Eastern Nations Research Articles

Classroom and Empire: The Politics of Schooling Russia's Eastern Nationalities, 1860-1917. By Wayne Dowler. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001. xiv, 296 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Tables. $65.00, hard bound.

Classroom and Empire: The Politics of Schooling Russia's Eastern Nationalities, 1860-1917. By Wayne Dowler. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2001. xiv, 296 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Tables. $65.00, hard bound. - Volume 61 Issue 3

Classroom and Empire: The Politics of Schooling Russia's Eastern Nationalities, 1860-1917

Classroom and Empire tells the story of the politics of alphabets, languages, and schooling in the eastern empire of Russia from 1860 to 1917. Wayne Dowler presents an intriguing cast of characters, including Nikolai Il'minskii, whose method of schooling non-Russian children lay at the heart of nationalist controversy; Ismail Bey Gaspirali, whose new method schools attempted to reconcile Islam with modern secular philosophy and science; Konstantin Pobedonostsev, procurator of the Holy Synod and eminence grise of the reigns of Alexander III and his son Nicholas II; and Sophia Chicherina, feisty defender of the Il'minskii school. Dowler shows us that the problem of schooling non-Russians was unresolved by the fall of the Romanovs in 1917, smouldered through much of the Soviet period, and has re-emerged today as a major source of divisiveness in the Russian Federation.

The Fus Fixico Letters: A Creek Humorist in Early Oklahoma

The Fus Fixico Letters: A Creek Humorist in Early Oklahoma. By Alexander Posey. Edited by Daniel F. Littlefield and Carol A. Petty Hunter. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Pp xvii + 302, foreword, preface, introduction, map, photographs, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $19.95 paper) Oklahoma: terminus of the Trail of Tears, removal site for Eastern and Plains nations, Territory. Oklahoma's history is inextricably intertwined with that of American Indians, and one cannot understand the history of the American West without learning about the history of Oklahoma. The Fus Fixico Letters: A Creek Humorist in Early Oklahoma opens a window onto turn-of-the-century Oklahoma through the eyes of a young Muscogee Creek journalist-humorist, Alexander Posey. For the folklorist whose historical resources regarding American Indian culture may be limited to accounts written by non-Indians, this enlightening book provides a refreshing and instructive voice. Alexander Posey (1873-1908) was born in the territory of the Creek Nation into the Harjo family, the child of a Chickasaw Creek mother and a White father who had been raised in Indian territory, spoke fluent Creek, and had been adopted into the Broken Arrow tribal town. Fourteen-year-old Alexander was sent to learn English and eventually to attend the Indian university at Bacone, near Muskogee. He studied British and American literature and began his own writing career, concentrating on poetry and humor. After college, he was appointed to a number of political positions within the Creek nation and he continued to write. In 1902 he bought a weekly newspaper, the Indian Journal, published in Eufaula. It was while he was publishing the Indian Journal that he wrote the Fus Fixico letters. So called because they were signed by a fictional Creek man and Posey's alter-ego named Fus Fixico (a jocular name meaning something like Heartless Bird), the letters were about happenings around Eufaula, but at the same time they addressed matters of concern in the wider sphere, principally the process of allotment, which the Creek nation was facing at the time. Under pressure from the Dawes Commission, which had persuaded one Nation, the Seminole, to begin privatization of its holdings in 1897, the last of the Indian Territory areas had begun to crumble. In 1898, the Curtis Act was passed by Congress in order to force the remaining Nations, including the Creek, to negotiate allotment agreements in order to salvage as much of their land and other resources for their people as possible (p. 4). Some Creeks voluntarily filed for an allotment, while others resisted. …

Introduction to the Special Issue on Leadership and Culture in the Middle East

This Special Issue on ‘‘Leadership and Culture in the Middle East’’ focuses on values and practices as well as effective leadership attributes that are widely shared in Middle Eastern societies. National boundaries are utilised to approximate societal culture and leadership preconceptions. Data collected from four Middle Eastern nations (Iran, Kuwait, Turkey, and Qatar) form the basis of the articles in this Special Issue. Furthermore, at least part of the data collected in these four societies is composed as part of the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organisational Behaviour Effectiveness) project. A review of the literature shows that there is scarce knowledge on societal and organisational culture and leadership practices in Iran, Kuwait, Turkey, and Qatar. In this respect, this forum would be an important document for providing information on societal and organisational norms and practices, and leadership attributes that are perceived to be effective in this region of the world. The first paper in this collection, entitled ‘‘Project GLOBE: An Introduction’’, is written by Robert House, Mansour Javidan, and Peter Dorfman. It provides an overview of the GLOBE project, a unique and large scale study of leadership and culture in 61 nations. GLOBE examines the interrelationships among societal culture, organisational culture, and organisational leadership using multiple methodologies. The constructs, objectives and the model utilised in the GLOBE project are described in this manuscript. Ikhlas A. Abdalla and Moudi A. Al-Hamoud wrote the second paper entitled ‘‘Exploring the Implicit Leadership Theory in the Arabian Gulf States’’. This article on the Arab culture focuses on quantitative and

