Nothing was more important to Tolstoy than character development. For him, the purpose of life is to grow morally. The purpose of literature -- as all art -- is to aid that growth. Abstract philosophy and pedantic scholarship are therefore redundant. Indeed, even the psychological novel is a distraction. Moral truths are self-evident. They are…

This article examines how Russian speakers in Ireland delimit and describe (their/the) Russian language in relation to representations of standard Russian. It is based on analysis of discussions conducted between speakers of Russian living in Ireland, facilitated by the Our Languages (2008-2011) research project, investigating multilingualism and…

In 1937, Soviet Koreans from the Far East were forcibly relocated by Stalin to Central Asia. This narrative of expulsion and deportation is used to explain the residence of Koreans in present-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the Kyrgyz Republic. First, this article maps out the historical backdrop that has broadly shaped the Kazakhstani Korean…

Designed in response to students' requests for a capstone where they could form their own individual partnerships in the communities of their choosing, Effective Change Agent offers a structure for community-based learning that allows for high levels of student choice-making and agency. In this article, the authors describe the course; connect it…

The paper illuminates links between state politics and language politics in Lithuania during different historical periods: (a) the thaw period, (b) the stagnation period, (c) the liberalization periods of Soviet socialism, and (d) the two post-Soviet decades characterized by both nationalism and liberalization. Based on analysis of the texts by…

This paper explores the identity and the social/political behaviour of Russians in post-Soviet Central Asia through a comparison with the Baltic countries via a "hot and cold ethnicity" paradigm. Central Asian Russians are more likely, ceteris paribus, to be found at the "cold" end of the spectrum of "ethnic…

The end of the cold war prompted most of the former Soviet republics to face ethnic issues that had remained latent or intangible for decades. Whilst some ethnic groups were actively campaigning for their rights, some others seemed uninterested in being represented politically. The recent theory of hot and cold ethnicity has been conceived to…

Peter I's editorial policy appears as a starting point in the birth of secular Russian textbooks. Since the printing production was then organized on a massive scale as a response to the needs of European-like modernization, it should be safely suggested that nearly "all" books produced during this pioneering period focused teaching…

These days many people are trying to assess what has been done in the past few years. The country is looking into the future and trying to map out the most optimal paths of its development. In this article, the author examines the main paths of development in the field of Russian Education. It is necessary to keep in mind the multi-plane character…

In June and July 2004, the Institute for Comprehensive Social Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Russian Federation office of the F. Ebert Foundation, carried out a repeat survey on the topic of "Citizens of the New Russia: How Do They Feel about Themselves, and What Society Would They Like to Live…

The article, based on a study carried out in 2003, discusses Russia's migrant children's orientations toward acquiring higher education in the Russia Federation. The focus of this study was to determine the educational factors that motivate migrants to relocate to the Russian Federation. Immigrants in Russia make up more than 5 percent of the…

Although Hungary's 1989 political transformation gave new credibility to existing policies, it did not necessarily translate into an understanding of participatory decision making or enthusiasm for school reform. Beyond the rhetoric are two dramatic curricular alterations: removal of the Marxist ideology infusing each discipline and elimination of…

In the press reports bearing upon conditions in Russia since the outbreak or the revolution in March, 1917, little mention has been made of the tremendous changes that have shaken the entire educational system in that country. One needs only read "Vyestnik Vremennavo Pravitelstva" ("Messenger of the Provisional Government"),…