Historian of Tsarist Russia at @sodertorn • PhD from @EUI_History • Colonial and global history • Researching Ukraine's experience of empire
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On September 18, the “Ukraine war” made a sudden visit to every household in Toropets, shattering windows and knocking down doors. Standing silently before the towering mushroom cloud was a bronze monument to General Aleksei Kuropatkin, the region's most famous native. 2/ 
As the war erupted, a massive flow of tsarist troops surged into Crimea from the Russian provinces, while in return, letters, newspaper articles, and travel notes flowed back from the Crimean shores to the metropole. It seemed that everyone who could write was eager to share their impressions of the unfamiliar land they were encountering for the first time. 2/
The man in the photo above is taking a selfie in front of a kebab shop. This entire scene is part of an exhibit, and the man is the chairman of the Moscow City Duma, visiting one of the largest and most ambitious exhibitions held in Russia's capital in recent years. The exhibition, titled "Moscow 2030," depicts the city as a techno-utopia come true, seemingly untouched by the realities of war. 2/
As the architect of the treaty, Count Nikolai Muraviev, stated: "Do not believe, gentlemen, that Russia is greedy for the expansion of her frontiers... All Russia cares for is the security of her boundaries."
Calling for mass executions of "Ukrainian monsters," Medvedev ends his appeal with the final lines of the famous 1942 verse by Konstantin Simonov "Kill him!":
"I'm from Kenya. I'm a person of color (...) Those who attacked our hostel today are real barbarians," the person on the video says. They are one of the participants of the "Alabuga Start" program, launched in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. 2/
This quote has nothing to do with either Ukraine or Russia. We've been there, haven't we? 
The importance of Bukhara was immense, the author argued. It was the last remnant of Central Asia's bygone greatness. Worse still, it was a "hearth of Islam." The "flame," he argued, "can only be extinguished and covered in blood; the hearth itself, (...) must be scattered ... 2/
The Kremlin's chief propagandist Dmitry Kiselev says that Russia's primary goal is the imposition of a new world order (“novaia konstruktsiia mira”). The message “Bor'ba za mir” is intentionally ambivalent. It means both “a struggle for peace” and “a struggle for the world.” 2/ 
One may recall that while the preparations for the invasion of Poland were underway, the Nazis were busy planning a "Rally for Peace" in Nuremberg. "For Germany," as Hitler said in his famous Wilhelmshaven speech in April 1939, "does not dream of attacking other nations." 2/ 
This is an extraordinary book, even by Russia's academic standards. Naturally, it opens with Putin's article, which many believe – and rightfully so – to have served as a rationale for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 2/ 
Let's look at the footnotes. Medvedev claims to have consulted an issue of the Pravda newspaper from November 25, 1989. He quotes the Polish Prime-minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki here: 2/ 
Last June, the RIA Novosti author Viktoriia Nikiforova published an important text, which nearly everyone missed. In it, she argued that peace was in Russia's best interests. The reason? Empire building takes time. 2/
Kharkiv was the 5th region of Ukraine that Russia planned to annex one year ago through a sham referendum. It never happened: during the swift Ukrainian counter-offensive last September, almost the entire region was liberated in a matter of days. 2/
Media outlets in Russia's Karelia are spreading the news that run counter to everything the EU has said and done in response to the Russian invasion. Offenburg University in Germany has offered Petrozavodsk State University to restore their official partnership. 2/ 
Earlier in August, the village of Porech'e in the Tver province saw an unusual ceremony. Local authorities and some high-ranking African diplomats laid the cornerstone of what is meant to become "Afrovillage" – the first exclusively African settlement in Russia. 2/
Russia's Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, "Rosreestr," has included Zaporizhzhia in its real estate database. This means that the entire city, with all its streets and buildings, is listed there as belonging to Russia. Take this example: 2/
The Russian army has never been anywhere close to Zaporizhzhia. And yet, the Russian teaching portal YaKlass, widely used in school curricula, has updated its maps to include both Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. 2/