Master of Arts, Miami University, 2024, History

This thesis focuses on the early post-Soviet period and explores the history of the Cherkizovsky market (Moscow, Russia). Being the largest and most high-profile market, Cherkizovsky epitomized the golden era of street trade. It emerged from the Soviet collapse in a wasteland and became by the mid-2000s the largest open-air market in Europe with almost 100,000 traders from China and Central Asia working and a total daily profit reaching $1,000,000. Due to its unprecedented size and notorious reputation, Cherkizovsky was always on the cutting edge of any discussion of markets which were criticized for increases in crime rates, illegal migration from Asia, drug traffic, and ghettoization of close neighborhoods. Russian authorities shut down the market in 2009 in a very authoritarian manner, promising “civilized” trade and renovation in its place. Instead, the market was turned into a wasteland again and remains largely so to this day. This story portrays the upheavals and turns that took place in post-Soviet Russia between the state and society. It demonstrates how the state regulation of public space and street trade changed in the 1990s–2000s, and how the Cherkizovsky market was discredited as an “uncivilized” place and became a multifaceted symbol.

Committee: Stephen Norris (Advisor); Neringa Klumbyte (Committee Member); Daniel Prior (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Russian History

BA, Oberlin College, 2020, History

Nadezhda Briusova (1881-1951) was a pianist, music theorist, teacher, government worker, conservatory administrator, and journalist, who was instrumental in shaping mass music education in Moscow before and after the October Revolution of 1917. She believed that music was made up of two fundamental elements of being – movement and feeling – and argued that because its language was so elemental to the human experience, music was for everyone. She dedicated her life to teaching her students how to listen to and talk about music.In my thesis, I analyze how Briusova's mass music education programs created continuity across the revolutionary divide. I identify who and what she taught in order to demonstrate the ways in which, even as she adapted to the demands of the new Soviet state, Briusova perpetuated late-Imperial attitudes toward the people, narod, and Russian musical heritage.

Committee: Annemarie Sammartino (Advisor); Leonard V. Smith (Advisor); Zeinab Abul-Magd (Committee Member); Pablo Mitchell (Committee Member); Rishad Choudhury (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Music; Russian History

BA, Oberlin College, 2020, Theater

Concept and process for a director's capstone in theatre on A Warsaw Melody by Leonid Zorin.

Committee: Paul Moser (Advisor); Justin Emeka (Committee Member); Tim Scholl (Committee Member) Subjects: Russian History; Slavic Studies; Theater

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2020, History

This thesis examines the life of an engineer and professor Gustav Trinkler under the Imperial and Soviet Russia. By using archival materials, such as letters, certificates, reports, questionnaires, and a memoir, it explores his living conditions and interactions with authorities before and after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Trinkler was born in 1876 to a prosperous family of a predominantly German ethnicity. Despite his origins, he identified as a Russian throughout his life. Before the 1917 Revolution, Trinkler enjoyed cultivating his estate, sent his family on vacation to the south and petitioned his superiors requesting positions and financial assistance. After 1917, Trinkler aspired to maintain his living standards and re-engineered the life he knew: he obtained a new summer house, enjoyed family vacations in the south and kept sending petitions asking new, Soviet, authorities for assistance and benefits based on his technical skills. He managed to manufacture a Soviet life that was strikingly similar to his Imperial one even after his imprisonment as a "bourgeois" specialist in 1930. Using Trinkler's biography as a microhistory, this thesis points to the need to examine individuals' lives before 1917 to better understand the Soviet system and what constituted novel, "Soviet," behaviors.

