Dr. Vera Kaplan is a senior lecturer in the Department of History and Director of the Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies, Tel Aviv University. Her research interests lie in the areas of cultural and social history and the history of education in Russia, focusing especially on history as a profession. Her book Historians and Historical Societies in the Public Life of Imperial Russia was published by Indiana University Press in March 2017. She has written articles and book chapters devoted to the history of the Russian revolution of 1917. Her current research project, entitled “Weathering the revolution,” explores how historians responded to and lived through the great event of their time.
Preface 1.Introduction Ben Eklof Part 1. Educational Policy: Past and Present 2. Educational Chan... more Preface 1.Introduction Ben Eklof Part 1. Educational Policy: Past and Present 2. Educational Change in Time of Social Revolution: The Case of Post-Communist Russia in Comparative Perspective Viacheslav Karpov and Elena Lisovskaya 3. School and Schooling under Stalin, 1931-1953 Larry E. Holmes 4. The Experimental Tradition in Russian Education Stephen T. Kerr 5. Democratic Educational Reform in Russia: Achievements and Setbacks Isak D. Froumin 6. Demographic Change and the Fate of Russia's School's: The Impact of Population Shifts on Educational Practice and Policy Stephen T. Kerr 7. The Education of Russian-Speakers in Estonia Kara D. Brown Part 2. The Teacher, the Textbook and Educational Practice 8. Teachers in Post-Soviet Russia: The Past in the Present Ben Eklof and Scott Seregny 9. Civic Education in a Changing Russia Janet G. Vaillant 10. History Teaching in Post-Soviet Russia: Coping with Antithetical Traditions Vera Kaplan 11. Re-writing the National Past: New Image of Russia in History Textbooks of the 1990s Alexander Shevyrev 12. New Trends in Historical Scholarship and the Teaching of History in Russia's School Igor' Ionov 13. Teaching Literature in the New Russian School Nadya Peterson 14. The Conduct of Lessons in the Russian School: Is Real Change on the Way? James Muckle Notes on Contributors Glossary Appendices Index
Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography
The article explores the impact of the revolutionary events of 1917 on the personal life and prof... more The article explores the impact of the revolutionary events of 1917 on the personal life and professional work of Georgii (George) Vernadskii, who later became a professor at Yale University and one of the founders of Russian Studies in the USA. The trajectories of Vernadskii’s professional and political activity in 1917–1921 seemed to be on a collision course. Revolutionary events caught him at the beginning of a successful academic career, which was jeopardized by his involvement in politics, an involvement that continued to plague him despite his eventual attempts to “quit politics.” Yet, an analysis of his writings in these years and his later notes about that period indicate that, in Vernadskii’s case, history and politics were deeply interwoven.
The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly ... more The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly on studies that appeared in Hebrew, but also considering some works by Israeli historians that were published in Russian and English. The article examines the research problems addressed by Israeli historians, including such questions as the inevitability vs. unpredictability of the February and October revolutions; the conflicting character of the Russian revolutionary cultures; elements of modern utopianism in the revolutionary ideology; and individual and communal survival during the revolutionary era. Special attention is paid to the representation of the 1917 revolutions in Jewish history, including biographies of historical figures who were active in both the Russian revolutionary and the Jewish national movement in Palestine. The article claims that the studies of Israeli historians are characterized by a rich documentary basis and approach the 1917 revolution as a profound cultur...
The article examines the role of historical archives in the commemoration of the Russian revoluti... more The article examines the role of historical archives in the commemoration of the Russian revolution of 1917. In particular, it focuses on two specific case studies: the attempts to create the Archive of the Revolution in Petrograd in spring–summer 1917 and the competing archival project, which evolved in “Russia Abroad,” among the Russian emigrants in Prague, in 1923. The declared aim of both projects was to collect documents for future historians, but they were far from being politically neutral. All the participants in these archival projects had their own vision of the revolution; as a result, the very act of collecting documents actually instigated the formation of various, and sometimes contradictory, narratives of the revolutionary events.
This paper deals with the role of patronage networks, which served as safety nets in the period o... more This paper deals with the role of patronage networks, which served as safety nets in the period of revolution. These informal hierarchical associations were eventually incorporated into the new networks that appeared in the process of the establishment of post-revolutionary institutions, and became integrated into the new Soviet hierarchies, thus mitigating the social rupture caused by the upheaval of 1917. Documentary sources reveal that personal relations of various kinds extended across 1917, providing relief and support in the course of the revolutionary turmoil and playing an extremely important role for those who identified themselves with the old regime. As a result of the revolution they became byvshie; for them to live through the revolution meant to survive, physically and mentally, while trying to sustain an old identity and to develop – or accept – new ones. A recent sociological study has determined a number of patterns of response to the revolution among the old elite: protest and emigration; migration inside the country; allegiance to the new authorities in the hope of an improvement in the situation; and, finally, apathy. The article argues that personal networks, including patronage connections that stemmed from professional and occupational ties, played a significant role in choosing a particular path of behaviour. The article focuses on one distinctive case-study, namely the relationships among three historians: Sergei Fedorovich Platonov, Nikolai Dmitrievich Chechulin and Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev. The relations among them are examined here as an example of the flexible patronage relationships that functioned successfully in the estate-based, but intensively modernising social order of Imperial Russia, became vital during the revolutionary period and were effectively incorporated into early Soviet Russia's social fabric.
