Oleksander Polianichev

Research Area 4

Stay at EEGA: November 2017 – February 2018

Dr. Oleksander Polianichev specializes in the history of the Russian Empire, with a particular focus on late imperial Ukraine and the Caucasus. His research interests lie at the intersection of cultural, political, and social history. He holds a PhD degree in history from the European University Institute in Florence (2017), where he conducted research as part of a joint “Wider European Doctorate” program with the European University at St. Petersburg. During his doctoral and postdoctoral studies, he received fellowships at the German Historical Institute in Moscow (2014, 2017), Herder Institute in Marburg (2016), New Europe College in Bucharest (2016-2017), and the Centre for Advanced Study in Sofia (2018-2019). His dissertation, “Rediscovering Zaporozhians: Memory, Loyalties, and Politics in Late Imperial Kuban, 1880-1914,” examined the capacity of historical imagination to affect various spheres of social interaction and policy-making.

During his stay at EEGA, he worked on a project “Sheltering in the Past: Modernity, Anxiety, and the Cossacks in the Fin-de-Siècle North Caucasus.” This project looks at how Cossack conservative elites reacted to the dramatic changes and challenges at the turn of the twentieth century, employing remarkably modern means to counteract the “corrupting” influences of modernity.