InfoGuides: BIG READ April 2023 Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky: Deaf Ukraine & Russia Resources

Last Updated: Feb 19, 2024 11:15 AM

Deaf Ukraine, Russia, Soviet Union Resources

Regina Kiperman-Kiselgof is a Deaf Ukrainian American who works in the NTID Employment Center. She is involved with a fund-raiser for Deaf Ukrainians. Dimitry Kiselgof, Russian-American, is an ASL professor at NTID. Eugene Lylak, a retired English professor who is a Ukrainian American, donated his collection about Deaf people in Ukraine and Russia to Deaf Studies Archives. Bernard Bragg served as an artist in residence with the Moscow Theater of Sign Language and Mime, as part of the United States-Soviet cultural exchange. Check out the Bernard Bragg collection in Deaf Studies Archives to find more information about his work there. This page compiles some information we have on Deaf Russian, Ukraine, and USSR resources. If materials are off-site in building 99, it is easy to get the item. See this video for a quick 30-sec review of how to request material. Faculty and staff can use this form to request delivery of the item to their office.

Fund-raisers for Deaf Ukrainians links are listed below. Rochester has a Deaf Refugee Advocacy Group.

The following collections can be found in Deaf Studies Archives, Wallace Library, 3rd floor.

Deaf Visual Arts

Alexei Svetlov paintings : the great Russian surrealist
"This brochure is sponsored and designed by Aakjaers."--Back of brochure. Contains biographical information about the author
Pervai︠a︡ moskovskai︠a︡ mezhdunarodnai︠a︡ vystavka proizvedeniǐ glukhikh khudozhnikov = the first Moscow international exhibition of deaf artists = erste moskauer internationale ausstellung von werken gehörloser bildender künstler : katalog
First Moscow international exhibition of deaf artists
Rossi︠i︡a, SShA : Obmen vystavkami rabot glukhikh khudozhnikov Ross︠i︡a i SShA, 1999 god = Russia, USA : The Russian/USA deaf artists' exhibition exchange, 1999
USA-Russia deaf artists art work exchange 1993
DVD. Deaf artists from Russia and the U.S., as well as students and others, participated in a teleconference held in Rochester, New York and in Moscow. See companion catalog.
USA Russia exchange : USA-Russia deaf artists art work exchange, 1993, October 11-29
Catalog of an exhibition held simultaneously in Moscow and Rochester, October 11-29, 1993. See companion video.
Zrim︠a︡ia muzyka tsveta : glukhie khudozhniki Rossii = The visible music in colors : deaf artists of Russia
Album is devoted to the 85th jubilee of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf and contains biographical information and the works' reproductions by 119 masters of fine art. This book also gives rather complete view of the Deaf artists' creative unions and their exhibition's activity

Abel, Andreas
Born at Krasnokamsk in the Ural Republic in Russia; deafened at age 5. Attended regular schools in Krasnokamsk 1973-1983, then an art school in Ekaterinburg 1983-1989. Professional artist 1989-1990 before emigrating to Esslingen, Germany..
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Gehorlose und Horgeschadigte Kunstmaler in Deutschland 2005, p.8-11. Library N8356.D43 W47 2005 N8356.D43 W47 2005
Bilibin, Alexandre
Born to a Russian father and English mother; parents relocated to England when he was young. A double mastoid operation at age 9 left him deaf, and he attended the Ince Jones Oral School for Deaf Boys, then the Central High School for Arts and Crafts in London and studied art for 4 years at the Royal Academy Schools. Began a 53-year friendship with fellow deaf artist Alfred R. Thompson (q.v.). Worked as a scenic designer for motion pictures; also did portraits and mural work, including most of the murals on the famous ocean liner Queen Mary. Exhibited in the International Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts by Deaf Artists, 1934. Died after a series of 3 heart attacks.
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Deaf Lives, p.22.--Oversized, Ritter HV2717.A3 D32 2001
Nazarov, Alexander
Held an advanced degree in the arts; 1991/1992, artist-in-residence at Gallaudet University; 1992, president of the Russian Association of Deaf Artists.
Sviridov, Vladimir
Summary
Attended elementary school for 12 years, then studied at a polytechnic school in Moscow, specializing in printing. Later studied art at Moscow Polytechnic University. He found a niche as a caricaturist; his first published drawings appeared in a Russian newspaper near the end of the 1950s. After this, his work also appeared in other major Russian newspapers and publications. 1960-1965, he also worked as an artist for a Soviet film studio; after that, he set up as a private practice, taking commissions.

