Open research questions in Soviet and Russian History

What the literature leaves open

• The lack of understanding of how socialist states conditioned migrant inclusion on labor performance. The gap in the literature on migrant deservingness in socialist contexts. The need to extend the understanding of migrant deservingness beyond neoliberal contexts.

  Citizenship Under the Plan: Managing Migrant Worker Inclusion in Late-Soviet Moscow · 2026 · DOI

• By extending this analysis on the operationalization of civic deservingness to other socialist contexts, future work may investigate how enterprise intermediaries resolved civic inclusion for internal migrant workers more generally—for instance, in assigning local household registration in late twentieth-century China or Vietnam.

  Citizenship Under the Plan: Managing Migrant Worker Inclusion in Late-Soviet Moscow · 2026 · DOI

• An underexplored theme consists of foreign diplomatic interventions and military occupations (the French in Spain, the British in the Ionians, the Austrians in Piedmont, Ibrahim Pasha in Greece), which, as the author points out, were crucial determinants in each region’s trajectory.

  Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions by Maurizio Isabella · 2025 · DOI

• While existing scholarship has explored official narratives and the historiography of the famine, little is known about how young Kazakhstanis who did not experience direct transmission of famine memories engage with and reinterpret this contested past.

  Genocide or Not? The 1931–1933 Famine in the Collective Memories of Kazakhstan’s Post-Independence Generations · 2025 · DOI

• So he has his narrator draw close to them, enjoying their fractured Russian and ap- preciating in their down to earth conversation a rootedness and practical wisdom that is lacking in the generation that followed.

  VLADIMIR JABOTINSKY, RUSSIAN WRITER · 1987 · DOI

• The present author considers it an open question whether a desirable socialist society would be likely to choose to be industrialized in a way at all resembling any known industrial society.

  On Rapid Industrialization and Collectivization: An Essay in Historiographic Retrieval and Criticism · 1986 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the sedentarization process of nomadic ethnic communities in the Fergana Valley. The study highlights the need for a historical and ethnographic analysis of the sedentarization process.

  FACTORS THAT INFLUENCED THE SETTLEMENT PROCESS OF NOMADIC ETHNIC COMMUNITIES OF THE FERGANA VALLEY (END OF THE 19TH - BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURIES) · 2026 · DOI

• There is a noticeable methodological gap in the study of sedentarization of Kipchaks in the Fergana Valley. Prior research has not fully addressed the complex relationships between colonial rule, sedentarization, and ethnic identity.

  THE SEDENTARIZATION PROCESS OF NOMADIC KIPCHAKS IN THE FERGANA VALLEY (SECOND HALF OF THE 19th CENTURY) · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the influence of Eastern Orthodox apocalypticism on communist ideology. The study highlights the need for a deeper analysis of the intersection of communism and religious tradition.

  Bolsheviser or secular son: Reading Panaït Istrati’s Towards the other flame. After sixteen months in the U.S.S.R · 2026 · DOI

• The Soviet Jewish samizdat periodicals require more in-depth study. There is a need to understand the importance of memory work among Jewish dissidents and refuseniks in the Soviet Union and beyond.

  Holocaust Trauma and Jewish Voice in Soviet Jewish Samizdat Periodicals · 2026 · DOI

• 104 Yet the reason for this decision remains unclear as by 1979, Venclova’s text was circulating internationally through various unofficial channels.

  Holocaust Trauma and Jewish Voice in Soviet Jewish Samizdat Periodicals · 2026 · DOI

• Further research can examine the Soviet Union's legacy in modern international politics. Further research can analyze the Soviet Union's economic and social systems.

  "INSIDE THE SOVIET UNION: POWER, IDEOLOGY, AND COLLAPSE" · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the Soviet Union's history and its collapse. The paper examines the Soviet Union's role in world politics, which is still relevant today.

  "INSIDE THE SOVIET UNION: POWER, IDEOLOGY, AND COLLAPSE" · 2026 · DOI

• Female doctors faced challenges in their careers, including limited rights and difficulties in furthering their qualifications. The paper highlights the importance of understanding these challenges.

  Women Doctors in Perm Province in 1879–1914: An Attempt at Prosopographic Analysis · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of studies on female doctors in Perm Province from 1879-1914. The paper aims to fill this gap by providing a prosopographical study of female doctors in the region.

  Women Doctors in Perm Province in 1879–1914: An Attempt at Prosopographic Analysis · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the generalization and substantiation of the features of normative-legal support for the development of education in Latvia. The study highlights the need for a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory and legal support for the development of education in Latvia.

  НОРМАТИВНО-ПРАВОВИЙ СУПРОВІД МОДЕРНІЗАЦІЇ ОСВІТИ В ЛАТВІЙСЬКІЙ РЕСПУБЛІЦІ В КОНТЕКСТІ НОВИХ СУСПІЛЬНИХ ЦІЛЕЙ (1991–2010-ТІ Р.Р ХХІ СТ.) · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in understanding the role of public organizations in promoting communist ideology. The research aims to fill this gap by analyzing the activities and impact of these organizations.

  PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS FORMED TO SPREAD COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY IN UZBEK SSR · 2026 · DOI

• Future research can build on the study's findings to explore the ongoing development of Azerbaijani-German relations. Future studies can examine the impact of Azerbaijani-German cooperation on the modernization of education and the dissemination of European scientific thought in Azerbaijan. Future research can investigate the role of the Azerbaijani language in promoting cultural exchange and cooperation between Azerbaijan and Germany.

