Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University

08/28/2026

Join us for a seminar that reassesses the history of dramatic arts in the Soviet bloc through the lens of gender and surveillance.

08/27/2026

🇬🇪🇺🇦 Georgians have fought on Ukraine’s behalf at higher rates than other foreigners. Prof. Eteri Tsintsadze-Maass will explore why, discussing ways in which shared trauma and aspirations can create enduring transnational bonds and impact international security. Her approach expands foreign fighters’ possible motivations far beyond profit or ideology to consider questions of vicarious identification and “ontological security." In person, 9/4:

Why do foreign fighters join wars in other countries? Moving beyond characterizations of foreign fighters as either profit-driven mercenaries or transnational terrorists, this event develops a theory of foreign fighters motivated by vicarious identification and ontological security.

08/21/2026

In theater under Communism, it wasn't just the audience watching the actors. Our 9/3 Cold War Studies seminar reassesses the history of dramatic arts in the Soviet bloc through the lens of gender and surveillance, drawing on insights from Romanian Communist Party and State Security archives. In person, with theater critic and scholar Cristina Modreanu of Universitatea de Artă Teatrală din Târgu-Mureș:

Join us for a seminar that reassesses the history of dramatic arts in the Soviet bloc through the lens of gender and surveillance.

08/19/2026

35 years ago Soviet hardliners began a coup attempt that would end in failure within days, ushering in the chaotic final stage of the USSR’s existence. Just in time for this historic anniversary, the Davis Center library offers researchers a new online resource: 10+ hours of transcribed, translated interviews with Gennady Burbulis, a top Yeltsin aide and key player in those fateful events:

A new collection of interviews at the Davis Center library captures a top Yeltsin aide’s insights on key events in Russia during its tumultuous late-Soviet and early-independence years.

08/18/2026

In a couple of weeks, Harvard’s campus will be buzzing with life as students and faculty come back, energized by travels and fieldwork, and the Davis Center’s event calendar will be blowing up with new programming. Don’t miss the talks, films, seminars, and conferences! Sign up for our newsletter today: https://harvard.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=306efea4c5313b9f5981b1aaa&id=77272c6cc3

08/11/2026

In a new report from our Program on Central Asia, authors Adam Wozniak and Nargis Kassenova explore ways that Kazakhstan could strengthen its decarbonization strategy and advance its green-energy transition. Read their key findings and recommendations here:

In a new report, authors from our Program on Central Asia call on Astana to revise and strengthen its current decarbonization strategy. Read their key findings and recommendations.

08/07/2026

In a slim new book from Cambridge University Press, Mark Kramer, director of our Cold War Studies program, explores the collapse of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact military alliance. Drawing on deep archival research, he traces its fall to a radical 1989 policy shift that stopped Moscow from cracking down on dissent in its Central and East European satellites. Read a great summary, including input from 4 reviewers, from H-Diplo:

In a concise new book, Mark Kramer, director of our Cold War Studies program, traces the fall of the Soviet-led alliance to a radical 1989 policy shift that stopped Moscow from cracking down on dissent beyond its de facto borders in Central and Eastern Europe.

08/04/2026

Congratulations to our Journal of Cold War Studies, which has once again won distinction as one of the most cited journals published by MIT Press!

MIT Press journals Computational Linguistics, International Security, and The Review of Economics and Statistics were ranked No 1. by Clarivate’s 2026 impact factors.

08/03/2026

Only one week left to see Alevtina Kakhidze’s “Drawing the War” exhibition at Harvard University’s Fisher Family Commons. In town? Enter an intimate space where everyday life collides with military conflict. Learn more here:

An exhibition of works by Alevtina Kakhidze brings viewers into the intimate space where everyday life collides with military conflict. On view through Aug. 10.

07/06/2026

📣 For the next installment of the 2026 HARVARD UKRAINIAN SUMMER INSTITUTE Public Lecture Series, Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed will discuss the concepts of mnemonic abuse and memoricide as central strategies in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Join us on Wednesday, July 8, at 5 pm EDT for this lecture hosted by Serhiy Bilenky.

💛 "Back to the USSR — and Farther: Russia’s War Against Ukraine, Mnemonic Abuse, and Memoricide"
💙 A lecture by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed, Preceptor in Ukrainian, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University

💡 The Russian entertainment industry became instrumental in mobilizing Russian society around ambitions that were fundamentally imperial and expansionist in nature. As this talk demonstrates, the groundwork for normalizing military aggression had been laid years earlier. One revealing example is the annual New Year’s television broadcast on the state-controlled Channel One. Such programs illustrate the gradual integration of nostalgia for the USSR, historical grievances, revanchist ambitions, and chauvinistic attitudes into public consciousness and cultural memory, alongside the persistent undermining of Ukraine’s legitimacy as a sovereign state since Vladimir Putin’s rise to power at the turn of the twenty-first century.

🗓️ Wednesday | July 8 | 5:00 – 6:30 pm
📍 ONLINE AND ON CAMPUS | CGIS-Knafel Building, 2nd Floor, Room K-262
☀️ Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute | HUSI Public Lecture

🔗 LEARN MORE about the event: https://www.huri.harvard.edu/event/Nataliya-Shpylova-Saeed-back-ussr-farther-russias-war-against-ukraine-mnemonic-abuse-and-memoricide

🔗 Register to attend the event IN-PERSON: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/back-to-the-ussrand-farther-by-nataliya-shpylova-saeed-tickets-1990425503261?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

🔗 Register to attend the event VIRTUALLY: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_40hc26F0Th-LAlASNSuRpA #/registration