Contemporary Moscow Research Articles

ПАМЯТЬ О ХОЛОКОСТЕ: КОНТАКТ КУЛЬТУР В МУЗЫКЕ МИХАИЛА БРОННЕРА

The research focuses on the musical works of the contemporary Moscow composer Mikhail Bronner (b. 1952), which reflect the theme of the Holocaust: Jewish Requiem and Long Return (Book of Songs) for choral theatre. The article analyses the problem of the contact between European, Russian and Jewish cultures, which is manifested in these works on different levels: artistic content, genre definition (Jewish Requiem), thematism that defines the sound aura. It outlines the composer’s position in the choice of text language for his vocal and instrumental works, analyses the correlation between music and words: the lyrics of Yiddish songs (Long Return), Yiddish and Hebrew (Jewish Requiem — Chaim Nachman Bialik’s poem In the City of Slaughter, translated into Yiddish with words from The Diary of Anne Frank; Psalms in Hebrew). The analysis of the musical compositions reveals that in the Jewish Requiem the dominant culture is Slavic, and in the book of songs Long Return — Jewish. The forms of manifestation of the cultural contact in the Jewish Requiem were carried out by diffusion (“smoothing out” the sound formants), while in the choral opera Long Return — by transculturation.

СМЫСЛОВЫЕ КОДЫ «ШОА-СИМФОНИИ» МИХАИЛА БРОННЕРА

In the dialogue between the composer and the listener, a significant role is played by musical images that carry information about the semantic codes of the works. It is easier to get it in music related to the word. To help the listener in choosing an adequate vector of music perception, the author often names instrumental works as well. The article introduces for the first time into the scientific context the programme five-part “Shoah Symphony” by the contemporary Moscow composer M. Bronner (born in 1952), which reflects the theme of the Holocaust. In the creative heritage of the composer, who works in various genres, one third of the compositions is associated with images of sacred texts of the Old Testament, which is due to the national identification of the author and the importance of the Holocaust (Shoah) theme for him. The originality of M. Bronner’s “Shoah Symphony” lies not only in its programme (I Lullaby; II Chorus of Children’s Souls; III Scrolls from Ashes; VI My People; V Psalm), but also in the presence of a companion work of 2014 in the genre of oratorio. The author’s libretto of the oratorio makes it possible to identify semantic accents by attaching verbal text to musical themes, including Yiddish songs and Kaddish fragments. Discovering the semantic codes of Mikhail Bronner’s “Shoah Symphony” will contribute to the expansion of the audience.

Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of the Contingent of Elderly in-Patients in a Frame of the Modern Model of Psychogeriatric Care

Background: a system of reforming of psychiatric care in Russia has led to a reduction of beds in psychiatric hospitals. At the same time it is known about permanent high need among elderly patients in the appropriate psychiatric care. In this regard, it became necessary to study the adequacy of the assistance provided to the needs of patients.The aim of the research: to investigate and compare clinic-epidemiological characteristics of the contingent of the elderly and senile inpatients in the city psychiatric care system and at the research institution.Materials and methods: as a material for the research served data from the reports from Moscow Clinical Psychiatric Hospital #13 (MCPH #13) and the clinic of Mental Health Research Centre (MHRC) about the patients older than 65 treated in 2017–2018.The results: this article contains comparative data about contingents of elderly psychiatric in-patients treated in the Moscow City Clinical Psychiatric Hospital #13 and in the Mental Health Research Center (MHRC). Collation of the indicated contingents allowed to determine that city psychiatric care satisfactorily meets needs of the severe psychiatric patients older than 65. However the experience of the clinic of the MHRC differs. This clinic has some peculiarities: it does not use involuntary hospitalization and it gives preference to difficult cases, where diagnosis is unclear, and where there is a challenge to find an appropriate treatment regimen; patients that require special care are also rarely admitted. This experience indicates that there is significant number of cases when hospitalization of patients with moderate mental disorders is also absolutely necessary. The majority of such cases consists of patients, suffering with depression and the necessity of their admission is dictated by the impossibility to adjust proper therapy in out- patient care.Conclusion: the contemporary Moscow city psychiatric service do not meet needs of the discussed category of patients for inpatient care. Whether it is necessary to improve it, or to provide this niche to scientific and commercial institutions is a matter of further research.

