The signatories of the Belavezha agreement believe it should serve as a consensus model for the world—an example of diplomacy, civil discourse, and nonviolent means of conflict resolution. The events at Belavezha are among the most momentous in modern history. But, unlike the fall of the Berlin Wall, most people have never heard of them. In the conclusion of How to Kill a Superpower, Dr. Yelena Biberman and Zachary Troyanovsky consider why this is the case and what term effectively describes what happened. 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 5 - Scrambled Beans

Boris Yeltsin’s trip to a supermarket in Clear Lake, Texas, planted a seed of the USSR’s destruction. The United States won the Cold War with free-market capitalism—and Jell-O pudding pops. Still, astoundingly, the collapse of the USSR was not what the U.S. government wanted. In this episode, Dr. Yelena Biberman and Zachary Troyanovsky evaluate the Cold War confrontational narrative and offer a new perspective on how the USSR dissolved. 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 4 - The Hero of Tetris

Dr. Yelena Biberman and Zachary Troyanovsky explore the role of spontaneity at Belavezha, narrowing in on the exact moment of dissolution: a dinner party. The seating arrangement, a late arrival, and the sequence of phone calls all influenced the outcome. Did vodka? 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 3 - Liquid Courage

How much agency did the signatories of the Belavezha Accords have? Factors outside of their control shaped their behavior in ways that even they could not have predicted. In this episode, Dr. Yelena Biberman and Zachary Troyanovsky seek wisdom from Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy to understand the dissolution of the USSR, as well as their own unusual life stories. 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 2 - History Made Them, and They Made History

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

Russia’s war in Ukraine was not merely a whim or obsession of Putin’s; instead, it was the result of two decades of authoritarian degradation and post-imperial ressentiment, a culmination of Putin’s regime and of Russia’s entire imperial history. Building on his prize-winning book The Return of the Russian Leviathan, Sergei Medvedev argues that it was not only Putin who started this war but Russia itself, which, by and large, has imagined and embraced it with enthusiasm, seeking to relive its own military glory and colonial past.

A War Made in Russia

Charles King, professor of international affairs and government at Georgetown University, is our guest speaker for the 2023 Ilia Chavchavadze Lecture. Every year, the Davis Center's Program on Georgian Studies invites a prominent scholar to address a topic in the field of Georgian and South Caucasian studies. Professor King’s most recent book, the award-winning New York Times bestseller Gods of the Upper Air (2019), is a fascinating primer to the questions he will address in his lecture on the origins and exploration of identity, diversity, and race in the Caucasus. His earlier works on the Caucasus include The Black Sea (2004) and The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus (2008).

Georgians, Caucasians, and the Invention of Race

The seminar on Georgia and the South Caucasus is a monthly event at the Davis Center. This semester we will discuss U.S.-Georgian relations, the economy, and Georgian-EU relations.

The U.S.-Georgian relationship for the last three decades has been politically aligned. The U.S. strongly supports Georgia’s territorial integrity and its application for membership of the European Union. In the 1990s and 2000s, the U.S. was key in creating the strategic energy infrastructure that crosses Georgian territory and has restored the country’s traditional function as a transit country between Asia and Europe. Georgian soldiers have contributed to all the major military operations led by the U.S. during the last two decades, most notably in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in the context of the Russian war against Ukraine, U.S.-Georgian bilateral relations have become strained. There are major geopolitical shifts afoot in the South Caucasus, and Georgia is central to their outcome. What explains these strains in the Georgian-U.S. relationship, and what are the prospects for Georgian-U.S. relations in the region?

There will be a brief introduction by Professor Stephen Jones, director of the Davis Center’s Program on Georgian Studies. The co-organizer and moderator of the seminar is Dr. Mamuka Tsereteli, currently a senior fellow at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute in Washington, D.C.

Democracy, Geopolitics, and the Future of US-Georgia Relations

Since Georgia regained independence in 1991, its sovereignty and territorial integrity have constantly been challenged by Russia, primarily through the exploitation of separatist sentiment in different Georgian regions. 

For multiple reasons, the breakaway region of Abkhazia has become a primary instrument of pressure against Georgia's efforts to join Western security and economic institutions.

Now, acting as a de facto occupying force in Abkhazia, Russia is moving forward with a greater military and economic presence there.

Most recently, Moscow has announced the expansion of a small military port in Ochamchire for harboring and servicing Russian naval ships forced out of Ukrainian ports such as Sevastopol. 

Our speakers will discuss current developments in and around Abkhazia, human rights violations, and Georgian and international responses.

