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In the Wake of the 22nd EU-Ukraine Summit, Judiciary Remains Stumbling Block for Ukraine’s European Aspirations
If there is to be greater economic, political, and social integration with Europe, let alone future membership in the EU, Ukraine will need institute massive reforms quickly, with particular attention...
"Traditional Values" Rhetoric and Efforts for Greater Domestic Violence Protections in Russia: Why Legislative Action May Not Be Enough
Pervasive domestic violence remains an ongoing human rights concern in Russia, with cases underreported and a pronounced lack of recourse and governmental support services. Efforts to address this issue have...
Open Letter on the Termination of Russian Studies Faculty at Ohio University
Like you, we are wholeheartedly invested in the survival and recovery of higher education in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That recovery depends on the will of universities...
Orgasmic Communism?
Did women have better sex under communism?
Gothic Doubling and The Double, Gothically
Dostoevsky was well aware of the power of the gothic.
The Red Balloon of Russian History: How American Media Misunderstood The Sochi Olympics Opening
Letting go of Communism and the Socialist dream was not the interpretation Russian audiences reached for. And that makes sense—ending a theatrical segment entitled “Dreams about Russia” with the fall...
Penile Servitude and the Police State
Sunday before last, on the drizzly police holiday, Petersburg performance artist Petr Pavlensky (b. 1984) sat stark naked in Moscow's sacred center and nailed his scrotum to the cold cobblestones...
Some Themes from Michael Holquist (1935-2016)
In the difficult, vacant days following Michael Holquist’s death, his thought serves as one source of consolation.
On Cumulative Ideology
This past June — a moment since blotted out by geopolitical horrors large and small — Vladimir Putin sat down with NBC’s Megyn Kelly for an interview subsequently lambasted as...
Getting One Thing Straight: “Postmodernists” Are Not the Problem
Discussions of Trump and Putin as “Postmodern politicians” come in many different forms and degrees of sophistication. My own modest contribution is intended only to dispel a bit of confusion...
Why Russia starts so many conflicts on its own borders
The conventional wisdom is that Russia is too nuclear and too big to fail. But it’s also too big to secure — and that means Moscow has pursued a somewhat...
Putin’s Y2024 Problem
There is no doubt that Putin has a succession plan – but he has not yet revealed what it is. During his June 2018 call-in program, Putin said in response...
Vasilisa Visits America: The Rise of Slavic Folklore- Inspired Young Adult Literature in the U.S.
Recently, Russia — or, at least, an imaginary version thereof — has become a standby among writers of American young adult and popular literature.
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...
Asceticism and Embodiment: Female Bodies, Sexuality, and Religious Experiences in Contemporary Russian Women’s Writing
Despite the constantly shifting landscape of women’s involvement and engagement with Orthodoxy and the Church, those seeking to reconcile female religious subjectivity and current Church dogmas—particularly as articulated by reactionary...
Minds and Bodies in the World, or: Learning to Love Dostoevsky
I'm not one of those American Slavists who came to the study of Russian literature by way of Dostoevsky. For a long time, I wasn’t even particularly interested—I’m afraid that...
Whose Moscow is it, anyway?
Rustem Adagamov, known as Drugoi in his LiveJournal, a rather well-known photographer and public figure, posted a series of photos entitled "Курбан-байрам по-московски" – “Kurban-Bayram Moscow-style”, which was celebrated on...
Strongmen, Regular Guys, and Killer Bunnies
If you can remember picking up a copy of the Washington Post on the morning of August 30th, 1979 you may recall the shock of reading a front-page headline announcing...
Fictional Gays and Real Meteorites in Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is about the last place in Russian you’d expect to find any kind of gay movement, and comedians have taken advantage of this.