Mirror image cats! Saturday morning snoozing …

Spring!

Many couples were forced to undertake dangerous, daring escape attempts to overcome their separation.

I wrote this short piece for The Conversation, out in time for Valentine’s Day!

Today, I‘m working on a short article. Current WFH set up:

Today I’m attending (via Zoom) some of the conference ‘Literature of Socialist Trauma: Results and Prospects’

Today is the first official day of my sabbatical. My automatic email replies are on, and my cat is happy!

Some ‘light’ reading at the British Library! 📚 @britishlibrary.bsky.social

The people in the photo enjoy spending time reading through kilometres of documents produced by the secret services, trying to extract any trace of meaning from them. It was a great joy to co-organise a panel on preventative policing and repression in the USSR and Czechoslovakia at #ICCEES2025

New badge! From #ICCEES2025

‘Racing in the East’ - a great exhibition in Jeffrey Hall at #ICCEES2025

This starter pack is an experiment on our part, we've added everyone we can find posting under the conference hashtags #ICCEES2025 & #ICCEES25 If you would like to be added, just add to the conversation using #ICCEES2025 or #ICCEES25 go.bsky.app/Hb5CnBQ @basees.bsky.social

Today at #ICCEES2025 : why not end the day at our panel about Preventative Policing and Repression within the USSR and Czechoslovakia? Panel 10.1, W3.01, 16.30-18.00

I’m starting #ICCEES2025 day 3 at a panel about Culture, Politics and Civil Society in the Soviet Union, including a paper by @shsslbu.bsky.social PhD student Christina Schlegel

I’m starting day 2 of #ICCEES2025 by attending a very interesting panel: 3.1 ‘Voices from Ukraine: War Diaries of the Russo-Ukrainian War’

This panel looks interesting 😉 Panel 2.12, 16.30-18.00, today. Come and join us! #ICCEES2025

I thoroughly enjoyed Taťjana Šarić’s fascinating paper ´Tracked Lives: Yugoslav State Security and Female Cominform Emigration’ (Panel 1.3) #ICCEES2025 👏

It’s great to be in London for #ICCEES2025

New review out! In Red Tape (@stanfordpress.bsky.social, 2024), Rosamund Johnston shows how Czechoslovak Radio became a site of negotiation between the regime, the listeners and the people who worked there. David M. Durant reviews the books. ceureviewofbooks.com/review/radio...

Thirteen of my publications are listed here, including my co-authored book, some journal articles and several book reviews. Years of research, all used without my knowledge or permission…

Me on Teams meetings 😂😂

This sounds like a great opportunity for someone! #history #coldwarhist #skystorians Three-year fixed term research post working on religion under communist regimes in Central and/or Eastern Europe at Cardiff University: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMB493/k....

We have a great event coming up at @shsslbu.bsky.social next Wednesday! From Leeds to Manila: come and hear former @leedsbeckett.bsky.social student Rafa Ortile speak about his research into the scandalous case of Lord Antony Moynihan www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for...

Exhibition Shines Light on Bulgaria’s Forgotten Communist-Era ‘Labour Troops’ #bulgaria #coldwarhist balkaninsight.com/2025/01/10/e...

We went from “what good are the humanities?” to “suddenly, no one can read” in about a year, and the answer to the first question is the disinformation and lack of critical thinking you see all around you. *That* is why you need the humanities. This is what they prevent.

New event in the History on the Edge series: “Women in Serbia during the Second World War (1941-1945)” by Ljubinka Škodrić. WHEN? Wednesday, 12 March 2025 at 13:00 WHERE? at the INZ premises (Privoz 11) or at the ZOOM link: us06web.zoom.us/j/86949706378

Nice to see the latest installation in my local village phone box showing support for Ukraine today #SlavaUkraini #standwithukraine

I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Nazis were very problematic even before the invasion of Poland and the genocides.

It’s Monday, and my research assistant is sleeping on the job! #cats #lapcat #rescuecat

I tell my cat “I know” when she meows at me but if I’m being honest? I don’t always know

A plea: does anyone here have access to the most recent issues of the Journal of Modern History? My institutional access only goes up to 2019, and there’s an article from 2023 that I could really do with reading… #skystorians #historians #coldwarhist

‘Seventy-seven years later, we still don't have final clarity on the death of Jan Masaryk, which came as Communist parties seized power in Czechoslovakia and across Central and Eastern Europe’ #czechoslovakia #coldwar #coldwarhist www.rferl.org/amp/czech-mu...

In Prague: Belonging in the Modern City (Harvard University Press, 2021) Chad Bryant explores the relationship between identity and place, asking us to consider what it means to belong in a city. Anna West reviews the book. Read the review here: ceureviewofbooks.com/review/imagi...

We've created a new Starter Pack of #History institutes and research centres in the UK & Ireland bit.ly/3F3Eo2M Please do share. There will be gaps and recommendations are welcome. We hope this pack helps you keep in touch with work by and for historians in the UK & Ireland #Skystorians.

‘It allowed us to survive, to not go mad’: the CIA book smuggling operation that helped bring down communism #coldwarhist #coldwar #books #poland www.theguardian.com/books/2025/f...

This is great news for Leeds! @shsslbu.bsky.social www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/politic...

Sarah Ross-Thompson, fine art printmaker based on the South West Coast of Scotland #WomensArt

Job Vacancy! Glasgow University are advertising a fixed-term (up to four years) lectureship in Eurasian Studies: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Job Vacancy! Glasgow University are advertising a fixed-term (up to four years) lectureship in Eurasian Studies: www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

'In the letter, made public on 10 February, Julia Black...says the “range of cutbacks we are seeing across universities is leading to a severe loss in UK capability".' Nearly 100 HEIs are “contracting or closing” social sciences, humanities & the arts disciplines “in the face of a financial crisis”.

I went on the New Books Network podcast this week to talk my book The Red Army and the Great Terror: Stalin’s Purge of the Soviet Military. It’s a fairly old book, but was fun to revisit the subject.

Finally taking the leap! Here for all things Humanities and Social Sciences related. Check out our website to find out about all the great teaching and research going on in our School. www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/school-of-hu...

Was Jan Masaryk murdered after all? New American, British and French documents reopen investigation english.radio.cz/was-jan-masa...

The biggest hotel news in Prague the past year has been the reopening of the Hotel Evropa on Wenceslas Square. The hotel had been closed for years. I loved the old Evropa and was a café regular in the ‘90s. I was dying to see the new place: markbakerprague.com/a-peek-insid... (Live link in bio)

Natalie Rak, aka Rak, Poland based street artist #WomensArt #Monday

The look of love … Friday night cuddles with Mia 😻 #rescuecat

New museum honours Musine Kokalari, communist show trial victim and political prisoner in Albania: balkaninsight.com/2024/12/20/m... #coldwarhist #coldwar #albania

Hello to all our new followers! Based at @uofglasgow.bsky.social since 1949, we publish ground-breaking research on the history + current political social economic affairs of the post-socialist countries of Europe + Asia. For all info on EAS, see: www.tandfonline.com/journals/cea...

This sounds fascinating! @coldwarpod.bsky.social #coldwarhist #coldwar #czechoslovakia #prague