My research interests broadly focus on the history of Russian and Soviet foreign policy and on Soviet history from 1917 to 1953. Currently, my research focuses on atrocities during the Russo-Ukrainian War and historical connections and parallels to atrocities committed by the Soviet Union. Additionally, I continue to research the Communist International, its parties, and its platforms related to anti-imperialism and racial equality.
My first book, based on my dissertation and published by Routledge (The Communist International, Anti-Imperialism and Racial Equality in British Dominions, 2018) analyzed the interaction between the Communist International (Comintern) and communist parties in British Dominions on questions of nationality, imperialism and race. By focusing on these topics, this project highlights the prioritization of certain campaigns and issues by Comintern bureaucrats and leadership and how that prioritization led to differing levels of interference in different parties. These conclusions question the suggestion that the Comintern was a monolith, where every party followed the edicts from Moscow, and instead presents a more nuanced picture where individual communists and parties sometimes were left to their own devices in responding to local conditions or meeting certain challenges and only were brought into line with centralized commands from Moscow in specific circumstances.
Stemming from this project came Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions, an edited collection co-edited with Ian McKay. It was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in January 2020.
My third book, titled Replaying the Second World War: Soviet Parallels and Inspirations for Russian Atrocities in the Russo-Ukrainian War, focuses on how Soviet atrocities during the Second World War and Soviet efforts in Eastern Europe following the war have parallels with Russian efforts in Ukraine today. This book length project stems from a piece I wrote in the Conversation. It argues that Russian historical memory of the Second World War should also consider the history of atrocities committed by the Soviet Union. In doing so, it highlights how Soviet atrocities offer three points of comparison for Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine today: parallels which help inform why Russian forces commit atrocities and what the consequences of them may be for Ukraine; implicit inspirations where the Soviet past likely plays a structural role in Russian actions today; explicit inspirations where the Russian government or media directly references Soviet policies during the period. The book is forthcoming with ibidem Press as part of its Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society series, and distributed by Columbia University Press.
My next project, under contract with McGill-Queen’s University Press, will be a survey of the Soviet Union and its global influence on concepts of human and civil rights, exploring the paradox of how the Bolshevik Revolution inspired people all over the world in promoting principles of egalitarianism, colonial liberation, racial equality and workers’ rights, and yet, the Soviet Union perpetrated significant atrocities and violations of human rights within its own borders. It will be a history of the communist movement as much as it is also a history of the Soviet Union.
Another project is a new critical textbook on the global history of Totalitarianism, aimed at providing undergraduate students a fresh, global perspective on the concept, while also highlighting its limitations and politicization as an analytical concept. This textbook is under contract with Routledge.
Oleksa Drachewych 