My work in the newspaper archive is going pretty well. The lady there has delivered on the promised photographs of her grand-niece-- an 18-year-old New Yorker who has probably never heard of her great-aunt except as one of the relatives in the old country. On the plus side, the girl is quite a looker and, the woman whispered conspiratorily to me, "She has Jewish blood." I think it may work out.
The research I'm doing is on the meaning of political rehabilitations in post-Soviet Russia. In short, people who felt they or their relatives were repressed under the Soviet Union can petition to receive compensation in both moral and financial forms. The former comes in the form of the removal of the title "Enemy of the People" and the latter comes in the form of a paltry sum of money or free bus passes.
In recent years, the rehabilitation process and its publicity, in Rostov at least, has been led by the military. Thus, most of my reading has been in Военный Вестник Юга Руси (The Military Herald of Southern Russia). My main goal was to try to find how long the military has been in control of this function (not long, it seems), so I have been combing through each week's newpaper since 1991.
Now, I found very little on subject until 2003, but the newspaper itself is highly entertaining. Besides pulp novels and the latest in drinking technology, it publishes lewd cartoons. And what I noticed was that on March 8th--International Women's Day--they publish a very nice cover story thanking the ladies in uniform but on the back page they have the dirtiest cartoons of all. Enjoy!
"Happy Holiday, Kind Women!"
And a happy holiday to you, too, Brave Men! (Same issue)
No comments:
Post a Comment