Role of human population size in raising bird and mammal threat among nations

AbstractIt is commonly held that species loss is linked to human population size but there are surprisingly few quantitative studies that measure the strength and nature of this linkage. In a study of about 150 nations, a highly significant positive relationship (P << 0.01) was found between population size and threat levels of birds and mammals. For continental nations, log population explains 16‐33% of the variation in threat level among nations. The pattern of the continental population‐threat correlation indicates that per capita human impacts are initially very high and asymptotically diminish with increasing population size. No population‐threat correlation was found for island nations, since human impacts are apparently so catastrophic that human population size is largely irrelevant. Surprisingly, for both islands and continents, area does not affect the level of threat after human population size is accounted for. Thus, even on continents the harmful impacts of humans, for a given population size, are evidently so profound that no amount of added area provides compensatory refugia for native species. Major regional differences in levels of threat are shown, with nations in Asia and the Middle East having generally higher proportions of threatened species than nations in Africa. The causes of these differences are only partly related to population size. Other factors not related to population size are that Asian nations tend to have much higher rates of mammal over‐harvesting and Middle Eastern nations tend to have statistically lower percentages of area set aside as preserves. Threat proportions are correlated between birds and mammals among nations implying that one group may be a proxy indicator of impacts on the other. The slope of this relationship indicates that mammals suffer more losses during initial human impacts but proportions of threatened birds increase more rapidly than mammals as human impacts become more widespread.

Traditional Iroquois Socials: Maintaining Identity in the City

"We have good socials," an Iroquois woman in Rochester, New York, once remarked to me. The urban American Indian community in Rochester is proud of the social dances it sponsors, which provide a place for Native people to come together and participate in traditional Iroquois activities. The socials are promoted as community events, but they are also sites of conflict ranging from simple disagreements to more serious breaches. Conflicts arise when individuals or events threaten the form of the social, which is a community event, or the identity of the social, which is specifically Iroquois. Contrary to the predictions of many researchers, this urban community has not developed a pan-Indian outlook or identity but has remained rooted in Iroquois culture and traditions. Background Rochester is located in western New York in the homeland of the Senecas, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois. The other nations are the Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora, whose traditional territories included most of what is now New York State as well as parts of southern Ontario and Quebec and northern Pennsylvania. 1 The Senecas in New York today are divided into two groups, the Seneca Nation with reservations south and west of Buffalo, New York, and the Tonawanda Seneca, with a reservation between Buffalo and Rochester. 2 Iroquois people began coming to Rochester from reservations in New York State and reserves in Ontario and Quebec in the 1930s and 1940s. Most of these early urban immigrants were ironworkers who worked on construction projects in Rochester and other cities in the Northeast. Their families lived in Rochester, often remaining there even when the men had jobs out of town. 3 Today, Rochester is home to some twenty-five hundred Native people, most of whom are Iroquois. Other tribes are represented by several Navajo families, several Cherokee families from both the Eastern and Western Nations, two or [End Page 400] three Apache families, and scattered members of other tribes—usually students at one of the local colleges or universities. Twelve nonprofit social and cultural organizations serve the Rochester Native community. These include educational and cultural programs for Native youth, college student groups, a women's social and service club, a service club at Eastman Kodak Company (the area's largest employer), and an Alcoholics Anonymous-style sobriety group. The largest organization is the Native American Cultural Center, a social services agency providing educational and employment training, substance abuse prevention programs, and social and cultural programs. An additional organization, the Friends of Ganondagan, also provides social and cultural programming for the Rochester Native community, although it is not strictly an Indian group. The Friends is a support group for a local Seneca historic site, Ganondagan, and its staff and membership include both Indian and non-Indian people. The Rochester Indian community hosts socials approximately four times a year. The scheduling of the socials does not correspond to traditional Iroquois events or ceremonies but rather to seasons or holidays in the majority society, such as the December Christmas social. Most often the sponsoring organization is the Native American Cultural Center, but the Friends of Ganondagan and other organizations sometimes act as the hosts. Any proceeds from raffles or special dances go to the sponsoring organization itself or to a designated beneficiary such as elders or youth. Socials usually take place in the auditorium of the Rochester Museum and Science Center but are occasionally held at local churches or colleges. The auditorium is cleared of seats, leaving a large wooden dance floor with chairs around the perimeter. Rochester does not have a large urban Indian community center; discussions of a new building for one or more of the local Native organizations in the future always include the need for a space large enough to hold socials. Several hundred people, both Native and non-Native, usually attend the socials. Attendance is not limited to Rochester itself; there is almost always a large contingent of people...

