Here are links to a couple of other recent publications by me.
The first is a piece published by Landmarks, the online journal of the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy. It is one of a set of responses to proposals for a new policy of containment against Russia and China. You can read it here.
The second is my latest piece in Canadian Dimension magazine, in which I discuss the protests currently taking place in Georgia. Click here.
Happy reading.
My latest publication is now out. It consists of an introduction to Anna Reich’s book of photographs of, and interviews with, Lithuanians who fought with the Soviet army in Afghanistan. In my introduction I discuss the experiences of Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan; the issues they faced reintegrating in civilian society after the war; and the particular problems they have encountered in Lithuania, a country that denies any responsibility for them, doesn’t recognize them as veterans, and nowadays even prohibits them from wearing their old uniforms, displaying their medals, flying Soviet flags, etc, at commemorations. You can purchase the book via Cornell University Press here.
I was out of the country for a bit, attending the annual conference of the British Association of Slavic and East European Studies (BASEES), after which I was mysteriously locked out of WordPress for a while. However, I am now back in, and thought it would be good to post here my BASEES conference paper, as it is unlikely to be published anywhere else. So here it is:
Perceptions of Alexander III in Modern Russia
Presentation to BASEES Conference, April 2024
It is probably fair to say that Emperor Alexander III of Russia does not have a very good reputation in the English speaking world. In Russia, though, the emperor has been rehabilitated in the post-Soviet era. In November 2017, for instance, Russian president Vladimir Putin unveiled a statue of Alexander III in Crimea, commenting that “The reign of Alexander III was called the age of national revival, a true uplift of Russian art, painting, literature, music, education and science, the time of returning to our roots and historical heritage.”
In December 2023, Putin then attended the launch of the Russian navy’s latest ballistic missile submarine, the Emperor Alexander III. Alexander is in official favour.
For this paper, I have decided to look at how historians have represented Alexander in the past 20 or so years. Alexander hasn’t received much attention from English-speaking historians – there is in fact not a single English language biography of Alexander other than one published in the year of his death in 1894 and a privately published one that isn’t available in any library anywhere. In Russia, by contrast, a huge number of works related to Alexander have been produced in recent years. The earliest one I have examined for the purpose of this talk is a biography by Alexander Bokhanov. This was originally published in 1998, but the copy I have is a sixth edition, published in 2019, indicating that there is still a lot of interest in this book.
Next are a couple of biographies by Olga Barkovets and Alexander Krylov-Tolstikovich, the first of which was produced in 2001 and the second in 2007, the latter being a slightly bigger version of the former.
Then there are further biographies by Alexander Miasnikov and I. E. Dronov from 2016, S. V. Ilyin from 2019, Nina Boiko from 2022, and V. A. Grechukhin from 2023. That’s eight biographies in about 25 years, and five in just the last 10 years. On top of that, there are a bunch of other books, for instance Tocheny and Tochenaia’s Russian Autocrats: Alexander III, Lenin, Stalin, and there are also a number of source books which publish documents about Alexander dating from his life. These include the 900 page long collection Alexander III: Pro et Contra and several volumes of correspondence between Alexander and Prince V. P. Meshchersky.
So what do these books tell us?
Continue reading Perceptions of Alexander III in Modern RussiaIn my latest article for Canadian Dimension magazine, I discuss the situation in Ukraine as we reach the second anniversary of the start of the ‘Special Military Operation’. You can read it here.
In my latest piece for Canadian Dimension magazine, I look back on the career of Vladimir Lenin on the 100th anniversary of his death. Read here.
In an article for Canadian Dimension published today (read it here), I look back at the last year in the war in Ukraine and look forward at the prospects for the year to come. Conclusion: ‘War has so many variables that attempting to predict its every twist and turn is somewhat foolish. At some point, the balance of power in any given conflict may shift so overwhelmingly in favour of one side or another that one can safely put one’s head above the parapet and predict the outcome. But in the case of Ukraine, we are far from reaching that point. If 2022 and 2023 were any guide, then in 2024 one should expect only one thing—expect the unexpected.’
Best wishes to all my readers for the coming year.
A few weeks ago, I gave a presentation about the war in Ukraine at a conference on the topic of ‘Foreign Fighters in the Former Soviet Union’, held at the University of Ottawa. The video has now been uploaded onto YouTube. My presentation starts at the 15.15 point.
Happy watching!
I have written a piece for Canadian Dimension magazine to mark the 10th anniversary of the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine. You can read it here.
I have done yet another interview about Russian liberalism, this time for the Russian Rulers History Podcast. This interview’s focus is more historical than contemporary, so it is a bit different from the others. There is a small confusion early on when I say ‘Russian conservatism’ when I mean ‘Russian liberalism,’ and then there are some technical issues at the end, but otherwise I think that it is a good discussion that covers ground not covered in other talks. You can listen to it here.
Next week is a busy one. As well as my zoom webinar with Anatol Lieven on Tuesday (details in an earlier post and here), I’ll be giving a presentation on Thursday morning on the topic ‘Military aspects of the war in Ukraine’. This is part of a conference on the subject of ‘Foreign Fighters in the Former Soviet Union’, and my talk is designed to provide a bit of context for that.
If you are interested in viewing the presentation and/or the rest of the conference, and you are not in Ottawa, you can attend online. Details of the conference and registration are available here.
IRRUSSIANALITY 