Russian history

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  9/21/2022
  

  Sergey Radchenko on Putin's Mobilization Speech

  Putin's cautious declaration of a partial mobilization reflects his increasingly desperate military situation and the growing unpopularity of the Ukraine war in Russia. 

• 
• 9/11/2022
  

  Russians' Disapproval of Gorbachev Shouldn't Dominate How He is Remembered

  by Walter G. Moss

  The combination of post-Soviet hardship, resurgent nationalism, and the destructiveness of the Ukraine war have led many Americans to embrace Russians' dim view of Mikhail Gorbachev. A historian of Russia says the leader had his faults, but his furtherance of humane values has been underrated. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  8/31/2022
  

  The Contradictory Legacy of Gorbachev and "Revolution From Above"

  by Ronald Suny

  "A great emancipator, Gorbachev left a mixed legacy. He expanded freedom for millions but at the same time unleashed roiling waves of nationalism and left the upturned soil for renewed authoritarianism."

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/31/2022
  

  Gorbachev Never Understood What He Set in Motion

  by Anne Applebaum

  Sometimes seen as a visionary reformer, Gorbachev may have started the USSR's economic death spiral by restricting the sale of vodka to increase worker productivity. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  8/31/2022
  

  Gorbachev's Greatness Was in His Failure

  by Tom Nichols

  Gorbachev's personal decency made him the wrong man for his chosen task of saving Soviet Communism from collapse; today his reputation is far higher in the west than in the former USSR. 

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  8/31/2022
  

  Gorbachev's Vacuum: His Legacy and Russia's Wars

  by Michael Kimmage

  The last Soviet leader failed to intuit the ultimate consequences of the changes he unleashed, from the collapse of the USSR to the revival of Russian imperialsm. 

• 
• 8/7/2022
  

  On Putin's Vacant Moral Imagination

  by Walter G. Moss

  Russia's stances toward Ukraine and the west in general reflect its leaders' inability, perhaps nurtured by the Soviet system, to view world affairs through another's perspective. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/14/2022
  

  Where Witches Were Men: Magic in Early Modern Russia

  by Valerie Kivelson

  In Orthodox Russia, unlike Catholic and Protestant western Europe, the nature of hierarchy and power meant that the majority of people accused of witchcraft were men, and the popular image of a witch was male. 

• 
• 6/5/2022
  

  The Environmental and Humanistic Sensibility of Pasternak and Lessons from Dr. Zhivago for Today

  by Walter G. Moss

  Boris Pasternak's masterwork exhibited a profound awareness of the onenness of creation – human and natural alike – that should guide the projects of peace and environmental protection.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  5/27/2022
  

  Sergey Radchenko on the State of Russia's Economy Under Sanctions

  NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Russian history professor Sergey Radchenko of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, about the state of the Russian economy after three months of war.

• 
• 5/29/2022
  

  Putin's Ukrainian War and Ecocide

  by Walter G. Moss

  The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows us how gravely the environment is harmed by war and militarism. 

• 
• 4/24/2022
  

  Understanding How Counterfactuals Shape Putin's Worldview and Historical Rhetoric

  by Gavriel Rosenfeld

  While historians have noted the instrumental use of history in Putin's speeches about Ukraine, more attention should be paid to his use of broad counterfactuals that, however they oversimplify historical contingency, successfully evoke politically potent emotions like regret, relief and fear. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/6/2022
  

  Blaming the "Third Rome" Doctrine for Putin's Invasion Distorts His Motives

  by Matthew Lenoe

  "Bogus theories about an innate Russian drive to expand will only complicate negotiations with Moscow, especially a possible post-Putin Moscow."

• 
• 4/3/2022
  

  The Lost Opportunity to Set Post-Soviet Russia on a Stable Course

  by Robert Brent Toplin

  The transition from communism was always going to be difficult for Russia and other post-Soviet states. But American politicians and advisors must share blame for the rise of oligarchy and Putinism as responses to economic instability.

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  3/25/2022
  

  Putin's Threat to Confiscate Foreign Companies' Assets is Dangerous – To Russia

  by Benjamin Sawyer

  The Bolshevik seizure of foreign property and repudiation of foreign debt initially made the Soviet Union a pariah in the world economy, and slowed economic development thereafter. Will Putin's invasion of Ukraine have the same consequences for Russians? 

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  3/29/2022
  

  How Putin Conquered Russia's Oligarchs

  A key for Putin's consolidation of power was not eliminating the post-Soviet oligarchy but shaking it down for protection money and political obedience.

• 
• 4/3/2022
  

  Russia – And Not Just its Army – Is Headed for a Crisis of Morale

  by David A. Mayers

  Russian soliders and civilians will, sooner or later, have to confront the disconnect between their government's patriotic justification of the Ukraine invasion and reality. This existential bleakness may shape Russia for decades to come. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Currents
  3/28/2022
  

  "We Need New Stories of Post-Soviet Jews"

  A team of historians and Jewish and Russian Studies scholars introduce a project to examine the more recent history of Jews in the former Soviet Union. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/24/2022
  

  Tim Snyder: How Putin Misjudged the Western Response

  Did Putin interpret the January 6 attack on the Capitol as evidence that American democracy and the Biden administration were too fracture and weak to coordinate a response to the invasion of Ukraine? 

• 
• SOURCE: Der Spiegel
  3/17/2022
  

  Political Scientist Ivan Krastev: Putin Lives by Historical Analogy

  "For Putin, Russia has long since ceased being a country in the standard sense; it is a kind of historic, 1,000-year-old body."