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"QAS" (RUN) as a Memorial to the Asharshalyk: Loss, Famine, and Horror in Kazakhstan
The 2022 horror film "QAS" may be the closest thing that Kazakhstan has to a genuine memorial to Stalin-era crimes against the nation.
Nazi Crime, Soviet Punishment: War Crimes Trials in the USSR After 1945
The world’s first Nazi war crimes trial was held in July 1943, in the Soviet city of Krasnodar. Just six months after the city was liberated from German occupation, eleven defendants—all Soviet citizens—stood before a military tribunal, accused of collaborating with the enemy.
The Making of Catholic Poland: Religious Tolerance and Nineteenth-Century Polish Nationalism
Before Catholicism became a dominant part of the Polish national imagination in the twentieth century, Poles carefully crafted visions of Poland-Lithuania’s past that interpreted the Commonwealth as a bastion of religious tolerance.
Shifting Sanctuaries: Soviet Sanatoria and Displaced Communities in Georgia
Prioritizing the Soviet-era splendor of Georgian sanatoria over their more recent role as shelters for internally displaced people erases a vital chapter of local history.
Dmitry Markov: Writing with Light
Markov illuminates a curious world often left unseen, writing zakoulki (nooks and crannies) and their absent-minded pedestrians into a portrait of twenty-first-century Russia that neither absolves nor condemns its subject matter.
Declaring Neutrality at the 2025 International Chopin Piano Competition
This year’s Chopin Piano Competition boasts 84 participants from 20 countries competing for cash prizes and, more importantly, coveted concert and recording engagements and name recognition.
Trapped in the Frame: Sokurov’s "Russian Ark" and the Illusion of Artistic Salvation
Alexander Sokurov’s 2002 film “Russian Ark” may intend to affirm the redemptive power of art as Russia’s only salvation, but ultimately undermines that hope.
Russian Constructivist Architects and the Ideal of America
By the late 1920s, the Organization of Contemporary Architects’ affinity with American architectural principles left it vulnerable to attacks from rivals—and the Soviet state.
Two Albanians Talk Corruption (But Only One of Us is Human)
Natural-born skeptics, Albanians responded to the fanfare around Diella, as they have done throughout their troubled history, with world-class humor.
The Gospel According to Maria: Feminist Samizdat in Late-Soviet Leningrad
The late-Soviet women’s journal "Maria" challenges our assumptions about what Soviet feminism looked like—and how it could coexist with Orthodox Christian values.
Belarus’s Coercion Capital: Migrant Recruitment for Strategic Ends
By lowering travel costs, expediting visas, and facilitating transit routes, Belarus has strategically directed migrants toward the EU, turning migration into a form of coercion.
Out of Sight, Out of Memory? Memorials to the Second World War in the Russian Town of Velizh
Jews had lived in the Velizh region under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union, at times making up half the town’s population. The last Jewish inhabitant died in 1973.
Testing out “Friendship of the Peoples”: Soviet-Jewish Evacuees in Uzbekistan during the Second World War
My study of some 120 WWII-era Jewish evacuees to Uzbekistan sought to learn whether their experiences could be framed as a success of the Soviet doctrine of “friendship of the peoples.”
The Russian Economy Three Years after the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its surprisingly strong economy has enabled the government to continuously replenish its military forces without implementing unpopular mass mobilization.
Excerpt from "After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia's Far North"
The Putin regime sees the archives Gulag survivors and their children have built as a threat because they lay bare Soviet crimes, juxtaposing these with the state-sponsored cult of the “Great Patriotic War.”
Was An Iconic Pushkin Heroine Actually a Woman of Color?
Some of Pushkin’s contemporaries associated Russian serfdom with American slavery—and hence, the poet’s youthful liberalism with his African ancestry.
Untangling Green Energy Contradictions in Central Asia
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are at the forefront of regional efforts in renewable energy investment, while also being the largest oil and gas-producing nations of Central Asia.
Was the Stalin Era’s Most Influential History Textbook an Imperial Narrative?
The Stalin-era "Short History of the USSR" subordinated both its critique and endorsement of empire to the celebration of state-building on either side of the revolutionary divide.
Our Hearts Pump in the Rhythm of Hope: The Student Uprising in Serbia
Since November 2024, massive student-led protests against government corruption have roiled Serbia, inspiring a nationwide movement demanding systemic change.
Internet and Public Trust in Government in Central Asia
In Central Asia, more Internet content creation—e.g., posting and blogging—is associated with higher trust in the government and a higher likelihood of election participation.