First Ladies are often misunderstood, in particular those of the Soviet era. This thesis focusses on the life of Raisa Gorbacheva, the only First Lady the Soviet Union ever knew, her life before...Show moreFirst Ladies are often misunderstood, in particular those of the Soviet era. This thesis focusses on the life of Raisa Gorbacheva, the only First Lady the Soviet Union ever knew, her life before and after becoming the First Lady and the ways in which she was percieved. Whereas Gorbacheva was loved in the West, she was hated by her own people. This phenomenon is explained through an extensive analysis of the dominant feminine ideal throughout the Soviet period.Show less
Becoming posthuman does not mean letting go of all human ethics. Rather, the posthuman turn is about a pluralisation of perspectives, which does not mean a negation of the human perspective. The...Show moreBecoming posthuman does not mean letting go of all human ethics. Rather, the posthuman turn is about a pluralisation of perspectives, which does not mean a negation of the human perspective. The cases of late Soviet science fiction (Solaris, Roadside picnic, Solyaris, and Stalker) contain elements of the posthuman turn. Although their makers were informed by different worldviews, in all four cases the concept of the human and human mastery are challenged by the unsolved and unsolvable mystery of non-human agency.Show less
This thesis is about the viability of the Evenki language in China and Russia, and the influence of the language policies in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the PRC (People's...Show moreThis thesis is about the viability of the Evenki language in China and Russia, and the influence of the language policies in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the PRC (People's Republic of China). Evenks are originally Siberian people, who currently live in China and Russia. During the communist period the use of the language has declined. This thesis compares both language policies and draws conclusions about to what extent both languages policies have influenced the viability of the language in both countries.Show less
In this thesis I discuss the development of Soviet fundamental physics from the 1917 October revolution until the end of the thirties of the twentieth century, using the life and career of the...Show moreIn this thesis I discuss the development of Soviet fundamental physics from the 1917 October revolution until the end of the thirties of the twentieth century, using the life and career of the experimental low-temperature physicist Lev Vasil’evič Šubnikov (1901-1937) as a guide through this period. After his graduation in Petrograd Šubnikov spent almost four years from 1926 to 1930 in Leiden, where he worked with the then director of the physics laboratory Wander de Haas and was the co-discoverer of the Shubnikov-de Haas effect. After his return to the Soviet Union he became the head of the first cryogenic laboratory in the Soviet Union at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute in Char’kov, where he embarked on an extensive (very much Leiden inspired) research program that among other things resulted in the discovery of type II superconductivity (Shubnikov phase). The theoretical explanation of this phenomenon earned Abrikosov and Ginzburg the 2003 Nobel Prize. In 1937 at the height of the Stalinist terror the NKVD launched a clamp-down on the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute, of which Šubnikov became one of the most important victims. He was shot in November 1937. I discuss the extent of the repression in physics in general and at the Ukrainian Physico-Technical Institute in particular, and put forward arguments for the thesis that this repression was not random, but at least in part a deliberate and carefully planned attack on individuals who were alleged or perceived to be disloyal to the Soviet cause. Apart from Šubnikov’s work I also discuss the work of other Soviet physicists in that period, among whom Pëtr Kapica, Lev Landau, Igor’ Tamm and others, and their experiences in the Soviet climate. I also pay attention to the (re)organization of science, and physics in particular, by the Bolsheviks after the October revolution, the reestablishment of contacts with the West, the influence of Marxism on physics research (the campaign against physical idealism), and the quality of Soviet contributions to physics and the appreciation of these contributions in the West.Show less
