German Students Explore St. Petersburg and Russian History during HSE University’s Summer School
This September, 16 German students spent three weeks exploring the political and cultural space of St. Petersburg during the Summer School ‘The Topography of Imperial Power’ organized by the HSE Department of History in cooperation with the Department of the History of Eastern Europe (Georg-August University of Göttingen).
Champagne and Unsanitary Conditions: Trade in Siberia 150 Years Ago
The increasing application of law in various spheres of life in the Russian empire promoted trade regulation and influenced everyday trade practices—even in remote regions. Tradespeople, in turn, tried to limit the application of new regulations while using laws to serve their own interests. HSE University has hosted a seminar on trade in Siberia in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
HSE Scholars Determine Tsar Boris Godunov’s Exact Date of Birth
HSE University researchers Feodor Uspenskij and Anna Litvina studied the notes of Georg Tectander, a diplomat of the Holy Roman Empire, and discovered the exact date of birth of Tsar Boris Godunov: August 2 (Julian calendar) or August 12 (Gregorian calendar). The scholars then verified and confirmed this date with other 17th-century sources. The results of the study are presented in a paper published in the Studi Slavistici journal (Florence, Italy), and in a follow-up paper to be published by the same journal at the end of the year.
Mapping Empire and Environment in Siberia: International Laboratory ‘Russia’s Regions in Historical Perspective’ Hosts Erika Monahan
How does an American researcher become interested in the history of enterprise in Siberia? Does knowing Alaska give one a good understanding of the Siberian temperament? If there is one book that provides a good history of Russia, what is it? HSE News Service asked these and other questions to Erika Monahan, Associate Professor of History at the University of New Mexico, who recently gave a talk at the seminar of the HSE International Laboratory ‘Russia’s Regions in Historical Perspective’
An Order of Emancipation: How Catherine I Established a Form of Distinction for Women
Established in Russia under Peter the Great and bestowed upon Catherine I who became its supreme head, the Order of Saint Catherine, or the ‘Order of Liberation’ (‘Orden osvobozhdeniia’), was the first order in Russia to be awarded to women. This small sliver of Petrine era history, as Professor Igor Fedyukin demonstrates in his new research, reveals the monarch’s wife’ serious political ambitions. Professor Fedyukin discusses how the history of the ‘ladies’ order’ reflects the former mistress’s plans to elevate her status and change the line of succession to the throne in her children’s favor.
Exploring Eurasian Sovereignty through the Lens of Kazan
On Monday, March 19, Jane Burbank, Professor of History and Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University, delivered a lecture entitled ‘Eurasian Sovereignty: The Case of Kazan’ at the Department of History and the Centre for Historical Research at HSE St. Petersburg.
Anthony John Heywood on the Weather and Tsarist Russia’s War Effort
Anthony John Heywood, Chair in History at the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy, (University of Aberdeen), recently took part in the international conference ‘Russia in the First World War’, which was organized by the HSE’s International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and its Consequences and took place on June 3-5, 2014. He spoke with the HSE news service about his interests in weather, Russia’s railways, the study of history in today’s society, as well as his impressions of collaborating with Russian colleagues.
Departing Cal Poly Professor Discusses Her Research Interests and Impressions of and Hopes for the HSE
Visiting Professor Elise Kimerling Wirtschafter of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, is spending this semester teaching in the HSE’s Department of History. Before departing Moscow later this month, she kindly agreed to give an interview to the HSE News Service.
Professor Kenneth Pinnow:'These summer programmes are important for promoting global understanding and individual growth'
Kenneth Pinnow, Associate Professor of History from the University of Pittsburgh has been specializing in the history of Soviet Union and Russia for a nearly three decades. His current research interests are medical ethics and human experimentation in Russia and the USSR andearly Soviet criminology. He shared his impressions on the Summer School organized jointly with the Faculty of History of the HSE Saint-Petersburg Campus.
Budnitskii O. Russian Jews between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012
In ‘Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920’ Oleg Budnitskii provides the first comprehensive historical account of the role of Jews in the Russian Civil War.