to England and its subtler denigration of the French, The Alliterative Morte Arthure unequivocally positions England as the greatest of Latin Christian kingdoms, the only one capable of ensuring Christianity's global ascendance. However, by stopping Arthur just short of realizing his ultimate crusader goal—the conquest and recovery of Jerusalem—the romance reflects both past and present desires for Jerusalem's security while also considering the limitations and fragility of such enterprises.
Russian Archaism
Authors: Shevelenko Irina
Published: October 2024

This book considers the aesthetic quest of Russian modernism in relation to the nation-building ideas that spread in the late imperial period. The book argues that the cultural milieu in Russia, where the modernist movement began as an extension of Western trends at the end of the nineteenth century, soon became captivated by nationalist indoctrination. Members of artistic groups, critics, and theorists advanced new interpretations of the goals of aesthetic experimentation that would allow them to embed the nation-building agenda within the aesthetic one. The book focuses on the period from the formation of the World of Art group (1898) through the Great War and encompasses visual arts, literature, music, and performance. As the book shows, it was the rejection of the Russian westernized tradition, informed by the revival of populist sensibilities across the educated class, that played a formative role in the development of Russian modernist agendas, particularly after the 1905 revolution. The book reveals the modernist artistic enterprise as a crucial source of insight into Russia's political and cultural transformation in the early twentieth century and beyond.
Introduction
Authors: Shevelenko Irina
Published: October 2024

This introductory chapter traces how the Russian educated class's relationship to the cultural traditions of the lower classes went through a few distinct stages during the late imperial period. Beginning, at the latest, in the 1840s, the development of ethnography in the Russian Empire—initially understood as the study of subjugated ethnic minorities, whom the empire had to “civilize”—led to the inclusion of the Russian common people, alongside non-Russian indigenous groups, in the sphere of ethnographic interest. The chapter looks at the concepts of modernism and archaism. In general, the concept of archaism found wide application in both Russian and Western European modernist criticism. It was a useful means for conceptualizing artistic innovation as a turn to a wider spectrum of traditions than the nineteenth-century aesthetic models typically exemplified. The chapter also considers the concepts of empire, nation, and nationalism.
“The Roman National Idea”
Authors: Shevelenko Irina
Published: October 2024

This chapter begins by introducing an alternative perspective on the early twentieth century as the age of the decline of nations and the rise of empires, advocated, among others, by Valery Briusov, one of the principal figures in early Russian literary modernism. It considers the impact of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5) in shaping the discourse of nationalism in early modernist publications such as the journals The New Path, Questions of Life, and Libra. The chapter also looks at the new aesthetic ideologies born out of the crisis of trust in political institutions. Viacheslav Ivanov, the most influential modernist theoretician in Russia in the second half of the 1900s, conceived of this crisis as an opportunity for an artist to step forward as an agent of social change. The chapter then examines the adaptations of Ivanov's ideas by the broader literary-critical discourse. It focuses on one of the poetic veins inspired by Ivanov, discussing the role of the Pan-Slavist matrix in radicalizing the nationalist agenda of Russian experimental poetry, Velimir Khlebnikov's “word-creation” in particular.
“Russian Barbarians”
Authors: Shevelenko Irina
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses modernist music and performance in the aftermath of the first Russian Revolution. It begins by looking at the unrealized ballet by Sergei Prokofiev, Ala and Lolli (1915). Initially commissioned from Prokofiev by Sergei Diaghilev in 1914, it was later rejected by him as “international music.” This prompted Prokofiev to rework it into a suite that acquired the subtitle that eventually turned into this work's main name: Scythian Suite. The chapter then traces the formation of the aesthetic ideology of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes enterprise, before considering Igor Stravinsky's early ballets. It argues that the critical discussion of these ballets exposed the scale of controversies associated with modernist archaistic experimentations. The discursive equation of the experimental with the “barbarian,” and of the latter with the “(faux) national,” placed such pieces as Prokofiev's Scythian Suite in the category of musical nationalism, even in the absence of inherent folkloric substrate. Finally, the chapter assesses the interaction between expert knowledge of native Russian traditions, programs of their revival or reconstruction, and forms of their (re)invention in modernist art.
Prosperity, Regime, and Famine
Authors: Chen Yixin
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the history of the village in Xuancheng known as Three Treasures (Sanbao), which suffered an alarmingly high death rate during the Great Leap famine. The fate of the peasants in Three Treasures can be attributed to factors at three distinct levels. At the county level, the role of the regime, embodied by Xuancheng's party secretary Tian Zhaolin, was the most important element. It is evident that frenzied grain procurement, undertaken by the Xuancheng leadership and particularly advocated by Tian, exacerbated the famine fatalities in Three Treasures as well as the rest of the county. Tian also denied relief food offered by the prefectural authority. At the village level, the high mortality in Three Treasures and neighboring villages can be attributed to the breakdown of lineage leadership. The platoon leaders in Three Treasures generally treated their villagers better, but as the village authority operated at the company level, the Xu leaders no longer had the power to make important decisions and protect their peasants.
Multilineages, Revolution, and Famine
Authors: Chen Yixin
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines a multi-lineage village in southern and one in central Anhui, the first being a village built by the main lineage and later joined by a smaller lineage, while the second was founded by a landlord lineage that was later joined by smaller tenant-farmer villagers. These are Four Doors (Simen) and Little Shao (Xiaoshao). The stories of Four Doors and Little Shao indicate that multi-lineage villages usually endured worse famine experiences than single-lineage villages, largely due to the long-term impact of the Communist agrarian revolution. Neither village saw famine mortality as high as in Old Qu or Three Treasures, but their famine experiences were just as painful for two reasons. First, the agrarian revolution demoralized members of the main lineage, which led to the starvation of a disproportionate number of landlords and rich peasants, as in Little Shao. Second, the land reform generated a disoriented, ill-defined community in which some members of the main lineage harmed others during the famine, as occurred in Four Doors.
Contrasting Experiences of Jiangxi and Anhui in the Great Leap Forward Famine
Authors: Chen Yixin
Published: October 2024

