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What Does a Putin Garden Gnome Tell Us About Contemporary Politics?
I first noticed the 7” hand-cast polymer Putin statue on Etsy.com in November 2017. The listing was delightfully playful in nature but also showed a solid engagement with contemporary politics....
Soviet Miners’ Strikes, Thirty Years Later: What Miners Demanded in 1989 and 1991, Part I
In 2009 the former chair of the Donetsk Strike Committee recalled in an interview to the newspaper "Segodnia," “We never pursued the goal of Soviet collapse. We were against the...
Ethical Questions in Researching the Religious Underground in Romania's Secret Police Archives, Part I
In their effort to curtail the clandestine practice of religion, the secret police produced a thorough database of names, places, biographies, activities, and networks. It created one of the most...
Romanian Secret Police Archives and the Women of the Religious Underground
In the process of surveilling church leadership, clergy, and church elders, the Secret Police unwittingly uncovered the new roles that women took on in religious life during a time when...
Excerpt from "Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective," Part II
The sex industry in Russia is multiethnic, with scholars estimating a significant number of female migrants (from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia) working as sex workers, especially in...
Soviet Miners’ Strikes, Thirty Years Later: What Miners Demanded in 1989 and 1991, Part II
By describing the benefits the mine accrued thanks to its specialists and white-collar employees, the "Izvestiia" article points to the intellectual nature of work performed by those striking miners called...
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.
Did Russia Really Just Shut the Door on International Human Rights Law?
When Putin signed this law, the hyperbolic headlines and apparent ignorance of the Russian legal system, not to mention of international law were ... not unexpected.