Eastern Europe

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  3/30/2023
  

  From Trump to Putin: How People Came to Look to Timothy Snyder for Predictions

  Although some had dismissed his warnings of an autocratic seizure of power as "doomerism," the events of January 6 and the Russian invasion have made the historian a widely-read public intellectual. 

• 
• 2/6/2023
  

  Historians are Being Asked to Spin Simple Stories of Nationalism; The Past Won't Cooperate

  by Joe Djordjevski

  Nationalist forces in both Bulgaria and North Macedonia want to use historians to reach a definitive conclusion to debates over the territory's ethnic and national identity. But from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire to the fall of Communism, those questions have been complex, difficult, and ambiguous. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  1/22/2023
  

  How the Russian Jews Became Soviet

  The novelist Gary Shteyngart, who emigrated from the USSR to the US as a child, reviews Sasha Senderovich's "How the Soviet Jew was Made," a work that gives short shrift to neither the "Soviet" nor "Jewish" sides of the question. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/2/2023
  

  Croatian Filmmaker Seeks to Polish Image of Late Leader by Casting... Kevin Spacey?

  Franjo Tudjman, whose post-Yugoslavia brand of ethnonationalism has been harshly criticized, remains a favorite of the Croatian right. It's unclear how casting Kevin Spacey to play him will help polish his image, however. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/22/2022
  

  Eastern Europe Brought Soccer Into the Modern Age. Why is it a Wasteland Now?

  A legacy of innovation spurred by Hungarian clubs in the 1930s and 1950s sustained high quality soccer in eastern Europe through the fall of communism, but changing economic and social currents have diminished the competitiveness of former eastern bloc countries in today's big-money game. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  6/13/2022
  

  Ukraine's Struggle for Independence is a Century Old, Despite Putin's Claims

  by Joshua D. Zimmerman

  Ukrainian nationalists have worked for independence since the upheaval of the first world war. 

• 
• SOURCE: Psychology Today
  3/11/2022
  

  The Winter War Ghost Haunts Putin's War Today

  by David P. Barash

  Stalin's ill-conceived invasion of Finland gave Russia a small part of Finnish territory as a ransom for a face-saving end to stalemate and gave the world the term "Molotov Cocktail" – a sarcastic rebuke to the USSR's claims to be dropping food relief instead of bombs.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  3/4/2022
  

  Ukraine Beyond the Post-Soviet Frame

  by Ileana Nachescu

  Framing the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an extension of grievances that festered during the Soviet era ignores the drastic changes wrought in Eastern Europe by neoliberal capitalism, racism, sexism, migration and patriarchal religion, and sustains an impoverished view of what peace and freedom in Ukraine can be.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/4/2022
  

  American Pundits Can't Resist "Westsplaining" Ukraine

  by Jan Smoleński and Jan Dutkiewicz

  "For Eastern European scholars like us, it’s galling to watch the unending stream of Western scholars and pundits condescend to explain the situation in Ukraine and Eastern Europe."

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  3/3/2022
  

  Despite US Missteps, Nothing about NATO Since 1991 Justifies Putin's Invasion

  by Cathy Young

  Attempts to blame Putin's aggression on the post-Cold War growth of NATO have traction on the left and right, but they simplify the history of the Russian federation and ignore the expansionist moves that made Russia's neighbors draw closer to western Europe.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  2/26/2022
  

  The Antisemitism Underlying Putin's Claim to "Denazify" Ukraine

  by Jason Stanley

  "Putin, the leader of Russian Christian nationalism, has come to view himself as the global leader of Christian nationalism, and is increasingly regarded as such by Christian nationalists around the world."

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
  2/27/2022
  

  What Putin Means by Claiming to "Denazify" Ukraine

  Putin's claims to be protecting Ukrainians from domestic fascism will fail as propaganda, says Jason Stanley, who calls Russian Christian nationalism the real threat to Jews in Ukraine.

• 
• SOURCE: Vox
  3/1/2022
  

  Ukraine Shows Limits of US Power

  Historians and diplomats including Stephen Wertheim and Joseph Nye offer insight on the limits of what American power can achieve toward stopping Russian aggression in Ukraine. 

• 
• SOURCE: Salon
  3/1/2022
  

  Too Much Reality: Putin's Invasion Inevitably Surfaces Europe's Dark Past

  by Jim Sleeper

  Responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine can't turn away from the possibility of mass atrocity like those visited on Eastern European Jews and resistance fighters by Nazis and Stalinists. 

• 
• SOURCE: Financial Times
  2/23/2022
  

  Putin's Denial of Ukrainian Statehood Carries Dark Echoes

  by Timothy Snyder

  "History cannot stop a war. But it can help us, at least, to understand how one begins, which is with arrogance and lies."

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/9/2022
  

  Putin is a Product of Modernity (Not a Throwback to the Past)

  "All the bad things we see around us are like ghosts from the past whose deathly grip on progress might frustrate it for a while, and with potentially terrible consequences, but cannot stop its wheels from eventually grinding on. This is, of course, total nonsense."

• 
• 2/22/2022
  

  Historians on the Ukraine Invasion

  Historians weigh in on the unfolding crisis as evidence of widespread attacks on civilians emerges.

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/21/2022
  

  Putin Chooses Forever War

  by Tom Nichols

  Putin's invocation of history reflects a belief that only the Russian state is a legitimate actor in the territory of the former Soviet Union. This could be a justification for all manner of aggressive actions. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/15/2022
  

  The Ukraine Crisis Represents Kleptocracy Coming Home to Roost

  Western powers have precipitated the possible war over Ukraine not by seeking to expand NATO but by allowing the unchecked reign of kleptocrats since the end of the Cold War. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  2/8/2022
  

  How Did We Get Here?

  by Rajan Menon

  The roots of the Ukraine crisis lie with American decisions in the 1990s to kick post-Soviet Russia while it was down, promoting neoliberal policies that led to oligarchy, and isolating the Kremlin from the post-Cold War European order instead of integrating it.