  A Historical and Comparative Study of Azerbaijani–German Scientific, Pedagogical, and Literary–Cultural Relations (19th–Early 20th Centuries): Education, Language, and Intellectual Exchange in the Caucasus · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the existing literature on the historical and comparative aspects of Azerbaijani-German scientific, pedagogical, and literary-cultural relations. The study seeks to address this gap by examining the evolution of Azerbaijani-German relations with a focus on education, language, and scholarly cooperation.

  A Historical and Comparative Study of Azerbaijani–German Scientific, Pedagogical, and Literary–Cultural Relations (19th–Early 20th Centuries): Education, Language, and Intellectual Exchange in the Caucasus · 2026 · DOI

• The knowledge about the beginnings of Islamization of the Crimean Peninsula is based on scarce historical sources and legends. The historical sources leave a lot of room for interpretation or may be considered apocrypha or examples of oral tradition and folk history.

  Początki tradycji chrześcijańskiej i muzułmańskiej na Krymie w publicystyce i historiografii Tatarów krymskich · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of fundamental works on the history of the cultural heritage of the Islamic civilization on the Crimean Peninsula. The Soviet science did not address the issue of the genesis of Islamization of the Crimean Peninsula after World War II and the Stalinist deportation of the Crimean Tatars.

  Początki tradycji chrześcijańskiej i muzułmańskiej na Krymie w publicystyce i historiografii Tatarów krymskich · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the representation of women in scientific institutions in the 1950s and 1960s. The author notes that women were not among the regular members of the Academy of Sciences until the end of the 1960s.

  Ženy spjaté s Orientálním ústavem před válkou a v ČSAV · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the Suvorov brothers' intellectual biography and cultural connections. The study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the 1731 inventory and epistolary evidence.

  Пражские следы «сербской» библиотеки Максима и Петра Суворовых (1725 г.) · 2026 · DOI

• The historiography of Soviet censorship developed unevenly and was largely dependent on the prevailing political situation. There is a need for a comprehensive analysis of the formation and functioning of Red censorship in Odesa from 1918 to 1920.

  Odesa in the Grip of Red Censorship (1918–1920) · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding how historical narratives are used to justify Russian aggression. It highlights the need to recognize Ukraine's emancipation as central to regional stability.

  The Ukrainian Question in russian Foreign Policy: A Commentary on M. Kovalevsky’s Article “Russian Political Directions Towards the Ukrainian Question” (1927) · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Soviet and Russian History

• Children born during The Siege of Leningrad in 1942 · The Journal of Pediatrics · 1947 · 284 citations
• Soviet Federalism and Ethnic Mobilization · World Politics · 1991 · 229 citations
• The Sources of Soviet Conduct · Foreign Affairs · 1947 · 223 citations
• Nationhood and the national question in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Eurasia: An institutionalist account · Theory and Society · 1994 · 199 citations
• Unraveling the Threads of History: Soviet–Era Monuments and Post–Soviet National Identity in Moscow · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · 2002 · 198 citations
• Causes of the Russian mortality crisis: Evidence and interpretations · World Development · 1998 · 146 citations
• Soviet Neotraditionalism: The political corruption of a Leninist regime · Soviet Studies · 1983 · 138 citations
• Soviet Hegemony of Form: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More · Comparative Studies in Society and History · 2003 · 137 citations
• The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing · The Journal of Modern History · 1998 · 119 citations
• Social Conflicts as Pillars of Democratic Market Society · Political Theory · 1994 · 119 citations

Most recent work

• A Historical and Comparative Study of Azerbaijani–German Scientific, Pedagogical, and Literary–Cultural Relations (19th–Early 20th Centuries): Education, Language, and Intellectual Exchange in the Caucasus · Science Education and Innovations in the Context of Modern Problems · 2026
• From Tsarist Russia to the Kolyma Republic: Gender, Colonialism, and the Making of a Female Anthropologist in Dina Brodskaia’s Siberian Travel Accounts · The Russian Review · 2026
• Yet another Russian invasion? Echoes of 1917–20 in Russia’s war on Ukraine · Canadian Slavonic Papers · 2026
• Poverty: Everyday Life of Women and Family Values in Conditions of Deportation: Polish Mothers in Kazakhstan (1930s and 1940s) · Studia Historiae Oeconomicae · 2026
• Grazhdanskaia voina v Rossii: osmyslenie skvoz’ stoletie · Revolutionary Russia · 2026
• THE AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC ESTABLISHED IN 1918: ITS SEARCH FOR SUPPORT AND PROTECTION FROM WESTERN COUNTRIES AGAINST BOLSHEVISM · BAKU STATE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL of PHYSICS & SPACE SCIENCES · 2026
• КУМЫС - ОТ ТРАДИЦИЙ К ПРОМЫШЛЕННЫМ ТЕХНОЛОГИЯМ (ЧАСТЬ 2) · Horse breeding and equestrian sports · 2026
• “No matter how hard he and the deputy himself tried to persuade tevkeleva to convert to christianity, all their advice and persuasion remained in vain”. The fate of the tatar noblewoman Gaisha Tevkeleva in light of archival documents · Kryashen Historical Review · 2026
• Between empire and tribe: transboundary rivalries of Kazakh elites on the Ili frontier, 1862–1871 · Immigrants & Minorities · 2026
• Stalininis politinis rinkimų teatras (I). Tarp ideologijos ir praktikos: pirmieji pokario rinkimai Lietuvoje 1946 m. · Parliamentary Studies · 2026

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