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

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

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

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