Committee: Stephen Norris PhD (Advisor); Scott Kenworthy PhD (Committee Member); Francesca Silano PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Russian History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, History

This dissertation examines Communist Party propaganda and agitation (agitprop) in Kazakhstan, both the mechanics of agitprop production and dissemination, as well as the influence that agitprop had on the Kazakh populace during the Stalinist era in the Soviet Union (1929-1953). It argues that authorities in Moscow did not dictate Communist Party agitprop content and preferred to leave the responsibility of propaganda creation and dissemination to propagandists (agitprop workers) at the grassroots level. This heavy reliance on low-ranking agitprop workers proved problematic in Kazakhstan because most did not receive sufficient training to convey complex Marxist political theories to a largely illiterate population. In fact, many Kazakh propagandists were themselves semi-literate. Under-qualified agitprop workers resulted in shortcomings with propaganda production and dissemination, including teachings that ran against the official ideology. These shortcomings undermined the potency of Communist Party propaganda to educate and transform the Kazakh populace into modern Soviet citizens.

Committee: David Hoffmann (Advisor); Nicholas Breyfogle (Committee Member); Scott Levi (Committee Member); Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan (Committee Member) Subjects: History

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Geography

Deforestation is a major driver of global climate change and the causes and consequences of deforestation are largely societal. Forested areas in the Russian Federation have a particularly important role, mainly due to the size, location, and growth periods of the boreal, coniferous, and deciduous forests. Understanding the causes of deforestation also requires a comprehension of the changes that have occurred since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the nearly twenty-five years, which have passed since the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), a number of political, economic, and social dynamics have changed the landscape of the country both physically and institutionally. Two Russian cities, Moscow and Vladivostok, will serve as comparative case studies of the human environment dynamics across different natural environments, economic industries, and population centers in the country. In order to assess how human dimensions like urban expansion, supply and demand, and national/regional forest sector legislation have influenced land cover change; a mixed methods investigation is deployed. The investigation depends on both spatial evidence of land cover changes via remote sensing and analysis of human drivers such as policy, markets, and agriculture. Landsat images will be analyzed using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and other classification queries. Content analysis of national forest policy will also serve to bolster where and why deforestation occurred. It is expected that deforestation is an outcome of complex social processes and in most cases the drivers of land cover change are multi-dimensional and require moving beyond analysis of single causal mechanisms such as urban expansion through the clearing of forested land. In other words, deforestation is not simply driven by proximate causes such as the cutting down of trees for usage elsewhere or the opening of new land for use. The clearing of forests in Russia is one (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Tyner (Advisor); V. Kelly Turner (Committee Member); Mandy Munro-Stasiuk (Committee Member) Subjects: Geography

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music Ethnomusicology

This thesis explores the roles of internal others in constructing a Soviet and post-Soviet Ukrainian national identity. I begin with an analysis of the kobzars—a group of blind, itinerant minstrels who performed across Ukraine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before they disappeared entirely during Stalin's Great Terror in the 1930s. First, I explore the ways in which the Ukrainian bandura, an asymmetrical lute instrument, has become a site for documenting epistemologies of blind musicians in Ukraine. I then examine how these ways of knowing blindness have been influenced by myths of blind musicians in Ukraine that seek to demystify these internal “others.” Furthermore, I discuss how these myths continue to influence 21st century depictions of blind minstrels through an analysis of the 2014 Ukrainian film, The Guide. Finally, I turn my focus to the Eurovision Song Contest in order to examine how narratives of internal others are deployed in order to negotiate Ukraine's position in 21st century Europe and in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I then reflect on the ways in which deploying these narratives of internal others does not draw these groups into the mainstream, but instead emphasizes and exploits their difference for the purpose of rejecting external hegemony in Ukraine.

