This study investigates specific events and phenomena associated with the “Yellow Peril” in the Russian-Soviet context, focusing on the Pacific city of Vladivostok. While geographically localized, the analysis spans broader cultural dimensions. This approach offers novel historiographical insights in several ways: the pogrom-like attacks on Chinese residents during the late Tsarist Empire and their mass deportation under Stalin render this community in the Soviet Far East a unique case within both the global diaspora of overseas Chinese and the history of national minorities in the Soviet Union. Additionally, the project examines how social elites in the Russian-Soviet context constructed “race” as a category of practical politics, facilitating and legitimizing acts of extreme violence.

Book project: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky

Following the deaths of Stalin and Mao, their successors initiated a series of liberal reforms. These periods, known as the “Thaw” (ottepel’) in the Soviet Union and "Reform and Opening" (gaige kaifang) in China, aimed to distance the regimes from the totalitarian policies of their predecessors. This dissertation project aims to provide a fresh perspective on previous research by adopting an alternative approach to analyzing and comparing the intricate interplay between transitional regimes and the student intelligentsia within their respective jurisdictions. The primary objective is to explore the complex dynamics characterizing the relationship between post-totalitarian regimes and student intelligentsia, revealing patterns that shaped these interactions.

Dissertation project: Qi Zhang
Project supervision: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky

This project constitutes the first stage of a broader research agenda situated at the intersection of history, sociology, and anthropology. It investigates how processes of modernization enabled the state to permeate everyday life in Belarus, tracing a long-term transformation from a pre-modern social order – marked by limited state presence – to a modern condition in which the state occupies a central place in social organization. Rather than prioritizing nationally oriented narratives, the project foregrounds the lived experiences of ordinary people and their everyday interactions with state power. By adopting an explicitly anthropocentric perspective, the project offers a novel contribution to the study of state–society relations and the historical emergence of modern political identities in Belarus and the wider Russo–Polish frontier.

Research project: Dr. Stanisław Boridczenko 
Academic mentor: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky
Funded by: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 

East Central Europe is rarely included in global historical studies and treated as part of global dynamics. The project asks how and to what extent people from Upper Silesia participated in global processes of urbanization and contributed to the spread of urban lifestyles or remained aloof from them. The historical roots of today's social polarization between "elites" and "ordinary people," between "educated" and "uneducated", were already evident in the 1940s to the 1970s, when an overwhelming majority of the population moved to urban environments. The genesis of the dominance of urban values and norms, which we take for granted today, is analyzed in the politically opposing systems in West Germany and the USA (capitalism), in Poland (communism), and in the Global South (e.g. Brazil); it is precisely in these countries that many people are receptive to populist messages today. The major focus is on family, education, work, consumption of goods and media, spatial and social mobility, discrimination, and racism. In this way, the study aims to identify key aspects for understanding the experiences of "ordinary people". The question is whether migration from rural areas to cities was accompanied by traumatic experiences, a lack of recognition, feelings of inferiority, and the struggle against social "glass ceilings." Or did the new income opportunities in cities (including for women) mean more freedom and respect? The comparative approach, which examines three systems with their convergences but also asynchronous developments in states that all saw themselves as modernizers, will provide essential insights into the analysis of social transformations.

Research Project: Dr. Andrzej Michalczyk
Project conducted in collaboration with Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Dr. Marcin Jarząbek), funded by the German-Polish Science Foundation (100-2025-00911) (2025-2028)

This project examines how youth rock audiences in the late Soviet Union (1986–1991) and under Argentina’s military dictatorship (1980–1983) became active agents of political change. Focusing on listeners rather than musicians, it explores how shared experiences of rock music fostered new forms of political awareness and participation during moments of regime crisis. By comparing two non-democratic contexts, the study offers a bottom-up perspective on youth agency, culture, and the dynamics of democratic transition.

Research project: Dr. Irina Veselova
Academic mentor: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky

The project examines the Polish diaspora in Harbin in the early 20th century and the memory of this “Chinese chapter” of Polish emigration. The Manchurian city of Harbin, founded in 1898, was a center of Russian imperialism in China. The Polish community had a significant influence on its economic and cultural life. The project sheds light on the complex role of the Poles in this period and closes a research gap in the imperial history of Manchuria.

Dissertation project by: Mariusz Borysiewicz
Project supervision: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky
Funded by: German-Polish Science Foundation

After the Japanese Kwantung Army forcibly separated Manchuria from the rest of China and had the state of Manchukuo proclaimed in 1932, the other powers with interests in the region had to grapple with the new situation. This project aims to trace the actions of Western European actors in this process, using elements of Actor-Network-Theory to elucidate the strategies and goals pursued by them. In following the connections created by these actors at a personal level, it will shed light on the multifaceted history of as of yet barely researched groups of people within the Manchurian state under Japanese dominion.

Dissertation project: Jona Eritt
Project supervision: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky

The project examines the relationship between the idea of the church and idea of politics with the purpose of analyzing the accusations in collaboration through the prism of the political activity of churches in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in the first half of the 20th century. This project provides a better understanding of church-political relations, church collaborationism, and its impact on the formation of independent states in central and Eastern Europe in the first half of XX century. In addition, research on this topic will provide an opportunity to compare church-political relations and the model of collaborationism in Ukraine, Croatia, Slovakia with the Baltic countries, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc.

Research project: Dr. Oksana Pasitska
Academic mentor: Prof. Dr. Sören Urbansky
Funded by: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 

Based on the establishment and expansion of sugar beet production in the southwestern provinces of the Russian Empire, this study analyzes how new forms of entrepreneurship, social mobility, and regional industrialization emerged and what role actors from different social backgrounds played in this process. Sugar functioned not only as an economic product, but also as a resource of power, creating lasting positions of influence that extended far beyond the economic sphere.

Research project: Dr. Olena Petrenko

The project investigates the socio-historical dimensions of religiously motivated social freedom practices among sect followers in the nineteenth-century Russian Empire, providing a nuanced analysis of the concept of freedom within this historical context.

Habilitation project: Dr. Agnieszka Zaganczyk-Neufeld