Russian Subjects Research Articles

George Kennan and the American-Russian Relationship, 1865-1924.

George Kennan s career as a specialist on Russian affairs began in 1865, with his first journey to the Russian empire. A twenty-year-old telegraphic engineer at the time, he was a member of the Russian-American Telegraph Expedition, a now virtually unknown but nevertheless remarkable nineteenth-century adventure story. That bold undertaking would have established telegraph service between the United States and Russia by submarine cable across the Bering Strait, an event unfortunately upstaged by the successful laying of the Atlantic Cable. Its directors subsequently abandoned the project. But for Kennan the impact of the endeavor proved both formative and lasting; his work in northeastern Siberia as a member of the expedition had so piqued his interest in Russia that over half a century later it still was not slaked. By the time of his death in 1924, his various investigations of Russian subjects had resulted in numerous publications and lectures that had established his reputation as the leading American expert on Russia of his era. The major concern of Frederick F. Travis s book is the role of George Kennan in shaping American-Russian relations in the important half century before the Russian Revolution and its immediate aftermath. This study first establishes that Kennan began his career as an ardent Russophile, then carefully traces his shift to hostility following his investigation of the Siberian exile system in 1885-86, and explains in some detail his subsequent influence on public opinion. Kennan s later work revealed a Russia of almost unrelieved political and economic distress in the tsarist empire, and of a noble, almost hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned opposition, contributing significantly to the unpreparedness with which America faced the Revolution of 1917. Kennan s analysis of the October Revolution and its immediate aftermath served only to harden American attitudes toward the presumed evils of Bolshevism. The picture of George Kennan that emerges from this study is the fullest to appear in any language, according him a standing in the history of American-Russian relations unequaled by any official participant.

A Critical Analysis and Evaluation of Russian Language Monographic Collections at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks

An assessment of Russian subject and language monographic resources of the Rasmuson Library is reported. Data indicate that cataloged titles number 9,321 and are 42% Russian, 52% English and 5% other languages. Library of Congress categories vary widely in linguistic composition with science, agriculture and technology holdings primarily in Russian. Holdings are broadly spread over the Library of Congress classes, but history, language/ literature, and science include 61% of all titles. Some classes have so few titles as to be insignificant. Non-Russian Slavic holdings amount to only .035% of collections. An additional 6,836 titles are partially processed, and combined with cataloged titles total 16,157. The collections tend to emphasize selected Library of Congress classes; and comparison with several other universities suggests that only holdings about Siberia can compare favorably with these. Statistical evaluation suggests that past acquisitions have been unsystematic and that evident weaknesses can be overcome through selective purchases and exchanges. The procedure and the evaluation criteria used in the case of Rasmuson may have utility for assessment of collections in other libraries.

Computer Technology and Its Impact on Collection Development

An assessment of Russian subject and language monographic resources of the Rasmuson Library is reported. Data indicate that cataloged titles number 9,321 and are 42% Russian, 52% English and 5% other languages. Library of Congress categories vary widely in linguistic composition with science, agriculture and technology holdings primarily in Russian. Holdings are broadly spread over the Library of Congress classes, but history, language/literature, and science include 61% of all titles. Some classes have so few titles as to be insignificant. Non-Russian Slavic holdings amount to only .035% of collections. An additional 6,836 titles are partially processed, and combined with cataloged titles total 16,157. The collections tend to emphasize selected Library of Congress classes; and comparison with several other universities suggests that only holdings about Siberia can compare favorably with these. Statistical evaluation suggests that past acquisitions have been unsystematic and that evident weaknesses can be overcome through selective purchases and exchanges. The procedure and the evaluation criteria used in the case of Rasmuson may have utility for assessment of collections in other libraries.

Generic zero subjects in Finnish and Russian

Generic zero subjects in Finnish and Russian

Agreement with quantified subjects in Russian: A fictitious linguistic change?

It is generally accepted that plural predicate agreement with quantified subjects in Russian is increasing. Consider the following examples (Rozental' and Telenkova, 1972, 282, 285): (1) Bol'sinstvo studentov vpolne spravilos' (sing.) s zadaniem. (2) Bol'sinstvo studentov vpolne spravilis' (pl.) s zadaniem. (3) V komnatu voslo (sing.) pjat' celovek. (4) V komnatu vosli (pl.) pjat' celovek. All these sentences are grammatical (see Corbett, 1979, 57-93) ; the question at issue is whether sentences like (2) and (4) are gaining at the expense of (1) and (3). The most consistent advocate of the view that they are is Rozental'. His earlier writings on the subject are discussed by Mullen who, after investigating 320 sentences with collective subjects only (those like (1) and (2)) and finding 90% singular agreement, takes issue with the view of Rozental' that:

Les Jésuites dans l'Empire russe (1772-1820)

Daniel Beauvois : The Jesuits in the Russian empire, 1772-1820. A small group of Jesuits, Russian subjects since the division of Poland in 1772, survived thanks to Catherine after abolition in 1773, and exerted consi¬ derable influence. In 1812 they founded an Academy at Polock, aided by the intervention of J. de Maistre, but they met with opposition from the University of Vilna with its strong Enlightenment tradition. This conflict is studied in de Maistre's letters to the minister Razumovskij and in the University's arguments. The author examines the size of the Society, its teaching and publications, and considers the reasons for their expulsion in 1820, seen as a nationalistic and religious reaction to their blatant proselytising.

