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Sergey Sokolov traces the history of republicanism in Russia's political thought
On April 29, 2016, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Sergey Sokolov for a lecture on “The Emergence of Republicanism in Russia (18th – early...
The Possessed Man
Diderot, Rousseau, and all the rest-eau.
Spring Reading Series: Andrei Egunov-Nikolev's "Beyond Tula," Part II
Railroad engineers used to refer to tracks in the feminine: “get up on her,” they’d say about the fifth track, or “she’s a tough one, the eleventh.”
Spring Reading Series: Andrei Egunov-Nikolev's "Beyond Tula," Part III
Darya Fyodorovna came in and asked whether to serve them dinner, but the co-op operator was loping dreamily around the room. A porcelain Easter egg was hanging in the corner...
Spring Reading Series: Andrei Egunov-Nikolev's "Beyond Tula," Part I
"Beyond Tula" has a transparently insignificant plot: a young writer from the city comes to visit his engineer friend in the country for a couple of days, and everything ends...
Of Leeches and Men: The South Caucasus in the Global Trade in Medicinal Leeches in the Nineteenth Century
Supply chain disruptions, scarcity of commodities, and inflation wrought by the global pandemic are on everyone’s mind nowadays. Woes of this kind are, of course, nothing new. In fact, if...
Brutality and Silence in Slaboshpytskyiy's The Tribe
In The Tribe, silence is the perfect cover for a mini-crime ring.
Slavery, Adat, and Blood Revenge in the North Caucasus
Slavery was a deeply ingrained social institution in the North Caucasus.
Fall Reading Series: Sergei Gandlevsky's "Illegible," Part II
Sergey Gandlevsky has written that his very first childhood poem, written on the occasion of the transfer to another school of the “beautiful, stern” little girl he had a crush...
Excerpt from Joanna Stingray's "Red Wave: An American in the Soviet Music Underground," Part II
One of my favorite Pop Mechanics concerts at the Rock Club wasn’t one in which I sang, but one where I saw Sergey produce performance art at its fullest.
Fall Reading Series: Sergei Gandlevsky's "Illegible," Part I
In contemporary Russian literary life, Gandlevsky’s stature as a poet is indisputably great; he is less well known as a prose writer, although his novels and essays have been critically...
Russia is Attacking Western Liberal Democracies
Russia is engaging in an orchestrated, strategic campaign whose purpose is to erode liberal democracy in Europe and the United States.
Legal Nihilism in Russian Television Crime Dramas
The representation of law and justice in Russian crime dramas — and especially their inability to offer a positive image of universally applied law of the Western type — vividly...
Ramzan Kadyrov and Chechnya’s Political Stability Amid the War in Ukraine
Paradoxically, Kadyrov’s leveraging of the war in Ukraine to catapult himself to success in Russian federal politics is jeopardizing his authority in Chechnya.
The Great Symbolic War, or Why Felix Dzerzhinsky is Back
The return of the past in Putin’s Russia resembles a mass-scale historical reenactment. The revived Dzerzhinsky again looks to the West—toward Poland and the Baltics—while the gentlemen who proclaimed themselves...
Admitted as a Tourist, Tried as a Spy
Then I was asked[...] to name the former US secret service workers that he believed were teaching at NYU, and to recount the anti-Russian information that they believed was being...
Overkill, Part II: The Bolotnaya Verdict
Transforming insane claims against activists into legal fact, Russian courts are continuing their established role as blunt weapons in the Kremlin assault on society.
Russian Meddling and Fake News, Part One: Sell Me More Diapers and Napkins, Please
“Russian affairs” have became a hot topic taken up by writers who lack the proper expertise or necessary restraint
“There is Nothing Outside the Beast”: A Conversation with Kevin Rothrock
Тhe imagined reader should be someone who doesn’t care about what you're trying to tell them. So the flavor of what you’re writing should have a little something that holds...
Fall Reading Series: Sergei Gandlevsky's "Illegible," Part III
Krivorotov tried to cause a jealous scene, but Anya would have none of it. “I have one jailer, my aunt, and that’s enough,” the young woman said to him. “If...