Both hilarious and ambiguous, this music video features a cast of assumed IKEA employees who dance to the tune “Party Rock Anthem” composed by the popular American electronic dance music duo, LMFAO. Dressed as a head of broccoli, orange moose, teddy bear in pajamas, and hot dog, the characters run around a store causing some amount of mayhem, but mostly confusion to the bemused passersby who watch them. As a visual artifact the video is a phenomenal expression of the way that IKEA might be thought of by at least a small part of the Russian population who is willing to adopt the silly charade of running around filming a music video in IKEA wearing ridiculous costumes. Even if they are employees (which is an unconfirmed assumption) this supports the idea of a company culture that would inspire and encourage (or at least not repress) such a fun pastime to take place in the store during business hours.
modest vlasov. "IKEA-DYBENKO 2013 Russia." Youtube.com. Accessed May 5, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kPgmbcZJKk.
A fascinating illustration, the clearly photoshopped image here depicts the iconic “IKEA” logo in the Cyrillic alphabet (as it is used in Russia) supporting the spires and domes of the famous Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. It is important to note that the image comes from the Swedish architectural firm Synk Architekture, who seemingly designed the first megastore that IKEA opened in Moscow in 2000. Thus, one might read this image as a bold statement portraying how the Swedish conceptualize IKEA figuratively supporting Russian traditions and the idea of “Russianness” itself. Indeed the hazy blue background, making the colors of the IKEA logo and the domes of Saint Basil’s more visible in relief, gestures to the standalone nature of the illustration – IKEA and Russia are in it together, making the architectural firm’s work that much more essential and important.
Synk Arkitektur. "Ikea Moscow." Image. Accessed May 5, 2014. http://www.synkark.se/2010/01/ikea-moscow/.
This image portrays a somewhat romantic ideal of one of IKEA’s parking lots outside of a megastore as it sits lit up at night, a bright beacon of commerce. Reading more closely, the focus of the image on a parking lot in the first place suggests that having a car is an essential part of coming to shop at IKEA, which in turn connotes a certain level of affluence and lifestyle to the experience as well. And it is a surprisingly idyllic photo for an image of nothing else besides a parking lot against the twilight sky. Taken from a Russian news page, I suggest that this is likely a stock photo that has made its rounds through the Russian media at some point or another, and as such is representative of one way that Russians conceptualize the store and its brand – to take a cue from Fitzgerald, this is not the vanishing green light at the end of a dock but rather thousands of beaming white lights signaling the arrival of the future out of the darkening sky.
Vera Manykina. "Kalashnikov Machine Gun Found in IKEA Locker." Russia-IC. Accessed January 1, 2014. http://russia-ic.com/news/show/17943#.U2eVDK1dWlN.
International Tchaikovsky Competition at the Moscow Conservatory
The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a world-renowned music competition for singers, pianists, violinists and cellists held every four years at the Moscow Conservatory. The contest consists of several rounds of competition which are held in the performance halls of the Moscow Conservatory including the Great Hall. Winners of this prestigious musical contest can win up to 20,000 euros and often earn worldwide fame. Previous winners of the competition have included Van Cliburn and Deborah Voigt among others.
Sources: Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. A History of Russia. New york: Oxford University Press, 2000. 200-230. Print. "Beautiful Town Podolsk." Russia Travel. N.p.. Web. 28 Apr 2014. <http://www.russia-travel.ws/regions/Podolsk/>. "Item: Ivan Feodor(-ovich) BUDZANItem: Ivan Feodor(-ovich) BUDZAN." Library and Archives Canada. N.p.. Web. 28 Apr 2014. <http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-russian-empire/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=63&>.
American journalists John Reed and Louise Bryant provided vivid accounts of their first-hand experiences of the October Revolution. Reed published his experiences in the book Ten Days that Shook the World. Braynt published Six Red Months in Russia. Both were prolific contributors to the socialist political and literary magazines of the time including A Revolutionary Age, The Communist, The Masses, and The Liberator, among others.
