Volume 19

Introduction. Dear Readers,

It is my pleasure to present the nineteenth volume of the UC Undergraduate Journal of Slavic and East/Central European Studies. This year, our undergraduate contributors hail from a wide array of schools, including the University of Vermont, Indiana University Bloomington, Bates College, University of Kansas, University of Georgia, University of Reading, and University of California, Santa Barbara. One of our contributors, Shayna Hawk, presented her paper at the twenty-eighth annual UC Undergraduate Conference on Slavic and East/Central European Studies in April of 2025. Between the conference and the journal, we aim to provide a platform for undergraduate students to share their research and engage with each other’s work as emerging scholars in the field. We are delighted to share their accomplishments with you in our journal.

Contemporary politics, especially as they relate to language and cultural identity, are central to this year’s volume of the journal. Our contributors explore issues arising from the invasion of Ukraine, repressions in Belarus, nation-building in Moldova, and transnational feminist organizing in Russia.

In “The Ukrainian Language Frontier: Language, Identity, and Political Allegiance in the Donbas Before and After the 2014 Occupation,” Charles Larkman (University of Reading/University of Kansas) explores the relationship between language and national identity in the Donbas, focusing specifically on a wave of revitalization of Ukrainian language in the wake of the occupation, despite the region’s history of Russification policies and predominance of Russian speakers. In “Linguistic Hegemony and Resistance: The Politics of Language Suppression in Belarus and Pakistan,” Armina Raheel (University of Kansas) takes a comparative approach to analyze the suppression of the Belarusian and Punjabi languages in favor of Russian and Urdu in their respective regions. Raheel examines the history of colonial policies that worked to exclude these languages from politics and education, and how they continue to be marginalized in modern Belarus and Pakistan. In “Feminist Organizing in Russia 2012-2025: Pussy Riot and the Feminist Anti-War Resistance,” Shayna Hawk (University of California, Santa Barbara) examines transnational feminist activism that emerged in digital spaces over the last decade to resist militarized nationalism and challenge patriarchal norms.

In a first, we also present a book review by Nandita Suri (University of Georgia) of Eduard Baidaus’s An Unsettled Nation: Moldova in the Geopolitics of Russia, Romania, and Ukraine. Suri evaluates Baidaus’s analysis of the fraught post-Soviet nation-building project in Moldova, identifying Russia, Romania, and Ukraine as significant and distinct actors in shaping the relationship between Moldova and the breakaway territory of Transnistria.

Additionally, in this volume we feature several papers on literature, art, and film from Russia and Yugoslavia, ranging from fairy tales to the Yugoslav Black Wave of the 1960s and 70s. In “Wisdom in Submission: The Structural Containment of Female Autonomy and Knowledge Within the Russian Oral Tradition Through Social Subordination and Alienation,” Stella Sarefield (University of Vermont) explores the image of women in three Russian fairy tales, in particular the framing of women’s wisdom as supernatural as well as representations of social subordination and alienation as mechanisms of containing challenges to patrilineal authority.

In “The Naked Truth: Art Scandals, the Russian Mass Media, and the Hairy Legs of Lev Tolstoy,” Lena LaPierre (Bates College) highlights an obscure scandal concerning the vandalism of Narkiz Bunin’s painting “Fishing.” Through a detailed analysis of the media discourse surrounding it, LaPierre illuminates broader debates around social and economic changes in Russia at the turn of the century.

In our final paper, “The New Partisan: Aleksandar Petrović and Tri (Three),” Lilly Luse (Indiana University Bloomington) connects the development of the Yugoslav film industry with the rise of the World War II propaganda Partisan movie. Luse analyzes Yugoslav New Film and the Black Wave as a critical response to the Partisan film genre through a close reading of Petrović’s seminal film Tri, and explores his role more broadly as an important filmmaker, scholar, and critic of Yugoslav film.

On behalf of the editors, I would like to extend our gratitude and thanks to the many people who support this journal: first, thank you to our undergraduate writers for sharing their impressive work with us and for their patience and trust in the editing process. As always, we invite students everywhere to submit their papers related to East/Central Europe and Eurasia for consideration in our annual undergraduate conference and this journal. In this connection, we remember Olga Kagan (1946–2018), whose dedication to undergraduate research made these endeavors possible. We also thank Yelena Furman, whose ongoing support as the undergraduate mentor at the UCLA Department of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages is deeply appreciated. Thank you as well to the members of our editorial board for taking the time to evaluate and provide critical feedback to our writers, and to Jordan Galczynski for making the publication available digitally on our online platform.

Finally, we are indebted to the Center for European and Russian Studies, the UCLA Office of the Dean of Humanities, and UCLA’s Department of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages & Cultures for their generosity in support of the journal.

Sylvie Vidan
Managing Editor

Abstract: This paper analyzes the transformation of linguistic and national identity in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine following the 2014 Russian occupation. The Donbas is a region historically characterized by linguistic, cultural, and political ambiguity, with Russian being the dominant language in public life and Ukrainian institutionally weaker. Because of this, linguistic identity in the region has been fluid, shaped by prestige rather than any sort of allegiance. Utilizing historical analysis, surveys, and interviews, this paper argues that the occupation unintentionally altered the traditional linguistic neutrality of the region. Language choice became a politically-driven decision, with Ukrainian coming to serve as a core symbol of national identity and loyalty. Quantitative data indicate a growing identification with Ukrainian citizenship in the Donbas, combined with declining support for Russian-led political alignment. Qualitative data present this reality on an individual level, with individuals reconsidering linguistic practices in response to the occupation, particularly among the younger generations. Employing Fishman and García’s “success-failure continuum,” this paper illustrates that the linguistic shift has been gradual but significant. The case of the Donbas emphasizes how forceful means and occupation can inadvertently strengthen national and linguistic identification, rather than subverting it.