Committee: Katherine Meizel (Committee Member); Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2017, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation argues that U.S. economic strategies and policies were effective means to wage the Cold War during its final years and conclude the conflict on terms favorable to the United States. Using recently declassified U.S. and British government documents, among other sources, this analysis reveals that actions in East-West economic relations undermined cooperative U.S.-Soviet relations in the 1970s, contributed to heightened tensions in the early 1980s, and helped renew the U.S.-Soviet dialogue in the late 1980s. Scholars have focused on the role arms control initiatives and political actions played in the end of the Cold War. Arms control agreements, however, failed to resolve the underlying ideological and geopolitical competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Through economic statecraft, the United States strengthened Western security and moved beyond containment to aid the democratic revolutions in Eastern Europe, help settle U.S.-Soviet political differences, and encourage the transformation of the oppressive Soviet system. In effect, this analysis highlights the ways in which U.S. economic statecraft served as an instrument to promote national interests and peace. Between the 1970s and early 1990s, the Soviet Union intended to overcome its economic decline through deeper commercial relations with the West. But, the United States continually sought to block Soviet moves, fearing deeper East-West economic relations would enhance Soviet military potential and grant Moscow leverage over the Atlantic alliance. While working with its West European allies to strengthen the regulation of East-West trade and protect alliance security, the United States also attempted to place further pressure on the Soviet economy and punish Moscow for its aggressive international behavior. In the late 1980s, trade restrictions and limited economic engagement helped the United States negotiate with the Soviet Union from a position of strength, moving bey (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Chester Pach PhD (Advisor); Paul Milazzo PhD (Committee Member); Ingo Trauschweizer PhD (Committee Member); James Mosher PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Economic History; Economics; European History; History; Military History; Modern History; Peace Studies; Russian History; World History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, History

This dissertation examines the relationship between colonization and environmental change in the Russian province of Primor'e between roughly 1860 and 1940. In doing so, it explores the ecological dimensions of Russia's expansion across Asia and contributes a new perspective to the environmental history of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. It contends that imperial competition over space and resources was the driving factor behind the environmental changes that occurred in Primor'e after 1860, yet also underlay the emergence of nature protection in the territory. From the outset of Russian colonization, Primor'e's nature, both as an idea and a material reality, was contested, highly politicized, and intertwined with ethnic and social divisions. This contestation over space, resources, and nature had far-reaching consequences for the territory and its nonhuman environment. Beginning in the late 1850s, the tsarist state sought to acquire Primor'e and colonize it with Russian and European settlers (including Ukrainians, Balts, Finns, and others) in order to take advantage of temporary Chinese weakness and to defend its eastern territories against other imperial powers. A territory that the Qing Empire had long preserved as a lightly-populated borderland, Russian authorities attempted to seize, demarcate, populate, and cultivate. Moreover, tsarist and (after 1922) Soviet authorities encouraged migrants to utilize Primor'e's natural resources in order to lay claim to the territory (along with its flora and fauna), and to provide a supply source for the Russian Far East. However, Primor'e's unique environment complicated Russian settlement efforts, particularly the transplanting of Russian-style agriculture and stock-breeding. Rather than producing a bounteous agricultural colony, settlers came to rely on hunting, fishing, wage-labor, and close economic relationships with migrants from China and Korea. Together, these groups precipitated significant env (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nicholas Breyfogle Dr. (Advisor); David Hoffmann Dr. (Committee Member); Alice Conklin Dr. (Committee Member); John Brooke Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Agriculture; Asian Studies; Environmental Studies; Forestry; History; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Modern History; Russian History; Wildlife Conservation; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2016, History

Russia held the largest population of horses in the world at the beginning of the 1900s. This large horse population would soon be decimated by World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War, collectivization, and World War II. This thesis will examine the changing relationship between the Russian people and the Russian horse from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the Soviet period, closely examining the 1930s collectivization period in which Russian peasants slaughtered their horses in resistance to the state-funded collectivization drive. As a result, horses became active participants in the resistance against collectivization. Beginning in the 1950s, the relationship between the Russian horse and Russian people began to change. Russian horses and riders became cultural diplomats for the Soviet Union by competing in international competitions and by breeders exporting Russian horses to countries abroad. The success of the Russian horse abroad became commemorated in the Soviet Union in forms of postage stamps, which allowed the horse to become a commodity and gave everyone in the Soviet Union a chance to interact with horses. While the demise of the Russian horse population due to the horrific events of the early twentieth century, it allowed the Russian horse industry a unique opportunity to start over and make their breeding programs stronger by reviving Russian horse breeds with careful scrutiny.