Some aspects of the Anglo-Russian Convention and its working in Persia, 1907–14—II

The Americans arrived (May 1911) to find Tehran in a turmoil of political excitement. In February the Minister of Finance, who had been a leading figure in the constitutional movement, had been assassinated by Russian subjects on his way home from attending the Majlis. This was followed by another political murder in Tehran later in February—again undertaken by Russian nationals. Since Russia retained the right of jurisdiction over her own subjects in Persia the murderers had to be hunded over to the Russian government. The situation the Americans found has been described by one of the members of the mission in a latter to President Taft. He wrote:‘Pursuant to your kind request to keep you informed of our progress in Persia, the following statement of experiences and conditions may be of interest, especially in view of the recent return of the exiled Shah, Mohammed Ali, and the near approach of civil war which now seems inevitable, as the result of foreign intrigues. The entire country is in the most complete state of anarchy possible to imagine, and the government—if such it can be called—is of the opera bouffe variety, fit to adorn any stage without alteration of a single feature. Civic corruption exists to an extent beyond the limits of the wildest imagination, and is so widespread that an honest official, high or low, is almost unknown. No laws exist for the punishment of official crimes, and as the Oriental system of bribery for the consummation of any purpose whatsoever has existed since time immemorial, the natural result is beyond description.

The Conquering Balkan Orthodox Merchant

The origins of a Balkan Orthodox merchant class or classes may be traced back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Not until the eighteenth century, however, did it become sufficiently strong in wealth and number to capture the trade of Hungary, South Russia, and the eastern Mediterranean. The eighteenth century was a time of expansion of French, German, English, and Russian trade in the Balkans. It was also a time of growth of the trade of Moslem Albanian and Bosnian merchants. But, in terms of its significance to the cultural, political, and general historical evolution of the Balkan peoples, most important of all was the expansion of the Balkan Orthodox merchant: the Greek trader of Constantinople, Salonika, and Smyrna, the Greek and Orthodox Albanian merchant, sailor, and shipper of the smaller Aegean islands, the Greek, Vlach, and Macedo-Slav muleteer and forwarding agent of Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, the Serbian pig-merchant of Šumadija, the “Illyrian” muleteer and forwarding agent of Herzegovina and Dalmatia, who set up business in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) or Trieste, the “Rascian” of Pannonia, and the Greek or Bulgarian of the eastern Rhodope. The Balkan Orthodox merchants were Ottoman, Habsburg, and Russian subjects, but their principal business was to bring goods into or out of the Ottoman Empire. The area of their primary business concentration stretched north and west of the political limits of the Ottoman Empire to Nezhin in South Russia, Leipzig in Germany, Vienna in Austria, and Livorno and Naples in Italy. In western Europe, they succeeded in creating an area of secondary commercial penetration.

A Russian Historian at Harvard

INow that Russian technological and scientific achievements have intensified Western interest in the Soviet Union, and the demand for competent teachers of Russian subjects is running, high, it seems almost incredible that only ten or fifteen yearsago there were few openings for specialists in Russia's history, literature, and social problems. Before the war, the demand was even smaller. Although the study of Russia's past was still in its infancy, in Europe as well as in America, in the 1920's and the 1930's very few of the Russian historians who found themselves abroad after 1917 were able to continue, at foreign universities, their work of research and teaching. To be sure, a few of them lectured at Russian emigre institutions of higher learning in Germany or Czechoslovakia; Miliukov and two or three others were able to give some courses at the Sorbonnebut these were all occasional, sporadic activities, affording them no opportunities to establish permanent, serious schools of historical studies or to devote all their time to scholarly pursuits. Things were somewhat better in this country, where foreign birth and even the lack of American citizenship did not bar scholars from taking part in academic life. Several Russian historians were able to continue their work in the United States

Minorities Treaty (Russian Subjects) Case.

Treaties — Effect on Third Parties — Effect on Russia of the Minorities Treaty of 1919 — Nationality — Acquisition and Loss of — Effect as against Third States — Interpretation of Treaties — Filling of Gaps by Construction — Russo-Polish Peace Treaty of March 15, 1921.

Biographical notices of mineralogists recently deceased. (Sixth series.)

In the following list of 36 lives, with a range in ages frdm 56 to 89, the average age is 71.0 years. The average of 460 lives noticed in this Magazine since 1877 is 65.9 years ; and in the six numbers of this series since 1919 there has been a gradual and steady increase from 63.6 to 71.0.Particulars respecting Czech, Italian, Japanese, and Russian subjects have been kindly supplied by Professors F. Slavlk, G. R. Levi, R. Ōhashi, and Mr. S. I. Tomkeieff respectively, and to these colleagues I express my thanks.

Science News a Century Ago

Imperial Academy of Sciences/ Russia The Imperial Academy of Sciences in Russia has published a clause of the will of an artillery officer, Count Araktsehejen, by which the testator established a fund of 50,000 roubles for the author of the best History of the reign of the Emperor Alexander. The work is not to be written until 100 years after that monarch's death, that is, in 1925. The author must be a Russian subject. The money will remain 93 years in the bank where it will accumulate interest. Ten years before the time appointed, that is, in 1915, the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburgh, will announce that competition is open, and that the prize will be awarded in 1925. Of the sum available one quarter will be devoted to the publication of the work, and the successful author will receive the remainder. (Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 1834.)

De Mayenne v. Joutel ès-qualité.

Recognition of Foreign Governments — Recognition of the Soviet Government — Personal Status of Russian Subjects — Retroactivity.

Dessouki Moustapha v. A. Petroff.

Privileges and Immunities of Consuls — Continuance after Retirement — Succession to Estates of Russian Subjects in Country where Soviet Government Not Recognised.

United States ex rel. Schachter (plaintiff) v. Curran, Commissioner of Immigration (defendant).

Admission of Aliens — Power of Congress to Exclude — Right to Fair Hearing and Due Process — Deportation of Russian Subject.