Search results

"Vladimir Putin's image functions as a political talisman far outside of the borders of his own country. By studying material objects, fan fiction and digital media, this book traces the satirical uses of Putin's public persona, notably how he stands as a foil for other world leaders. It argues that the internet is crucial to the creation of contemporary Putin memorabilia and that these items show a continued political engagement by young people, even as some political scientists and media experts decry what they see as the opposite. The book further addresses the ways in which explicit sexual references about government officials are being used as everyday political commentary in the United States. Turning a critical eye to Putin kitsch shows how the number of such references skyrocketed during the 2016 US Presidential election campaign, and suggests that the phenomenon is likely to still be important when Americans next return to the polls. Finally, the internet makes possible a totally new kind of kitsch - the virtual kind. An examination of how the Russian president's image circulates via memes and parodies, as well as through apps and games, suggests that political culture has become increasingly participatory in the last decade."--

Includes bibliographical references and index

This article tells the story of Emma Burnham Dresser's 1931 voyage on the Soviet icebreaker Malygin. Emma was not interested in Marxism or social experimentation. Nor was she fleeing discrimation or religious persecution. Instead, she wanted an exotic experience; hence, Emma's story introduces a new kind of traveler to the scholarly literature on the history of tourism to the Soviet Union: the wealthy socialite looking for her latest adventure. By focusing on contemporary press coverage of the trip, we can also see how American interpretations of it differ from the narratives offered by Soviet media, and how Emma's actions defied American conceptions of the Arctic as a space where men went to prove their masculinity.

Abstract: In September 1915, San Francisco resident Ernest Kundy received a picture postcard from an unnamed correspondent. Produced by the Anarchist Red Cross of Detroit, the postcard featured a depiction of the Bloody Sunday massacre which sparked Russia's 1905 revolution and served as one of the most important episodes in the history of revolutionary martyrdom. By examining every aspect of the postcard this article reveals, layer by layer, its connections to Russian anarchist life in the United States. The article begins by analysing the image on the front, explaining how illustrations like the one in question by Fortunino Matania were turned into widely disseminated postcards that spread revolutionary messages well beyond Russian borders. Turning to the information on the back, the article next explores the history of the Anarchist Red Cross in the US and the role that it played in keeping anarchism alive for recent immigrants from Russia. Then the links between the sender's handwritten message and an area of Chicago that features prominently in histories of immigrant life, the settlement movement and the US labour movement — Halsted Street — are considered. Finally, the connections between the recipient's family and a 1915 bank robbery in California serve as a window into the history of Russian anarchist circles on the American West Coast.

This article tells the story of Clare F. Saltz, a married middle-aged man from the Detroit area, who spent roughly two years working in Magnitogorsk in the early 1930s. The included letters predate John Scott's well-known account of the city, and hence offer different information for historians. Saltz's experiences reveal much about everyday life – everything from working conditions, to securing provisions, to social activities – at a time when the Soviet state had fewer resources to invest in cultural work and had yet to establish the food rationing system or the special enclave that offered better accommodations to foreign workers.