Multifaceted Russia
A forward-looking research project that studies Russia by giving more prominence to diversity.
ABOUT
Multifaceted Russia
Multifaceted Russia is a forward-looking research project that seeks to renew our analysis practices by giving more prominence to diversity within Russia. It encourages moving away from patterns of understanding Russia through an exclusive focus on federal politics and processes in big urban centers. Instead, it directs the research cursor toward grassroots perspectives.


Decentering is not only about changing what we understand when we speak about Russia, but also about how we study it. The project draws on the idea that decentering cannot occur without a “de-Westernization” of Russian studies.
The project aims to facilitate the effective blending of qualitative and quantitative research methods. It also encourages diversity of voices from both scholarly and practice-oriented communities, fostering the visibility of underrepresented groups.
WHAT WE DO
Read our latest publications

Whose Presence, Whose Absences? Decolonising Russian National Culture and History: Observations through the Prism of Religious Contact

Critically engaging with the ideas of presence and absence of Russia’s ethnic and religious minority cultures would offer a more adequate involvement of minority representatives in the process of negotiating Russian national culture.

Polarization in Siberia: Thwarted Indigeneity and Sovereignty

by

Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer

Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Sakha, Tyva and Buryatia and with diaspora communities, the author outlines an uneven legacy of revitalization and grievances in relation to the Kremlin and its policies.

Critical approaches and research on inequality in Russian studies: the need for visibility and legitimization

by

Guzel Yusupova

On why Russian Studies should promote critical approaches as well as acknowledge the multifaceted diversity within Russian society.

On double miss in Russian studies: can social and political psychology help?

by

Gulnaz Sharafutdinova

On the potential analytical leverage of importing social and political psychology into the study of politics in Russia.

What kind of decolonization do we need?

by

Ilya Budraitskis

Ilya Budraitskis on how decolonization is being weaponized, why efforts to define what a “decolonization” program should look like are encountering serious obstacles, and why Russians need to figure it out for themselves.

Russia’s changing ethnic landscape: Three takeaways from the 2021 census

by

Adam Lenton

Adam Lenton analyzes the 2021 data for what it tells us about Russia’s changing ethnic landscape and how the politics of the census is impacting debates on the ground among ethnic minorities in Russia.
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Contact
Feel free to write or call us
+1 (202) 9946340
russiaprogram@gwu.edu

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