Emergency medicine in Belarus

Belarus is a small eastern European nation between Poland and Russia. Except for the lingering effects of Chernobyl radiation contamination, its system of health care and, in particular, emergency care has received little attention in the world literature. Emergency medical care is organized similarly to that provided in Russia and other European countries. A well-coordinated Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system exists, and many ambulance teams include a physician. Most emergency care is provided in an area of the hospital designated as the reception area, the equivalent of a U.S. emergency department (ED). Unlike the practice in U.S. EDs, many patients have a minimal evaluation after admission to the actual ward or hospital ICU. Emergency Medicine has not been officially organized as a specialty. Opportunities exist for interchange and discussion on the delivery of emergency care.

BEYOND UNBELIEF

Uncertainty and indifference are explored as responses to secularization beyond unbelief in Western and Eastern European countries with low and high degrees of secularization. The analysis is guided by three hypotheses. First, secularization should increase unbelief and indifference strongly, but uncertainty less strongly. This range of secularization hypothesis refers to the aggregate and individual level, to the degree of secularization of nations and to the religiosity of persons. Second, the self-induced secularization in Western European countries should produce more uncertainty, the enforced secularization in the Eastern European countries more unbelief and indifference. This form of secularization hypothesis refers to the aggregate level only. Third, the relation between religiosity and uncertainty should be negative in less secularized and positive in more secularized countries. This modified secularization hypothesis refers to the modification of individual relations by aggregate membership. Data source is the International Social Survey (1991), from which fourteen less and more secularized Western and Eastern nations are selected. Religiosity is measured as church attendance and self-ascribed religiosity. Dependent variables are belief in God and the Bible. The range of secularization hypothesis is confirmed for both beliefs on the aggregate as well as the individual level of analysis. However, the form of and the modified secularization hypothesis are conformed for the belief in God only.

Bravin in Tehran and the origins of Soviet policy in Iran

The nature of early Soviet policy towards Iran and the handling of the Persian Soviet Republic of Gilan by the Bolshevik leadership has preoccupied the minds of historians for a number of decades. It is generally assumed that the Soviets pursued a dual policy towards the East as they did in the case of the West. A close examination of the activities of the first Soviet diplomatic agent in Iran (N.Z. Bravin) and the Soviet leadership's handling of and attitude towards him, shows that this was not the case. From the outset Lenin and some of his comrades tried to come to terms with eastern nationalism and that to the extent of not allowing for considerations of class struggle within Eastern societies.

The Epic of Gilgamish :The Origin and Effectiveness

Epic of Gilgamesh of Mesopotamian literatures is considered one of the oldest mythical heroes of ancient civilization, it has been passed on from ancient Iraq to the ancient near eastern nations. It is everlasting because it dealt with essential subject concern human being. On the other hand it represent contradiction of live such as : good and evil; strong and weak ; rich and poor; life and death etc.., all of these are related to gods wishes. These subject were and are occupy human being’s thinking because it is effect his everyday life therefore his effort either the avoid it or to get rid of it. These subjects drew attention of unknown Sumerian scholar who wrote it down in poetic form according to his personal , social, religious and political situations.

Rabbi Max Heller: Reformer, Zionist, Southerner, 1860-1929.

Max Heller was a man of both passionate conviction and inner contradiction. He sought to be at the center of current affairs, not as a spokesperson of centrist opinion, but as an agitator or mediator, constantly struggling to find an acceptable path as he confronted the major issues of the day - racism and Jewish emancipation in eastern Europe, nationalism and nativism, immigration and assimilation. Heller's life experience provides a distinct vantage point from which to view the complexity of race relations in New Orleans and the South and the confluence of cultures that molded his development as a leader. A Bohemian immigrant and one of the first U.S.-trained rabbis, Max Heller served for 40 years as spiritual leader of a Reform Jewish congregation in New Orleans - at that time the largest city in the South. Far more than a congregational rabbi, Heller assumed an activist role in local affairs, Reform Judaism, and the Zionist movement, maintaining positions often unpopular with his neighbors, congregants, and colleagues. His deep concern with social justice led him to question two basic assumptions that characterized his larger social milieu - segregation and Jewish assimilation. Heller, a consummate Progressive with clear vision and ideas substantially ahead of their time, led his congregation, his community, Reform Jewish colleagues, and Zionist sympathizers in a difficult era.

