Russian history 
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SOURCE: The Conversation
6/14/2022
Where Witches Were Men: Magic in Early Modern Russia
by Valerie Kivelson
In Orthodox Russia, unlike Catholic and Protestant western Europe, the nature of hierarchy and power meant that the majority of people accused of witchcraft were men, and the popular image of a witch was male.
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6/5/2022
The Environmental and Humanistic Sensibility of Pasternak and Lessons from Dr. Zhivago for Today
by Walter G. Moss
Boris Pasternak's masterwork exhibited a profound awareness of the onenness of creation – human and natural alike – that should guide the projects of peace and environmental protection.
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SOURCE: NPR
5/27/2022
Sergey Radchenko on the State of Russia's Economy Under Sanctions
NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Russian history professor Sergey Radchenko of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, about the state of the Russian economy after three months of war.
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5/29/2022
Putin's Ukrainian War and Ecocide
by Walter G. Moss
The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows us how gravely the environment is harmed by war and militarism.
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4/24/2022
Understanding How Counterfactuals Shape Putin's Worldview and Historical Rhetoric
by Gavriel Rosenfeld
While historians have noted the instrumental use of history in Putin's speeches about Ukraine, more attention should be paid to his use of broad counterfactuals that, however they oversimplify historical contingency, successfully evoke politically potent emotions like regret, relief and fear.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
4/6/2022
Blaming the "Third Rome" Doctrine for Putin's Invasion Distorts His Motives
by Matthew Lenoe
"Bogus theories about an innate Russian drive to expand will only complicate negotiations with Moscow, especially a possible post-Putin Moscow."
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4/3/2022
The Lost Opportunity to Set Post-Soviet Russia on a Stable Course
by Robert Brent Toplin
The transition from communism was always going to be difficult for Russia and other post-Soviet states. But American politicians and advisors must share blame for the rise of oligarchy and Putinism as responses to economic instability.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
3/25/2022
Putin's Threat to Confiscate Foreign Companies' Assets is Dangerous – To Russia
by Benjamin Sawyer
The Bolshevik seizure of foreign property and repudiation of foreign debt initially made the Soviet Union a pariah in the world economy, and slowed economic development thereafter. Will Putin's invasion of Ukraine have the same consequences for Russians?
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SOURCE: NPR
3/29/2022
How Putin Conquered Russia's Oligarchs
A key for Putin's consolidation of power was not eliminating the post-Soviet oligarchy but shaking it down for protection money and political obedience.
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4/3/2022
Russia – And Not Just its Army – Is Headed for a Crisis of Morale
by David A. Mayers
Russian soliders and civilians will, sooner or later, have to confront the disconnect between their government's patriotic justification of the Ukraine invasion and reality. This existential bleakness may shape Russia for decades to come.
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SOURCE: Jewish Currents
3/28/2022
"We Need New Stories of Post-Soviet Jews"
A team of historians and Jewish and Russian Studies scholars introduce a project to examine the more recent history of Jews in the former Soviet Union.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
3/24/2022
Tim Snyder: How Putin Misjudged the Western Response
Did Putin interpret the January 6 attack on the Capitol as evidence that American democracy and the Biden administration were too fracture and weak to coordinate a response to the invasion of Ukraine?
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SOURCE: Der Spiegel
3/17/2022
Political Scientist Ivan Krastev: Putin Lives by Historical Analogy
"For Putin, Russia has long since ceased being a country in the standard sense; it is a kind of historic, 1,000-year-old body."
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SOURCE: Deseret News
3/17/2022
Is Putin a New Constantine?
by Daniel Gullotta
"In short, Putin seems to strike some conservatives as a new Constantine for a new Christendom standing against progressive totalitarianism."
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SOURCE: Puck
3/8/2022
The Anniversary of Stalin's Death Shows Authoritarianism is Bigger than One Authoritarian
by Julia Ioffe
Liberal Russians reflect on Stalin's death 69 years later and observe parallels with Putin's approach to internal dissent.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
3/9/2022
The West, and United States, Undermine Sanctions with their Financial Institutions
by Casey Michel
American law supports many of the instruments of international financial crime, and American banks and law firms staff them, because they are profitable and useful to oligarchs from around the world. Sanctions on Russian oligarchs will fail unless there is a crackdown on oligarchs in general.
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SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
3/3/2022
Lies, Hubris, and Imperial Overreach: Putin's Big Mistakes in Ukraine
by Brian Lapierre
While the people of Ukraine will suffer most from war, the suffering of Russians under sanctions and domestic repression may in the long run prove fatal to Vladimir Putin's hold on power.
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SOURCE: New Statesman
3/9/2022
A Tale of Two Dictators: Putin's Relationship to Stalin's Legacy
by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Despite their ideological incompatibility, Putin's nationalism depends on the cult of fear and repressive apparatus of the Stalinist era, which was never comprehensively demolished after the fall of Communism.
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SOURCE: Dissent
3/2/2022
The Seeds of War
by Gregory Afinogenov
Putin's actions belie the argument that Russia was provoked by NATO expansion; Russian imperialism is driving neighbors toward the western alliance, not the other way around.
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SOURCE: Jewish Currents
3/3/2022
Our Oligarch? Do Roman Abramovich's Donations Link Major Jewish Philanthropies to Putin?
by David Klion
Abramovich was one of a number of Soviet Jews, excluded from the Communist Party, who moved aggressively into the post-Soviet economy, amassed great fortunes, and either held or fell from favor with Vladimir Putin. Are his enormous donations to global Jewish charities reputation laundering?
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