Every year about 65 of the 800 seniors at Bucknell apply for honors. A few are rejected and a few more fail to complete their projects for various reasons. This means that fewer than 60 members of the class graduate with honors. This year, 4 of Bucknell's 10 Russian Studies majors are graduating with honors. It is a remarkable accomplishment of which the Russian faculty is exceptionally proud.

The Russian Studies Program is truly a Russian STUDIES Program, which fosters high quality undergraduate research in all aspects of Russian society and culture. This fact is reflected in the topics of this year's honors theses. Ken Ayers wrote about the history of Russian icons. Rebecca Peters wrote on the current situation of women in Russia, comparing it with their situation in the past. Shawn Streator wrote on the economic motivation of Russian voters at the polls in the December 1995 elections (which he witnessed while there in the fall). Finally, Alex Yastremski did a literary analysis of the works of Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn. Andrea Stevenson Sanjian of the Political Science Department and John Rickard of the English department joined with the faculty of the Russian Studies Program to bring these projects to successful fruition. Nothing demonstrates the interdisciplinary diversity and ecumenical spirit of our program better than the range of this year's honors theses.

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LIVING CANONS: Changes in the Hymnographic Genre of Russian Iconography from the 17th Century to the Present

by

Kenneth Ayers

The word 'icon' comes from the Greek word eikon, meaning 'image'. The fundamental principle of iconography is to represent the teachings of the Church; therefore, the icon has come to be known as the 'book for the illiterate'. However, the icon has deeper theological foundations making it vital to Church life. Icons represent a higher plane of reality, thus requiring them to seem unrealistic. Figures on icons are purposely represented on a flat plane rather than in three dimensions.

This thesis deals exclusively with the hymnographic genre of icons, those based on hymns of the Orthodox Church. Every hymn is centered around the liturgy, the central religious services of the day. These hymns underwent major changes at the time of the Great Schism in 1667. Patriarch Nikon discovered that many translational errors had crept into the holy writ and so ordered much of the Church literature retranslated. This resulted in many changes in the rituals of the Church. This thesis demonstrates that these changes are reflected in the icons based on them. That is, the impact of the Nikonian reforms was not simply on Church documents, but on the art, as well.

A Study of the Struggles of Russian Women since the Revolution of 1917

by

Rebecca R. Peters

This thesis is an analysis of the problems facing Russian women in politics, the economy, and society in a broader sense. It begins with a survey which shows that, historically, the Russian peasant woman feared marriage because it meant becoming a servant in the home of her husband's parents. While this changed with the coming of the socialist revolution, the woman remained essentially the servant of her husband, even if she carried on a full-time job outside the house. While women do now occupy positions that they did not before the revolution, there is a limit on how high they can rise in these professions. For example, while there were many women active in the Communist Party between 1917 and 1987, 3.9% was the highest percentage of the Central Committee they ever achieved and only two ever became ministers.

So, despite the position of femininism in Marxism, and guarantees of equality between the sexes in the Soviet constitution, Soviet ideology actually instilled resistance to feminist attitudes in Russian society. The current situation of Russian women is a result of their situation in the past. For these reasons, feminism is only now beginning to develop in Russia.

The Development of a Post-Soviet Political Consciousness in Russia

by

Robert Shawn Streator

Russian voters, accustomed to one-party rule, are just beginning to develop independent attitudes regarding government policy. This study examines the connection that has developed between recent electoral results observed in the regions of Russia and the economic status of the inhabitants of those regions. The economic environment within which electoral behavior occurs is determined by the average income of the region's inhabitants, their cost of living, and the extent to which they have enjoyed the benefits from the government's reform program. By calculating the degree to which each of these factors correlate with the percentage of the vote received by pro-reform parties in each of the administrative regions of the Russian Federation, it is possible to determine how great a role economic factors paly in shaping voters' attitudes.

Personal income is the most significant factor in explaining why voters vote as they do. In regions where the average wage is high, a greater number of votes are cast for pro-reform parties. Conversely, parties that speak out against reform do best in regions with low average wages. Support for the third grouping of politcal parties, the nationalists, is not connected to economic factors, indicating different influences affecting this electorate. This study also shows that the relationship between wages and voting behavior has strengthened since 1991, when Boris Yeltsin became the first freely elected President of the Russian Federation. This suggests that the country is becoming increaslingly polarized between areas and groups with high wages and those that have not witnessed economic progress from the reforms.

Alex Yastremsky

This thesis explores the various ways in which Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle depict human existence. Although few critics acknowledge the similarities between Dostoevsky and Solshenitsyn, their depictions of Russian and Soviet society is remarkably similar. Tracing their distinctive portrayals of society, the thesis develops a means of organizing the novels' characters into particular groups which lend themselves to a deeper understanding of the minds of the two great writers. These groups of characters are based on four characteristics: the individual's relationship to social laws, his sense of responsibility to others, his ability to suffer, and his readiness to break the law.

Examining these four characteristics, the thesis develops a spectrum in which to organize characters which lends itself to deepening our understanding of these two great writers' minds. Ranging from the social activity of "the citizen" to the introspection of "the human being", this spectrum is a gauge by which the characters' changes and actions can be compared. The citizen is a type of individual who believes that he has the freedom to do anything in the name of justice. He is socially active, ready to alleviate the suffering of others, and is willing to break the law in doing so. Conversely, the human being focusses on his own existence. The human being takes little action, increases his own suffering, and does what is right for himself alone. Between these two polar individual types lies a milieu of characters that reflect the struggles between the two extremes.

Although The First Circle depicts characters of Soviet Russia, their similarity to the individuals in Crime and Punishment suggests that the authors share similar views on the human struggle and the Russian character. Yastremski proposes that these two novels as a comparative source of insight into the Russian mind from two of Russia's greatest writers.

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© 1996 Robert Beard