Russian for Wonks: The Geopolitics of Summer Camp
For many Russian children, summer camp is a cherished rite of passage—an escape from school routines into a world of bonfires, games, and shared songs….
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Book Review of The Right to be Helped: Deviance, Entitlement, and the Soviet Moral Order
Maria Cristina Galmarini-Kabala. The Right to be Helped: Deviance, Entitlement, and the Soviet Moral Order. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2016. 316 pp., $25.99…
Russian for Wonks: Demographics and Childbirth
Russian demographics have been a major policy issue for the Russian state since its formation in 1991. It has also been well covered in both…
Moscow’s Reopening and COVID Response: A View from the Ground
As of Tuesday, June 23rd, after nearly three months of quarantine measures, Moscow has reopened. The city was able to mobilize phenomenal resources and put…
A Comparative Look at Coronavirus Responses in Eurasia
The global health crisis has changed life around the world, but in often very different ways in various places. Even countries located close to each…
“Healthy Body, Healthy Mind”: the visual propaganda of personal care during the Cultural Revolution in the Stalinist State
The picture of “Comrade Lenin Sweeps the World Clean of Filth” (below) is a perfect illustration of Soviets’ axiological orientations: they felt a moral duty…
“Medicine Standing on its Head”: Snezhnevsky, Sluggish Schizophrenia and Soviet Political Abuse of Psychiatry
In this essay, I analyze political abuses of psychiatry in the Soviet Union by exploring Andrei Snezhnevsky’s diagnosis of sluggish schizophrenia—a fictional branch of schizophrenia….
How Does Income Affect Suicide Rates? Regional Evidence from Russia
I believe no man ever threw away life, while it was worth keeping. For such is our natural horror of death, that small motives will…
Chernobyl: A Short History of the Human Impact on Ukraine and its Neighbors
On April 26, 1986 the worst nuclear accident in history took place in Chernobyl, Ukraine as a result of an unnecessary safety test. Workers at…
Rejecting Professional Medicine in Contemporary Russia
The rejection of professional medical care (except for acute cases demanding urgent or specific treatment) has become common in contemporary Russia (Maximova 2002, Rose 2000)….
Life with Aids in Rural Russia: A Photo Essay
On 1 December 2005, life took a dramatic turn for 25-year-old, HIV-positive Svetlana Izambaeva. Svetlana, who lives in the small Russian city of Cheboksari, was…
The Impending Price of Ignorance: Demographic Politics of Sexual Education in Russia in Post-Soviet Russia
In the context of escalating international speculation as to the determining factors behind Russia’s demographic crisis, the HIV epidemic is lent increasingly heightened significance. Such…