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The Russian émigré Pavel Tchelitchew's Hide-and-Seek (1940–42)—acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1942—has received almost no contemporary consideration despite the interest it garnered in Tchelitchew's lifetime and his prominence within the transatlantic artistic culture of the interwar years. Beloved by the public, the work has been neglected in histories of modernism. Analysis of the artist's rich philosophical world, informed by premodern cosmologies and by histories of exile and global war, secures Tchelitchew's place in the project of modernist reenchantment, at a time of ever more bureaucratized forms of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience as a Russian immigrant in the U.S. in the 1990s which include learning to speak English language, searching for job and communicating with her friends in Mississippi.

This paper examines the history of the early Russian-American settlement of Zapadni (XPI-007) on St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs. An analysis of faunal remains recovered from the site during archaeological work done in association with The St. Paul History and Archaeology Project, led by Douglas Veltre and Allen McCartney in 2000 and 2001, supplements oral and written historical records. These well-preserved archaeofauna provide insight into the ethnic identity of the Unanga... laborers who harvested northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) near the site between AD 1787 and the early 1800s and a glimpse at the beginning of the creolization that affected both Unanga... and Russian individuals. Although a small number of domesticated specimens were identified, the Zapadni faunal assemblage demonstrates the maintenance of traditional Unanga... foodways during a time of intense colonialism and shows the overwhelming importance of northern fur seal pups as a subsistence resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of water masses and their circulation on the western Chukchi Sea shelf are investigated using shipboard data from the 2009 Russian-American Long Term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA) program. Eleven hydrographic/velocity transects were occupied during September of that year, including a number of sections in the vicinity of Wrangel Island and Herald canyon, an area with historically few measurements. We focus on four water masses: Alaskan coastal water (ACW), summer Bering Sea water (BSW), Siberian coastal water (SCW), and remnant Pacific winter water (RWW). In some respects the spatial distributions of these water masses were similar to the patterns found in the historical World Ocean Database, but there were significant differences. Most notably, the ACW and BSW were transposed in Bering Strait, and the ACW was diverted from its normal coastal pathway northwestward through Herald Canyon. It is argued that this was the result of atmospheric forcing. September 2009 was characterized by an abnormally deep Aleutian Low and the presence of the Siberian High, which is normally absent this time of year. This resulted in strong northerly winds during the month, and mooring data from the RUSALCA program reveal that the ACW and BSW were transposed in Bering Strait for a significant portion of the month. Using an idealized numerical model we show that the Ekman response to the wind can cause such a transposition, and that the consequences of this will persist on the shelf long after the winds subside. This can explain the anomalous presence of ACW in Herald Canyon during the RUSALCA survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expeditions were an integral part of the activity of the Russian Academy of Sciences, promoting its further development and prosperity. Expeditions also helped assemble data for future scientific development. In the first half of the 19th century, the territory of the Russian Empire included some regions of North America (Alaska, North California and the Aleutian Islands). The study of these areas was carried out with the participation of the Russian-American Company. The greatest merit for the scientific study of these regions belongs to a scientist from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ilya G. Voznesensky. In this article, for the first time, attention will be paid to the analysis of organizational and documentary aspects of this expedition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to advance an interactionally sensitive, emic view of intercultural communication by exploring the organization of “intercultural moments” in conversation—moments during which cultural and linguistic differences between people become exposed. Field video recordings of ordinary face-to-face interactions in Russian–American immigrant families are analyzed using the methodology of conversation analysis. The article focuses on sequences in which participants deal with actual or anticipated understanding problems and examines how participants' assumptions about their asymmetric cultural and linguistic expertise are revealed in their actions. Some interactional payoffs in adopting the role of a cultural expert vis-à-vis a novice are described to show how an ostensible non-understanding is both a participants' problem to be solved and a resource for social action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the wake of Gary Shteyngart's novel The Russian Debutante's Handbook (2002), Russian-American immigrant fiction written in English has enjoyed an unprecedented boom in recent years. At the same time, a certain weariness seems to have settled in among some of the providers of these narratives. How can an immigrant author avoid being confined to an ethnic niche? This article explores this question by analyzing the work of two Russian-American authors, Keith Gessen (b. 1975 in Moscow) and Michael Idov (b. 1976 in Riga), who have been bucking the trend by refusing to openly play the 'Russian card,' the 'Jewish card,' or the 'immigrant card' in their fictional work. As I will argue, their debut novels All the Sad Young Literary Men (2008) and Ground Up (2009) were written in dialogue with and at the same time as an implied repudiation of the currently fashionable literature capitalizing on an author's ethnic identity. As 'global Russians' and 'cosmopolitan Americans,' Gessen and Idov tap into a reservoir of Russian intellectuality that differs from the usual focus on Russian-Jewish clichés and the stereotypical narrative of immigrant hardship. In doing so, they may be charting a possible future for Russian-American literature that is moving beyond the ethnic ghetto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the contribution of people from Siberia and the Russian Far East to the colonization of California, and the foundation and development of Fort Ross. It also shows the significance of the Russian Orthodox Church's activity in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author's insights on his membership with the hunter-gatherer group called Ju/'hoansi-!Kung since October 1963. The author says that he grew up to a family of Russian-American Jews and was raised in Toronto, Ontario starting at the age of four. He mentions his first ethnographic fieldwork on the north shore of Lake Superior. He also talks on the centrality of sharing in Ju life, their 1968 book "Man the Hunter," and his career in medical anthropology.

