Bøger af Pavel Vasilyev

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History of Europe - Modern Times, Absolutism, Industrialization, grade: A, University CEU San Pablo Madrid, language: English, abstract: While we are generally eager to recognize the importance of medicine and medical discourse in the contemporary world, it is not always easy to connect the history of medicine with the study of anti-Semitism. Indeed, this topic has received relatively little attention from scholars. However, I will argue that a closer look at the anti-Semitic elements of medical discourse is an important and promising enterprise. If we examine the most notorious manifestation of modern anti-Semitism, the Shoah, we can easily see that it was at least partially prepared and justified by the authority of medical science. In contemporary post-modern world, academics and laymen alike often question the objectivity of science and its ability to coherently explain the world, but for the late 19th and early 20th century Europeans Science was perhaps the highest authority and the main reference point. Accordingly, when the genocide of the Jews was justified scientifically, it became much more difficult to resist it. The focus of this paper is on the same region where the Nazi genocide was planned and carried out (Central Europe) and on the German-language medical discourse (German being arguably the most important language for European scientific discourse for a long period). However, I will concentrate on the period that preceded the Nazi rule (late 19th and early 20th centuries) ¿ and for some reasons. As scholars struggle to comprehend the horrific design of the Holocaust, they come to the understanding that it is impossible to explain the Nazi genocide without looking at the rise and developments of modern anti-Semitism in Wilhelmine Germany (even though it is absolutely necessary to differentiate between the two). This approach was implemented by Shulamit Volkov in her attempt to distinguish ¿the written matter¿ and ¿the spoken word¿ as well as by some medical history scholars dealing with continuity/discontinuity debate.Accordingly, in this paper I will look at fin-de-siècle German-language medical discourse to locate and analyze anti-Semitic sentiments and critique of Jewish health that were often inherent in it. In particular, I am interested why (and how) various alleged pathologies of Jewish health were associated with modernity and capitalist economy. Additionally, I want to trace the influence that fin-de-siècle medical anti-Semitism had in the later period.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History of Europe - Ages of World Wars, grade: A-, University CEU San Pablo Madrid, language: English, abstract: In the last two decades, there seems to be a consensus between Russian physicians, sociologists, and the general public, that drug addiction should be considered a serious and threatening social problem. The authorities, however, are unable to stop the increasing numbers of drug users. Meanwhile, as Ia. I. Gilinskii put it, social deviations are ¿the mirror of social realities¿, and the power structure should not avoid looking in it. Drug addiction became a major social problem, for which no one-sided solution is acceptable. The attempts to approach the topic from the narrow viewpoint of some sociological or medical theory usually fail ¿ as do the methods of plain administrative repression. The terms narkotik, narkoman, narkomaniia, narkotizm are applied in a somewhat simplified manner (as an unambiguous social evil), and it further complicates the understanding of an already difficult phenomenon. There is also a clear lack of attention towards social, psychological, economic and other incentives for an individual to take drugs.Therefore, the need for a more synthetic and complex approach is obvious, and in search for it we should also look at the developments in the past and the history of drug addiction in Russia.The focus of this paper is on the early Soviet period of Russian history (ca. 1917-1929) and on the medical texts of that period. My aim will be to look at early Soviet medical texts related to recreational drugs to show how physicians described the causes of drug addiction ¿ and thus contributed to the construction of the social problem. The causes of the problem are especially important and relevant for the medical discourse, as the etiology of disease often gives physicians the clue to the solutions and treatment. Accordingly, the origins of drug addiction as described in early Soviet medical texts greatly influenced the understanding of drug addicts and practical narcotic policy among the medical community ¿ and also beyond (as physicians tried to achieve symbolic domination). In particular, I want to consider three large groups of potential causes that were detected by early Soviet physicians: socio-political (such as war or revolution), economical (like capitalism or foreign trade), and other (it includes various causes on the macro- and micro-scale alike that range from regime of prohibition to sexual frustration to the use of drugs za kompaniiu).