The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly ... more The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly on studies that appeared in Hebrew, but also considering some works by Israeli historians that were published in Russian and English. The article examines the research problems addressed by Israeli historians, including such questions as the inevitability vs. unpredictability of the February and October revolutions; the conflicting character of the Russian revolutionary cultures; elements of modern utopianism in the revolutionary ideology; and individual and communal survival during the revolutionary era. Special attention is paid to the representation of the 1917 revolutions in Jewish history, including biographies of historical figures who were active in both the Russian revolutionary and the Jewish national movement in Palestine. The article claims that the studies of Israeli historians are characterized by a rich documentary basis and approach the 1917 revolution as a profound cultural, and not only political and social, event. Keywords Russian Revolution – revolutionary cultures – utopianism – Jewish life – biographies – personal networks – survival In order to survey Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions it is important to define first what we are talking about when we talk about Israeli historiog-raphy. The Israeli academic world is closely connected to the English-speaking
Preface 1.Introduction Ben Eklof Part 1. Educational Policy: Past and Present 2. Educational Chan... more Preface 1.Introduction Ben Eklof Part 1. Educational Policy: Past and Present 2. Educational Change in Time of Social Revolution: The Case of Post-Communist Russia in Comparative Perspective Viacheslav Karpov and Elena Lisovskaya 3. School and Schooling under Stalin, 1931-1953 Larry E. Holmes 4. The Experimental Tradition in Russian Education Stephen T. Kerr 5. Democratic Educational Reform in Russia: Achievements and Setbacks Isak D. Froumin 6. Demographic Change and the Fate of Russia's School's: The Impact of Population Shifts on Educational Practice and Policy Stephen T. Kerr 7. The Education of Russian-Speakers in Estonia Kara D. Brown Part 2. The Teacher, the Textbook and Educational Practice 8. Teachers in Post-Soviet Russia: The Past in the Present Ben Eklof and Scott Seregny 9. Civic Education in a Changing Russia Janet G. Vaillant 10. History Teaching in Post-Soviet Russia: Coping with Antithetical Traditions Vera Kaplan 11. Re-writing the National Past: New Image of Russia in History Textbooks of the 1990s Alexander Shevyrev 12. New Trends in Historical Scholarship and the Teaching of History in Russia's School Igor' Ionov 13. Teaching Literature in the New Russian School Nadya Peterson 14. The Conduct of Lessons in the Russian School: Is Real Change on the Way? James Muckle Notes on Contributors Glossary Appendices Index
Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography
The article explores the impact of the revolutionary events of 1917 on the personal life and prof... more The article explores the impact of the revolutionary events of 1917 on the personal life and professional work of Georgii (George) Vernadskii, who later became a professor at Yale University and one of the founders of Russian Studies in the USA. The trajectories of Vernadskii’s professional and political activity in 1917–1921 seemed to be on a collision course. Revolutionary events caught him at the beginning of a successful academic career, which was jeopardized by his involvement in politics, an involvement that continued to plague him despite his eventual attempts to “quit politics.” Yet, an analysis of his writings in these years and his later notes about that period indicate that, in Vernadskii’s case, history and politics were deeply interwoven.
The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly ... more The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly on studies that appeared in Hebrew, but also considering some works by Israeli historians that were published in Russian and English. The article examines the research problems addressed by Israeli historians, including such questions as the inevitability vs. unpredictability of the February and October revolutions; the conflicting character of the Russian revolutionary cultures; elements of modern utopianism in the revolutionary ideology; and individual and communal survival during the revolutionary era. Special attention is paid to the representation of the 1917 revolutions in Jewish history, including biographies of historical figures who were active in both the Russian revolutionary and the Jewish national movement in Palestine. The article claims that the studies of Israeli historians are characterized by a rich documentary basis and approach the 1917 revolution as a profound cultur...