This chapter analyzes, from a macro-level perspective, why peasants in Jiangxi Province fared significantly better than their Anhui counterparts during the Great Leap famine. Anhui experienced a sudden shortage of agricultural laborers both because it needed to improve its infrastructure for grain production and because it unrealistically pursued Great Leap irrigation projects. The labor shortage caused the agricultural failure of 1959 and predisposed the province to food scarcity. However, it was Anhui's dictatorial leadership—which enforced Maoist programs, refused to admit the real existing conditions, and did not take famine relief measures—that allowed a massive number of deaths to occur. Given its favorable natural conditions, Jiangxi had never needed to divert much of its agricultural labor force to irrigation projects. Thanks to the large quantity of “hidden” grain reserves resulting from its state farm system, Jiangxi offset the food shortage caused by the state's excessive procurement of grain and never experienced a general famine. Finally, Jiangxi's collaborative leadership, with its accurate sense of local realities and passive attitude toward the Great Leap, successfully preempted the circumstances that might have led to famine.
Conclusion
Authors: Chen Yixin
Published: October 2024

This concluding chapter looks at discernable patterns related to mortality rates during the Great Leap famine. Environment and lineage were the two key factors that most profoundly influenced mortality in particular villages during the famine. From the viewpoint of the peasants, food supply was also a factor, perhaps the most critical, as they all dined at mess halls that provided them with meals. However, they had no control over this supply since their food quotas were determined by the commune, and ultimately, the state. During the protracted famine, the peasants engaged primarily in two types of activities for their survival: first, making use of environmental resources for alternative sources of food; and second, participating in collective acts of self-protection usually organized by their lineage clans. In villages where environmental factors were unfavorable, changes in lineage had a critical impact on their high mortality rates. The unprecedented Communist agrarian revolution, especially the land reform of the early 1950s, ultimately intensified the Great Leap famine in many villages. The chapter then reflects on peasant–state relations in the post-famine era.
Forbearance
Authors: Hammering Klaus K. Y.
Published: October 2024

This chapter begins with the circumstances of a manslaughter conviction that redirected the life of the book's primary character, Akira. It describes how the containment of San'ya ensured that violence was made to circulate within San'ya rather than being returned to its source: the state. Forbearance had to be practiced in any form of conduct. As a dramatic enactment of masculinity, fighting referenced an honorable social code that predicated that an otoko constrain himself in consideration of the group. In San'ya, such consideration was emblematized in the senior figure of the group and his spouse, whose apartment provided a space of hospitality. The chapter concludes by considering this space of hospitality in distinction to a local nonprofit organization, where welfare recipients bowed their heads to receive food. It thereby prefigures the moment when active day laborers had to set aside their dignity to go on welfare. In conclusion, the chapter describes the physical and mental effects of Akira's misdiagnosis of “schizophrenia,” which the nonprofit helped him receive.
Epilogue
Authors: Hammering Klaus K. Y.
Published: October 2024

This epilogue offers a lyrical conclusion to the book, as it takes the reader back to Miyako, the hometown of Akira, where he visited his mother's tomb for the first time, in 2015. It reflects on the regrets of a lifetime lived in adherence to a transgressive masculinity, as everyone had become increasingly weak, and it attends to two key moments in which the heteronormative masculinity of San'ya was undone. The first moment was a transphobic assault on a crossdressing person who had ventured into the Iroha arcade. The epilogue considers this incident with reference to the writings of Susan Stryker and Sandy Stone, as an attempt to preserve a “pure” gender identity. The second moment was Akira's suicide attempt by disembowelment. Ultimately, what the death of San'ya leaves us with is also precisely that which the lackluster, uniform appearance of an increasingly alienated labor force of Japanese society has lost: the immemorable beauty of an obscene cast of characters, ever enacting the justice they would never have.
Introduction
Authors: Tazudeen Rasheed
Published: October 2024

This introductory chapter begins by looking at Franz Kafka's Odradek, a being from the miniature, “The Cares of a Family Man” (1919). Odradek is both a bounded, individualized being and an unpossessable living-on of manifold histories, futures, and expressivities unbound by humanistic thought and time. Like metaphor, Odradek is simultaneously an identity and a multitude, a named entity as well as an epiphoric profusion of names. The chapter considers the concept of inhuman modernism. The inhuman provides a means to imagine with multispecies, other-than-human worlds—including the worlds still to be made on the other side of mass extinction—without recourse to humanistic conceptualities. The chapter explains that the book traces the oblique speakings and expressivities of metaphor across modernist and contemporary metamodernist literatures.