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Abstract: This paper analyzes the suppression of indigenous majority languages in Belarus and Pakistan. I argue that Belarusian and Punjabi have been marginalized through state policies and linguistic hierarchies that serve dominant political agendas. In both countries, colonial legislation created prestige hierarchies by excluding these languages from political and educational spheres and by dismantling nationalist movements. These policies have been reproduced and reinforced by the modern Belarusian and Pakistani states, which have relegated these languages to informal domains while elevating politically favorable minority languages. This paper explores how these policies were successful in two demographically dissimilar nations and how native languages become stigmatized by their speakers. The study concludes by evaluating language “success” across two domains: revival outcomes and institutional support. The findings indicate that, despite activist efforts, Belarusian and Punjabi have a low likelihood of revival as dominant national languages. By analyzing these cases, this paper contributes to sociolinguistic scholarship by showing how dominant languages can be politically minoritized.

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Abstract: Focusing on the Russian Federation under the administration of President Vladimir Putin, this research paper examines feminist activist spaces that have emerged from resistance to dictatorship, nationalism, and war. Beginning in 2012, digital feminist collectives such as Pussy Riot and the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR) have utilized online platforms, notably Telegram, not only to mobilize dissent but also as tools to cultivate solidarity, sustain communities, and generate knowledge for future generations. By analyzing activist statements and digital media archives, this paper emphasizes how feminist actors have adapted through decentralized organizing and creative digital practices to spread their messages in art and writing. While the government has exploited the expansion of technology for repression, the feminist activists of Pussy Riot and the Feminist Anti-War Resistance have reclaimed digital spaces to resist militarized nationalism, challenge the local patriarchal norms, and redefine the Western-centric framing of feminism, even as they are criticized as foreign agents upholding Western ideologies. By highlighting cases of feminist collectives across Russia, this study contributes to the scholarship on digital activism, decolonial feminism, and resistance under authoritarian regimes. It concludes by examining feminist digital activism beyond Russia, as activists and opposition leaders who were exiled continue to bring visibility to the Russian occupation of Ukraine through engaging in transnational solidarity and continually reimagining the meaning of justice.

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Abstract: This paper examines the structural containment of female autonomy and knowledge using the Russian fairy tales “The Wise Little Girl,” “Go I Know Not Whither and Bring Back I Know Not What,” and “The Sea King and Vasilisa the Wise” from the collection of Aleksandr Afanas′ev as material. While female protagonists such as Vasilisa the Wise are portrayed with extraordinary intellect and magical abilities, the narrative structures of these folktales systematically neutralize female autonomy. The analysis utilizes the Domostroi as a historical framework for the legal and social codification of women’s domestic labor. Drawing on theoretical insights from Marina Warner, Judith Butler, and Simone de Beauvoir, I argue that female knowledge in the aforementioned folktales is framed as “supernatural” to avoid challenging the patriarchal hierarchy. Through a close reading of the tales, the paper identifies two primary mechanisms of containment: social subordination and alienation. Heroines are eventually subordinated through forced marriage, which converts their independent intellect into a marital asset. Conversely, women who maintain autonomy, exemplified by Baba Yaga, are demonized and alienated from society. Ultimately, these tales reflect a broader cultural anxiety toward female knowledge and autonomy as a threat to the patrilineal control of property and succession in imperial Russia.

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Abstract: What do an obscure Russian artist, an unknown Jewish journalist, and the hairy naked legs of Lev Tolstoy have in common? Unexpectedly, the collision of these entities produced one of the most heated cultural scandals of fin de siècle Russia. By analyzing primary source Russian-language newspaper articles, this paper studies the media discourse surrounding the 1903 vandalism of Russian artist Narkiz Bunin’s painting Rybnaia lovlia (“Fishing”) by a Jewish journalist named Liuboshits. It argues that the Russian imperial press did more than simply report on and sensationalize the vandalism to sell copies. Instead, writers on the political left and right used the scandal as a platform to debate the contentious emerging issues that plagued Russia at the turn of the century. For a modernizing empire, the scandal served as a rare site where unspoken issues could be brought to the surface and debated, such as the legitimacy of private property rights in an autocracy, the role of the traditional artist-hero in an age of ascendant capitalism, and the use of anti-Semitic tropes to define the essence of a rapidly changing Russian nation.

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Abstract: The development of the on-screen ideal of the Partisan fighter coincides with the formation of the Yugoslav film industry. Film, in this socialist country, was used as a medium for propaganda. The image of the Partisan fighters was unwaveringly moral and noble, framed as patriotic heroes and infallible warriors. With the rise of the Black Wave—a movement driven by young directors based in the emerging film academy and burgeoning amateur filmmaking culture—in the early 1960s, directors began to scrutinize this idealistic image. They used film as a vehicle for social criticism and opposition toward war as well as the Yugoslav identity as portrayed in the media. In this new scene, film director Aleksandar Petrović arose as a powerful voice in Yugoslav cinema who not only experimented with form but also became a critic and scholar himself. Through his films, Petrović criticized the national narrative and the glorified Partisan soldier archetype that had become the standard in state-funded propaganda films. In this essay, I examine his widely acclaimed film, Tri (Three) (1965). I look at how this film uses the language of cinema in order to convey the pressurized conditions of a Yugoslav society damaged by war and bloodshed. I conclude by situating Petrović’s film within European socially critical cinema of the period.

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