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“It’s Disrespectful for People Abroad to Call Us Mercenaries When Here We’re Considered Heroes”: Colombian Fighters in Russia’s Full-Scale War Against Ukraine, Part II
“It’s Disrespectful for People Abroad to Call Us Mercenaries When Here We’re Considered Heroes”: Colombian Fighters in Russia’s Full-Scale War Against Ukraine, Part I
Beyond "Circus": Remembering James Patterson (1933-2025) as a Poet
Patterson wrote from inside Soviet internationalism, but his best poems also exceed it, asking what it means to belong to Russia, to Africa, to Black history, and to poetry—all at the same time.
“It’s Disrespectful for People Abroad to Call Us Mercenaries When Here We’re Considered Heroes”: Colombian Fighters in Russia’s Full-Scale War Against Ukraine, Part II
“Every day, dozens of people from all over the world arrive in Russia to enlist. Many Colombians come after watching TikTok videos, as if this were a game. What is posted on social media is not real."
“It’s Disrespectful for People Abroad to Call Us Mercenaries When Here We’re Considered Heroes”: Colombian Fighters in Russia’s Full-Scale War Against Ukraine, Part I
Since 2022, thousands of Colombians have entered the Russia-Ukraine conflict, on both sides. Why?
Derrida’s “Archive Fever” in Russia’s Disappearing Queer Archive
The archive in the internet age becomes not only a place of historic preservation, but also a source of potential persecution.
Maxim Litvinov’s “The Young Firefighter” (1996): Reading into an “Annoying Tale”
Despite the ridiculousness of its lyrical content, Maxim Litvinov’s bard-rock song, “The Young Firefighter,” functions as no less than an epitaph for the entire Soviet century.
Continued Authoritarianism or New Leadership? Challenges to Fidesz in Hungary’s Upcoming Parliamentary Election
Hungary’s parliamentary contest, coming up on 12 April, could become the year’s most consequential European election.
As War in Ukraine Enters a Fifth Year, Will the "Putin Consensus" Among Russians Hold?
As the war following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 enters its fifth year, the attitude of the Russian public remains difficult to gauge.
Review: “Mother Russia” at New York’s Signature Theatre
A post-Soviet buddy comedy, “Mother Russia” captures Russia’s chaotic transition from communism to capitalism in the 1990s.
Announcing: "19v Conservative Imaginaries"
The goal of this working group is to interrogate the relationship between aesthetics and conservative politics.
Whom Can the Youth Trust? Mother Figures in Contemporary Russia
As a female counterpart to "Putin the father," we might consider Ekaterina Mizulina, daughter of politician and traditional values advocate Elena Mizulina and wife of pro-Kremlin singer-songwriter Shaman.
When Environmental Justice Becomes a Security Target in Russia
When extraction becomes politically protected, resistance becomes easier to criminalize.
The Official Who Cried Secret Societies, or How Decembrists Helped to Merge Conspiracy Theories and Russian Security State
The events that followed the Decembrist Uprising cemented the close bond between conspiracy thinking and the Russian bureaucratic mentality.
To the Decembrists’ “Hopeless Cause” (Of Enthusiasm)
In the Russian nineteenth century, the emotional states of enthusiasm and melancholy signified a rebellion against authority, tradition, and political order.
Chaadaev’s “Revolutionary” Retirement: The Politics of Contempt
After the soldiers of Russia’s elite Semenovskii regiment mutinied in fall 1820, the officer entrusted with writing up the incident for Alexander I was none other than the philosopher Petr Chaadaev.
The Melancholy of Hope, Two Hundred Years On
The diaries of Nikolai Turgenev (1789-1871) show how one young man living through a historical upheaval when “past” crumbled, “present” became unintelligible, and “future” foreclosed managed to reclaim his present and act for the future—both his own, and Russia’s.
Narratives under the Influence: Rethinking Stalin-Era Literature Through the Hidden Discourse of Narcotics
References to psychoactive substances are surprisingly common in Stalin-era literature—and not only in “unofficial” or “underground” works.
The Memorialization of Bauyrzhan Momyshuly in Kazakhstan
The figure of Bauyrzhan Momyshuly (1910-1982), a Kazakh-Soviet military colonel and writer, helps establish historical continuity between pre-modern forms of Kazakh statehood and the present republic.
The Bicentennial that Isn’t of the Revolution that Wasn’t: Reflections on the 200th Anniversary of the Decembrist Uprising
It is hard to overlook the fact that perhaps what matters most about the Decembrist bicentennial is its absence.
Thinking Reeds and Foolish Weeds: On Emigration and Adaptation
Both Nina Berberova and Olga Zilberbourg lack the comforts of a rooted identity. In its place, each author carves out a narrative space where survival itself becomes a form of authorship.
Inherited Silence: Russian Family History
What defines post-Soviet family history is not what has been transmitted, like the inherited pain of Holocaust survivors’ descendants, but what has been missed.
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