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There is a sense of have an ideal, a belief, but being uncertain as to what that belief truly is. In the real world, most people are not academics. They do not reflect consistently on their own thoughts or actions or beliefs. They are passionate but not always scrutinizing. This reality is primarily what an oral history can teach. [1: Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets (NY: Random House, 2007), 47.] [2: Svetlana Alexievich, Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets (NY: Random House, 2007), 48.]
The same can be seen in Alexievich’s Unwomanly Face of War. There is the story recounted by Xenia Sergeevna Osadcheva: “I just became an adult…On June 9, 1941, I turned eighteen, I became an adult. And two weeks later this cursed war began, even twelve days later.”[footnoteRef:3] One would have to turn to fiction, the realist fiction of Solzhenitsyn or Dostoevsky, to discover such colorful, authentic figures as are presented by Alexievich here. She understands how the human experience speaks for itself, how it communicates shades of meaning that cannot be communicated through the objective, prosaic style of the straight-forward, third-person approach to history, as is given by Suny. Alexievich allows the first-person narrator to emerge from an era and show the reader exactly how it was. It is like meeting a new neighbor and being part of a conversation over a fence. The voices are real and the phenomenon of war, of social collapse, of hunger—all of it is brought to fore and gives a powerful new take on a subject that would otherwise feel stale, dry and dusty, as is so often the case when the subject is served up cold and without garnish by academics who fail to incorporate the human side of history into their rational, intellectually-driven takes on the subject. This is not to say that Suny’s history is bad or worse. It offers an important perspective as well—one that is ordered, coherent,…
Healing and Belief Russians base much of their healing system around beneficial herbs and folk remedies. This harkens to feudal eras when professional medical service was unavailable, but was reinforced in Soviet times when doctors were poorly equipped. Russians believe in preventative medicine, so the consumption of certain foods is thought to have preventative effects. Another traditional Russian healing practice is called bonki, and consists of glass cups that are pressed against
History Of the Media in America Media America, a History Media incorporates mediums such as advertisements, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, and now -- the Internet. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was only in the 1920s that people began to actually talk about 'the media,' and a generation later, in the 1950s, of a 'communication revolution,' however, the art of oral and written communication was actually quite important in ancient Greece
Ivanits'"Russian Folk Belief" Linda Ivanits' Russian Folk Belief is a foundational and possibly one of kind work exploring concepts of Russian culture that have previously been unknown and would probably have remained so had Ivanits not seen fit to document them. The oral tradition is a largely challenged historical source as it is so difficult to both document and record in an accurate and scientific manner. The bedrock themes that are
influential factor in the evolution of the international world of politics following the end of World War II was the interrelationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. The conflictive positions between the two states influenced both the evolution of highly dominant states as well as minor governments. The world divided into two military fronts, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) -- 1949, and the Warsaw Pact in
Circassian People, a brief history The Circassians, comprising some 3,000 people concentrated in two northern villages, are Sunni Muslims, although they share neither the Arab origin nor the cultural background of the larger Islamic community. While maintaining a distinct ethnic identity, they participate in Israel's economic and national affairs without assimilating either into Jewish society or into the general Muslim community The Circassians are a Muslim people, whose Russian name
Art History And Contemporary Art The world is a complex place and the old, outmoded, Eurocentric way we look at politics, economics and culture (art) may not be the right way to conceive the new order. Globalism describes, in fact, the increasing unification of the world through economic means (reduction of trade barriers, support of international trade, and mitigation of export and import quotas). They goal for globalization is to increase