After the fall of communism in Europe, a new generation of historians sought to overcome the East-West wall inside their own discipline. A history of East-West antagonisms was to be replaced by a history of Europe as an integrated whole, and of Russia as part of a wider world.
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What distinguishes “Russian TV Series in the Era of Transition” from other works on Russian television is its emphasis on the industry’s adaptation to global markets and trends.
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Putin’s decision to mobilize Crimean Tatars may backfire. He has underestimated them just as he completely misunderstood Ukraine.
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A look at the voting records for the civil rights and immigration bills passed during Eisenhower’s presidency reveals a remarkable but unsurprising consistency: those who opposed racial integration also opposed the introduction of more foreigners.
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During traumatic events we keep returning to the representations of the maternal, a manifestation of motherly protection, which is often coloured by our childhood fears that such protection will inevitably fade.
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Foreign fighters hailing from the former Soviet Union are more numerous, and better incorporated into Ukraine’s armed forces, than ever before. Their language skills, experience of post-Soviet armed conflicts, and shared post-Soviet heritage make them far more manageable and effective for Ukraine than more diverse units populated by Western volunteers.
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On a day when the news was silent about why the stock market had failed to open, and as protests were unfolding in major cities across Russia, watching ballet on TV felt profoundly dissonant.
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The Primary Party Organization was neither an instrument of managerial despotism nor a dysfunctional bureaucracy that workers exploited to deflect pressures on their living standards. Instead, it was a complicated, contradictory institution that both extended the reach of state power over society, and limited the control of the state over the concrete implementation of policy.
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For authoritarian regimes, however, investing in universities also poses a risk. Cultivating a robust system of higher education may facilitate the development of a middle class and politically active youth movements that may be inclined to advocate for democracy.
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In my recent experience leading English classes for Ukrainian refugees, I have noticed students fluidly moving between Russian and Ukrainian. This phenomenon is well-documented across Ukraine, and there’s no need to rehash it here. I’ll admit, however, to being surprised: wouldn’t war with Russia, the symbol of the Russian language (and home of its institutions, such as the Pushkin Institute of the Russian Language), produce antipathy toward it, at the very least? And wouldn’t this antipathy lead people to abandon Russian en masse in order to assert their Ukrainian patriotism and difference?
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For many of us who feel complicit—through language, citizenship, or background—in the crimes Russia is carrying out in Ukraine right now, it feels necessary to reassess the metaphors we have been using in discourse and fiction. Do the figures of power that these metaphors represent preserve and prescribe the status quo (which does not even seem to be “just” a status quo anymore)?
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Roberts never defends Stalin or his crimes, but he does affirm Stalin’s rationality, arguing that Stalin’s actions can be understood in light of his ideas. His steadfast pursuit of communist utopia, as expressed in Marxist ideology and the politics of class warfare, produced the politics of purge and famine that defined the Soviet 1930s. It was political principle, not personal psychosis, that led Stalin to act as he did.
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In a years-long attempt to reassert its influence in neighboring post-Soviet countries, and secure its borders from the West, Moscow has consistently been creating enemies along its borders. As of 2022, Russia is more than ever surrounded by hostile nations. The reason is Moscow’s unsustainable foreign policy, which creates more adversaries than allies, and thereby contradicts its strategic interests in the long run.
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Some two decades ago, Serbs had bombs dropped on their heads, just like the Ukrainians right now. Yet some have displayed an obvious lack of sympathy for the current experience of ordinary Ukrainians. The silence of missing compassion is deafening, drowned out only by the voices supporting Putin.
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With seventy percent of shooting complete and a budget shortfall of 235 million rubles, “Empire V”‘s filmmakers turned to a novel form of fundraising: cryptocurrency. An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of “Bablos” tokens—named for the money-like substance that the vampires in Pelevin’s novel consume instead of blood—offered fans the chance to partake in a “first of its kind” cinematic crowdfunding project.
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If the first liberal arts academies in East Slavic lands swiftly attained a reputation for academic excellence, and were endorsed by both Church and state authorities, why was their introduction stalled until the seventeenth century?
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In the outpouring of commentary following the death of Mikhail Gorbachev at age 91 there seems to be a broad consensus about his varying historical legacy, East and West: he is both lauded in the West and loathed inside Russia.
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Russia’s provinces are becoming less accepting of Moscow’s domination, and the 2020 Khabarovsk protests in particular signal the increased willingness of Russia’s peripheral regions to push back.
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Polling in an authoritarian regime is a tricky business, all the more so when the country is at war. People are understandably wary of expressing an opinion to a random stranger. Nevertheless, the Levada Center has regularly asked Russians about their attitudes towards the “military operation.” They find a high level of support: 74% in April, 77% in May and 75% in June. Age differences are significant: more than 90% of respondents over 65 supported the war versus 36% of those aged 18-24. The May poll found that 44% expected the “operation” to last at least six more months.
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Putin is 69 years old. There has been much speculation about the state of his health. All we know for sure is that he will die at some point: that could happen tomorrow, or it could be 25 years from now. Putin has made no move to groom a potential successor. Such a step could lead to a palace coup and an involuntary and premature departure from power. Putin has structured his regime in a way that makes a successful coup unlikely to succeed.
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