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Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II
On October 1, 2021, the Jordan Center hosted Professor Francine Hirsch, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for a talk about her book titled Soviet...
Reading Russian Media Between the Lines: On Kommersant's "Nuremberg" Photo
The Russian newspaper Kommersant quietly engaged in a brave act of resistance on Wednesday. The newspaper ran an interview with the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin,...
The Shamakhmudovs, Part I: Family and Kinship Metaphors in the Soviet Symbolic Order
“The family of an Uzbek blacksmith identified as Shamakmudov [sic] may be the most multi-national in the world, the TASS news agency reported today. Akhmed and his wife adopted 14...
"Fantasy is Not History": Historian Victoria Smolkin Assesses Putin’s Claim that Modern-Day Ukraine is a "Gift" from the Bolsheviks
To understand the scholarly merits of Ukrainian and Soviet history as presented by Mr. Putin, "Meduza" turned to Dr. Victoria Smolkin, a historian at Wesleyan University who studies Communism, the...
One Year Ago: Historian Victoria Smolkin Assesses Putin’s Claim that Modern-Day Ukraine is a "Gift" from the Bolsheviks
As a historian, what struck me most about the historical narrative of Vladimir Putin’s speech was not only what “historical facts”—to borrow his terminology—Putin used, but also what he left...
How the World Came to Use the Metric System, Part II
The metric system didn’t become international because it was more rational than other systems; it became international because some Russian academicians and their colleagues from Europe and the Americas made...
Paralysis of Complicity in Dmitri Prigov and Beyond: How to Do Things With Metaphors Now?
For many of us who feel complicit—through language, citizenship, or background—in the crimes Russia is carrying out in Ukraine right now, it feels necessary to reassess the metaphors we have...