Deaf Theatre and Performances

Professional Musician, Flautist, Music Educator & Artistic Director for Audiovisability

Gesture performance: dealing with disability, working with the hearing impaired
DVD. Deaf youth talk about some of the painful experiences they had as Russian children in an environment where they were ostracized and not understood. They are speaking from their current perspective as student actors and actresses in the Theatre School for the Deaf in Moscow.
National Theaters of the Deaf
Gallaudet Encyclopedia article. Mentions the Moscow Theater of Mimicry and Gesture. In 1973, Bragg served as artist in residence with the Moscow Theater of Sign Language and Mime, as part of the United States-Soviet cultural exchange.

Russian Sign Languaage

Country name signs
DVD.
Daktilologii︠a︡ zhestovai︠a︡ rechʹ / G.L. Zaĭt︠s︡eva
The Deaf Way
Estonian Sign Language Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Russian sign language - American sign language translator
CD.
Signs from Gallaudet Encyclopedia
Spetsificeskie sredstva obsceniia gluhih : daktilolgiia, imimika : ucebnoe posobie, castie I / I. F. Geilman
Russian sign language and deaf education.
Uchebnoe posobie po mimike

Deaf Education

Abbé Sicard's Deaf Education
Abbé Sicard was a French revolutionary priest and an innovator of French and American sign language. He enjoyed a meteoric rise from Toulouse and Bordeaux to Paris and, despite his non-conformist tendencies, he escaped the guillotine. In fact, the revolutionaries acknowledged his position and during the Terror of 1794, they made him the director of the first school for the deaf. Later, he became a member of the first Ecole Normale, the National Institute, and the Académie Française. He is recognized today as having developed Enlightenment theories of pantomime, "signing,' and a form of "universal language" that later spread to Russia, Spain, and America. This is the first book-length biography of Sicard published in any language since 1873, despite Sicard's international renown. This thoughtful, engaging work explores French and American sign language and deaf studies set against the backdrop of the French Revolution and Napoleon.
The Deaf Community in America
"After Napoleon’s defeat, the French army left Russia. Czar Alexander I, whose deaf son was Clerc’s student, asked for someone to start a school for deaf students in Russia. Sicard sent one of his teachers, Jean Baptist Jauffret. When learning of this, Clerc insisted on accompanying Jauffret. After several weeks, he was tersely told by Sicard that he could not go as Russia was poor and had money for only one teacher."
The history of deaf education in Russia
DVD. Dr. Victor Palenny, who is visiting NTID from Russia, speaks about the history of deaf education in Russia, from the found of the first school for the deaf in 1806 to the present day. In particular he focuses on state and societal attitudes toward Deaf people, on the role of the All Russian Federation of the Deaf (Vserossiĭskoe obshchestvo glukhikh, or VOG) which played a large role in the elimination of illiteracy, and on vocational training at the VOG enterprises and factories. He also discusses the current need for post-secondary vocational and technical education
Istoriia surdopedagogiki
Overcoming the silence barrier : what is being done for the deaf in the Soviet Union
Puteschestvie v slovo / E. A. Vartanian
Deaf education Russian language reader.
When the Mind Hears
Learn about the deaf illegitimate son of Czar Alexander.on page 156.Count Machwitz. Clerc wanted to go to Russia to help set up a Deaf school, but instead, Gallaudet got Clerc to come to America. See also pages 437, 501.

Maria Fedorovna, empress of Russia
Hearing. Not to be confused with Marie Fedorovna, 1847-1928 (q.v.) Born Sophie-Dorothea Augusta Luise von Wuerttemburg and married Grand Prince Paul of Russia (later Czar Paul I). One of her sons, Alexander I, was deaf in one ear; an illegitimate son of Alexander I, Alexander Machwitz (q.v.), was in turn born deaf in both ears. Her interest and work towards the reform and expansion of education in Russia included the founding of Russia's first school for the deaf, the Pavlovsk Experimental School for the Deaf-Mute near St. Petersburg (1806); this was sparked by a chance meeting with a deaf boy, Alexander Meller. She continued to provide patronage and financial support to the school for the rest of her life, including a large bequest in her will.
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Collage, p.12-15.
Marie Fedorovna, empress of Russia
From the Gallaudet Biography database. Hearing. Not to be confused with Maria Fedorovna, 1759-1828 (q.v.) Born Marie Dagmar, princess of Denmark, daughter of Danish king Christian IX; sister of Queen Alexandra of Britain (deaf, q.v.); married Tsar Alexander III of Russia and mothered Nicholas II, last Russian Tsar. Exiled to Britain from the Crimea in 1919; died in Denmark. In Russia, she and the Tsar set up a foundation, the Guardianship for the Deaf and Dumb, in 1898 for the education and support of the deaf.
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Collage, p.275-276 (Ritter Library, Oversized Shelves, HV237.C766) (https://albert.rit.edu/record=b1498017~S3)
Meller, Alexander
One of the first pupils in Russia's first school for the deaf, the St. Petersburg School for the Deaf-Mute (1806). A chance meeting between him as a young boy and the Empress Maria Fedorovna piqued her interest and led to her founding the school.
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Collage, p.12-14. See Marie Fedorovna, empress of Russia for book info.
Moerder, Ivan Karlovich
Hearing. After careers in the Russian military and at the Russian court, was appointed an honorary trustee at the St. Petersburg Institute for the deaf. Taking a deep interest in the problems of the Russian deaf, he successfully petitioned the royal court to establish and endow a foundation, the Guardianship for the Deaf and Dumb, in 1898 and became director of the Guardianship until his death.
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Collage, p.276-286.

