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The Precarity of Shishkin’s Bear Cubs
Far from naively portraying an untroubled nature, Shishkin's "Morning in a Pine Forest" critiques the same industrialization that would later produce mass-marketed chocolates like “Clumsy Bear.” Although the bears 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...
Easter in Russia: Between Church and State, a New Divide Has Risen
The enormous variances in how priests chose to observe Easter this year in Russia hints at the broader context that frames the divide between those following church-related COVID restrictions and...
The Second Great Patriotic War? Sacred Memory and Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine
The cult of the Great Victory was transformed into the war cult of the Russian invasion.
The More I See of Men, the More I Love My Dog (Pelagia and the White Bulldog 4)
R.I.P. Zakusai. You’ll be missed. Well, only by Marya Afanasyevna, but still.
The Dog Days Are Over (Pelagia and the White Bulldog 3)
Underneath a veneer of coziness lies the potential for violence and exploitation.
All Dogs Go to Heaven (Pelagia and the White Bulldog 5)
Perhaps we’re all in some mirror universe episode of Scooby Doo, and Pelagia is Velma?
Gothic Doubling and The Double, Gothically
Dostoevsky was well aware of the power of the gothic.
The Cold War’s End Between Contingency and Crowds
Taken together, Mary Sarotte's "The Collapse" and Serhii Plokhy's "The Last Empire" offer insights into the world’s geopolitical revolution of 1989-91, how developed states fail, and the limits of U.S....
A conversation with author Michael David-Fox on Soviet modernity
Michael David Fox speaks on his recent book, Crossing Borders: Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union.
May Day: A History
The first of May has been celebrated around the world for centuries. Known as “May Day,” the holiday originated in revelries anticipating the coming of spring in the Northern Hemisphere...
She Blinded Him with Science (WQ 16)
What Lady Astair does with minds, her mad scientist disciple wants to do with brains
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...
Ambassadors of Social Progress or Obstacles to Integration?, Part I
It is precisely at the intersection of disability advocacy and its politicization in the face of the Cold War that we should trace the development of the international blind movement in the 1970s-1980s.
Slavery, Adat, and Blood Revenge in the North Caucasus
Slavery was a deeply ingrained social institution in the North Caucasus.
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...
Overkill as Governance: How I Spent my Summer in Moscow (Part I)
It's no secret to those who study Russia that the culture of vertical control here affects everyone – not least human rights workers and lawyers fighting good fights.
Russia’s Grasp on Okhotsk Will Intensify South China Sea Tensions
The closing of the Sea of Okhotsk will also greatly exacerbate maritime tensions in the greater Pacific.
Universal Pictures: Zvyagintsev, Dostoevsky and the Politics of the Particular
By the end of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan, I wanted to scream.
Six Questions for Jenny Kaminer about her new book, Women with a Thirst for Destruction: The Bad Mother in Russian Culture
"“Bad,” of course is a highly relative, historically contingent, and variable term. I try to shed light on how changing political, social, and cultural contexts shape the varying models of...