Browsing by Subject "USSR"

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    Democracy aid in post-communist Russia: case studies of the Ford Foundation, the C.S. Mott Foundation, and the National Endowment for Democracy
    (2015-05-01) Wachtmann, Jenna Lee; Lenkowsky, Leslie; Smyth, Regina A.; Witkowski, Gregory R.
    The collapse of communism and the fall of the Soviet Union offered an unprecedented opportunity for the international community to support transitions to democracy in a region that had long known only totalitarian rule. Among the key players engaged in supporting efforts were U.S. grantmaking institutions, including both non-state and quasi-state aid providers. This thesis explores the motivations and evolving strategies of three different types of grantmaking institutions in a single country, Russia, with a particular focus on democracy aid provision from 1988-2002. The three types of grantmaking organizations examined through case studies include: the Ford Foundation, a private foundation with a history of international grantmaking spanning several decades; the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, a private foundation known primarily for its domestic focus with a much shorter history of international grantmaking; and, finally, the National Endowment for Democracy, a U.S. government-created and heavily taxpayer-funded organization established as a private nonprofit organization to make grants specifically for democracy promotion. Motivating factors for initiating or expanding grantmaking in Russia in the late 1980s included a previous history of grantmaking in the region, a previously established institutional commitment to democracy promotion, international peace and security concerns, and interest from a top institutional leader. Over the course of the fourteen year period studied, five grantmaking features are identified as influencing the development of grantmaking strategies: professional grantmaking staff; organizational habit; global political, social, and economic environments; market and other funding source influences; and physical presence. Though subject to constraints, the non-state and quasi-state grantmaking institutions included in this study were able to avoid weaknesses identified with private philanthropy in other research and demonstrated a willingness to experiment and take risks, an ability to operate at the non-governmental level, and a commitment to long-term grantmaking, informed by expertise.
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    Image of Soviet and Russian logic in the West. Latter Half of the XXth Century
    (Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2021) Anellis, Irving H.; Bazhanov, Valentin A.; Institute for American Thought, School of Liberal Arts
    The article attempts to overview Western scientific knowledge of research in mathematical logic and its history in the USSR and Russia in the first half of the 20th century. We claim that Western scholars followed and were generally aware of the main works of their Soviet and Russian colleagues on mathematical logic and its history. It was possible, firstly, due to the fact that a number of Western scientists knew the Russian language, and, secondly, because Soviet and Russian logicians published their works in English (sometimes in German) in the original journals of mathematical logic or Soviet publishing houses (mainly Mir Publishers) translated Soviet authors into English. Thus, the names of A.G. Dragalin, Yu.L. Ershov, A.S. Karpenko, A.N. Kolmogorov, Z.A. Kuzicheva, Yu.I. Manin, S.Yu. Maslov, F.A. Medvedev, G.E. Mints, V.N. Salii, V.A. Smirnov, A.A. Stolyar, N.I. Styazhkin, V.A. Uspensky, I.M. Yaglom, S.A. Yanovskaya, A.P. Yushkevich, A.A. Zinov’ev were quite known to their Western counterparts. With the dawn of perestroika, contacts of Soviet / Russian logicians expanded significantly. Nevertheless, the analysis of Western works on mathematical logic and the history of logic suggests that by the end of the 20th century the interest of Western scientists in the works of their Russian colleagues had noticeably waned.