The article examines the role of historical archives in the commemoration of the Russian revoluti... more The article examines the role of historical archives in the commemoration of the Russian revolution of 1917. In particular, it focuses on two specific case studies: the attempts to create the Archive of the Revolution in Petrograd in spring–summer 1917 and the competing archival project, which evolved in “Russia Abroad,” among the Russian emigrants in Prague, in 1923. The declared aim of both projects was to collect documents for future historians, but they were far from being politically neutral. All the participants in these archival projects had their own vision of the revolution; as a result, the very act of collecting documents actually instigated the formation of various, and sometimes contradictory, narratives of the revolutionary events.
This paper deals with the role of patronage networks, which served as safety nets in the period o... more This paper deals with the role of patronage networks, which served as safety nets in the period of revolution. These informal hierarchical associations were eventually incorporated into the new networks that appeared in the process of the establishment of post-revolutionary institutions, and became integrated into the new Soviet hierarchies, thus mitigating the social rupture caused by the upheaval of 1917. Documentary sources reveal that personal relations of various kinds extended across 1917, providing relief and support in the course of the revolutionary turmoil and playing an extremely important role for those who identified themselves with the old regime. As a result of the revolution they became byvshie; for them to live through the revolution meant to survive, physically and mentally, while trying to sustain an old identity and to develop – or accept – new ones. A recent sociological study has determined a number of patterns of response to the revolution among the old elite: protest and emigration; migration inside the country; allegiance to the new authorities in the hope of an improvement in the situation; and, finally, apathy. The article argues that personal networks, including patronage connections that stemmed from professional and occupational ties, played a significant role in choosing a particular path of behaviour. The article focuses on one distinctive case-study, namely the relationships among three historians: Sergei Fedorovich Platonov, Nikolai Dmitrievich Chechulin and Sergei Dmitrievich Sheremetev. The relations among them are examined here as an example of the flexible patronage relationships that functioned successfully in the estate-based, but intensively modernising social order of Imperial Russia, became vital during the revolutionary period and were effectively incorporated into early Soviet Russia's social fabric.
The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly ... more The article surveys contemporary Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions, focusing mainly on studies that appeared in Hebrew, but also considering some works by Israeli historians that were published in Russian and English. The article examines the research problems addressed by Israeli historians, including such questions as the inevitability vs. unpredictability of the February and October revolutions; the conflicting character of the Russian revolutionary cultures; elements of modern utopianism in the revolutionary ideology; and individual and communal survival during the revolutionary era. Special attention is paid to the representation of the 1917 revolutions in Jewish history, including biographies of historical figures who were active in both the Russian revolutionary and the Jewish national movement in Palestine. The article claims that the studies of Israeli historians are characterized by a rich documentary basis and approach the 1917 revolution as a profound cultural, and not only political and social, event. Keywords Russian Revolution – revolutionary cultures – utopianism – Jewish life – biographies – personal networks – survival In order to survey Israeli historiography of the 1917 revolutions it is important to define first what we are talking about when we talk about Israeli historiog-raphy. The Israeli academic world is closely connected to the English-speaking
This joint one day workshop will address the tensions and complementarities between the transnati... more This joint one day workshop will address the tensions and complementarities between the transnational movement of intellectuals and the dynamics of nationalism, comparing Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As Joep Leersen has argued for nineteenth century Europe, “Cultural nationalism involved an intense cross-border traffic of ideas and intellectual initiatives, and its participating actors often operated extraterritorially and in multi-national intellectual networks. This means that cultural nationalism needs to be studied on a supranational comparative basis rather than country-by-country, concentrating on the exchange and transfer of ideas and activities.” Benedict Anderson, on his part, highlighted the role of “bureaucratic pilgrimages” in the fashioning of Latin American national identities, and stressed their “well-known doubleness […] alternating grand stretch and particularistic localism.”
Our goal is to discuss the historiographical, methodological, and theoretical ramifications of these assertions in comparative regional perspective, without prioritizing the European case. We are especially interested in the lived experiences and cultural activities of intellectuals outside their homelands, and how they fed into processes of collective identification, both at the national and transnational scales (e.g. Latin-Americanism, Arabism, Slavism, Asianism). By comparing these dynamics in areas characterized by distinct levels of ethnic, and particularly linguistic, homogeneity, we hope to enrich our understanding of historical differences and commonalities on a world level.
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Papers by Vera Kaplan
Our goal is to discuss the historiographical, methodological, and theoretical ramifications of these assertions in comparative regional perspective, without prioritizing the European case. We are especially interested in the lived experiences and cultural activities of intellectuals outside their homelands, and how they fed into processes of collective identification, both at the national and transnational scales (e.g. Latin-Americanism, Arabism, Slavism, Asianism). By comparing these dynamics in areas characterized by distinct levels of ethnic, and particularly linguistic, homogeneity, we hope to enrich our understanding of historical differences and commonalities on a world level.