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History of Europe - Newer History, European Unification, grade: A-, University CEU San Pablo Madrid, language: English, abstract: At first glance, the historical Jews do not seem to have been a group that was determining the architectural, visual and spatial outlook of cities ¿ in Europe or overseas alike. In fact, as Rudolf Klein put it, ¿the Jews were seldom in a position ¿ save in ancient and modern Israel ¿ to impose architecture on others¿; partially because they ¿moved so many times in history that they lacked the preconditions for a continuous architectural evolution¿. Moreover, architecture has always been considered a Jewish 'specialty' much less then, say, literature, medicine or business. However, I will show that a closer look at the connections between the Jews and the urban space is an important and promising enterprise that tells us a lot about the Jews, the city ¿ and also about Gentiles.The focus of this paper is on the fin-de-siècle period (late 19th ¿ early 20th centuries) and on the two capital cities of Vienna and St. Petersburg ¿ and for some reasons. Both cities were capitals of the empires (Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire, respectively), that were powerful enough to be a major military and financial competitors, but still technologically and economically backward. The transition to modernity in both capitals was late and problematic, and the Jewish communities have faced a long and persistent anti-Semitism. In both contexts, however, the Jews were especially successful and over-represented in the most modern professions ¿ and also more visible in the rapidly changing modern urban space. Thus, this paper also compliments to the perspective that analyzes ¿Jewish space¿ in fin-de-siècle capitals ¿ and brings a comparative element into the picture.Accordingly, in this paper I will look at the Jewish experiences in turn-of-the-century Vienna and St. Petersburg to compare the visions, images and representations of the ¿Jewish space¿ in the two imperial capitals that were struggling through modernity. I am particularly interested in residential, occupational and religious aspects of the ¿Jewish space¿ as these were the factors that determined the everyday life cycle of particular Jews. Additionally, I want to trace the potential influence that the Jewish patterns of space organization may have exercised upon Gentile ones around turn of the century.

Essay from the year 2010 in the subject History of Germany - 1848, Empire, Imperialism, grade: B+, University CEU San Pablo Madrid, language: English, abstract: One of the primary values of the contemporary world is education. The scholars and laymen alike have noticed the ever-increasing role that information and knowledge play in our lives. Nearly all young people in the developed countries get their college degrees, and in many metropolitan areas in Europe and North America the graduate (Master's) degree is gradually becoming a compulsory requirement as well. Education is also intrinsically linked with mobility and transnationalism, since contemporary technology and transportation allows those craving for knowledge to move around the world in their quest ¿ thus transforming both the students' identities and the host communities.However, it was just not always like that. The developments that are described above present a rather recent trend. In this paper I would like to focus on the experiences of Russian Jewish students at the universities of late Imperial Germany ¿ and for some reasons. In European context, the Jews have received a specific dual status as both well-educated ¿people of the Book¿ and discriminated pariahs, excluded from universities and academia more generally. Russian Jews struggled with additional complications, since they were both the members of the transnational religious community with rich history and tradition and the subjects of the multi-national empire which wanted to look as an enlightened and modern European state, but still remained arguably the most backward and autocratic country on the continent. The chronological boundaries (late 19th ¿ early 20th centuries) are determined by the fact that in this period more and more Russian Jews, whose educational opportunities were seriously hindered at home, explored the possibility of studying in Germany. In my opinion, the look at the ideas, personalities and presentations that resulted from the interactions between Russian Jewish students from the Pale of Settlement and the ivory tower world of German universities can tell us much about new identities that were emerging around fin-de-siècle.Accordingly, in this paper I plan to examine and analyze the background of Russian Jewish students and their years at the universities of late Imperial Germany in order to show how their previous identity was at the same time shaken and strengthened ¿ and then transformed into a new one based on their transnational experiences.

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject History of Europe - Ages of World Wars, grade: A, University CEU San Pablo Madrid, language: English, abstract: Drug addiction is universally recognized as a crucial problem of the contemporary world, and there is a heated debate about it everywhere ¿ Eastern Europe being no exclusion. The problem, however, is often presented largely simplified and there is a tendency to perceive recreational drugs as an unequivocal social evil and overestimate the role of the state in managing the problem. For some obvious reasons, Soviet historiography largely ignored the history of drug addiction in twentieth-century Russia, but it is striking that even today there is a clear lack of attention towards historical roots of the problem in this region and various cultural forms of drug use. This condition will appear even more surprising if we consider that interdisciplinary research on the history of drug addiction will allow the exploration of the intersection of medical theory, practical policy, social context, and cultural values.In my paper I focus specifically on the early Soviet period of Russian history which witnessed the emergence of drug addiction as a social problem (ca. 1917 - 1929). I analyze early Soviet medical texts related to recreational drugs in order to show how physicians argued for the elimination of drug addiction. First, it is necessary to understand why Soviet physicians decided that it is important and indispensable to fight drug addiction. I also look on specific measures (professional medical and non-medical alike) that the doctors proposed to solve the social problem of drug addiction.