Notes toward an untimely Soviet comedy: Eisenstein’s MMM

ABSTRACT Between 1932 and 1933, in the context of a new mandate for cheerfulness in Soviet cinema, Sergei Eisenstein, recently returned from a frustrating sojourn abroad, undertook an exercise in genre: the beguilingly titled comedy MMM. The project, which was never completed, has been almost completely overlooked in studies of the director’s works. Against this tendency of Eisenstein scholarship, this paper presents MMM as a serious and highly developed experiment in genre, using archival material – including notes, screenplays, director’s scripts and drawings – to read the work as an expression of Eisenstein’s cinematic process at its most formally inventive and ideologically intricate. The script, composed entirely in verse, is the director’s only fully-conceived attempt at film comedy. It follows a sprawling series of incongruous historical encounters as visitors from medieval Rus’ materialise in contemporary Moscow. The absurd fantasia that ensues is not only Eisenstein’s attempt to probe an increasingly ideologically unstable Soviet reality, but is also his occasion to explore, through self-reflexive comedic techniques, the nature and limits of the cinematic medium, as well as the theoretical question of the mutability of static form and the implications of this conundrum for character, narrative and genre.

Depicting the Divine. Mikhail Bulgakov and Thomas Mann

Depicting the Divine. Mikhail Bulgakov and Thomas Mann

Evolution of Image of the Moscow State in Historical Works of Jan Dlugosh and Matvey Mehovsky: Second Half of XV - First Third of XVI Centuries

The article is devoted to the evolution of the image of the Moscow principality, and then the state in the works of Polish chroniclers of the XV-XVI centuries Jan Dlugosh and Matvey Mekhovsky. Attention is paid to the characteristics of Moscow, and how these characteristics changed as it strengthened. Particular attention is paid to the assessments of J. Dlugosh and M. Mekhovsky regarding their contemporary Moscow princes and rulers of Poland and Lithuania, as well as the expansion of the territory of the Moscow principality. Respect for Moscow princes and criticism of Polish rulers are especially noted. Based on a comparative analysis of the news of J. Dlugosh and M. Mekhovsky, a growing interest in the Moscow state is shown, a geographical description of which is given by M. Mekhovsky. The work shows that the Polish chroniclers have not yet been interested in the internal political history of Moscow - all references were exclusively related to Polish or Lithuanian events. The relevance of the study is due to the role played by Polish historiography of the XV-XVI centuries in shaping the image of the Moscow state, Russia in Europe, in particular, M. Mekhovsky’s Treatise on the Two Sarmatians.

Urban citizenship under post-Soviet conditions: Grassroots struggles of residents in contemporary Moscow

ABSTRACTThis paper studies local urban activism in contemporary Russia and relates neighborhood protests and urban citizenship to conflicts over housing-related public space. It situates Moscow as a cumulative space of post-Soviet neoliberal and authoritarian urban development and shows how and why Muscovites have opposed this development by engaging in local grassroots initiatives. The empirical analysis employs data from interviews with participants in two neighborhood protests against unwanted construction in their districts. It reveals patterns of active citizenship related to a rights-based approach to the living environment, the rejection of mainstream politics, and the building of new solidarity-based communities. Russian residents are voicing their dissent and building solidarity in their local living environments while innovatively navigating a highly limited public sphere and insisting on their right to participate in urban governance.

The Interpretation of the Authorial Creation of Vladimir Vysotsky on Contemporary Moscow Stages

Abstract The study presents an overview and analysis of contemporary Moscow productions inspired by the personality and work of the legendary Russian actor and poet of the latter half of the 20th century, singer and songwriter Vladimir Semyonovich Vysotsky (1938 – 1980). The authoress covers both the older productions which have been on the repertoires of theatres for several years and more recent productions staged this year on the occasion of the artist’s unlived 80th birthday. Researching on the productions by different theatre makers, staged by various theatres and drama ensembles, points at the importance and up-to-dateness of the creative legacy of Vladimir Vysotsky and at the significance of him as a personality that has become a legend and a component part of the cultural history of Soviet and post-Soviet eras. The productions constitute a significant part of the unwavering cult of his personality.

Migration and contemporary Muslim space in Moscow. Contextualizing North Caucasian loud Dhikr and the religious practices of Central Asian Folk Mullas

Over the last fifteen years, the ethnic make-up of Moscow’s mosques has undergone significant change, while the number of practicing Muslims has grown manifold. These quantitative changes are connected with both the internal migration of people from the North Caucasian republics (a migration that had already begun in the early 1990s) and the external migration of natives of Central Asian states, primarily Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirgizia (a mass migration dating from the 2000s). This paper is dedicated to two phenomena of contemporary Moscow Muslim life – the loud dhikr of the Kunta Hajji wird of the Qadiri tariqa, practiced by Chechens and Ingush; and the religious practices of the Central Asian “uninstitutionalized” mullas. Both spiritual practices are popular and have great significance for a considerable proportion of Moscow Muslims, including those who do not directly participate in them. What both practices have in common is also found in their marginal nature with regard both to institutionalized Moscow Islam and to the fundamentalist trend which is now gathering steam here. This is an attempt to identify some specific features of contemporary Moscow Islam through the analysis of certain practices.

