first para: Grappling with the relationship between intellectuals and communism
after 1917 calls to mind two topics long treated as almost entirely distinct.
The first concerns non-Soviet, generally noncommunist intellectuals
around the world and, in particular, intense twentieth-century debates
over the pro-Soviet “fellow travelers” in the…[Read more]

First para: Do new biographies of the dictator provoke deeper analysis of the Soviet
system? Will the life of Stalin open up new ways of understanding Stalinism?
Past experience, it has to be said, raises doubts. Of all the biographies of Stalin,
few have integrated, much less altered, the state of the art in Soviet history.1
The main reason…[Read more]

First para: The German invasion of the USSR on June 22, 1941 brought with it the most
extreme conditions of the short twentieth century. Suddenly, the existence of
the Soviet state was no longer assured. What the regime did in response tells
us much about Stalinism and the Soviet order. In an enormous swathe of territory
from the western and…[Read more]

In the late nineteenth century, France experienced concurrent revolutions in domestic politics and international affairs. Anti-parliamentary, anti-capitalist and anti-Semitic movements corroded the liberal foundations on which the Republican project rested. Meanwhile, France concluded an alliance with its longtime geopolitical and ideological…[Read more]

Examines competing projects to manage late imperial Kiev’s multi-ethnic society and their political consequences.

Explores how migration changed the political landscape of late imperial Kiev.

Explores the relationship between the Ukrainian nation-building process and the tsarist state.

Explores what the complex entangled histories of Russia and Ukraine can teach us about their trouble relationship today.