A survey for 32 nucleotide deletion in the CCR-5 chemokine receptor gene (Δccr-5) conferring resistance to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in different ethnic groups and in chimpanzees

The 32 nucleotide deletion in the CCR-5 chemokine receptor gene referred to as deltaccr-5 has been shown to confer resistance to HIV-1. Using PCR, 1,105 human subjects and 33 common chimpanzees were genotyped attributing them to one of the three possible genotypes: wild-type homozygote (w/w); deltaccr-5 homozygote (deltaccr-5/deltaccr-5) and deltaccr-5/wild-type heterozygotes (deltaccr-5/w). The ethnic groups investigated included different Middle Eastern nationalities (mainly Arab) and Russians. Carriers of the deltaccr-5 mutation were found among Arabs, Iranians and Russians. The highest frequency of the mutation was seen in Russians (24.4% of the deltaccr-5 heterozygotes, allele frequency-0.1221). Surprisingly, the only deltaccr-5 homozygote identified in our study was an Egyptian. The origin of the deltaccr-5 mutation in the Middle Eastern populations, both Arab and non-Arab, is most probably due to a gene flow from the Europeans. The frequency of the deltaccr-5 mutation in Russians is one of the highest known. It might be one of the factors contributing to a relatively slow pace of increase in the incidence of sexually acquired HIV infection in Russia. None of the chimpanzees tested was positive for deltaccr-5. Interestingly, the DNA sequence of the chimpanzee CCR-5 gene in the region including the site of the deltaccr-5 mutation, and flanking areas, was virtually identical to the homologous human sequence, only two mismatches (silent substitutions) were found.

Proposed 4 GW Russia-Germany link-impact of 1 GW inverter station on torsional stressing of generators in Poland

The European power systems are in the process of a new orientation which will facilitate and promote exchange of electric power between Eastern and Western European nations. One such example is the 4 GW HVDC link from Russia to Germany where a 1 GW power converter substation has been proposed for Central Poland. This paper considers the impact of the proposed 4 GW Russia-Germany HVDC link on the Polish grid network and possible excitation of torsional vibrations in shafts of steam turbine-generator exciter units connected to the system by noncharacteristic currents due to the link. Excitation of torsional vibrations in machine shafts due to modulating currents and the level of risk of damage to machine shafts due to subsynchronous currents injected into the network by the inverter is assessed. Dynamic parameters of system loads and the power factor of loads which influence system scaling factors are also discussed. The paper also examines the most probable location of the proposed 1000 MW converter on the Polish grid network. System scaling factors are evaluated for different system configurations for each generator at risk and generators most at risk are identified. The paper then investigates transient behaviour of the Polish power system following loss of the proposed link at full import. Transient stability performance is also evaluated for a range of system faults of different fault durations, distances and locations from power plants.

Orientalism and world history: Representing Middle Eastern nationalism and Islamism in the twentieth century

This is a essay about framing, about contextualization. It seeks to situate the political and cultural transitions the modern Middle East has undergone in this century in their world historical contexts, the better to help us understand the meanings of the present shift to Islamist forms of politics in the region. It is my contention that scholars have misunderstood the world historical significance of the emergence of nationalism in the area, that they have misconstrued its relationship to orientalism and to the European enlightenment more generally, and (as a result) largely misunderstood the nature of the Islamist challenge. In many ways my reflections here spring from a dissatisfaction with the inadequacies (both epistemological and world historical) of the ways in which some critics of orientalism have located modernity.

German consultants discuss reunification and employment

Since November 1989, East Germany (like other former eastern bloc nations) has found that economic progress has come at a slow and painful pace. These efforts, however, have been unique since they have involved reunification with sisters and brothers in the west. A three‐year study was conducted with German business consultants, many of whom are involved in either outplacement or career development services. The study is in two phases: face‐to‐face interviews in Germany in early 1993; and follow‐up surveys and telephone contacts between November 1995 and January 1996. Results indicate that reunification has so far resulted in growth of GDP and that East Germans are as a whole a talented group that are integrating into the economy. However, adjustment to a capitalist economy continues to be difficult psychologically for these employees and unemployment continues to remain fairly high throughout Germany. Their experiences also appear to reflect a greater trend globally ‐ powerful economies unable to create enough quality jobs for their populace, which then leads to job loss or fear of job loss. Knowledge of these results can assist career professionals in working with the workforce in Germany, as well as in other nations recovering from the Soviet regime.

