The Soviet Union drew its last breath on Sunday, December 8, 1991, in a hunting lodge inside the primeval Belavezha forest. The life of a global superpower—offering the last ideological alternative to liberalism—ended over a boisterous weekend. Many believe that it was doomed because of flawed ideals, but few know the story of the Belavezha Accords. In this premiere episode of How to Kill a Superpower, Dr. Yelena Biberman and Zachary Troyanovsky begin unearthing the haunting legacy of the USSR’s dissolution while piecing together what happened at that hunting lodge. For a transcript of this episode and more, visit https://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/insights/how-to-kill-a-superpower

How to Kill a Superpower: Episode 1 - Do You Believe in Miracles

The Program on Georgian Studies will host Fiona Hill, a prominent scholar, author, and policymaker who has three decades of experience working with Georgia and the Georgian neighborhood. Dr. Hill will share her perspective on the current geopolitical environment in the Black Sea-Caspian region and on Georgia's prospects for greater European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Georgia, The EU, And The US, Fiona Hill On The New Geopolitics Of The Black Sea - Caspian Region

Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States examines the root causes of Russia's war against Ukraine. The book explains how, since 1991, Russia and Ukraine have diverged politically, ending up on a collision course. Russia slid back into authoritarianism and imperialism, while Ukraine consolidated a competitive political system and pro-European identity. As Ukraine built a democratic nation-state, Russia refused to accept it and came to see it as an “anti-Russia” project. After political and economic pressure proved ineffective, and even counterproductive, Putin went to war to force Ukraine back into the fold of the “Russian world.” Ukraine resisted, determined to pursue European integration as a sovereign state. These irreconcilable goals, rather than geopolitical wrangling between Russia and the West over NATO expansion, are – the authors argue – essential to understanding Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine: Entangled Histories, Diverging States

Professor Darchiashvili will examine the history of Polish and Georgian nationalism to elucidate the parallels and differences between them.  He argues that both these national movements, despite the specifics of each case, can only be understood in the context of an imperial metropole and periphery.

National Movements in Russia and the USSR: Georgian-Polish Parallels and Peculiarities

In this talk, Sergei Erofeev makes the case that if the problem of Vladimir Putin’s never-ending threat to the world is not solved through his defeat in Ukraine or a domestic coup, he may be driven to putting an end to it himself “amidst a revolution.” Unlike any of Putin’s military actions, this type of act does have the potential for an unacceptable, albeit local, nuclear disaster. However, regarding the conflict with the West, the sociological perspectives of symbolic interactionism and deviance studies offer insights into why the world should not fear any form of Putin's escalation, let alone a nuclear one.

Vladimir Putin’s Aggression: A Cultural-Interactionist Perspective

Recent electoral victories of populist parties in European countries, including Slovakia and the Netherlands, as well as the continued popularity of Donald Trump in the U.S., suggest that populism remains a challenge for European politics. Exploring this phenomenon, Maria Snegovaya's new book — When Left Moves Right: The Decline of the Left and the Rise of the Populist Right in Postcommunist Europe — makes an original argument about the rise of populism in postcommunist Europe by focusing on the pro-market rebranding of left-wing parties. Her book argues that, as a result of this rebranding, traditional supporters of the left (working-class and other economically vulnerable groups) were eventually alienated by neoliberal economic policies and the middle-class voters newly drawn to these parties did not compensate for those losses. In response, right-wing populists in their respective countries adopted more redistributive economic platforms consistent with the preferences of former supporters of the left and incorporated sizable shares of these electorates. This has contributed to the growth of right-wing populist parties in countries with a pro-market left. The book traces this process on different levels of analysis: cross-country observational data, case studies, and individual-level experimental surveys. It also offers policy recommendations about ways for left-wing parties to regain their redistributionist platforms and re-attract traditional electorates, thereby curtailing the rise of populism.

Book Talk: When Left Moves Right

Two years into Russia's war against Ukraine, what is the state of manpower in the Russian army? How many troops have been deployed? What are the recruiting issues? What is the actual state of the Russian officer corps? What are the roles of mercenaries and prisoners? In this seminar, Pavel Luzin, a visiting scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, will address these questions and more.

Lessons From War: Russia's Manpower 2022-2024

Infrastructures can be conceptualized as networks that link up the built environment, people, and technology. They might include energy, transport, or communication, while also relating to natural resources, human bodies, and other species. These networks often remain invisible when they function as planned yet suddenly appear in the public imagination when they fail, get destroyed, or become subject to spectacular political projects. Over the past decade, infrastructure has also resurfaced as an issue of public interest in sites as diverse as the United States, China, and Ukraine, often involving pressing concerns around security, economic stability, and basic needs. However, with this focus on the present and future, the longer histories of infrastructure are often neglected. As a result, core infrastructure features, such as the materialization of mundane violence, political control, and socio-economic transformation, remain less understood. Drawing on social science literature on infrastructure and 15 years of research in Central Asia, this talk discusses concepts that might prove to be useful in studying cases from Ukraine from a long-term perspective.

Infrastructure’s Long Shadow: From Central Asia to Ukraine

The presentation addresses school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV) as a violation of human rights and a form of gender discrimination with harmful effects on physical, psychological, and educational well-being. This work focuses on exploring gender-responsive pedagogy in schools and kindergartens within the Kakheti region of Georgia. We will delve into empirical data collected on the gender awareness of teachers, parents, and school/pre-school principals. Specifically, we will examine gender-sensitive aspects of various teaching components, including curriculums, lesson planning and delivery, the learning environment, games and materials, as well as the language used by teachers and principals, and student assessment practices. The study is supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation's Fundamental Research State Grants.

School Related Gender-Based Violence: Case of Kakheti Region Schools and Kindergartens

Irina Busygina will present the key arguments from her recently published Non-Democratic Federalism and Decentralization: A Post-Soviet Perspective (Routledge, 2023), co-authored with Mikhail Filippov. The book builds on many years of research on center-regional relations in Russia and also opens up comparative perspectives through case studies on centralization/decentralization in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The conversation will address the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on center-regional relations in Russia. To what extent are center-regional relations part of the resilience of the authoritarian system in Russia and what could be potential tipping points in these relations? What is the role of the regions in the war? Are there any signs of erosion of Russia’s center-regional model?

Russia's Center-Regional Relations in Time of War: Are There Any Signs of Model Erosion?

Over a million Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Turkmens, and other Central Asian Muslims became refugees in Afghanistan, Iran, and China's Xinjiang region between the 1910s and the 1930s. This talk will explore major developments that led to mass displacement, including the Central Asian revolt of 1916, civil war in 1917–23, Soviet reforms in the 1920s, and the Kazakh famine of 1930–33, while paying particular attention to settler colonial violence and the loss of Muslim sovereignties in Central Asia.
 
This talk is one of the keynotes at the Davis Center's Graduate Student Conference on Central Asia.

Muslim Emigration From Late Tsarist and Early Soviet Central Asia

The Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University seeks to foster comprehensive understanding and multidisciplinary study of Russia and the countries of Eurasia. Founded in 1948 as the Russian Research Center, the Davis Center sponsors a master's program, seminars and conferences, targeted research, fellowships, undergraduate and graduate student support, and an outreach program. The center's more than 300 affiliates come from Harvard University, the greater Boston area, and around the world.

How to Kill a Superpower: Episode 1 - Do You Believe in Miracles

Davis Center

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