Doing History in Public

Tag: Russia

  • Revisiting Kipling’s Kim

    Revisiting Kipling’s Kim

    By Jeremy Wikeley Over the summer I read Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim for the first time. I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to. Kim tells the story of an Irish orphan who, growing up in India, has a series of adventures, first as the protégé of an elderly Buddhist monk and…

  • ‘Rejoice Moscow, Russians are in Paris!’: The curious history of a popular melody

    ‘Rejoice Moscow, Russians are in Paris!’: The curious history of a popular melody

    By Jimmy Chen Within the collection of Cambridge University Library, there is a piece of sheet music for a Russian song dating from the Napoleonic Wars. Insignificant at first glance, this simple song can provide important insights into European musical culture in the early nineteenth century.

  • Resistance in Russia: A Reflection on International Women’s Day

    Resistance in Russia: A Reflection on International Women’s Day

    By Mobeen Hussain (@amhuss27) This year’s International Women’s Day, on March 8th, was marked across the world with various marches, proclamations and campaigns highlighting inequalities and celebrating women. In the last two years, we have seen feminist campaigns in various institutions to challenge ongoing inequalities that disproportionately affect women, including sexual abuse, the gender pay…

  • Expressions of “Russian exceptionalism”: a historical continuity?

    Expressions of “Russian exceptionalism”: a historical continuity?

    By Mobeen Hussain (@amhuss27) Vladimir Putin was unsurprisingly victorious in this month’s presidential elections on the 18th of March. As with all political campaigns, candidates routinely utilise powerful self-branding images. In Putin’s case, historic forms of Russian exceptionalism were re-imagined to run on a distinct platform based on anti-Americanism, similar to his previous campaigns. Michael Bohm, in…

  • World at their Feet: The World Cup and History

    World at their Feet: The World Cup and History

    By Tom Smith  (@TomEtesonSmith) For any football fan, and even for many who don’t usually indulge in the ‘beautiful game’, the arrival of the World Cup every four years provides pure escapism. Even in England, the disappointment of a predictable penalty shoot-out defeat is assuaged by the tournament’s association with long hot summer days, the colours…