The SRAS Newsletter
A Resource for Students, Educators, and Anyone Curious about Eurasia
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 Starting this summer, SRAS is offering an intensive course of Tajik language study. Click here for details.
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Happy International Women's Day!
Although not recognized in the US, this holiday is widely celebrated every March 8th in Eurasia and recognizes all the great women in our lives. SRAS has so many to thank. The vast majority of our employees are female – as are most of our partners on the ground abroad. Females make up a strong portion – if not a majority – of students on most of our programs, of our newsletter readership, and our Facebook following. To all you smart, capable, and adventurous women – thank you. You make us who we are.
In this month's newsletter, we are announcing extended deadlines on most of our summer study abroad programs. Deadlines start March 15! We are offering a special Moscow-St. Petersburg RSL program this year.
Make sure to see our new offerings: Tajik Intensive and Literature in St. Petersburg. You can also study the role of foodways in economy, government policy, and ethnic identity in Georgia. Study cultural diplomacy in Cuba and St. Petersburg. Study environment in Irkutsk, anthropology in Bishkek, museum science in St. Petersburg, security in Warsaw, or learn Russian or intern in nearly any of our many locations. Funding is available.
Fall study abroad deadlines are also coming up in May! See our wide array of programs online - including Home and Abroad, which offers up to $10,000 to help fund your study abroad.
Table of contents
GeoHistory Students Abroad Russian Language
PopKult Museum Studies Abroad Books
Study Abroad
in Eurasia!
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Study Abroad
in Cuba and Russia!
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Study Abroad
in Poland!
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- Summer Study Abroad -
Application deadlines: Start March 15
See individual program pages for more info
In most locations: Russian as a Second Language
Internships
Challenge Grants (funding!)
In Warsaw: Security and Society
In Bishkek: Central Asian Studies
In Georgia: Georgian Foodways
In Russia: The Art and Science of Museums
New! Literature in St. Petersburg
Russia and the Environment
The Cuba-Russia Connection (+in Cuba!)
GeoHistory.today
History and Current Events in Perspective
Russia on the Ground Foreign Affairs TV News (Elections)
What do Russians think about issues that matter? What is going on in Russian foreign relations? How does Russian TV really report on the main issues of the day? These free monthly resources from GeoHistory.today are meant to keep you informed.
Pavel Grudinin: Commercially-Driven Socialism
Pavel Nikolaevich Grudinin is the current Russian presidential nominee from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF). As he is not a member of the KPRF, but a millionaire businessman, his nomination came as a surprise to most who watch Russian politics. How his candidacy is interpreted largely depends on how Grudinin is seen as an individual and as a so-called "social entrepreneur." This article is by SRAS Home and Abroad Scholar Katheryn Weaver.
The Clarity in Baikal’s Future
This article by SRAS Home and Abroad Scholar Rylin McGee will explore the challenges Irkutsk’s public water system faces, taking into account the city’s history, water infrastructure and quality control systems, along with how modern developments, particularly in the tourism sector, are affecting the city’s water supply.
Students Abroad
Travel, Study, Volunteer, Work Abroad
Day Trip to a Russian Dacha from St. Petersburg
SRAS students in St. Petersburg head out of the city for a real Russian dacha and banya experience! SRAS Challenge Grant recipient Charlie Bacsik has all the details - and lots of pictures - in this new article on our student site!
Maslenitsa Through the Eyes of American Students
Our writers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Irkutsk have banded together to bring you this comparative, expansive look at Maslenitsa festivals that were held across Russia this year.
10 Differences Between Moscow and Saint Petersburg
SRAS is offering a special Moscow-St. Petersburg RSL program this summer! What are some of these things that make these cities so unique?
Eurasian Languages and Cultures
Lessons and Resources from around the Web
SRAS: Why I Teach Food
This article by Dr. Michael Denner discusses how food can provide both an immediate sensory connection to another culture and a basis for informed intellectual discussion. Dr. Denner will be leading our Georgian Foodways program this summer.
Michele Berdy: Ode to У
Moscow Times columnist Michele Berdy writes on this simple, multifunctional Russian preposition.
Russian Cinema Wiki
A couple of Russian teachers have compiled an extensive list of (legally available) online Russian movies. The list is extensive - and covers both contemporary films and classics. Many are for free on Vimeo and YouTube, others you can watch on Amazon.
PopKult.org
Contemporary Eurasian Popular Culture
Nashe Radio Polish Pop Hits Russkoe Radio Top Russian Movies
Find out what local language hits are playing on local radio stations in Poland and Russia and on Russian silver screens with these free monthly resources from PopKult.org.
Russia’s Top Films Outside of Russia - 2017
In total, in 2017, 63 Russian films played in movie theatres outside thier primary markets of Russia, Ukraine, and the CIS.
Saida Mukhametzyanova
Saida Mukhametzyanova is a young Russian musical phenomenon known for her renditions of classic Tatar folk songs.
Neuromonakh Feofan
The band mixes contemporary Russian with obsolete words and Old Church Slavonic to create epic verses set to electronic drum and bass mixed with traditional instruments like the balalaika.
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Featured Book!
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MuseumStudiesAbroad.org
High Culture, Museum Science
Dorenberg Art-Factory Special Exhibit: "Primeval Russia"
The Dorenberg Art-Factory's special exhibit of Primeval Russia in Irkutsk was a celebration of local values and national pride in Russia's natural wildernesses.
Museum of Soviet Arcade Games
Russians in St. Petersburg and Moscow come to this museum to relive a part of their Soviet youth.
Ata-Beyit Memorial Complex in Chong-Tash
Ata-Beyit (Kyrgyz for Grave of Our Fathers) is a memorial complex about 15 miles south of Bishkek. The site honors two dark episodes in Kyrgyzstan’s history: the mass murders that occured under Stalin’s purges and the deaths of the revolutionaries who fought in the nation’s 2010 Revolution.
Books from Amazon
New Releases!
Putinomics
Explaining the economic policies that underwrote Putin's two-decades-long rule, Chris Miller shows how, at every juncture, Putinomics has served Putin's needs by guaranteeing economic stability and supporting his accumulation of power. Even in the face of Western financial sanctions and low oil prices, Putin has never been more relevant on the world stage.
Dressed Up for a Riot
The journalist and novelist Michael Idov recounts the tempestuous years he spent living alongside and closely observing the media and cultural elite of Putin's Russia.
Health Cooperation with Russia
The Eurasian Medical Education Program brought American physicians to share knowledge and best practices with Russian practitioners. Over 17 years, the program ultimately interacted with over 10,000 Russian physicians and across most of the eleven time zones of Russia.
Anarchist Encounters: Russia in Revolution
This book presents firsthand encounters in Russia just after the fall of the Tsar. Emma Goldman relates her experiences of daily life, her meeting with Peter Kropotkin. Jack Wilkens writes of how the Soviets function, and of how workers and peasants live and work.
My Chernobyl
Alexander A. Borovoi, an atomic physicist with the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, was ordered to Chernobyl to help measure and control the release of lethal radioactive materials. He stayed for twenty-three years. This book is his telling of the accident and its aftermath.
Van Cliburn's Cold War Triumph, and Its Aftermath
April 1958: The Soviets were leading the space race and the Iron Curtain was at its heaviest. However, in Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, Van Cliburn, a polite, lanky Texan captured the hearts of the Russian people—and thawed Cold War tensions in a way no one would have thought possible.
If you have views or material you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please contact us.
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