American journalists John Reed and Louise Bryant provided vivid accounts of their first-hand experiences of the October Revolution. Reed published his experiences in the book Ten Days that Shook the World. Bryant published Six Red Months in Russia. Both were prolific contributors to the socialist political and literary magazines of the time including A Revolutionary Age, The Communist, The Masses, and The Liberator, among others, in addition to mainstream media outlets. Bryant, in particular was widely published by Hearst media and became known for her sympathetic coverage of the Bolsheviks. As talented writers and witnesses to the Revolution, and on the basis of their access to leading Bolshevik political figures including Lenin and Trotsky, the couple became powerful voices for the “truth of Russia” during the immediate post-Revolutionary period. “On the grey horizon of human existence looms a great giant called Working Class Consciousness… It all depends on us whether he will turn into a loathsome, ugly monster demanding human sacrifices or whether he shall be the saviour of mankind. We must use great foresight, patience, understanding.... We must somehow make an honest effort to understand what is happening in Russia.” - Louise Bryant, Six Red Months in Russia
Joseph Stalin's journey from Georgia to St. Petersburg
Stalin was born in Gori, now a city in present-day Georgia, and spent his childhood there before traveling to Tbilisi to attend school on a scholarship. He was, however, expelled from the Georgian Orthodox Tiflis Spiritual Seminary after poor performance on his exams, and it is thought that during this time he first joined the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party, a Marxist group. His early political career was spent between Tbilisi, Baku, St. Petersburg, and several exiles in Siberia (where he often escaped) as he rose through the ranks of the party. Finally, returning from his final exile in a small northern fishing village near the Arctic Circle in 1917, he took part in the October Revolution that culminated in the creation and eventually his leadership of the USSR.
"Stalin, Joseph." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001. (c) 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Ekaterina Shubnaya, "Joseph Stalin." <http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/leaders/joseph-stalin/> “Statue of Limitations Runs Out for Keeping Stalin Off His Pedestal.” Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2013, sec. Page One. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304713704579091820237130970.
The Katyn Forest Massacre occurred in 1940. Under orders from Josef Stalin, the Soviet NKVD executed approximately 20,000 Polish officers, landlords, officials and intellectuals whom they had previously been holding in prison camps. The victims were killed by a shot to the back of the head and dumped in mass graves in the Katyn Forest, which is near present-day Smolensk, Russia. The Nazi forces discovered the mass graves in 1943 and used the discovery of the crime as a form of propaganda against the Soviets. The Soviet government, in turn, blamed the massacre on the Germans. It was not until the early 1990s that the government in Moscow acknowledged Soviet culpability for the massacre in the Katyn Forest.
Geldern, James von. "1943: Katyn Forest Massacre." Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. MATRIX, 2014. Web. 8 Feb. 2014. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katyn_massacre_5.jpg
The St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev is an important monument to the increasing influence of Orthodox Christianity, as well as the flourishing of Ukrainian artistic expression, under the reign of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kievan Rus. This cathedral is a physical representation of the power of Kievan Rus at its height, but the cathedral also embodies a negative view of Russia in global perspective. St. Sophia’s Cathedral, with its long history, demonstrates the darker aspect of Russianness that has a tendency to expand its influence ideologically, politically and geographically, often at the expense of local nationalities.
http://sophia.sophiakievska.org/node/57 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/612921/Ukraine (Encyclopedia Britannica) http://www.ukraine.com/religious-sites/stsophias-cathedral/ (Ukraine.com: Ukraine Channel)http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CS%5C %5CSaintSophiaCathedral.htm (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine), http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent russians/history-and-mythology/yaroslav-the-wise/ (Russiapedia)http://sophia.sophiakievska.org/node/62 (The St. Sophia Cathedral Museum)
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“Under the Banner of Lenin - Socialist Construction” is a photomontage poster created by Gustav Klutsis in 1930. It is an artifact of the Soviet propaganda campaign to shift the mindset of every Russian citizen through art. Klutsis’s posters are particularly useful means of propagandizing, due to their succinct slogans and images. By 1931, Klutsis’s posters were published in large quantities by Izogiz, the publishing house under central government control. They reached a wide audience domestically and attracted international attention. More recently, Klutsis’s propaganda has been featured in museum collections abroad.
"Under the Banner of Lenin - Socialist Construction" http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A12501&page_number=30&template_id=1&sort_order=1&background=white
In order to effectively service requests for images, The Museum of Modern Art entrusts the licensing of images of works of art in its collections to the agencies Scala Archives and Art Resource. As MoMA’s representatives, the agencies supply high-resolution digital image files provided to them directly by the Museum's Imaging Studios. All requests to reproduce works of art from MoMA's collection within North America (Canada, U.S., Mexico) should be addressed directly to Art Resource at 536 Broadway, New York, New York 10012. Telephone (212) 505-8700; fax (212) 505-2053, requests@artres.com, www.artres.com. Requests from all other geographical locations should be addressed directly to Scala Group S.p.A., 62, via Chiantigiana, 50012 Bagno a Ripoli/Firenze, Italy. Telephone 39 055 6233 200; fax: 39 055 641124, firenze@scalarchives.com, www.scalarchives.com. Requests for permission to reprint text from MoMA publications should be addressed to text_permissions@moma.org. Related links: Outside North America: Scala Archives North America: Art Resource
Lithograph poster of dimensions 38 3/8 x 28 1/4"