Deaf Periodicals

V edinom stro︠i︡u
Deaf periodical.

Russian Deaf Societies

Istor︠i︡ia Vserossiĭskogo obshchestva glukhikh / [compiled and edited by V. A. Palennyĭ]
3 volumes. Deaf Russian societies.
Of those who cannot hear
Deaf society.
Vserossiĭskoe Obshchestvo Glukhikh : istori︠i︡a, razvitie, perspektivy
Information on the history of the Vserossiĭskoe Obshchestvo Glukhih, the All-Russian Federation for the Deaf

Deaf History

Deaf intellectual purge during the Stalin era
DVD. Arkady Belozovsky, an alumnus of RIT who grew up in Ukraine and currently teaches ASL, Deaf studies, and postsecondary education at Brown University, gives a lecture about the purge of Deaf intellectuals during the Stalin era. In particular, in Leningrad, the Deaf organization suffered greatly, with 34 Deaf people being executed on December 24, 1937 for taking part in an anti-Soviet fascist terrorist organization, and 19 more sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years
Deaf in the USSR
Deaf in the USSR will enjoy a broad readership among those who are interested in deafness and disability as a key to more inclusive understandings of being human and of language, society, politics, and power.
The Deaf Way
The Deaf Community in Soviet Estonia
History of the deaf in Russia
Many Ways to Be Deaf
The Changing World of the Russian Deaf Community
Materialy pervogo moskovskogo simpoziuma po istorii glukhikh, Moskva, 12 sept︠i︡abr︠i︡a, 1996
"Material from the first Moscow Symposium on the history of the deaf, Moscow, September 12, 1996.
Pervyi Predsedatel︡ : Vospominaniya, dokumenty
Discusses the work of Pavel Savelʹev, who was instrumental in forming clubs and publishing newspapers for the deaf in Soviet Russia
Russian deaf heritage
DVD. Two of the presentations from the 1991 International Conference on Deaf History, produced by Sign Media, Inc. and Gallaudet University, and held at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. Williams focuses his presentation on the history of Deaf education in Russia, while Abramov describes the historical social aspects of being Deaf in Russia
Deaf history in Russia / Howard G. Williams -- History of deaf in Russia: myths and realities / Igor A. Abramov
Telling Deaf Lives
The siege of Leningrad and its impact on the life of a deaf family / Tatiana Davidenko (Russia) -- The oral history and experience of the Deaf community in Russia / Victor Palenny (Russia).

Deaf Recreation and Sports

Deaf Russian Americans

Making career dreams come true through resource leveraging
DVD. This DVD tells the true story of Lyudmila, a 22-year-old Deaf woman of Russian origin in Oregon who, with the help of several service programs, pursues her career dream of working in a beauty salon

Ukraine Societies of the Deaf

Ukraine Video

The tribe
DVD. "This film is in sign language. There are no translations, no subtitles, no voice-overs."--Opening screens
An undeniably original and intense feature debut set in the insular world of a Ukrainian high school for the deaf. It unfolds through the non-verbal acting and sign language from a cast of deaf non-professionals, resulting in a unique, never-before-experienced cinematic event that engages the audience on a new sensory level

Ukraine Folktale Signed in ASL

The Mitten When Nicki drops his white mitten in the snow, he goes on without realizing that it is missing. One by one, woodland animals find it and crawl in; first, a curious mole, then a rabbit, a badger and others, each one larger than the last. Finally, a big brown bear is followed in by a tiny brown mouse and what happens next makes for a wonderfully funny climax. As the story of the animals in the mitten unfolds, the reader can see Nicki in the boarders of each page, walking through the woods unaware of what is going on. Once again Jan Brett has created a dramatic and beautiful picture book in her distinctive style. She brings the animals to life with warmth and humor, and her illustrations are full of visual delights and details faithful to the Ukrainian tradition from which the story comes.