Ivan Kurilla Looks Back at the American Historian Who Helped Redefine Soviet Studies Before Becoming a Pariah at Home in the Age of Putin
Tue, 09/29/2020 - 14:04..
The historian Stephen Cohen died on September 18 at the age of 81. During Perestroika, the American scholar’s work on early Soviet history (translated into Russian) influenced the USSR’s own understanding of Stalinism. Over the past 20 years (especially in the last decade), however, Cohen became a darling of the pro-Kremlin media and disappointed many liberal-leaning readers, both in Russia and in the United States. At Meduza’s request, Ivan Kurilla — a professor of history and international relations at European University at St.