Russian and foreign medical personnel were important to the colonization of Russian America, including much of Alaska before 1867. Materials collected from a variety of sources including archival ones allow study of the dynamics of this specific social group and its contribution to life in the Russian colonies. Because of the efforts of these medics, the health of many thousands of Russians and Natives was improved and many lives were saved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value of qualitative research is contingent upon clear and open communication between researcher and informants. During a comparative study of Russian Orthodox believers in New Jersey and St. Petersburg, ethnic Russians and ethnic Americans responded very differently to the research apparatus themselves. While Americans accepted participant observation, for Russians the history of Soviet surveillance has resulted in expectations that 'competent' social research consists of surveys, and that such surveys are invasive. Meanwhile, American-style unstructured interviews, designed to let an informant lead, resembles behavior Russians associate with spies. Informants in post-industrial societies have expectations about how social research should be conducted, and these cultural differences must be incorporated in research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper explores the salience and impact of ethnic and national identities for immigrants that are negotiating more than two cultures. Specifically, we were interested in the ways in which Jewish immigrant adolescents from the former Soviet Union integrate their Russian, Jewish, and American identities, and to what extent identification with these three cultures predicts adaptation to varied life domains. In order to examine whether being Jewish has an impact on salience and predictive value of Russian and American identities, a sample of Jewish adolescents (n = 100) was compared with a sample of non-Jewish (n = 113) adolescent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The study suggests that Jewish and non-Jewish adolescent immigrants differ in levels of Russian and American identity. Further, using structural equation modeling a bicultural model for Jewish and non-Jewish adolescents was tested. The results suggest that these two groups do not differ with respect to how Russian and American identities impact on adjustment. However, adding Jewish identity to the model for the Jewish sample significantly improved model fit, and rendered some of the impact of Russian identity non-significant. Thus a multicultural model that included all three identities had better explanatory power for this sample than a bicultural one. Implications for the study of ethnic identity of immigrants, particularly those whose lives involve multiple cultural affiliations, are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:Ionizing radiation is the strongest risk factor known for the development of thyroid neoplasia. While previous studies have demonstrated a high prevalence of ret/papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) activation in cohorts of patients developing thyroid nodules after childhood exposure to ionizing radiation, no study has directly compared ret/PTC activation with individual estimates of radiation dose to the thyroid. This study combines individual thyroid dosimetry data with molecular analysis of surgically removed thyroid nodules in order to determine if ret/PTC activation in thyroid nodules is associated with increasing estimated radiation dose from Chernobyl.Methods:This pilot study included adults and children diagnosed with PTC (n 76) and children diagnosed with follicular adenomas (n 24) during May 1986 through December 1999, who were living in the Bryansk Oblast of the Russian Federation at the time of the Chernobyl accident, who had paraffin-embedded thyroid surgical samples available and for whom an individual dose to the thyroid could be estimated. The frequency of ret/PTC activation was determined using RT-PCR analysis. Individual radiation doses to the thyroid were estimated using a semiempirical model, and data were collected by detailed interview, primarily of the participant''s mother.Results:ret/PTC oncogene activation was detected in 23.8 (5/21) and 14.5 (8/55) of the childhood and adult PTC cases, respectively, and 8.3 (2/24) of the follicular adenoma cases. No statistically significant differences were noted in age at the time of exposure or diagnosis, gender, latency period, or estimated radiation dose between PTC patients with or without ret/PTC activation. Further, no significant dose–response relationship was detected among PTC patients with ret/PTC activation.Conclusions:Factors other than individual thyroid radiation doses may influence the development and subsequent detection of ret/PTC oncogene activation in radiation related PTC arising in the Bryansk Oblast of the Russian Federation in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overview of major institutions housing Russian émigré collections, primarily in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the historical significance of the personal archive of materials donated to the U.S. Library of Congress by Boris Leo Brasol, leader of the Pushkin Society in America. The information presented by the archive about the evolution of the Russian community in the U.S. before World War II is described, noting that Brasol's materials allow researchers to more fully construct an understanding of the Russian Diaspora in America. A history of the Pushkin Society in America is also provided.

Analyzes the rhetorical content on Russian American immigrant Web sites. Implications for the creation of transnational culture in cyberspace; Demographics of site contributors; List of technical resources for immigrants; Benefits of open source technologies.