Amazing — Britain now has tea plantations in Devon. Even more fascinating: one cultivar comes from Georgia. I’ve written about how British tea in India influenced Caucasus plantations in the 19th century. Now the flow goes the other way.

Comparing Ukraine to Ireland was common throughout the 19th century among both the Ukrainian intelligentsia and government officials. The former stressed the struggle for emancipation from the core imperial identity (British or all-Russian), the latter – the perceived inevitability of assimilation.

Saying Alaska was “part of Russia” is like saying India under the East India Company was “part of Britain.” A textbook overseas colony of the empire that, according to Putin, “never colonized anyone,” Alaska was the Russian imperial state’s most peculiar possession. 🧵

Happy to share that over the next six months I’ll be researching and teaching on Ukraine and the Russian Empire at the University of Basel as the new URIS Fellow. Excited for the semester ahead!

PK Porthcurno. The most breathtaking location for an archive one could imagine.

Just back from UK archives with mind-blowing finds linking James Watt, Jeremy Bentham, Prince Potemkin, West Indies sugar plantations, and Russia’s first bid to acclimatize exotic plants in its colonial south. Couldn’t imagine a better starting point for my book manuscript.

Russia just labeled Yale an "undesirable organization." Under the Russian law, even attending one of its conferences could now land you in prison. meduza.io/en/news/2025...

Iranian dissidents—including former political prisoners—almost unanimously oppose military intervention, notwithstanding their deep animus toward the Islamic Republic. An in-depth report on this from 10 years ago is suddenly more relevant than ever. My 2015 piece 👇 inthesetimes.com/article/iran...

My first article for the @erc.europa.eu funded COLVET project has been published Open Access in @conteurohistory.bsky.social. It explores how the Greater War concept might facilitate better engagement with colonial experiences of conflict in the early 20th century www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A fascinating essay on Ru colonialism in Asia and the Middle East with this important wrap-up: "The fundamental difference between Western European and Russian imperial histories lies in Russia’s systematic silencing and emphatic denial of its own colonial record." newlinesmag.com/essays/the-h...

From now on, anyone taking part in the ASEEES @aseees.bsky.social conference is subject to criminal punishment in Russia. As I understand it, since participants pay a membership fee, they could face up to 5 years in prison for “funding an undesirable organization” (Article 284.1 of the Penal Code).

A fascinating one: Slavophile Ivan Aksakov, trying to prove that Ukrainians had no historical continuity with medieval Rus', supported his claim by arguing that the imperial term "Little Russia" wasn’t used by the people—who called their country "Ukraine."

In the late 1830s—some 80 years before the Bolsheviks allegedly "invented" Ukraine—Russian intelligentsia described Odessa as an imperial trade hub built to allow Ukraine to "sell off the surplus of its riches."

In the late 1830s—some 80 years before the Bolsheviks allegedly "invented" Ukraine—Russian intelligentsia described Odessa as an imperial trade hub built to allow Ukraine to "sell off the surplus of its riches."

Why did so many men enjoy picking up a rifle and practising shooting in the German Empire between 1871 and 1914? 📖 Presentation of the book by @camilleriana.bsky.social: Una cultura delle armi (Carocci, 2024) 🗓 29.05. at 17.30 Casa della #Memoria e della Storia #Siscalt #bookrecommendations

Not since the final years of the Cold War has the Kremlin wielded the concept of colonialism as a tool of its foreign policy as aggressively as it does today. @opolianichev.bsky.social challenges this growing political mythology, for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

In 1891, Nicholas II ended his trip to Japan with two lasting marks: a 9-cm scar on his head from an assassination attempt, and a dragon tattoo on his arm. It was with these traces on his body that he set his sights on expanding Russia’s colonial empire in East Asia: newlinesmag.com/essays/the-h...

Really great piece on the history between Russia and their "new" allies in the Global South, and the through-lines of colonialism in their past and present relationships newlinesmag.com/essays/the-h...

Today, Tehran, Pyongyang, and Beijing are key backers of Russia’s war of expansion. But they share a deeper history: under the last tsar, Iran, China, and Korea themselves fell prey to its colonial appetite. My latest for @newlinesmag.bsky.social on Russia’s imperial record in the Global South.

An “anti-imperialist” empire? In an Orwellian inversion of history, “anti-colonialism” has become a hallmark not only of the Soviet Union but even of tsarist Russia. Historian @opolianichev.bsky.social sets the record straight in this @newlinesmag.bsky.social essay. newlinesmag.com/essays/the-h...

Today, Tehran, Pyongyang, and Beijing are key backers of Russia’s war of expansion. But they share a deeper history: under the last tsar, Iran, China, and Korea themselves fell prey to its colonial appetite. My latest for @newlinesmag.bsky.social on Russia’s imperial record in the Global South.

My comments on Russia's "anti-colonial" myth. “It is not taken for granted because Russia was truly ‘anti-imperialist’ in the past, but because it actively opposes the West in the present. Should the political climate shift, the skeletons in Russia’s closet will be just as easily brought to light.”

Reading the news while going through the minutes of the US-mediated peace process between Russia and Japan in Portsmouth in 1905 feels oddly surreal.

