Person

I deal with modern European history of the 20th and 21st centuries. I study historical cultures in post-communist countries, especially in Russia and Central Europe. At the center of my current attention are the efforts of the political elites who seek to strengthen authoritarian tendencies in these countries. In this regard, such changes concern transformation of previous plans to build civil society in order to support the interests of advocates of "uncivil society" who strive to create alternatives to liberal democracy (such as illiberal democracy' or completely open autocracy and dictatorship) and use history in agreement with their current intentions. I am currently completing a manuscript of a book based on a critical analysis of my own extensive interviews with Vladimir Semichastnyi (1924-2001), head of the KGB from 1961 to 1967, which I conducted in Moscow in the 1990s.