Cinema for the “Soviet East”: National Fact and Revolutionary Fiction in Early Azerbaijani Film

Before the eyes of the vast, ignorant masses of the eastern nationalities, the fast-moving frames of cinema will reproduce the many achievements of human knowledge. For the illiterate audience, the electric beam of the magic motion-picture lamp will define new concepts and images, will make the wealth of knowledge more easily accessible to the backward mind.Bakinskii rabochii, 18 September 1923Pictures, so the first Bolsheviks believed, speak louder than words. Visual propaganda was essential in their campaign to reach the illiterate and poorly literate masses, to engage them in a new Soviet style of life. By the end of the civil war, every leading member of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party valued the political uses of film. As commissar of nationalities, Iosef Stalin recognized its potential; in his simple expression, film was “the greatest means of mass agitation.” Like cinema, the Bolsheviks appeared at the confluence of two worlds, the traditional and the modern. For them, film was the perfect medium by which to critique the old and celebrate the new. Film viewed the world as they did, with one measure of hard realism, another of soft utopianism.

Soldiers, civilians, and democracy: post-Franco Spain in comparative perspective

As one of the first countries to have successfully completed the transition from authoritarianism to stable democracy, Spain provides an excellent case study, with valuable lessons for many Latin American, southern European, and eastern European nations that are either making the transition from authoritarian to democratic rule or consolidating the transition in a stable regime. Focusing on the case of Spain after Franco's death, this book identifies the important factors, phases and negotiating points that contributed to Spain's success, including the monarch's intervention as head and symbol of the Spanish state. It also explains precisely what civilian leaders did to keep the military in check while the process of stabilization took place. It then sets Spain in the larger context of democratization in Latin America and Southern Europe, thereby further refining transition theory. This book should be of interest to political scientists and to sociologists who study democratization and European and Latin American politics.

Middle Eastern Nations Sign Milestone Pact to Collaborate

Middle Eastern Nations Sign Milestone Pact to Collaborate

Overcoming the past: De-communization and reconstruction of post-communist societies

In several of the central and eastern European nations, the fall of Communism has initiated a new round of political intolerance that threatens to destroy the foundations of their fragile democratic regimes. Campaigns of lustration (political “cleansing”) have imposed ideological tests for employment and political participation in the Balkan countries and in parts of the former Soviet Union. The small, poor nation of Albania has been especially seriously impacted by this atmosphere of vengeacean against ex-Communists and their families. Justified by the principles of destructive entitlement—reminiscent of ancient cultural rituals of blood retribution—journalists have been arrested, members of the opposition have been imprisoned, and University programs have been suspended. In response to Albania’s plight, and to a similar pattern of civil rights abuses in neighboring countries, social scientists have begun to analyze the powerful role played by the “past-in-the-present” in current reconstruction efforts. As Jurgen Habermas, Adam Michnik, Seymour Martins Lipset, and others have noted, a new “culture of forgiveness” may well be a necessary condition for the development of stable and authentic democratic societies in the region.

The Politics of Language in Non-Russian Elementary Schools in the Eastern Empire, 1865-1914

Just before midnight on 2 February 1870 the Council of the Ministry of Education, in the presence of the curators of the Kazan, Moscow, Odessa and St. Petersburg school districts, agreed on a policy for the education of non-Russians (inorodtsy) of the empire.1 Alexander II approved the hard-fought text on 26 March 1870 as the Regulation on Measures for the Education of Non-Russians Inhabiting Russia.2 The title suggests to the modern ear that the measures applied to non-Russians throughout the empire.3 The subsequent history of the regulation, however, makes it clear that the measures were intended to apply to the eastern and southeastern nationalities only. Thanks to the Regulation of March 1870, language policy in elementary education among many, but not all, of the peoples of the east followed a more nuanced course than did the better-known, openly repressive policies toward native languages in the western borderlands.4 Despite its original limited intent, however, the Regulation of March 1870 assumed by 1905 a prominent role in the discussion of language policy in the empire as a whole and exercised an important influence on the subsequent debate in the Duma about universal primary education. The debate about language in schools turned little on pedagogical principles. In 1909 the radical liberal pedagogue V I. Charnoluskii observed that not once in the nineteenth century was the question of the language of instruction addressed from