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Tag: Soviet Union

Ukraine is a victim of Russian and western imperialism

Ukraine continues to resist Russian imperialism on a daily basis. However, it is important to recognize the West’s role in enabling Moscow’s behaviour in the first place.

May 2, 2025 - Gabriele Kaminskaite

The museum of gifts for Stalin’s 70th birthday

The Russian-Italian sculptor Jurij Tilman shares his memories of a exhibition he visited as a child and discusses the surprising effect the experience had on his work.

October 1, 2024 - Aleksej Tilman Jurij Tilman

The fire on Freedom Square was not coincidental. A Soviet soldier is suspected

On January 4th 1946 an emergency session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus was held in Minsk. The head of the Byelorussian Communist Party Panteleimon Ponomarenko, the head of the NKGB Lavrentiy Tsanava and the NKVD People’s Commissary Sargiei Belchanka were joined by 13 other party members to discuss the fire in the capital’s state security building the previous day.

February 17, 2024 - Ihar Melnikau

On the failure of the Russian and Soviet “Hegemonic Projects”

Around 170 years ago the Crimean War put an end to almost forty years of Russian supremacy in Europe. Other Russian and Soviet hegemonic projects were also to fail several times in the 20th century. Despite this, the current Russian leadership is once again advocating for the creation of such a project. Does this aspiration of the Putin team to restore the country's powerful position have any chance of succeeding?

February 5, 2024 - Leonid Luks

Gangster Government: the communist-era “anti-social engineering” at the heart of Russia’s descent into barbarity

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has a long history. In order to understand this, we must look back to the country’s past and especially its experience of communism. This ideology left a brutal legacy that has turned traditional morality on its head.

October 31, 2023 - Dominik Jun

Playing with the past: does the decolonisation of the history of Ukraine make sense?

The current approach to decolonisation as a topic represents a significant problem. In many cases, this issue stems from politicisation and ideological calls to decolonise the history of East Central Europe, which have nothing to do with a methodological, or academic discussion. Usually, the term East Central Europe has been replaced by Russia, Eastern Europe, or the ideological term Eurasia. In general, the rhetoric of decolonisation has been based on the assertion that Russia and the Soviet Union were colonial empires.

The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas recently stated that the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War is a moral crusade that can help the European continent redeem itself. However, this redemption has not yet been acknowledged by the European elite. On the contrary, the constant intellectual arrogance expressed toward Ukraine by Europeans has expanded, particularly in the field of history. In this respect, British historian Adam Tooze has suggested that today’s Russo-Ukrainian War dramatically reconceptualises Europe.

April 28, 2023 - Gennadii Korolov

A war of narratives: Russia’s disinformation abuses history

Putin has continued to promote a vivid narrative in defence of his decision to invade Ukraine. Focused on the Great Patriotic War against Nazism, this outlook promotes the idea that the current conflict is connected to such events. However, the influence of this narrative in Russia appears to be somewhat waning.

January 23, 2023 - Joshua Kroeker

Neo-totalitarianism as a new political reality in Belarus

The large shift that has taken place within Belarusian society has illustrated both a high demand for change and the loss of broad support for Alyaksandr Lukashenka. This has led the ruling elite to realise that the regime can no longer operate in the same conditions it had pre-2020. Serious restructuring was thus necessary to ensure that the regime maintains its overall control of the state and counters any form of anti-system civic activity.

The political system in Belarus has undergone a series of changes since Alyaksandr Lukashenka came to power in 1994. Over this period of 28 years it has evolved from a hybrid regime, which included elements of façade democracy, to a neo-totalitarian one. This transformation was possible because of changes that had taken place within society and the state, and which in the end allowed for the formation of new authoritarian institutions, practices and methods.

December 7, 2022 - Pavel Usau

Mikhail Gorbachev: the last Soviet leader

To the West, Gorbachev was a man one could do business with. To Russians he was the one who destroyed the USSR.

September 9, 2022 - Agnieszka Bryc

Russian constructivism: a lens for understanding Moscow’s political actions

The individual Russian citizen possesses an identity formed by their history, values and national identity. The domestic relationship between the country’s people and government rests upon the pillars of economic and national security, which naturally form an integral part of the country’s international goals. These two points have encouraged Russia to pursue competition with the West.

January 10, 2022 - Caroline Beshenich

How many communist states exist in the early 21st century?

Today, it may seem like the idea of a communist state is nothing but a relic of the 20th century. Despite this, many countries are still officially communist, mixing rhetoric with market economics in a way that often proves attractive to other states.

November 23, 2021 - Tomasz Kamusella

Belarus’s Day of National Unity: a controversial public holiday with a flawed logic

On September 17th, Belarus celebrated its so-called “Day of National Unity”, an official holiday created on June 7th by Lukashenka’s edict. The date echoes the events of 1939, when the Soviet army entered Poland's territory as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Based on official interpretations and discourse, this text attempts to briefly demonstrate the flawed official logic that led Minsk to choose this date as a public holiday.

November 2, 2021 - Kiryl Kascian

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