This is an interview with an anonymous Russian researcher recorded in the winter of 2023, in response to events taking place in the Russian Federation. In this interview the role of dissidents and the civil society in exile is discussed. Life under the current regime is compared with life during the Soviet-period: there are similiarities and differences in the repressive apparatus and the methods and strategies for resistance.
By
Elisa Marin and Oliver Skye
May 29, 2026
Filming from under a history in erasure: Jessica Gorter’s documentary films about Russia’s memory and counter-memory.
By
Irina Sandomirskaja, Ramona Rat and Payam Masarrat
December 18, 2025
Hadley Z. Renkin on Hungarian sexual politics, geotemporal belonging, and the impending reemergence of fascism.
By
Eugenia Seleznova
December 18, 2025
Yurii Latysh, PhD (Candidate of Historical Sciences), visiting Professor of State University of Londrina (Brazil), deputy editor-in-chief of the journal Historical Expertise (Istoriceskaja Ekspertiza), in a discussion with Denys Kiryukhin on how the Russo-Ukrainian war has affected the politics of memory in Eastern Europe.
By
Denys Kiryukhin
November 21, 2025
RUTA is an association formed by epistemic communities and solidarity networks in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. RUTA promotes and supports Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asia Studies in the global conversation. Tereza Hendl is one of the founding members. In conversation with Elisa Satjukow she discusses the need to reclaim the debate, and emphasizes the decolonial forces set in motion to protect academia in the region from Russia’s violence and epistemological domination.
By
Elisa Satjukow
April 16, 2025
The repression in Belarus is targeting academia. Olga Shparaga is one of the co-founders of the European College of Liberal Arts in Minsk (ECLAB), and former lecturer at the European Humanities University (EHU), that was forcibly closed 2004 and moved into exile in Vilnius. In a conversation with Friedrich Cain, she describes how the Belarusian exile Academia, although persecuted even abroad, still works to educate Belarusian students and support teachers inside Belarus as well as in exile through various networks and strategies.
By
Friedrich ´ Cain
April 16, 2025
Serhii Plokhy, professor in Ukrainian history at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, in a conversation on the history of Ukraine, knowledge production, decolonization, the role of the Church and the ongoing war, with Professor Barbara Törnquist-Plewa.
By
Barbara Törnquist-Plewa
April 16, 2025
In a conversation with Irina Sandomirskaja, Luba Jurgenson explores how the epoch-making event of Russia’s war in Ukraine has led to changes in the research field Slavic Studies, particularly memory studies and the studies of camp literature. They discuss how ideas of repetition and the return of history have a new resonance, and how increasing concerns are impacting a historical consciousness that demands epistemic justice.
By
Irina Sandomirskaja
April 16, 2025
Olli-Pekka Martikainen is the Secretery General of the Association of Finnish Music Schools, an umbrella organization that includes 97 schools. He has a doctorate in music and he previously worked as the vice dean of the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. Apart from leadership in higher music education Martikainen has worked as an orchestral and chamber musician and as a teacher at the Sibelius Academy. Martikainen holds the first artistic Doctoral degree in the field of percussion music in Finland. Ann Werner asked him questions about higher music education in the Baltic region with her own research on nation and gender in higher music education as background.
By
Ann Werner
September 18, 2024
The projection of imperial power through overtly religious pageantry, symbols and narratives has been a key element of Russia’s identity politics under Putin, informing the Kremlin’s aggressive international policies, but also shaping the domestic perceptions of Russia’s global role.
In a conversation with Irina Sandomirskaja, Valentina Izmirlieva explores the utility of the Russian Orthodox Church in this process, and the significant transformations within the Orthodox sphere that facilitate the radical militarization of Russian society. She also discusses the role and future of multidisciplinary area studies as such, and in particular Slavic Studies.
By
Irina Sandomirskaja
September 18, 2024