Sunday Times.

When I teach the Cold War, I do an exercise: I give my students a variety of primary sources and ask them, what was the point of no return? This episode will be on future syllabi, a prime example of a point of no return in the unraveling of America’s position in the global order.

I’ve spent my career studying imperialists bullying ‘weaker’ countries & leaders but it still didn’t prepare me for the sadness of witnessing an instance playing out, in public and in real time. apple.news/AAvyAG8eGSSK...

I am a pessimist by training but I am more optimistic about Ukraine now than I was this morning. Wish I could say this about the US. This was a horror show, but the trajectory was unsustainable and Trump, in his efforts to help Putin might have generated the pushback energy I haven't seen since 2022

Since the 1950s, Summer Language Workshops at Indiana University have provided training in Russian, East European, and Central Asian languages. Generations have come to Bloomington to study Romanian, Polish, Kazakh, etc. Rubio just cancelled all of them languageworkshop.indiana.edu/summer-langu...

Hot off the press! See our latest article by Vincent Ho & Novem Tsz-Wing Ho on 'An Exhausted Colonial Botanist: Charles Ford and Hong Kong Botanical Gardens, 1871–1902', accessible freely here: doi.org/10.1080/0308...

Welcome to a brave new world.

Okay I swear I'll stop posting about the book soon, but here's a direct link to our intro 'Expansion alongside integration: a new history of imperial Europe', which lays out the historiographical and present-day socio-political stakes in detail: doi.org/10.5040/9781...

In Boston! Looking forward to seeing so many of you here at ASEEES 2024 in the next few days.

A quote from the former commander of the Algiers Division reproduced in the pro-reform newspaper L'Ikdam in September 1920: 'If we don't know how to definitively win over a race that asks only to evolve with us, it will evolve against us and tomorrow we will be confronted with another Ireland'

"Barbaric peoples will disappear; they will be annihilated, absorbed, or assimilated under the efforts of civilized nations. Among educated nations, once they rid themselves of the barbarians, armed struggle will inevitably be replaced by economic struggle." 1912. It didn't age well, did it?

Thing is, the Russian expeditionary corps in Iran marching toward Mosul in 1917 is something even many WWI historians aren’t aware of. What’s even wilder is that the only photos of this campaign I’ve come across were taken by Australian radio operators in Mesopotamia.

I’m sharing this again. I’d like to make a donation and I’m sure others would too. Please share any information you got.

"Barbaric peoples will disappear; they will be annihilated, absorbed, or assimilated under the efforts of civilized nations. Among educated nations, once they rid themselves of the barbarians, armed struggle will inevitably be replaced by economic struggle." 1912. It didn't age well, did it?

Thing is, the Russian expeditionary corps in Iran marching toward Mosul in 1917 is something even many WWI historians aren’t aware of. What’s even wilder is that the only photos of this campaign I’ve come across were taken by Australian radio operators in Mesopotamia.

Hello Bluesky, I am a historian based in Ankara. A few months ago, Oxford University Press published my first book, which explores the way that Russian and Turkish revolutionaries arrived at a statist partnership as they responded to post-WWI liberal internationalism.

A unique group photo of members of Russia's expeditionary corps in Persia, taken by Australian wireless signalers in Qasr-e Shirin (near the modern Iraq border) in May 1917, after the Russian Empire was no more. From the Australian War Memorial collections.

Cover Reveal! We’re thrilled to announce the forthcoming publication of Imperial Weather: Meteorology, Science, and the Environment in Colonial Malaya by Fiona Williamson. Imperial Weather joins our Intersections series on 2/18/25. Details and preorders here: upittpress.org/books/978082...

I’m thrilled to have a chapter in this gem of a book! I write about the ongoing history of the theft and study of human remains, focusing on (what was when I wrote it) the newly-opened National Ainu Museum. The chapter doubles as a media critique. It’s available online here: doi.org/10.5040/9781...

Recently I was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of 'The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History' @jich.bsky.social with a great team, @yiannicart.bsky.social @jonasgjerso.bsky.social and @evansmithhist.bsky.social Looking forward to receiving your submissions!

The real *long* long 19th century stretches into 2024.

Feels like a rare find: a travel account describing prostitution in Samarkand, published in a military journal in 1912. The author claims that brothels were legalized after the Russian conquest. @siobhanhearne.bsky.social, thought you might be interested!

My new book, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, is out today. It tells the story of the botanists who worked at the world's first seed bank during the 900-day siege––and how they were faced with a terrible decision: eat the fruits of their research to survive, or protect the collection for science.

"Homesick Imperialists: Boredom and Nostalgia at the Edge of the Russian Empire" That's the paper I'll be presenting at ASEEES 2024 in Boston, so come join us for our "Imperial Pain" panel next week!

Our new co-edited collection Off White. Central and Eastern Europe and the Global History of Race (2024) is open access, free to download here: www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

Fun fact: If someone quotes a post of yours in a way that is unwelcome (as is commonplace on Twitter/X) there is a tool to combat the unwanted attention. Simply click the three dot menu on the quote post & click "Detach quote". This removes your post from their quote post. Useful to know, do share!

Amazing things are happening over here!