Introduction

Roman Koropeckyj, Co-Editor

We are pleased to present to you the third issue of the Undergraduate Journal of Slavic and East/Central European Studies. While continuing to publish papers originally presented at the annual UCLA Undergraduate Research Conference on Slavic and East/Central European Studies, we have decided to open the pages of the journal to contributions outwith the conference. We thus include this year an article entitled "Motivations for Learning Russian" by Marina Fayer of the University of Florida in which she discusses differences in motivation between heritage and non-heritage students of Russian. Besides the piece by Ms. Fayer, we have five articles that were originally presented at the Twelfth Annual Undergraduate Conference at UCLA in May 2009. Mariya Bunenko's "Dysfunctional Structure of Ukrainian Government" explores the chaotic state of Ukrainian politics in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution. In his article “'Doubling' and Abstraction of Rational Reality: Shakespeare, Gogol, and the Fate of the Soul," Zane Johnston compares the structural device of doubling in Nikolai Gogol's Inspector General and Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Alice Lu, for her part, examines how Soviet citizens manipulated the Stalinist terror for their personal benefit; and Daria Thomas discusses the impact of Russian cultural figures on the development of the arts in the United States. Finally, Brent Woo takes a close look at Sergei Rachmaninoff's letters in order to shed new light on the composer's depression.

We would like to extend special thanks to Susie Bauckus, Yelena Furman, and Professor Olga Kagan for helping to bring this project to fruition. Matthew Giangrande's technical expertise proved invaluable in putting the journal on line. We also want to welcome Helen Zhao, an English Major at UCLA, as the managing editor of this issue of the Undergraduate Journal. Without her hard work and dedication its appearance would not have been possible. We look forward to submissions from undergraduates everywhere interested in the literary, political, and social dynamics of Russia and East/Central Europe.

Published: Wednesday, September 01, 2010