Archive

Like other countries, Russia has in recent years seen the emergence of a culture centred on the management of subjective emotions, which relies on a psychological language. Since the start of the war against Ukraine, the language and norms of feeling have changed once again.

We discuss with the poets Pavel Bannikov, Aleksandr Kabanov, and Semion Khanin how Russia’s war against Ukraine affects Russophone literatures, how one writes poetry in Russian after months of bloodshed and war crimes. What is the future of russophone literarure given that many people now refuse to use Russian?

Spółdzielnia/Cooperative shows the daily work of a socially engaged café in Manchester which is mainly run by Polish migrants. The film explores the activism of migrants and ethnic minorities outside of their commu-nity organisations.

In an online roundtable, researchers of the project “De:link // Re:link - Local perspectives on transregional (dis-)entanglements” discuss the Belt and Road Initiative launched by China and its impact on Georgia and Kenya with fresh on site research experience.

Piotr Goldstein presents a contribution of the MOBILISE project on migrant activist solidarities of Polish and Argentinian activists in Berlin. The contribution was made in cooperation with Ana Martínez Fernández (University of Manchester) and Karolina Lebek (ZOiS).

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was accompanied by a historical rhetoric replete with references to World War II. But even before February 2022, one could observe how historical narratives were being radically rewritten in many countries of the former Soviet Union.

Victory Day celebrations on 9 May are a central component of Russian memory politics. With experts on Russian migration and memory politics, we discuss this year’s mobilisation and how it ties in with the Kremlin’s use of history before and during the ongoing war against Ukraine.

Threats to hegemonic rule create the context for constitutional change. In an article co-authored with Ben Noble and Paul Fisher, Anna Fruhstorfer discusses the role of constitutional politics in the context of elite conflicts, anticipated power changes in post-Soviet regimes, and the ways in which they are instrumentalised.

The online lecture series, organised in cooperation with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is timed to coincide with the academic summer semester in Germany, but is open to all. It brings together social scientists, among them many scholars from Ukraine, who will address aspects of the war but also long-term political and societal trends.

Russia’s invasion of its neighbour Ukraine came as a shock to many people in Germany, even though a Russian-backed war had been smouldering in the east of the country for years. What are the defining characteristics of this country that the Russian leadership calls a ‘brother nation’ and on which it is at the same time inflicting a brutal war?

This workshop aims to identify the challenges researchers in this field can face and discuss appropriate methodological perspectives as well as concrete methods and tools. The goal of this workshop is to encourage scholars from various disciplines to share their experiences of empirical research on migration.

Belarus’ de facto participation in the war against Ukraine on Russia's side creates additional risks and threats both for neighbouring countries and for Belarusian citizens. How Belarus and Belarusians are perceived following the start of Russia's war against Ukraine is the focus of this event.

This roundtable focuses on nation-building in the context of religion. This includes the state-religion relationship, but also a bottom-up perspective of religious belonging and challenges of religious diversity. In addition, we will consider the impacts of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine within the South Caucasus states.

The film "Little Man, Time and the Troubadour" is about the troubadour Sipa Labakhua, who travels through Abkhazia as a showman with a puppet theatre and tells his family story. Diana Bogishvili discusses the questions raised about home, flight and return with the director Ineke Smits.

The protests in Belarus after the 2020 presidential elections were marked by solidarity and concern for fellow citizens. Have the ideas of the protests against the authoritarian regimes in Belarus and Russia changed? How does this manifest itself in new forms of protest and how does it influence societies?

In a new ZOiS Report, Julia Langbein, Denis Cenusa and Irina Guruli have taken a closer look at the ownership structures of Moldova’s and Georgia’s top export sectors to the EU.