This is a guest post by Lee A. Farrow, author of Potential Russia
When the Soviet Union officially ceased to exist in 1991, I had just completed my master’s degree and my first summer in Russia. Immediately, people assumed that my field was now pointless and irrelevant, and casually commented that no one would be interested in my research and I would never find a job. As an aspiring PhD, and the first person in my family to go to graduate school, these unsolicited and grim predications were terrifying. Luckily for me, and so many other scholars of my generation, Russia did not cease to be interesting or important, albeit in often troubling ways. Initially, the collapse of communism and its secretive regime meant that in many places, archives opened their collections and gave access to documents that had been previously off limits. Consequently, just as the nay-sayers were predicting the decline of the field of Russian studies, professors in Russia and abroad were producing new scholarship on old topics, exposing never-before-seen primary sources. Outside of academia, Russia’s rapidly changing social and political landscape kept it in the headlines. Russia’s post-Soviet political evolution was closely observed and analysed as the presidency of Boris Yeltsin transitioned to the multi-term, and semi-authoritarian, presidency of ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin. Policymakers all over the world have attempted to dissect and understand the motives of Putin, in part, to predict his next moves. Russia’s aggression in Crimea and Ukraine has only intensified these efforts, of course, as many countries are invested to varying degrees in the outcome of this war. Russia maintains its position as a major player in world politics as Putin promotes and enacts policies that challenge democracy in Russia and elsewhere, and uses the memory of World War II to revive and harness nationalism to support his imperialist ambitions. As an individual, Putin’s hyper-masculinity, both in how he presents himself and how the Russian media presents him, has been an added layer of fascination with Russia in the arena of popular culture. (See Alison Rowley’s book, Putin Kitsch in America.)
A critical component of understanding Russia’s current situation, of course, is knowing its past. The Anthem Americans in Revolutionary Russia series is an exciting series of republished diaries, letters and books by American eyewitnesses during the Russian Revolutionary Era (1914–1921). These accounts offer a rich tapestry of insights on a range of issues such as politics, ethnic identity, military and women, giving readers a first-hand view of Russia’s revolutionary upheaval. Each volume includes an introduction and annotations by a leading scholar to provide the general reader, students and scholars with necessary context. In early 2025, Potential Russia, written in 1916 by Richard Washburn Child, an admirer of fascism and editor for Benito Mussolini’s autobiography, will be appearing in print, accompanied by notes and an introduction by Dr. Lee A. Farrow, Professor of History at Auburn University at Montgomery. This volume, and others in the series, will be important contributions to the dynamic international dialogue about Russia.