Featured
Moldova, the Latvian Purges, and Khrushchev’s Generational Struggle, 1958-1962
Khrushchev’s quiet attempts at replacing the older generation of Party leaders played out differently in two Soviet republics on the USSR's western borderlands.
The Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Transformation of State-Religion Relations in Azerbaijan
In post-Soviet Azerbaijan, the state has moved from religious neglect to active management of faith communities, balancing control over foreign influence with promotion of “traditional” religious expression.
Movement, Theory, Artistic Agency: Bronislava Nijinska's Revolutionary Dance Pedagogy in Post-Revolutionary Kyiv
In revolutionary Kyiv, Bronislava Nijinska's Ecole de Mouvement transformed dance education by uniting intellectual and physical training—creating artists, not just dancers.
Spirits of the Dead, Family Memory, and Resilience in the Indigenous Arctic
Despite various challenges, family legacy continues to be preserved and passed on, shaping animistic practices and concepts among the Asiatic Yupik people in the North-Eastern Russian Arctic.
Formerly Deported Peoples: A Search for Justice That Did Not Lead to Action
Some observers have predicted that Russia’s ethnic mosaic, and non-Russian peoples’ grievances, will drive the country’s future transformation. Recent history gives little reason to hope for such an outcome.
The Comintern and the National and Colonial Question: Reconsidering the Roots of Soviet Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Racism
Recent scholarship on the Comintern has expanded our knowledge of communism’s importance to anti-imperialism, decolonization, and racial equality movements in the interwar period. This scholarship has also explained the movement's limits.
Walt Whitman, Soviet Poet: A Twentieth-Century Reception History
Walt Whitman became a canonical author first in socialist European circles, and then in the nascent Soviet Union.
The Scholarship of War: Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies After 24 February 2022
Responding to Putin’s memory politics is good historical practice in more than one meaning of that term.
Revolutions in Verse: The Medium of Russian Modernism
Rhythm, image, and voice—the three poetic devices at the center of my book, "Revolutions in Verse: The Medium of Russian Modernism"—all name the strange material of poetry without quite defining it.
Book Excerpt: “Stalin's Final Films: Cinema, Socialist Realism, and Soviet Postwar Reality, 1945-1953”
It is a misconception that late Stalin-era cinema retreated into the past. Soviet postwar films were firmly rooted in their historical moment, grappling with the legacies of the Second World War.
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.
The Poetics of De-Ressentiment: Anti-war Russophone Poetry after 24 February 2022
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 triggered a wave of anti-war poetry among Russophone poets, both within Russia and in the diaspora. These poems serve as a counter-narrative to the Kremlin's propaganda, challenging the myths and historical distortions used to justify the war.
The History of Southern Ukraine and Crimea: Ukrainian vs. Russian Perspectives
The history of Southern Ukraine has always been highly politicized.
Time, Objectified: Introducing a New Collected Volume on the Materialization of Soviet Temporalities
In the USSR, there was no such thing as a singular, coherent "Soviet temporality," an assumption of scholarship that foregrounds the unity of Marxist-Leninist historicism.
How and Why the Arctic Council Survived Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
How, and why, did the Arctic Council survive the crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022?
Portraying Perpetration, Victimhood, and Implication at Sites of Soviet Repression in Moscow
The Russian state’s failure to reckon with the legacy of Soviet repression has strengthened memory discourses now used to justify the current war in Ukraine.
Unpacking Emotions in Post-Soviet Russia: The Role of Shame and Pride in Socioeconomic Transformation
The stories of shuttle traders or chelnoki offer a vibrant, intimate glimpse into the personal and societal upheavals of the early post-Soviet 1990s.
Communist Successor Parties and the War in Ukraine: A Precarious Balancing Act
In the face of Russia’s war of aggression, some factions within the Russian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan Left have aligned with Putin’s right-wing dictatorship.
Not Just for Laughs: What Online Memes Tell Us about Russian Public Support for Government Propaganda
What can memes tell us about the attitudes of “ordinary Russians” as presented by meme creators who do not support Putin’s regime?
The Buryat-Mongolian Buddhist Tradition: Legacy, Resilience, and Renaissance
Following the collapse of the Soviet regime, Buddhism in Buryatia entered a new era characterized by efforts to revive the long-repressed tradition.