Article on Russia in The New Yorker

Wed Jan 31 21:56:24 UTC 2007

It was nice to read this exchange of comments on the list -- I was beginning
to suspect that anti-Russian propaganda has had overwhelming effect on
everyone's minds (indeed, Steven Cohen is the ONLY author I know whose
analysis of Russia in the media is more or less balanced). Fortunately, the
propaganda has not yet worked among the members of this list. Still, I
increasingly discover that I can talk about Russia normally with either
people who are in the field or travel there regularly or with those who are
quite ignorant about it. Those readers of NY Times etc. who are in between
are already difficult to talk to. 

One thing which astonishes me is how oftentimes a person who would not
believe a word the mainstream media reports about Iraq, nevertheless
believes everything the very same media says about Russia. When the text is
anti-Russian, critical attitude to it tends to switch off. This makes me
think that Russia is somehow special, it occupies a very unfavorable
position in Western political unconscious -- it is for some reason very easy
for the West to project its own nightmarish Orwellian phantasms on it. Maybe
because it is different from the West but not different enough? Or because
its difference accentuates things about the West that people prefer to
disavow? I really have no explanation. China, for example, now competes with
the US for international influence much more aggressively than Russia, so
there is every political reason to launch an anti-Chinese campaign in the
US, and yet there is none. Just yesterday I saw a long program about China
on TV, very positive in tone, with Mao Zedong portrayed very favorably as
genuine leader of the oppressed masses, and a contemporary ceremony of
joining the Young Pioneers shown with a great deal of respect to the
Communist Party -- can you imagine anything like that on American TV in
respect to Stalin or Soviet Communists and Young Pioneers? I cannot. So,
there is something about Russia, apart from its political system or its
resistance to the US global dominance, that makes it a country Americans
(and Europeans, by the way) like to hate. 

But, on the other hand, that has long been the case. Certainly, people in
the Soviet Union would not have recognized themselves in the US's image of
the "Empire of Evil" any more than they do today in the US image of Russia
as a miserable country in the grips of the bloody Putin's regime whom,
however, this primitive freedom-hating nation of slaves totally deserves.
This is, apparently, the norm -- but, I believe, we should do our best so
that at least the academy stays abnormal.

Andrey Shcherbenok
Columbia University

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Renee Stillings
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:44 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Article on Russia in The New Yorker

I noted the word "Kremlin" on the latest New Yorker cover at the local
store's checkout register the other day, read the headline more closely and
didn't even bother to pick it up. It is extremely frustrating to see what
journalists are producing these days about Russia. Not being a specialist on
other parts of the world, I can't judge as to whether they are equally as
erroneous, superfluous, etc. in reporting on those areas. Most of what I see
written about Russia, especially in mainstream media, is such gibberish that
I fear at some point the fact that mainstream American might actually
believe this stuff could come back to bite us ... . Steven Cohen made some
very good points about such reporting in a recent interview with Washington
Post.

What exactly are they teaching journalists these days - both in school and
on the job? Seems to be very little when it comes to research and analysis. 

Might be an interesting joint course offering between Russian Studies and
journalism/communications departments to do something like "Reporting on
Russia." For non-Russian majors it gives a good sense of how to approach
reporting on any complex country/situation. For the students of Russian,
they can apply their studies by actually doing research that uses the
language. It would include an overview of the media structure in Russia as
by nature the course would tie in very well with other related courses on
politics, economics, etc. Journalism is a very viable career path for
Russian Studies grads and as such, a course like that would enhance any
resume. Seems to me it would be a fun and very lively discussion course as
well.

Have any SEELANGers offered a similar course?

Renee

>>Why is that every time I read a New Yorker article on Russia (I recall a
similar one in the spring of 2005), I end up feeling like a spokesperson
for Russia? (I in fact lean somewhere closer to the Russophobe pole than
the Russophile.) 

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