Tag: Russia

How teachers are resisting the Kremlin’s war propaganda in Russian schools

Nationalistic propaganda in Russia has intensified noticeably since the invasion of Ukraine last year, and the country’s 17.7 million schoolchildren have not been spared. Vera Akhalaya That said, it’s impossible for the Kremlin to control every teacher – and some are risking prison and their careers to tell their students about the realities of the… Read More How teachers are resisting the Kremlin’s war propaganda in Russian schools

Dilip

The courage of Vladimir Kara-Murza

“What is history for? … It makes us brave!” ADAM TOOZE I’ll never forget this response by my distinguished colleague Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith to one of the “theory and practice” questions with which we used to torture Cambridge undergraduates back in the 1990s and early 2000s. Riley-Smith’s answer resonated with me, precisely for its profound, almost archaic… Read More The courage of Vladimir Kara-Murza

Dilip

Defiant Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza likens his case to Stalin’s show trials

Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, who faces up to a quarter of a century in jail on treason charges, has told a Moscow court that he stood by all of his political statements and said his prosecution resembled one of Joseph Stalin’s show trials. Kara-Murza, 41, who holds Russian and British passports, has denied several… Read More Defiant Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza likens his case to Stalin’s show trials

Dilip

Mikhail Shishkin: ‘The main enemy of Russian culture is the Russian regime’

Revered Russian writer and Putin critic on how the war in Ukraine has divided his nation, and why culture is the only cure Andrew Anthony Read Shishkin’s letter to an unknown Ukrainian Mikhail Shishkin was born in Moscow and is one of the most lauded writers in contemporary Russian literature, and the only one to receive… Read More Mikhail Shishkin: ‘The main enemy of Russian culture is the Russian regime’

Dilip

New film focuses on love – not war – in Nagorno-Karabakh

The Dream of Karabakh, about a woman’s attachment to her village, is rooted in personal memories that cannot be moved, unlike borders Lucia De La Torre I first met Shushan in February 2021. The mother of five was living in Landjazat village, near Armenia’s barbed-wire border with Turkey. The house, which belonged to some of… Read More New film focuses on love – not war – in Nagorno-Karabakh

Dilip

The invasion of Iraq was a turning point on to a path that led towards Ukraine

Peter Beaumont n 20 March 2003, as bombs and missiles from the US-led coalition rained on Iraqi cities in the opening “shock and awe” campaign against Saddam Hussein, the tectonic plates of the post-Second World War international order shifted permanently. For those of us who covered the run-up to the war, the invasion and the long… Read More The invasion of Iraq was a turning point on to a path that led towards Ukraine

Dilip

March 18, 1871: Revolt of the Paris Commune; March 18, 1921: The Bolsheviks crush the Kronstadt sailors’ rebellion against tyranny

Paris Commune: The revolt dividing France 150 years on Over 150 years after the Paris Commune, rival passions flare over how to remember the city’s brief and much-romanticised experiment in power to the people. The first act of the city’s famous insurrection came on 18 March 1871, when crowds stopped troops from requisitioning cannons parked… Read More March 18, 1871: Revolt of the Paris Commune; March 18, 1921: The Bolsheviks crush the Kronstadt sailors’ rebellion against tyranny

Dilip

Putin enables the lifestyle of Russia’s elite – until they lose faith, there is little hope of peace

Olga Chyzh A year into its war, Russia is not any closer to accomplishing its objectives in Ukraine. And yet, to the surprise of western observers, neither battlefield losses nor economic misfortunes have softened its initial demands of demilitarisation and regime change in Ukraine. If there is one thing that’s clear, even in the proverbial fog… Read More Putin enables the lifestyle of Russia’s elite – until they lose faith, there is little hope of peace

Dilip

Formula Pinochet: Chilean Lessons for Russian Liberal Reformers during the Soviet Collapse

Tobias Rupprecht Journal of Contemporary History: Vol. 51, No. 1, Special Section: The Dark Side of Transnationalism (January 2016) Numerous references to the Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet run through Soviet and Russian political discourse from the 1970s to the late 1990s. Official representations of Pinochet, a carefully constructed bogeyman of Soviet domestic and foreign… Read More Formula Pinochet: Chilean Lessons for Russian Liberal Reformers during the Soviet Collapse

Dilip