Ekaterina Kolevatova

Ekaterina Kolevatova is a specialist in the field of Russian and Slavic literature and Digital Humanities. She received her bachelor's degree in Russian Philology at St. Petersburg State University (Russia) in 2019, and then her master's degree at the University of Tartu (Estonia) in Russian and Slavic Philology in 2022. As part of the Erasmus+ program, Ekaterina also spent one semester at the University of Bologna, where she studied computer methods in Humanities. In 2019 and 2022, Ekaterina worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature. In 2023, Ekaterina became a member of the DFG funded research training group "Family Matters" at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Thesis topic:"The Path of the Soviet Family from Late Stalinism to the Thaw"

The project "The Path of the Soviet Family from Late Stalinism to the Thaw" deals with the family image in the Soviet drama of the post-war era. The main purpose of the project is to analyze and describe the family model in the drama of the most dramatic and, at the same time, interesting period in Russian history – late Stalinism and the subsequent period of the Khrushchev Thaw. During the period of Late Stalinism, the formation of an ideological framework on many issues was completed: clear anti-American and anti-Western tendencies appeared, the desire for isolationism, comprehensive unification and strengthening the figure of the leader. It was drama that solved the most important ideological tasks and served as a powerful propaganda tool portraying life in the Soviet Union and beyond within a rigid ideological framework. The project considers the image of the family, which was broadcast by the authorities, that image of an ideal impersonal family, which was imposed on Soviet citizens. After Stalin's death in 1953, censorship noticeably weakened, and new themes and trends appeared in the literature. Inevitable changes also took place in the stages of Soviet theaters. The image of the family in drama changed significantly. There were no more ideal advanced workers, as well as an ideal family. The project explores both adult and children's drama to show how the weakening of censorship affected the portrayal of the family in Soviet drama. In addition to the classical methods of literary analysis methods of Digital Humanities are used in the work. The combination of close and distant reading makes it possible to describe the image of the family in the Soviet theater in the most complete and multifaceted way.