How Russian Studies Is Grappling with the War in Ukraine

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to the most significant crisis in Russian studies since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Here’s what can be done about it.

By Wilfred ChanMay 3, 2024

Emerging Global Order Scholarship & Policy

A destroyed library in Chernihiv, Ukraine, in 2022 (Credit: Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

U.S.-based Russia scholars faced headwinds years before 2022, when Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tensions after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, Russia’s growing suppression of academic freedom, and pandemic restrictions had made it increasingly difficult for Russia scholars to travel and conduct research within the country. The challenges were compounded by declining numbers of U.S. graduate students and faculty specializing in Russia — and narrowing career prospects for those who did.

Those setbacks have worsened to a crisis following Russia’s attack on Kyiv, according to an assessment, The State of Russian Studies in the United States: 2022, published in 2023 by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Corporation has sought since 1948 to improve U.S.-Russia relations by expanding the number of relevant scholars, analysts, and practitioners through its Euro-Atlantic Security subprogram.

The assessment found through surveys and interviews with academics that Russia’s war in Ukraine and subsequent crackdown on domestic dissent have made it nearly impossible to conduct research in Russia — throwing the U.S.-based fields of Russian, Slavic, and Eurasian studies into “considerable turmoil” and leaving scholars “reeling.”

According to the report, out of nearly 300 U.S.-based Russia researchers, 86 percent said the war would have a “very negative” impact on their ability to conduct research on Russia going forward, and 96 percent said the war would have a negative impact on the ability for U.S.-based scholars to collaborate with Russia-based colleagues.

Simultaneously, the full-scale invasion has accelerated a long-standing process of political polarization of views on Russia in the United States, causing scholars to “despair,” according to the assessment, of the chances of having nuanced discussions with policymakers. Some researchers also noted a worrying trend of academic journals and conferences applying litmus tests to reject any scholarship that might in any way be construed as supportive or even neutral toward Russia.

These challenges have significantly impacted the production of scholarship on Russia by U.S.-based academics. Forty-four percent of scholars surveyed had abandoned or suspended their current research projects in part due to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the assessment found, and 36 percent said the war had influenced them to shift their research interests away from Russia and toward other countries. Sixty-five percent believed the war would have a negative impact on the inflow of Russia-focused PhD students.

Still, the association noted signs of hope for the field. Academics have found innovative techniques to obtain data on Russia — such as social media studies, digital ethnography, and virtual interviews — and are developing new methods of sharing it with other researchers. Additionally, a growing movement to “decolonize” Slavic and Eurasian studies by focusing less on Russia also promises to expand the fields’ horizons.

The report outlines five key goals for scholars, donors, and stakeholders to strengthen and preserve research and graduate training on Russia:

Maintain as much access as possible to data on Russian history, culture, economy, politics, and society by making existing data more widely available and developing new approaches.
Protect Russian scholars in exile and provide them with the means to continue their scholarship and teaching.
Continue to educate the American public and policymaking community about Russia’s complexity.
Embrace the various aims of those who call for decolonizing Slavic/Eurasian studies and work to engage constructively with the corresponding debates and discussions.
Help young scholars enter the field.

Read the full report, The State of Russian Studies in the United States: 2022, to learn more about the challenges facing Russian studies and the recommended solutions.

Wilfred Chan is the senior content editor and writer at Carnegie Corporation of New York.