This thesis explores how bureaucracy shapes human experience in 19th-century Russian literature. Through works by Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin, the research develops the concept of the “bureaucratic chronotope,” showing how institutional systems influence perceptions of time, space, consciousness, and social possibility — themes that remain strikingly relevant today.

This oral history research explores silence as a meaningful form of communication rather than an absence of speech. Through documentary interviews with family members, the project examines how silence can express fear, shame, power, and agency, challenging dominant assumptions about listening and revealing how discomfort often prevents deeper understanding and connection.