Word: fainsod
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...compilations of Ministerial decrees. This access was cut off in Stalin's tightening up of 1949 and 1950, and has not yet been restored, although individual decrees are now available. Since about 1956, there has been a "greater flow of materials" from the Soviet Union to the West, Fainsod says. But very often, however, the key documents come through fortuitous accidents, like the Smolensk archives Fainsod used for his Smolensk under Soviet Rule. These documents were captured intact by Nazi forces invading the U.S.S.R. during the Second World...
...increased accessibility of written materials, the recent "opening up" of Soviet Russia has enabled Western scholars to visit the country, to establish contacts at Russian universities and to confirm or correct their previous impressions. The first step in this process, came in 1956 with the 30-day tourist visa. Fainsod made his first visit to the U.S.S.R. in that year and has returned several times since. Almost every person connected with the Center has been to Russia at least once in the last three years...
...these one-month visits offer only a limited opportunity for scholars. Fainsod says that the visitor generally must follow the route set up by Intourist, the state travel agency...
...important second step in the "opening up," Fainsod feels, is the exchange of pre-Ph.D. graduate students for entire academic years, a program which started last year with half-a dozen Harvard people participating. These students had some opportunities to interview Soviet personnel and could study in the libraries (though not in the governmental archives). This problem of access has yet to be resolved. American scholars now can read the Soviet equivalent of doctoral dissertations, and negotiations for further access and further exchange agreements will take place soon. According to Fainsod, a very important third step in the exchange...
...Under Fainsod's leadership, the Center can be expected to continue has scarcely been covered. Large areas still remain untouched; in others, only scant research has been completed. Rather than pointing with pride at their considerable achievements, most people connected with the Center feel that the task of scholarship has just begun and that--with the greater opportunities for research provided by the "opening up"--the next few years will see a tremendous advance in the Russian field. Whatever the scope of the progress, the Russian Research Center, having established its international pre-eminence over the past decade, will...