Revolution, Civil War, and the Formation of Bolshevik Anti-Free Press Discourse, 1917-1922
Scholars of the Soviet Union have written at length about the consolidation of Soviet state control over the media, the establishment of Glavlit and other…
Soviet Union
“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….
The Allies in Siberia During the Russian Revolution
Despite its distance from the hotbed of Russian revolutionary violence, the city of Vladivostok and the Russian Far East experienced their own challenges and intrigue…
Nuclear War: How the United States and the Soviet Union Fought Over Information in Chernobyl’s Aftermath
April 26, 1986 began like any other day for the Soviet citizens of Pripyat, a little-known city of 50,000 in the Ukrainian SSR. At the…
The Evolution and Dissolution of the Soviet Kitchen
Just as the leadership, citizens, and politics of the USSR changed drastically between 1917 and 1991, so too the Soviet kitchen underwent innumerable changes from…
De Jure and De Facto: An Examination of the “Friendship of the Peoples” Policy and the 1937 Koryo Saram[2] Deportation
Even though we have lived in harsh conditions we the community of Koryo Saram[3] have helped each other like brothers. We have provided each other…
7 Facts about the April, 1991 Economic Crisis
The following text was written by Aleksei Rudevich and originally appeared in Russian on the website “Russian 7.” To read the original Russian, click here….
Responding to the Dual Threat to Kazakhness: The Rise of Alash Orda and its Uniquely Kazakh Path
In 1917, following the fall of the Russian empire, Alash Orda, a provisional Kazakh government formed by members of the Alash nationalist party, partially filled…
Trends in Soviet and Post-Soviet Udmurt Cultural Memory
“Are you talking about the Russians or the Udmurt?” “There’s no difference. The two cultures have been intertwined for so long that it’s really impossible…
Кем Быть: Whom Shall I Be: Children’s Literature; A Reflection on the Uncertainties of the Early Soviet Pedagogical Experimentation
Children’s literature of the Soviet Union never failed to mirror the volatile political climate of the Soviet state. Between the end of the civil war…