Reverberations Of War Against Ukraine, Impact On Abkhazia, Georgia

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

Is the Internet in Russia a tool of totalitarianism or of freedom? Investigative reporters Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan—authors of The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries—say perhaps it is both. 

Episode 2: The Red Web with Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan

What happens to the oil flowing across international borders as political relationships get chilly? What does the future hold for Russia and Turkey? Davis Center Director Rawi Abdelal, the Joseph C. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, discusses how state and commercial interests shape Russia’s current place on the world stage. 

Episode 1: The Price of Oil with Rawi Abdelal

How has the iconic image of standing in line shaped Russian identity? Literary scholar Jillian Porter examines how the queue has wound its way through narratives of revolution and continues to find expression in Russian political, social, and cultural life today.

Episode 5: Standing in Line with Jillian Porter

Stalin’s death in March 1953 took the world by surprise. In the United States, the Eisenhower administration was on edge at the prospect of an armed confrontation with the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, a campaign against Soviet Jewry prompted speculation and bewilderment from observers around the world. Stalin’s passing marked a major turning point, but did it lead to lasting change? In this episode of the Eurasian Enigma, Joshua Rubenstein discusses his latest book, The Last Days of Stalin. 

Episode 6: The Last Days of Stalin with Joshua Rubenstein

Decades after the theories of Soviet agronomist Trofim Lysenko were discredited, his name is back on the tongues of some Russian scientists. Historian of science Loren Graham explores Lysenko’s political legacy and the extent to which new developments in microbiology validate his controversial claims.

Episode 7: The Ghost of Soviet Science with Loren Graham

At this moment of great geopolitical change, Davis Center Director Rawi Abdelal looks at the fate of globalization through the lenses of great power transitions, national borders, and economic inequality. 

Rawi Abdelal is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School and the Director of Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. His work focuses on international political economy and the politics of globalization and political economy of Eurasia.

Episode 11: The State of the World with Rawi Abdelal

Not merely helpers but makers of the revolution: researcher Olena Nikolayenko on the steadfast women who put their lives on the line for Ukraine's future.

Episode 12: Women of the Euromaidan with Olena Nikolayenko

In 1959, the KGB, determined to squash the movement for independence in Ukraine, sent Bogdan Stashinsky to assassinate Stepan Bandera using the most unusual of methods. Stashinsky was put on trial in what would become the most publicized assassination case of the Cold War. His story is rousingly depicted in Serhii Plokhii’s Man with the Poison Gun.

Episode 13: A Cold War Spy Story with Serhii Plokhii

The vast majority of Russian-speaking Jews today live outside the former Soviet Union. We spoke with Zvi Gitelman about this population, their remarkable impact on the societies that send and receive them, and how traditional notions of "diaspora" and "homeland" have blurred in our globalized world.

Episode 14: The New Jewish Diaspora with Zvi Gitelman

Politics increasingly pervades our everyday lives, including our entertainment and pop culture. The Eurovision Song Contest was created in 1956 as an opportunity to bring nations and people together in an expressly non-political fashion—through song. Now, 60 years later, Eurovision is often used as a specific political tool. James Evans and Yuval Weber discuss the history of the song contest and how it has been used as a political tool to reignite recent conflagration between Ukraine and Russia.

Episode 16: Eurovision: Music, Kitsch, and Politics with James Evans and Yuval Weber

Mikhail Gorbachev, revered by many in the West for his commitment to “openness” and democratizing reforms, has a more mixed reputation in Russia, where he is associated with the fall of an empire. In this episode, Bill Taubman discusses his new biography of Gorbachev, emphasizing how the leader's personal history and character were reflected in his leadership, and how the policies of Vladimir Putin can be read as a response to Gorbachev’s contested legacy.

Episode 17: The Life and Legacy of Gorbachev with William Taubman

In this episode, we talk with Anne Applebaum about her new book, Red Famine. Applebaum argues that the 1932–1933 famine in the Soviet Union was part of a deliberate operation by Stalin to rid the USSR of Ukrainians who resisted the Bolsheviks and their policy of agricultural collectivization.

Episode 18: "Red Famine" with Anne Applebaum

Anna Veduta of the independent media outlet Meduza discusses the challenges of journalism in Russia and the media landscape surrounding the recent Russian presidential election.

Episode 19: Russian News Media and Elections with Anna Veduta

Episode 20: The Collapse of the USSR

The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan - Sarah Cameron (2.11.20)

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.

Popular tracks by Davis Center