As promised, here is my very brief Cultural Studies presentation on my favourite Russian ever. I kept it short and sweet but if you need any additional stuff let me know!
Catherine the Great (1729 – 1796)
Born in Stettin (now Poland)
Ruled (1762 – 1796)
Catherine was extremely well educated and well-read. Throughout the first few years of her disastrous marriage to the Grand Duke Peter, she was very lonely and isolated and as a result immersed herself in books and kept many diaries. It’s possible to say that her love for literature and self expression in general paved the way for her acceptance of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment: A philosophical movement of the 18th century characterised by the belief in the power of human reason and my innovations in political, religious and educational doctrine.
Catherine considered herself to be a ‘philosopher of the throne,’ and was anxious to be perceived as a free-thinking and civilised monarch across Europe. She was the first Russian ruler to take a vested interest in arts and culture. In 1764 she purchased a collection of art work by John Ernest Gotzkowski which was the beginning of the Hermitage Museum we know today. In the same year she commissioned a new building for the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg and renamed it the Imperial Academy of Arts. Later in 1764, the Smolny Institute for Noble Young Ladies was founded (this later became the Bolshevik Headquarters) and it quickly became the best school of its kind in Europe and was the first to allow daughters of merchants to be educated alongside the daughters of the nobility.
In 1782 she commissioned ‘The Bronze Horseman’ in honour of Peter the Great.
In 1795 she opened the Imperial Public Library, which included the private collections of Voltaire and Diderot. She had corresponded with Voltaire for 15 years and although they never met, she mourned him bitterly when he died.
Catherine herself wrote her memoirs, some fiction, a manual for early childhood education, comedies, prose and 9 operatic texts. Throughout her reign over 8000 books were published which was an enormous increase of 40% the amount of books that had been published in the early part of the 18th century. In 1783 she had allowed the use of private printing presses without permission from the state and this greatly contributed to the amount of material published.
In 1785 Catherine introduced the Charter of the Nobility and the Charter of the Times. The Charter of the Nobility granted greater privileges and rights to the nobility. This represented the first time in Russian history that a social group had rights instead of duties. Similarly, the Charter of the Times created a new middle class in Russia. They had many privileges but fewer rights than the nobility.
Catherine also reformed the Saint Petersburg local administration. In 1766 the position of городской голова (mayor) was established and in 1744 a Magistrate was established. However, it must be noted that despite these reforms, democracy terrified Catherine and censorship was a main feature of her rule. When the French Revolution broke out, she was a staunch supporter of the King and Queen and it is rumoured that she even sent them fake passports in order to get from France to Russia.
In addition to the Eurovision, a few other interesting events are taking place in Russia this week.
First, there was a gay-rights protest that was broken up by the authorities – while a nationalistic counter-protest was allowed to take place.
Second, there is the issue of the RusGidro Plotina dam that is to be built in the upcoming year. The company (RusGidro) is planning on going through with the project in order to sell hydroelectric energy to Mongolia and China. The only problem is there is an indigenous ethnic group, the Evenks, that has lived in the area for as long as anyone can remember. If the authorities and the company go through with the project (which is seems they will), the Evenk homeland will be flooded over, the delicate ecosystem destroyed, and the people forced to relocate to far less familiar environs.
The UN has apparently allready specifically called out Moscow on this one, and the company has responded by proclaiming that foreign agents are involved in an act of terrorism – and are attempting to invoke new extremism laws to curtail protest.
You can find an informative article by Paul Globle here, and the group’s website [plotina.net, or "plotina - net!"] here.
When I was a kid I remember now and again I’d see a house or a restaurant with asbestos on the roof – of course no one uses the stuff anymore because it’s so cancerous. But apparently it all comes from a single city in Russia. The entire area is built around the industry, and it partially collapsed after everyone found out it’s so dangerous, and now it’s collapsed more due to the financial crisis, there’s no internal buisness or buisness from China.
Don’t know why this caught my eye really, maybe just because I think of asbestos as such a relic of the past. I had no idea anywhere even made it anymore.
I came across this article on the web written by a professor of “English and Celtic Studies” in California that discusses the staging of Checkhov plays in Ireland. Since it was something Sarah asked us to bare in mind I thought I’d share it. I don’t know how accurate or useful it is but I thought it was interesting as it looks at Chekhov in relation to Irish culture and Irish identity. There are also links at the bottom of the page that lead to other articles – one of particular interest is by Thomas Kilroy himself. Happy reading!
Following on from Justin’s lectures on music and art, and my own project on the Russian ballet I thought I would upload a scene from Petrushka the ballet. The company performing here is the Northwest Ballet from the States (unfortunately I couldn’t find footage of the Mariinsky) and the chorepgraphy is by none other than the amazing Fokine himself….
There’s some info on the film that we watched in Cultural Studies on IMDB. It was actually made in 1960 though some of us thought it might have been made earlier. There’s also a fair bit of info on the actress who played Anna Sergyevna, and she seems to have maintained a relatively good acting career in Russia, her most recent film being released in 2007. There’s also info on the actor who played Dmitri Gurov and again he seems to have had a successful acting career in Russia.
Also, for those who didn’t get a chance to see it, it appears to be up on youtube. I’m not going to post it as it’s in several parts rather than one video. Here’s a link to the first 10mins anyway which should give you an impression of Yalta and of how the story translates to film. (Unfortunately there are no subtitles, but we all know how the story goes anyway!)
Here’s a link to a performance of Rachmaninov’s setting of Pushkin’s
poem “Не пой, красавица, при мне…”, the singer is the great Russian soprano, Galina Vishnevskaya – yet another example of the exotic/oriental fixation in Russian culture…
