Departments

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Russia

  • 3/5/2023

    Whose "Red Lines"?

    by Lawrence Wittner

    Far from promoting clarity and stability, when powerful nations declare "red lines" in their dealings with the world they declare their intentions to impose their will on others. Peace-promoting red lines must be drawn by more robust international cooperation. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    2/17/2023

    Stephen Kotkin on How the Ukraine War Could End

    The historian of Russia and the USSR argues that Putin's invasion will ultimately be seen as a disaster for Russia. Its unclear, however, if that view is sufficiently widespread in Russia to change Putin's strategic outlook or the regime. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/14/2023

    Ukrainian Civilians' Experience of Violence

    by Anne Applebaum and Nataliya Gumenyuk

    Russian soldiers exposed to propaganda that Ukrainians were unwilling subjects of their local governments expected civilian support to capture political leaders; when this expectation was confounded, they unleashed violence. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/14/2023

    The Network Helping Russia's War Resisters Escape

    “In a situation where everyone is against you, including your own relatives, who think that you are a traitor and are ready to hang you from the nearest lamppost, I was extremely pleased to discover that there are people who don’t know you at all, who’ve never seen you, and they are ready to help,” said Oleg Zavyalov, 31.

  • 2/12/2023

    Russia's Courageous War Resisters

    by Lawrence Wittner

    While most Russians have chosen silence in the wake of Putin's harsh anti-dissent measures, and many military-aged men have opted to leave the country, a core of protesters have braved violence and imprisonment to denounce the Ukraine invasion. 

  • SOURCE: Substack
    2/8/2023

    Nuclear Fears Clouding Thinking on Ukraine

    by Timothy Snyder

    "Once we turn our attention to a hypothetical exchange of missiles, we get to imagine that we are the victims.  Suddenly the actual war no longer seems to matter, since our lives (we imagine) are at risk.  And the Ukrainians seem to be at fault."

  • 1/15/2023

    Resisting Nationalism in Education

    by Jacob Goodwin

    "Countering the pull toward nationalistic authoritarianism requires intellectual openness and curiosity.  This is a challenge in the time of recovery from the global pandemic, environmental catastrophe and jagged economic turbulence."

  • SOURCE: Noema
    1/10/2023

    Why the Kremlin Made "Z" its Symbol of the Ukraine Invasion

    by Alexander Etkind

    Can Russia's aggression against Ukraine be explained by its leaders fetishizing the small differences in national life, and the divergent fortunes of the post-Soviet generation, in the two countries? Are those gaps so small that only an invented symbol could express them? 

  • SOURCE: New Statesman
    12/20/2022

    Ukrainesplaining, or, Why the West Underestimated Ukraine

    by Olesya Khromeychuk

    The credibility of Ukraine's claims and commitment to national self-determination have always been dismissed and diminished by the influence of Russian perspectives, even among academic observers. A woman historian finds the phenomenon familiar. 

  • 11/6/2022

    Russian Soldiers' Calls Home Echo Moral Injury Testimony of Vietnam Vets

    by Elise Lemire

    Translations of intercepted calls from Russian soliders in Ukraine reveal guilt, shame, anger, and loss of faith in national institutions and leadership that echo the testimony of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Will these veterans help launch resistance to Russian militarism? 

  • SOURCE: National Interest
    10/26/2022

    Perspective: Using a Nuclear Weapon Would be Disastrous for Russia

    by Steve Cimbala and Lawrence J. Korb

    Russia has retained much of the Soviet-era's top-down command structure, which removes decisionmakers from both the real-world context and consequences of big decisions. This presents a danger that those leaders will misundersand the catastrophic result of a nuclear bomb.