In her 2001 novel, Ulitskaya uses the medical gaze to bring the pregnant woman closer to her child.
Continue reading...Russia and China: Strategic Comrades in Challenging the Existing World Order
Lutgard Lams and Hedwig de Smaele |Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian and Chinese positioning vis-à-vis the West has only become more antagonistic.
Continue reading...The Second Great Patriotic War? Sacred Memory and Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine
Sean Griffin |The cult of the Great Victory was transformed into the war cult of the Russian invasion.
Continue reading...Russian Liberals and the Kremlin: Racism and Colonialism as Common Ground, Part II
Anna Gomboeva |Despite their conflicting interests and ideologies, every political affiliation across post-Soviet Europe blamed Russian war crimes on the Asian “other.”
Continue reading...Russian Liberals and the Kremlin: Racism and Colonialism as Common Ground, Part I
Anna Gomboeva |Russian liberals present themselves as “civilized Europeans” who would like to fix the “backward Asianness” of Russia. By drawing such Orientalist distinctions, these figures justify the existing colonial economic relationship between the wealthy “European” metropole and its impoverished, “Asiatic” provinces.
Continue reading...Are Sanctions on Russia Effective? How (Not) to Inform the Debate, Part II
Juliet Johnson |The unprecedented nature of the current sanctions, both in terms of their scale and in terms of the economic size of the target state, makes it more challenging to extrapolate from prior experience.
Continue reading...Are Sanctions on Russia Effective? How (Not) to Inform the Debate, Part I
Juliet Johnson |According to many indicators, the Russian economy has bounced back from the initial hit of sanctions, thanks in large part to skillful financial policy and planning by the Russian central bank and finance ministry, as well as loopholes in the sanctions regime.
Continue reading...Destruction, Reconstruction, Belief: The 1837 Fire at the Winter Palace and its Aftermaths (A Paper in Verse)
Paul Werth |‘Twas evening in St Petersburg
The days were very short
It happened in December
At the dwelling of the court.
The tsar was at the theater
When the news was brought to him
“The palace has gone up in flames!”
The news was very grim!
Civic Poetry and the Decembrist Revolt: Pushkin, Virtue Signaling, and Liberal Vibes
Emily Wang |Through its effective use of language that went on to become a hallmark of its genre, Pushkin’s political verse helped shape a subgenre of civic poetry and was subsequently interpreted in the context of this broader corpus and its increasingly radical opposition to the state.
Continue reading...Cossack Education Becoming Further Institutionalized Across Russia’s Regions
Richard Arnold |Russia is going to great lengths to maintain its war effort in Ukraine without having to resort to another wave of mass mobilization. Military-adjacent structures, such as the Registered Cossacks, are becoming increasingly important as a source of recruits for the Russian army. Cossack education plays a central role in this process, ensuring the indoctrination of Russian society for a long war in Ukraine and physical preparedness for future conflicts.
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