Committee: Michael Brooks Dr. (Advisor); Beth Griech-Polelle Dr. (Committee Member); Marjorie Hilton Dr. (Committee Member); Don Rowney Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Animals; History

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Arts and Sciences: Germanic Languages and Literature

This thesis analyzes the use of film in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia as extensions of propaganda and sociopolitical indoctrination within both regimes. Moreover, this thesis analyzes the ways in which each respective nation's concept of homeland ('Heimat' in German, 'Rodina' in Russian) coincided with political thought. Through this, both regimes utilized cinema as a platform for propagating ideas of homeland via the portrayal of the perfect citizen of their regime. This study demonstrates this through the analysis of Nazi German and Soviet Russian films of similar content, themes, and production dates. This study thus argues that a homeland, as demonstrated through select films produced by each regime between the years of 1933-1945, is comprised of its people, whom each State attempted to mold into perfect citizens. Although ideas of what defined the perfect citizen varied between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, many similarities between them are to be drawn. Dissecting these similarities allows for greater academic understanding of the atrocities and events that occurred throughout the twentieth century in the name of both schools of thought.

Committee: Valerie Weinstein Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Sunnie Rucker-Chang Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: European Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2014, History

The thesis explores the relationship between the spatial relations of the first line of the Leningrad Metro system, completed in 1955, and subjectivity in the post-war Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Soviet subways were not simply mechanisms by which one travelled; often referred to as "underground palaces," these facilities featured art and architecture that informed passengers about the history, and the future, of the Soviet Union. Thus, the metro offers a glimpse of how the USSR conceived of itself and its position along the dialectical path to communism. I argue that the messages in the underground's walls, and the memoirs of the workers who constructed them, suggest that many of the reforms often associated with Nikita Khrushchev's Thaw period were actually well under way during Iosif Stalin's lifetime.

Committee: Stephen Norris (Advisor); Robert Thurston (Committee Member); Margaret Ziolkowski (Committee Member) Subjects: History

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

The contemporary Chinese city is hardly a place to be associated as a germane location for (re)-Constructivist design, due to the perseverance of Communism in China. The critical proposition of this thesis therefore considers modern China a relevant landscape for (re)-Constructivist architecture, suggested through a linkage of two distinct twentieth century, post-revolutionary Soviet and Chinese cultures. The relationships are investigated through four central themes of analysis: (1) the ideology and development of Constructivism during Soviet Bolshevism, (2) Constructivism under Stalin, (3) Constructivism and urban consciousness in post-feudal China, and (4) post-Cultural Revolution architectural practices incorporating Constructivist characteristics and ideologies without forthrightly making it their declaration. The architectural links between state ideologies and the Constructivist movement in Russia are explored through Moisei Ginzburg's Style & Epoch and “functional method,” and analysis of Ginzburg's 1927 Narkomfin housing complex. In addition, it will be shown that whereas the contributions of the ASNOVA (Association of New Architects) group unintentionally enhanced Constructivist architectural prestige, Stalin's “Great Break” and Boris Iofan's 1931 proposal for the Palace of the Soviets subsequently recount the defeat and suppression of the movement, and the triumph of a neoclassical architectural language preferred by Stalin in the Soviet Union of the 1930s. Comparatively, analysis of the 1950s Beijing danwei work unit attempts to explicate how Constructivist social endeavors may have reappeared in China, and it will be shown that twentieth century Chinese architecture's incorporation of Western European ideas tended to embody Constructivist method in select high-profile architectures after the Cultural Revolution. In this context of analysis, Norman Foster's HongKong & Shanghai Bank and Paul Andreu's Pudong International Airport are studied as examples of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nnamdi Elleh PhD (Committee Chair); Aarati Kanekar PhD (Committee Chair) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, History

