Books on Ukrainian joy, compiled by @chukurchuk and @BorisDralyuk. Read, laugh, resist! 1. The travesty of Vergil's Aeneid by Ivan Kotliarevsky, the beginning of modern Ukrainian literature and perhaps the high point of this burlesque tradition: diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/upl… 1/10 2. Nikolai Gogol's (Mykola Hohol's) earliest canonical work, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. Wonderful Romantic tales of Ukraine. The best English version is Kent's revision of the Garnett translation, found in the first volume here: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book… 2/10

For a decade, Putin's Russia has made every effort to encourage Western scholars of Russia to write history along Putin's lines. In the context of genocide, this is no longer acceptable. After 2014, Putin saw Russian history as part of national security and persecuted 1/11 dissenting views. In 2016, Russian historian Alexander Churbarian told Izvestia that "we have received a request from the president: to intensify and broaden contacts with foreign scholars with the purpose of promoting historical truth" (as understood by Putin, of course). 2/11

At a panel on decolonization at NESEEES, the local version of @aseeestudies we discussed: One, the need for moral cleansing of the field of Russian history in the US. This was presented as a critique, but I think it's a necessity. What of the scholars who went to Valdai 1/10 and who worked for Russian organizations like SVOP? This was direct help to Putin, and there hasn't been a real discussion about this. 2nd, because we're historians, we had a discussion about periodization. There was debate about where to start Russian history courses. 2/10

How do you tell a new story about a nation? For 20 years, I've been trying to do so for Russia. Starting with the provinces of central Russia, then Siberia and the Russian North, I found little-known forerunners who saw that a different Russia was possible. @LukeDCoffey 1/6

https://twitter.com/ODrachewych/status/1610672110950666240

People like 19th century Nizhnii Novgorod activist A. Gatsiskii, who argued that the medieval Republic of Novgorod showed that Russia's people could be self-governing. Reading the 1990s mimeographed books of local historians published in 50 copies and @brdemuth @toddprincetv 2/6

My new blog, "Periodization as Decolonization" is now out on @HNetRussia. It provides a new periodization that centers Russia's regions, not the center. Democratization and federalism come more into focus. In the 1830s, @irgarner @toddprincetv @OxanaShevel @globalrhizome 1/9

https://twitter.com/ODrachewych/status/1610672110950666240

an era of Romantic discovery of regions took place in Siberia, other Russian regions and in Western Europe. The Russian state inadvertently helped by creating institutions to study the regions economically that led to new provincial identities @propornot @EricaMarat 2/9

5 arguments against decolonizing Russian history I heard at #ASEEES22 and my responses 1) What's happening in Russia has nothing to do with us. Really? Even though our field was founded by Russian historians who had a similar periodization as Putin? @ksvarnon @steven_seegel 1/5 When we teach, isn't it still Kyivan Rus - Muscovy - Russian Empire? Scholars have complicated this, but standard textbooks change slowly. 2) Decolonizing is anti-Russian and echoes Richard Pipes. So colonizing is pro-Russian? Interesting. @channelljustice @FaithCHillis 2/5

Russia is a prison house of regions. I've researched this topic for 20 years, and believe that this story could help to reshape Russian history so that we don't see everything from the central's state's point of view. @McFaul @kamilkazani @JohnVsetecka @ODrachewych @MarkJTrev For example, Siberian regionalism has a long history of attempts at independence. In 1863, regionalists wrote that Siberia could be "the first Slavic nation" to become "a democratic republic." It ended "Long live the Republic of the United States of Siberia!" @TamerFakahany

How do we decolonize the study of Russian history in the US? Russianists are working on projects in their institutions, but it's uncoordinated. @aseeestudies has a page for Ukraine events. Why not a page for decolonizing Russian studies? Who are my allies? I'd like to know. 1/9 @aseeestudies is having a virtual conference in a few days. There are lots more panels on Ukraine than ever before. Could there be a virtual message board where people could brainstorm on decolonizing the field and share what they're doing? 2/9 @ODrachewych @JohnVsetecka

Alexander Dugin, sometimes called "Putin's brain," sees Germany as "Axis Europa" shielding Russia from the rest of the West. Map from Dugin's 1997 textbook, widely taught in military academies since then: 1) Axis Eurasia 2) Axis Europa 3) marginalized West @MAStrackZi @fdpbt a🧵 Dugin, who is a neo-Nazi, argues that Russia and Germany will naturally divide up Europe into spheres of influence. 1997 textbook map below. The textbook came from his lectures to the Russian General Staff and was commissioned by the Russian Defense Minister. @ToniHofreiter 2/

In the @Independent, I argue that a recent article by Timofei Sergeitsev lays out a plan for the #GenocideOfUkrainians. Honored to be quoted with @ZelenskyyUa and @eugene_finkel. This should be picked up widely by the press. When we talk about intent, let's start using the

https://twitter.com/AndrewBuncombe/status/1513957430220054530

sources we already have. It includes a link to my translation of the plan for genocide. @StevenErlanger @nytimes @cnnbrk @maddow @ABlinken @jensstoltenberg @AtlanticCouncil @infobae @francska1 @cbcDougDirks @TzviJoffre @UmlandAndreas @razomforukraine @EstherJay10 @thedispatch

Horrifying new evidence of plans for #RussianWarCrimes. The representative of the People's Militia of the Donets People's Republic (a Russian puppet state), Eduard Basurin, said today that they should use chemical weapons against Ukrainian defenders at Azovstal' in Mariupol because of the underground structure and number of defenders and also said it would save the lives of Russian soldiers. Also because Russians don't seem to care if people know that they're considering war crimes because they'll just deny them afterwards anyway.

On Sunday, an official Russian news agency released a plan for the genocide of the Ukrainian people. Here's my annotated, revised translation: Bit.ly/3JpcT0t @StevenErlanger @infobae @francska1 @arstotzia @MacaesBruno @nadinbrzezinski @cbcDougDirks @AndrewBuncombe A🧵 Ukrainian politicians and military leaders will be liquidated, it states. Forced labor awaits the rest. All Ukrainian history, culture, and symbols will be repressed and the population will be forcibly reeducated over 25 years. @TzviJoffre @UmlandAndreas @razomforukraine