To fully comprehend the rise of French as a “professional” language within European diplomacy in the century following the Peace of Westphalia, a comprehensive examination of diplomatic communications, both external and internal, is necessary. The essay explores the role of French in internal diplomatic correspondence, a topic far less studied than the language’s role in external exchanges. By comparing sources from Russian and Swedish archives, dating roughly from the time frame between the 1720s and the 1740s, we highlight the various reasons why French was used alongside the domestic languages: on the one hand, for a range of pragmatic reasons connected to the francophone working milieus of diplomats; on the other, there was a need for an informal language choice enabling diplomats to code-switch between Russian/Swedish and French. In the latter case, French was used to distinguish different contents or different levels of formality. This internal use of French, we argue, should be distinguished from the use of French in external diplomatic correspondence, where it was progressively becoming a standard medium of diplomatic communication, replacing, not complementing, other languages.
The article demonstrates the convergence of physical, literary, and political educational goals in early Soviet child correspondents’ performances of “living newspapers.” Drawing on notions of letters as “graphic bodies,” developed within the field of typography studies and social semiotics, it presents the 1920s Soviet educational development of embodied reading practices and the medium of living newspapers among children. It analyses a collection of the Perm-based illustrated pioneer monthly Zhivaia teatralizovannaia gazeta dlia pionerov [The Living Dramatized Newspaper for Pioneers], guidebooks for pioneer editorial boards, and visual materials from child performances, to discuss the implications of how the news performances turned the child correspondents’ bodies into living letter carriers.
FIZ! KUL´T! URA!"Moulding young Soviets through physical activity Backed by the social reformers who supported them, the Bolsheviks promoted a new physical education project following the Russian Revolution and Civil War.Known as fizkul´tura [physical culture 1 ], this initiative was intended to transform both the bodies and souls of the citizens in the emerging Soviet regime, and adhered to the Marxist conceptions of total education.In other words, mind and body were interdependent and should therefore be improved simultaneously, the aim being to develop a fully complete individual. 2 Advocates of this plan championed the idea of a total break with the past, and Soviet historiography tended to emphasise this rupture -yet fizkul´tura featured a combination of earlier Russian endeavours and formed part of several trans-European trends. 3Its conceptualisation in Soviet Russia, and subsequently in the USSR, developed through lively debates.This study focuses on the 1920s and 1930s, the period that witnessed the launching of fizkul´tura.The subject of interest here is the introduction of physical activities specifically designed for children and young people, a topic on which little historiographic research has been conducted to date. 4 The use of visual culture
This case study of the practice of Soviet social and cultural policy focuses on experimental sportswear targeted at children, teens, and young adults in the 1920s. Besides well-known design projects by avant-garde artists such as Varvara Stepanova, it investigates projects by unknown and less known contributors and “non-creative” professionals such as doctors. From economic and industrial perspectives, it conceptualizes two major branches within the experimental Soviet design of the 1920s: the situational and utopian approaches to project making. Although the intellectual pursuits during the decade were intense and encouraged the multiplication of design variations, the poor economic and industrial environment pushed those who governed and practiced fizkul´tura to adopt the simplest and cheapest designs. Failure to establish industrial connections between stakeholders contributed to the problem. This case study shows how economic and industrial issues structured cultural production, including experiments in material design by the 1920s Soviet Avant-Garde.
With the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Russia has suffered increasing economic sanctions and international isolation from the West, which has undoubtedly pushed Russia-China relations towards more intimacy.As stated in this book, Russia and China embrace the vision of a multipolar world free of American meddling.This strategic partnership must also be seen in a global context of increasing friction with the West."In many ways it is the very tension with the United States and the European Union that brings the two countries together" (p.8).