From 1914-21, the Russian countryside underwent an enormous social and political transformation. World War I and civil war led to conscription into the tsarist, Bolshevik, and anti-Bolshevik armies, removing over fourteen million young male peasants from their villages. Revolution destroyed the centuries-old peasant-landlord relationship, redistributed land among the peasantry, democratized the countryside, and allowed villages to install autonomous governing bodies. War and social turmoil also brought massive famine and government requisitioning of grain and possessions, killing thousands of peasants and destroying their means of existence. The Bolshevik victory, a defining event of the twentieth century, was ultimately determined by the temporary support of the peasantry, the vast majority of Russia's population. This project studies the interaction between peasants and government in the Russian province of Viatka from the beginning of World War I to the end of the Civil War in 1921. In doing so, it will advance how scholars understand the nature of the Revolution, peasant-state relations, and peasant society and culture in general. On the one hand, I analyze Russia's changes through a study of peasant responses to tsarist, Provisional Government, and Soviet recruitment into the armed forces; requisitioning of grain and possessions; and establishment of local administrations. In examining peasants' language and interaction with the state, I show how the population adopted, rejected, and helped to shape government power, just as it shaped them. The destruction of the tsarist system created an ideal environment for the rural populations to break free from traditional roles. Indeed, political and social turmoil helped to fashion new peasant identities and social relationships. On the other hand, I strive to understand the diverse peasant experiences by conducting a case study of the internal dynamics and cleavages in the countryside. My study underscores that the exp (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Hoffmann (Advisor); Eve Levin (Other); Nicholas Breyfogle (Other) Subjects: History, European

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2005, International Studies - International Development Studies

This study represents a quantitative comparative analysis of students' awareness of basic concepts of gender equality and gender mainstreaming depending on their gender and the type of community where they originate from. The study also examines the differences between academic programs with regard to promoting gender equality. Thus, this study is expected to examine the following questions: (1) Does the level of awareness of gender equality and the main concepts of gender mainstreaming vary significantly depending on the gender of a student and type of community where a student originates from? (2) Is there a significant difference between academic programs in international affairs, public relations, and social anthropology with regard to their promoting issues of gender equality and gender mainstreaming among students? This study also provides recommendations which can be utilized by the universities in the Russian Far East in rethinking their content to ensure an adequate gender representation.

Committee: Ann Tickamyer (Advisor) Subjects: Women's Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, History

This thesis attempts to explain the continued presence of Vladimir Lenin's image in Joseph Stalin's cult of personality in the postwar era, long after the General Secretary no longer had to rely on his predecessor's image or persona to legitimize his power over the Soviet Union. While the presence of Lenin's image in the Stalin cult varied in both frequency and form, it continued to inform the imagery of Stalin cult up until the Soviet dictator's death in 1953 and the placement of his body alongside Lenin's in the newly christened Lenin-Stalin Mausoleum on Red Square. This thesis argues that the visual imagery of Stalin's cult used the image and persona of Vladimir Lenin as the founder of the Soviet state to legitimize Stalin's rule over the Soviet Union, and later to aggrandize the image of the General Secretary. This work also examines the changing purpose and nature of the Stalin cult, as well as the effect that World War II had on Stalin's image. It posits that before World War II, the main purpose of the visual imagery of the Stalin cult was to legitimize Stalin's rule over the Soviet Union, as well as his plans for constructing socialism through collectivization and industrialization. With victory over Nazi Germany in World War II and its legitimization of Stalin's rule and policies, the purpose of the Stalin cult changed from legitimizing Stalin's rule to aggrandizing his image. This thesis ultimately concludes that while the Stalin cult propelled the image of the Soviet dictator to near god-like heights of grandeur as a result of the victory in World War II, such resplendent depictions of Stalin relied heavily on the symbolic power of Lenin's image within, and at times outside of, the Stalin cult in order elevate the General Secretary to such glorified heights.

Committee: David Hoffmann (Advisor); Nicholas Breyfogle (Committee Member); Gleb Tsipursky (Committee Member) Subjects: History