Gulag

[Andrey Shcherbenok]

I would like to observe that preferring this or that history textbook or
being on the left or on the right (the word GULAG, by the way, is not a
neutral word to describe Soviet penitentiary system, it predicates a
particular radical interpretation of Soviet history, namely, that of
Solzhenitsyn) is very different from knowing where Atlantic ocean is located
or who was fighting whom in the World War II. I think it is very important,
when making a claim for enlightenment, to keep politics away. Otherwise you
become vulnerable to the accusation that you want is to use educational
system to proselytize your own political agenda. Instead, I hope it is still
possible to argue that our task is to teach students critical thinking and
introduce them into the world of knowledge so that they could use their
intellect to find their way in it. Of course, we may hope that a critically
thinking and informed individual is not going to admire the neo-Nazis or
believe that the world began with the Garden of Eden, but our claim for
enlightenment should not be political from the start. 



-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 10:41 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Gulag

This person must have had a Program and courses in it, and also a  
Master's exam. So the question is mostly about the program, not that  
individual. It could simply be a reflection of the politics of those  
professors. I myself taught in 1984-1985 in a small college in Iowa  
where the instructors insisted on teaching the Soviet history by  
Soviet textbooks and Russian contemporary literature using the books  
translated and published by Progress publishing House. 1984, pre- 
Gorbachev, remember? When I uttered the word "truth" I heard a long  
philosophical explanation as to what is truth. Calvinism was also  
featured there.

They were quite a bit to the left of Gorbachev, and what he was  
saying a year or two later must have upset their cart; he was more  
anti-Soviet than they ever have been.

No, the word Gulag would not be uttered there either.

On Feb 3, 2008, at 9:41 AM, Deborah Hoffman wrote:

> That even tops the (Master's degreed) person I met who had never  
> heard the word Gulag because she "wasn't even born yet." Has there  
> been some serious shift in educational policy since I left my B.A.  
> behind 15 years ago? (Presumably web designer staff for a large  
> concern such as Woolworth's also have the equivalent of an  
> undergraduate degree). I distinctly remember learning about many  
> things that happened before I was born, even (especially?) in the  
> required classes that were not my major field of study. I was never  
> a fan of E.D. Hirsch, but I am really starting to wonder.
>>


Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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