23 April 2021
On what would have been his 96th birthday, I offer this tribute to RW [Bob] Davies, who died last week. For those of you who have studied Soviet history, you will be aware of the important impact that…
13 November 2018
On 7 November, I was privileged to be part of the presentation panel at the Centre for Russian, European and Eurasian Studies (CREES), The University of Birmingham, to mark the recent publication of the seventh and final volume…
24 October 2017
‘Gulag Actress’ Tamara Petkevich died recently in St Petersburg at the age of 97. Here is an abridged version of the review of her Memoir that I wrote when it was published in English in 2010. This volume…
4 September 2017
Dr Slater is joining the History team at the University of Gloucestershire as part-time lecturer in Russian and Soviet history for semester 1, replacing Prof. Melanie Ilic who will be on a research sabbatical. I came to Russian…
15 August 2017
The Great Terror of 1936 to 1938 left an indelible mark on Soviet politics and Stalinist society. In addition to the three major show trials in Moscow, purges and arrests took place across the country. Initially, these were…
11 August 2017
Rada Nikitichna Adzhubei, daughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, died in a hospital in Moscow a year ago on 11 August 2016. Right up to her final illness, Rada Nikitichna continued to live in the spacious apartment in…
31 October 2016
Crowds gathered in Moscow and in other Russian cities over the weekend to remember those who died as a result of Stalin’s purges in the 1930s and 1940s. The commemoration in Moscow took place in Lubyanka Square, where…
20 June 2016
During the first two weeks of June, History at the University of Gloucestershire played host to Dr Pia Koivunen, a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Advanced Social Research, University of Tampere, Finland. Dr Koivunen has published widely…
19 January 2016
Thank you and well done to all of the Level 6 students who presented their posters at History Dissertation Day on 14 January at the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum in Cheltenham. You’ve made us all proud! Thanks…
14 January 2016
To add to the list of programmes posted earlier, Start the Week on BBC R4 on Monday 11 January is ‘Russia: Tsars to Putin’. Guest speakers include Simon Seebag Montefiore and Amanda Vickery. Interestingly, Vickery talks a little…