Russian Culture Ii

The course will address various aspects of the cultural history of Russian emigration. After a general introduction on the forms of the phenomenon from the 16th century to the early 20th century, it will mainly describe - in the historical context - the social, political, cultural, and literary life of the different waves of 20th-century Russian emigration: the "first wave" (between the two world wars), the "second wave" (after the Second World War), the "third wave" (from the second half of the 1960s), the "fourth wave" (after the end of the Soviet Union in 1991), and the "fifth wave" (caused by the totalitarian drift of Putin's Russia from 2012 and the war against Ukraine since 2022).
The course will pay particular attention to the most important Russian emigrants: writers, poets, critics, politicians, publicists, philosophers, theologians, and scientists. The distinctive features of the main centers of the Russian diaspora will be highlighted.