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Please join the upcoming Slavic Colloquium talk entitled, "State Surveillance and Literary Production: The Role of the Third Section in Russian Cultural History" by Maria Mayofis (Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, Amherst College).

Maria Mayofis' talk examines the relationship between the Third Section of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery during Nicholas I's reign and Russian literary and cultural life. After analyzing various scholarly perspectives on this relationship and their respective merits and limitations, she will present an alternative framework that emphasizes how written communication served as the foundation of the Third Section's operations. This approach reveals how literary discourses and descriptive modes influenced the various texts produced within and for this institution—highlighting the significant impact of cultural practices on state surveillance mechanisms, rather than merely the reverse. Importantly, She will demonstrate how literary models often influenced the very outcome of investigative cases, while acknowledging instances where such literary imagination and rhetorical framing proved ineffective in shaping institutional decisions.

This talk will be in Russian.