The Perils of Utopia: The Russian Intelligentsia under Communism and Perestroika

After evoking the spirit of the Russian intelligentsia, this essay interprets its changing place in society. A force for humanism, universal brotherhood and freedom of expression within a succession of repressive political regimes, the intelligentsia should — one might think — be greatly favoured by perestroika. Yet its very idealism and uncritical faith in such abstractions as ‘the people’ and ‘beloved foreigners’ have ill prepared it to deal with harsh and complex realities. As earlier stereotypes crumble and the Communist regime disintegrates, the intelligentsia itself is confused and divided. Faced with moral and political dilemmas, Tolstaya suggests that there may be some virtue in a productive form of escapism in art.     

Empire: The View from Beyond

JOHN M. MACKENZIE. The Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. Pp. x, 34a. £40.00;

STEPHEN CONSTANTINE, ed. Emigrants and Empire: British Settlement in the Dominions between the Wars. Manchester Manchester University Press; dist., St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. x, 208. £40.00;

J.A. MANGAN, ed. Making Imperial Mentalities: Socialisation and British Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. xi, 227. £40.00

RONALD HYAM. Empire and Sexuality: The British Experience. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. ix. 234. £10.95 (paper);

W.J. READER. ‘At Duty's Call’: A Study in Obsolete Patriotism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. Pp. viii, 152. £45.00;

JACQUELINE BRATTON et al. Acts of Supremacy: The British Empire and the Stage, 1790–1930. Manchester: Manchester University Press; dist., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991. Pp. vii, 248. £40.00;

P.J. RICH. Elixir of Empire: The English Public Schools, Ritualism, Freemasonry, and Imperialism. London and New York: Regency Press, 2nd. ed., 1992. Pp. 152. £9.95.     

Beyond Bilas: The Enga Take Anda

A crucial issue facing anthropologists, linguists, and museums today is what to do with research material and artifacts that have accumulated over the years. In 2005 we sought ways to return 20 years of material on Enga history and tradition to the people of Enga Province at a time when rapid change was leaving young generations with little sense of their cultural heritage. The goal was to build a center, the Enga Take Anda, House of Traditional Knowledge, that would provide knowledge of the past to help Enga understand recent changes and to consider what should be carried forward and what left behind. To be effective, the Enga Take Anda would have to be a museum and as well as a resource center with an active role in Enga schools and the Village Court system. We describe here challenges and successes in this endeavor. The establishment of the Take Anda has involved much trial, error, flexibility and persistence, largely persistence.     

The Major Economic-Geographic Regions of the USSR

A survey of the recent history of development, shifts in locational patterns and changes in organizational structure of the craft industries of Gor'kiy Oblast, one of the principal craft-industry areas of the Soviet Union. The authors map changes in the distribution of crafts and analyze economic-geographic factors in locational changes. Recommendations are made to preserve some of the crafts within the pattern of the Soviet economic system.     

The Present State of Toponymy in the USSR

A review of recent place-name research, methods, and publications in the Soviet Union by a deputy chairman of the Toponymy Commission of the Moscow Branch of the Geographical Society USSR. For a previous article on Soviet toponymy, see E. M. Murzayev, “Origin of geographic names,” Soviet Geography, Accomplishments and Tasks, American Geographical Society, 1962, pp. 254–58.     

The Development of Motor Roads in the USSR

Surfaced roads, including gravel roads, total 510,000 km, or 37.5 percent of the Soviet Union's motor-road net of 1.4 million kilometers, the rest consisting of dirt roads. Only about 260,000 km, or less than one-fifth, consists of blacktop or cement or asphalt concrete highways. The lack of roads tends to cause considerable losses to the Soviet economy, particularly in agriculture. An accelerated road-building program is therefore under way, with the current five-year plan (1971–75) calling for the construction or reconstruction of 110,000 km of improved surfaced roads (blacktop and cement or asphalt-concrete) compared with 75,000 km added in the preceding five-year period (1966–70). The densest road nets in the USSR are found in the Baltic republics, in Transcaucasia, Moldavia, the Ukraine and Belorussia. The lowest road-density indices apply to the Russian republic and to Kazakhstan.     

美国对苏政策中意识形态因素及其在苏联解体过程中的作用

美国特殊利益集团对全球霸权主义的追求、根深蒂固的反共主义,以及为维护世界资本主义的一统天下,决定了美国对苏联意识形态进攻的必然性。在苏联存在的几十年间,美国从未放弃消灭或西化苏联的图谋。在苏联基本坚持马克思主义的指导和社会主义道路的情况下,这种图谋难以实现。但是,当苏联把马克思主义教条化和僵化,并在西方和美国意识形态进攻面前逐步西化,就潜伏了巨大危险。一旦苏联领导彻底抛弃马克思主义意识形态,而以美国等西方国家宣扬的所谓"全人类价值观"作为指导时,苏联的解体和西化也就变得不可避免。     

王化与山险——中古早期南方诸蛮历史命运之概观

中古早期,中国南方社会、文化及政治面貌发生巨大变化,其中最深刻的变化是以苗瑶语为主的土著族群以空前的速度和广度所进行的华夏化,这方面留下史料最多的是长江中游的所谓蛮族。深入观察诸蛮社会华夏化的历史过程,会发现在相当长一个时期内,这些多样性极端突出的诸蛮族群,都经历了在霑沐王化与依阻山险之间的艰难选择,其结果是越来越多的土著族群被吸纳进华夏政权的政治秩序之中。南方各土著族群的华夏化主要是一个政治过程,而且这个政治过程通常都与华夏政权的国家意志和利益紧密相关。因此考察国家在这一过程中的能动角色,是解释南方社会历史命运的重要途径之一。