Other Animals: Beyond the Human in Russian Culture and History (Russian and East European Studies)

The lives of animals in Russia are intrinsically linked to cultural, political and psychological transformations of the imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras. __Other Animals__ examines the interaction of animals and humans in Russian literature, art, and life from the eighteenth century until the present. The chapters explore the unique nature of the Russian experience in a range of human-animal relationships through tales of cruelty, interspecies communion and compassion, and efforts to either overcome or establish the human-animal divide. Four themes run through the volume: the prevalence of animals in utopian visions; the ways in which Russians have incorporated and sometimes challenged Western sensibilities and practices, such as the humane treatment of animals and the inclusion of animals in urban domestic life; the quest to identify and at times exploit the physiological basis of human and animal behavior and the ideological implications of these practices; and the breakdown of traditional human-animal hierarchies and categories during times of revolutionary upheaval, social transformation, or disintegration. From failed Soviet attempts to transplant the seminomadic Sami and their reindeer herds onto collective farms, to performance artist Oleg Kulik's scandalous portrayal of Pavlov's dogs as a parody of the Soviet “new man,” to novelist Tatyana Tolstaya's post-cataclysmic future world of hybrid animal species and their disaffection from the past, __Other Animals__ presents a completely new perspective on Russian and Soviet history. It also offers a fascinating look into the Russian psyche as seen through human interactions with animals. "The lives of animals in Russia are intrinsically linked to cultural, political and psychological transformations of the Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet eras. Other Animals examines the interaction of animals and humans in Russian literature, art, and life from the eighteenth century until the present. The chapters probe a range of human-animal relationships through tales of cruelty, interspecies communion and compassion, and efforts to either overcome or establish the human-animal divide. These essays also explore the unique nature of the Russian experience in this regard. Four themes run through the volume: the prevalence of animals in utopian visions; the ways in which Russians have both incorporated and sometimes challenged Western sensibilities and practices, such as the humane treatment of animals and the inclusion of animals in urban domestic life; the quest to identify and at times exploit the physiological basis of human and animal behavior and the ideological implications of these practices; and the breakdown of traditional human-animal hierarchies and categories during times of revolutionary upheaval, social transformation, or disintegration. From failed Soviet attempts to transplant the semi-nomadic Sami and their reindeer herds onto collective farms, to performance artist Oleg Kulik's scandalous portrayal of Pavlov's dogs as a parody of the Soviet "new man," to novelist Tatyana Tolstaya's post-cataclysmic future world of hybrid animal species and their disaffection from the past, Other Animals presents a completely new perspective on Russian and Soviet history. It also offers a fascinating look into the Russian psyche as seen through human interactions with animals." - Založnikova predstavitev Dedication Contents Foreword ixNigel Rothfels Acknowledgments 1. Introduction: Integrating the Animal • Jane Costlow and Amy Nelson Part I. Traditional Worlds and Everyday Life 2. Woman’s Honor, or the Story with a Pig: The Animal in Everyday Life in the Eighteenth-century Russian Provinces • Olga E. Glagoleva 3. Treating the “Other Animals”: Russian Ethnoveterinary Practices in the Context of Folk Medicine • Mikhail Alekseevsky Part II. Contradictions of Imperial Russia 4. That Savage Gaze: The Contested Portrayal of Wolves in Nineteenth-century Russia • Ian m. Helfant 5. “For the bear to come to your threshold”: Human-Bear Encounters in Late Imperial Russian Writing • Jane Costlow 6. The Body of the Beast: Animal Protection and Anticruelty Legislation in Imperial Russia • Amy Nelson Part III. Real and Symbolic Animals in the Soviet Project 7. Making Reindeer Soviet: The Appropriation of an Animal on the Kola Peninsula • Andy Bruno 8. The Animal Mayakovsky • Katherine Lahti 9. A Legacy of Kindness: V. L. Durov’s Revolutionary Approach to Animal Training • Ann Kleimola 10. Of Men and Horses: Animal Imagery and the Construction of Russian Masculinities • Arja Rosenholm Part IV. Boundary Work: Late-Soviet and Post-Soviet “Humanimals” 11. Life of Ferret and the “Manimal” in Post-Soviet Literature • José Alaniz 12. The Animal Watches You: Identity “After” History in Tatyana Tolstaya’s The Slynx • Daria Kabanova 13. The Human Dog Oleg Kulik: Grotesque Post-Soviet Animalistic Performances • Gesine Drews-Sylla Notes Contributors Index