Russia
News
Europe’s Two Hearts
The war in Ukraine has shown up the limits of European pacifism and revived a long-forgotten precept: republican opposition to empire. Today’s imperial threat no longer comes disguised as democracy but is openly anti-democratic. Part of the series ‘Lessons of war: The rebirth of Europe revisited’. RevDem publishes today two articles on the consequences of the war in Ukraine for Europe, which are part of a series of Eurozine, a network of magazines to which Revdem belongs. In the coming days we will publish our responses to this debate.
20.09.2023
News
l’Europe qui confond — in Conversation with Hans Kundnani
What is “Eurowhiteness”? How do EU member states deal with their colonial pasts? How does the far right function in the EU? What is the structure of power within the EU? How was Brexit racially structured? Hans Kundnani speaks about his recent publication – Eurowhiteness: Culture Empire and Race in the European Project – with RevDem editor Kasia Krzyżanowska.
14.09.2023
Podcasts
Bloodless Murder: Stefano Bottoni on How the Orbán Regime Was Made and What Hungary Has Become
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Stefano Bottoni – author of the new Hungarian-language book A hatalom megszállottja. Orbán Viktor Magyarországa (Obsessed with Power. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary) – discusses how the current political system has been built up in Hungary and which theories might help us analyse this process; reflects on the Orbán regime’s sources of legitimacy and internal contradictions; and explores the changing relationship of the country to the European Union and to Putin’s Russia.
6.09.2023
News
Oppenheimer: The Man Who Split the Atom and His Soul
Adérito Vicente reviews one of the two blockbusters of this summer: "Oppenheimer" by Christopher Nolan.
30.08.2023
Podcasts
A Savage War of Russian Decline: Serhii Plokhy Discusses the Russo-Ukrainian War
In this conversation co-hosted by Marta Haiduchok (Visible Ukraine) and Ferenc Laczó (the Review of Democracy), Serhii Plokhy – author of the new book "The Russo-Ukrainian War" – discusses why Ukraine was so crucial to the Soviet collapse and how Ukraine and Russia diverged subsequently; explains what made Ukraine a focal point of competition in the post-Cold War decades and which factors enabled the current devastating war; dissects the origins of Russian imperialism and Russia’s current war aims; reflects on the state of Ukrainian Studies and suggests new questions concerning Ukrainian nationalism and Russian imperialism; elaborates on the stages of the unfolding war and the reasons behind Ukraine’s ability to fight back; and ponders what major geopolitical shifts the Russo-Ukrainian war might signal or reinforce.
30.06.2023
News
The War in Ukraine and Transition: In Conversation with Maria Popova
Despite, or perhaps due to, the war in Ukraine there have been positive developments in combating corruption and other issues in anticipation of EU membership. In this RevDem Rule of Law podcast Teodora Miljojkovic discusses these issues around transition with Professor Maria Popova.
20.06.2023
The Curse of Russian Imperialism: Martin Schulze Wessel on Imperial Optics, False Dichotomies, and the Need to Reconsider East European History
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Martin Schulze Wessel – author of the new book Der Fluch des Imperiums. Die Ukraine, Polen und der Irrweg in der Russischen Geschichte (Imperial Curse. Ukraine, Poland, and the False Paths in Russian History) – traces the ideas that have shaped Russian imperialism and reflects on their devastating contemporary force; explores key moments in the parallel and entangled histories of Poland and Ukraine and how those histories have been shaped by Russian imperialism across the centuries; dissects what he calls Germany’s “imperialism of a second order” and emphasizes the urgent need to revise Russia-centric interpretations of East European history.
20.05.2023
Economic Sanctions are Insufficient to Stop the War
A year ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, catching many of us unprepared despite clear signs of impending conflict. The assumption that a European nation would conquer another in the 21st century appeared far-fetched. When the worst scenario happened, experts doubted Ukraine's ability to hold its ground for more than a few weeks. However, the country keeps resisting. The economic domain, along with warfare and geopolitics, presents many examples of events that did not turn out the way it was expected. This op-ed by Volodymyr Kulikov highlights three selected points about economic sanctions, corporate self-sanction, and energy wars.
24.03.2023
Living with Double-Think
In this op-ed, the author describes life in Russia's propaganda machine, and how the internet provides venues for Russians to access media that is not controlled by the government.
23.03.2023
Adam Michnik: The war in Ukraine is not a war between the Russian people and the Ukrainian people
This war, of which we are commemorating the anniversary today, is undoubtedly the most important war of our time, because it is a war in which the imperial-chauvinist-totalitarian project is struggling with the democratic, European, pluralist project on the one hand.
28.02.2023
Why is the Russian bureaucracy failing in the face of war?
Vladimir Dubrovskiy, senior economist at CASE Ukraine, explores why the Russian state, which is based on the principle of "vertical power", appears to be inept in the face of war.
24.02.2023
How to Avoid Further Escalation? A Conversation with Wolfgang Merkel on the Scholz Government and German Foreign Policy Today
In this conversation with RevDem editor Ferenc Laczó, Wolfgang Merkel talks about German foreign policy, describes key decisions and non-decisions of the new German government and reflects on the reasons that led him to sign the Open Letter to Chancellor Scholz.
8.06.2022
Book Reviews
Imperialism in Russian Literature
In this conversation with our editor Kasia Krzyżanowska, professor Ewa Thompson discusses the imperialistic features of the Russian Federations; elaborates on how Russian writers advanced the imperial message of Russia, and shows the persistence of the imperialistic motifs in the Russian literature.
7.06.2022
Change of framing and the need for peace in Ukraine: A reply to Szulecki and Wig
Responding to critiques of their op-ed on why the war in Ukraine should not be discussed using the "democracy vs. autocracy" framework, authors Irina Domurath and Stefano Palestini further develop why orienting the discussion around Russia's abuse of international law could draw more international support and avoid escalation into a Third World War.
25.05.2022
The Discourse of Privilege: Western Europe and the Russian War against Ukraine
In this op-ed by Elżbieta Kwiecińska and Pavel Skigin, they detail why "being a radical pacifist is a great privilege that only Westerners can afford nowadays."
7.04.2022
Ukraine: not a war about democracy
In this op-ed by Irina Domurath and Stefano Palestini, they discuss the war in Ukraine and why the West should leave behind the narrative that this is a "war of values."
25.03.2022
News
The War in Ukraine and the Refugee Crisis
Dr. Marta Jaroszewicz elaborates on the current refugee crisis as the result of the war in Ukraine, the situation in the neighbouring countries, and the EU refugee protection.
24.03.2022
Marlene Laruelle: Russian society is very different from its regime
Andrea Pető in conversation with Marlene Laruelle about illiberalism studies, whether Russia is fascist, the nature of Russia’s illiberalism, as well as its conservative softpower.
21.02.2022
