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Radoslaw Markowski presents research on Polish politics after the October 2015 election
The last Polish election might have been the last election in a normal, democratic context.
Soviet Filmmakers in Africa
Filmmaker and Visiting Fulbright Scholar Alexander Markov spoke of the line between propaganda and art that Soviet documentarians walked in Africa.
Putin-Era Machismo and Anti-Feminism in Historical Perspective
Vladimir Putin has not only restructured Russian politics in his own image, but also intentionally aimed to remasculinize the post-Soviet cultural space. The effort to re-traditionalize Russian masculinity is, in...
There and Back Again (Russia's Alien Nations)
Was the Soviet Union the model for Mordor?
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...
Russia’s War on the Nonhuman
This is not the time to give in to techno-pessimism, nor over-rely on techno-optimism—though closing the sky is long overdue and those fighter jets are sorely needed! Also needed is...
One Year Ago: Russia's War on the Nonhuman
In April 2022, I reflected on the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine by reimagining it through Lesia Ukraïnka’s fairy-drama "Forest Song." On the verge of the invasion’s one-year...
Reconceiving the Center: Correcting Our View of “Great” Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature
By the end of the nineteenth century, fifteen percent of Russia's professional writers were women. If we are now rethinking the canon, a major step is to restore them to...
The Last Will and Testament of Sergei Esenin: Cultural History of a Mystification, Part I
In this article, I’d like to turn away from heated debates over Esenin’s alleged “killers,” or unprofessional falsifiers of literary history, toward an apparently calmer place. I will focus on...
The Leviathan and the Gutter: Gefter.ru interviews NYU's Mikhail Iampolski (Part I)
There’s no law, Putin is absolutely impotent, he can’t do anything. That’s it. All that’s left is to sit there, like a medieval serf, and hope to God that you...
The Leviathan and the Gutter: Gefter.ru interviews NYU's Mikhail Iampolski (Part II)
It’s all very sad, I think. The capacity for thought has already disappeared, and now dignity is gradually being snuffed out, but I don’t see any solutions. People still depend...
Putin's Game of Thrones
The poisoning of Aleksei Navalny is a grim reminder that Russian politics seems to operate by its own set of rules.
The Last Will and Testament of Sergei Esenin: Cultural History of a Mystification, Part III
In the end, he was released as partially insane, for it was noted that he considered himself an incarnation of the Buddha and believed that he desperately needed money to...
Excerpt from "Sex Work in Contemporary Russia: A Cultural Perspective," Part III
Prostitution existed in Russia for several centuries but became a widespread phenomenon during Peter I’s rule (1683–1725), with the first brothel or “public house” reportedly established by a German in...