Comparative analysis of indicators of the functional state in contemporary Moscow first-graders and their peers in 2002–2003

Comparative analysis of indicators of the functional state in contemporary Moscow first-graders and their peers in 2002–2003

When “Boy Meets Tractor” became “Scientist Meets Cybernetics”: post-war scientific paradigms and the socialist realist plot

In the 1976 novella One Billion Years Before the End of the World, the Soviet Union’s science fiction writers A. and B. Strugatsky created a tale about contemporary Moscow scientists who are prevented by mysterious forces from completing their work. This analysis shows how the Strugatskys imbedded the systems feedback (cybernetic) paradigm into the familiar narrative stages of a socialist realist fairytale. The non-teleological principles of cybernetics could not be reconciled with the formal structure of socialist realism, so that the exchange between science and literature proceeded in an unanticipated direction. Insofar as writers used advances in Soviet science as a source of aesthetic material, they were able to create new possibilities of meaning and interpretation in a mandated literary form.

Alteration of Runoff on the Territory of Moscow as a Result of Landscape Transformations

This paper attempts to assess the runoff alterations on the territory of contemporary Moscow over the past 150 years under the influence of landscape transformations (without taking into account water work facilities transformations, diversions of runoff, water intake and waste water discharge) in the case of average many-year climatic conditions. The landscape dynamics has been tracked. The surface runoff alterations have been reflected. Runoff alterations of infiltration origin and total river flow alterations have been assessed. Particular attention has been paid to the urbanized areas’hydrological role.

IN SEARCH OF AUTHENTICITY: TIME AND SPACE IN RUSSIAN HORROR FILM

The paper looks into recent Russian horror films, exploring how the genre conventions associated with Hollywood are transformed and upheld in Russian cinema. The paper argues that the use of space, particularly urban venues, in horror films establishes a sense of authenticity and marks otherwise derivative generic productions as uniquely Russian. The films examined are Night and Day Watch duology (2004, 2006), Trackman (2007) and Dead Daughters (2007); all are set in contemporary Moscow.

Evaluating the persistence of subsistence work in contemporary economies

PurposeContrary to the view that the subsistence economy is some minor residue persisting in only a few peripheral enclaves of modern economies, the purpose of this paper is to begin to chart the importance and prevalence of subsistence work across the contemporary economic landscape and the reasons underpinning engagement in this form of non‐commodified labour.Design/methodology/approachTo do so, the extent of, and reasons for, subsistence production amongst those living in contemporary Moscow is evaluated using face‐to‐face interviews with 313 households in affluent, mixed and deprived districts.FindingsIt was found that subsistence work is a ubiquitous phenomenon which is relied on heavily by Muscovite households. Until now, those participating in such subsistence work have been portrayed either as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self‐identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. Rather than depict one as correct and the others as invalid, this survey inductively generates a theoretically‐integrative approach which differentiates between “willing” (rational economic actors, choice, identity seeking) and “reluctant” (economic and market necessity, dupes) participants in subsistence production.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper examines only one city. Further research is now required into the extent of, and reasons for, subsistence production in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as beyond.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers to identify and explain the ubiquitous persistence of subsistence work in contemporary economies.

Making the New Post-Soviet Person: Moral Experience in Contemporary Moscow. By Jarrett Zigon. Russian History and Culture, vol. 5. Leiden: Brill, 2010. xvi, 259 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $167.00, hard bound.

Making the New Post-Soviet Person: Moral Experience in Contemporary Moscow. By Jarrett Zigon. Russian History and Culture, vol. 5. Leiden: Brill, 2010. xvi, 259 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $167.00, hard bound. - Volume 70 Issue 3

EXPLAINING PARTICIPATION IN UNDECLARED WORK

ABSTRACT This paper evaluates critically competing explanations for participation in undeclared work that either read engagement through a structuralist lens as driven by ‘exclusion’ from state benefits and the circuits of the modern economy or through a neo-liberal and/or post-structuralist lens as driven by the voluntary ‘exit’ of workers out of formal institutions. Reporting a 2005/6 household work practices survey involving 313 face-to-face interviews in contemporary Moscow, the finding is that there is no single unique logic underpinning undeclared work in this post-Soviet city; such work is neither universally driven by exclusion nor exit. Different mixtures of the two prevail across different populations and forms of undeclared work. The outcome is a call for greater appreciation of the multifarious character of undeclared work and a move beyond simplistic explanations and policy responses.

Institutional Trust in Contemporary Moscow

Levels of institutional trust in Russia are amongst the lowest in the world. As yet, however, little research has focused on this phenomenon at the sub-national level. The current study examines trust in social and political institutions among citizens in Moscow in 2004. Results showed that levels of institutional trust are extremely low and that there were only three institutions (the church, president and hospitals) that were more trusted than distrusted. Moreover, although the effects of some demographic and other independent variables on trust stretched across institutions, several variables had a unique impact in terms of trust in the president.