Holly Myers

Biography

Holly Myers is an Assistant Professor of Russian in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Languages. She chairs the Russian Studies program, which offers majors, minors, and a rich extracurricular program, including Russian-language cooking classes, interdisciplinary workshops, and Russian tea meetings. She teaches Russian language courses at all levels and a wide range of content courses in English translation, such as the popular course on Vampires in Folklore, Literature, and Film.

Prof. Myers's book manuscript, Moving Target: The Soviet-Afghan War in Russian Culture, argues that a new era of war storytelling in the Soviet and post-Soviet world began unnoticed with the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-89). Brezhnev's Victory Cult from the 1960s exemplifies the uniform state-driven narratives of earlier wars that clearly defined participants, justifications, and consequences. Stories about the Soviet-Afghan War, however, were initially driven by culture, not the state, which resulted in a range of different, even conflicting conclusions about the war's significance. Since Putin's rise to power, these different narrative strands have coalesced around an emphasis on masculinity that is developed and proven through participation in “special military operations,” without conflict-specific justifications. Putin's regime has rehabilitated much of the Soviet past; now, the Soviet-Afghan War and its veterans are also being reframed in Russian mainstream culture to more thoroughly valorize the Russian military, past and present. The developments and trends that Prof. Myers identifies and examines in Soviet-Afghan War stories in Soviet and Russian-language culture from the 1980s to the present day provide compelling new insights into the ongoing militarization of Russian society and culture. 

Degrees

• Ph.D., M.Phil., M.A. in Russian Literature from Columbia University, Department of Slavic Languages
• M.A. in Russian Literature from the University of Virginia, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
• B.A. in English and Music from Amherst College