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Redemption of Sold or Purchased Land in Muscovy during the Reign of Ivan IV (1533-1584) and the Russian Attitude toward Rule of Law
How Muscovites understood the right of redemption (re-acquisition) of sold land or land donated to monasteries shows that, under Ivan the Terrible, statutory law and case law did not always coincide.
Out of Sight, Out of Memory? Memorials to the Second World War in the Russian Town of Velizh
Jews had lived in the Velizh region under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union, at times making up half the town’s population. The last Jewish inhabitant died in 1973.
The Place of Unrecognized States in the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation - The Case of Transnistria
An unrecognized state is a political entity that possesses all the attributes of statehood (e.g., has armed forces, creates foreign policy) but lacks the international recognition of statehood status. One...
Of Leeches and Men: The South Caucasus in the Global Trade in Medicinal Leeches in the Nineteenth Century
Supply chain disruptions, scarcity of commodities, and inflation wrought by the global pandemic are on everyone’s mind nowadays. Woes of this kind are, of course, nothing new. In fact, if...
Of Mice and Men: Why Animal Studies Matter
On Monday, May 6, the Jordan Center hosted the last event in this semester’s diasporas series. While our previous sessions have focused on human interaction in both politics, history, and...
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...
Of Course, We Didn’t Know: An Immigrant Story
So why not spend some time looking in their eyes?
Life with the Russian Émigré Community of Australia
When I married a Russian Australian and moved to Sydney in 2019, my family friends shook their heads, as if to say, “Here we go, another one of our girls...
The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects
Soldiers are constructing whatever they can: Oil cans become stoves, artillery shells become kerosene lamps, overcoat fabric becomes wicks. Government officials regularly checked these trench “cities” for proper ventilation, light,...
"On Narratives of Possibility and the Nature of Social Protest": A colloquium discussion with William Rosenberg
William Rosenberg discusses the multiplicity of narratives that shaped the Revolution.
The Propaganda of Pornography: Soviet Reforms on Obscenity, Morality, and Personal Freedom in the Era of Glasnost
Lawmakers' greatest challenge was in defining pornography, a prerequisite for drafting meaningful legislation against it. Even pornography abolitionists acknowledged the importance of erotic themes in art and literature and did...
Oksana Mykhed discusses the role of the plague in the making of the Ukrainian border
On November 6, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed historian Oksana Mykhed to present a lecture titled “A Plague on your Borders: Public Health...
Faces of Fear: An Investigation of Horror Cinema Guided by Leonid Lipavsky (Part I)
There’s something too light and easy about the way blood abandons its home and becomes a self-sufficient, warmish puddle—which may be living or not. Slowly leaving its captivity, it begins...
The Bicentennial that Isn’t of the Revolution that Wasn’t: Reflections on the 200th Anniversary of the Decembrist Uprising
It is hard to overlook the fact that perhaps what matters most about the Decembrist bicentennial is its absence.
Excerpt from Brandon Schechter's “The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects"
This book tells the story of that dramatic change—from a desperate, retreating band to a victorious army—as experienced by soldiers. The years 1941–1945 replayed in real life a universal tale...
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...
Society of Thieves. Protection of the Socialist Property under Stalin
Stealing public property was a mechanism for coping with the Socialist realities
A Synthesis of Ephemeral Forms: Soviet Camera Enthusiasm on the Margins of the Performing Arts
During the renaissance that was the post-Stalin Thaw period, camera enthusiasm became a notable aspect of Soviet sixties culture. The film clubs opening in various parts of the country were...
The Eternal Adolescent Savenko: Eduard Limonov, the Hooligan of Russian Literature and Politics, Dies in Moscow at the Age of 77
Eduard Limonov (né Savenko) died in a Moscow hospital on the evening of March 17, at the age of 77.
Disruption: The Global Economic Shocks of the 1970s and the End of the Cold War
The Soviet bloc’s inability to adapt to the global economic shocks of the 1970s played the decisive role in its collapse.