Gerald Mako
University of Cambridge, Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Faculty Member
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International political economy of oil and gas, Oil Natural Gas Energy Geopolitics, Russian History, Central Asian Studies, Eastern European history, Religious Conversion, and 64 moreEurasian Nomads, Islam in Europe, Frontier Studies, Medieval Russia, Pechenegs and Cumans, Byzantine Studies, Ethnicity, Medieval Islam, Byzantine History, Caucasus, Khazar archaeology and history, Volga Bulghars, Medieval Archaeology, Historiography, Bulgarian history, Etnicity, Paganism, Medieval Warfare, Medieval Islamic History, Medieval Christianity, History of kievan Rus philosophy, South East European Studies, Central European Studies, Migrations (Medieval Studies), Ukrainian Studies, Russian Studies, Archaeology of the Avars, Medievalism, Byzantine Architecture, Byzantine Literature, Romanian Studies, Khazars, Russian, Old Rus', History of Caliphates, Ancient - Medieval Crimea, Nomadism, Eurasia, Economic History, Medieval Islamic Numismatics, Inner Asia, Eastern Christianity, Byzantine history and archaeology, Medieval Balkans, Early medieval Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Byzantine historiography, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Vikings in the East, Varangians, Medieval Central Asia and Iran, Mongol Empire and Its Successors, Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia, Late Antiquity, Hagiography, Medieval Church History, Russian Nationalism, Russian Economics, Gift Exchange, Oil and gas, Soviet Economic History, Political Economy of Russian Financial Markets, and The Silk Road Economic Belt edit
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I completed a Ph.D. at Cambridge in Development Economics and Politics, with my dissertation focusing on Russian ethn... moreI completed a Ph.D. at Cambridge in Development Economics and Politics, with my dissertation focusing on Russian ethnic and religious minorities and the effect of historical memory on policy-making. My wider research interests include the political and economic transformation of the CIS countries with a special reference to the energy sector and I am particularly drawn to tensions surrounding Islam in post-Soviet space. edit
Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age: A Sourcebook, ed. Nimrod Hurvitz, Christian C. Sahner, Uriel Simonsohn and Luke Yarbrough, Berkeley: University of California Press (2020), 156-159
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Medieval History, Eurasian Nomads, Medieval Islam, Early Medieval Archaeology, Silk Road, and 24 moreIslam in Europe, Religious Conversion, Medieval Archaeology, Russian History, Islam, Nomadic Peoples, History of Islamic Civilization, Medieval trade, Byzantine historiography, History of the Volga-Kama Region, Khazar archaeology and history, Medieval Russia, Archaeology and history of Early medieval Nomads, Old Rus an Slavic archaeology, Tatars, Volga Bulghars, Khazars, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Early Medieval Burials, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Tatarstan, Early medieval Bulgaria, Islam In Russia and the Caucasus, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 17 (2010), 45-57.
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Military History, Medieval Studies, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Jewish History, Eurasian Nomads, and 21 moreSilk Road, Islam in Europe, Caucasus, Abbasid History, Muslims in Europe, Islamic History, Umayyads (Islamic History), Central Asia, Frontier Studies, Medieval trade, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Byzantine historiography, Islamic History and Muslim Civilization, Khazar archaeology and history, Commerce, South Caucasus, Khazars, Kievan Rus', and Byzantine history and archaeology
Open Central Asia Magazine 38/Spring-Summer (2021) 55.
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Medieval Studies, Tibetan Studies, Korean Studies, Central Asian Studies, Eurasian Nomads, and 15 moreCentral Asia (History), Silk Road, Silk Road Studies, East Asian Studies, China, Islam in Central Asia, Russian History, Nomadic Peoples, Medieval Balkans, Byzantine historiography, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Early medieval Bulgaria, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Late Antique and Byzantine History, Balkan Studies, Bulgaria, Byzantine Studies, Byzantine History, and 9 moreHistory of Historiography, Pre-Conquest Ancient Magyars, Medieval Balkans, Byzantium, Orthodox Christianity, Medieval Poland, Kievan Rus', Early medieval Bulgaria, and Balkan Medieval History and Archaeology
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Christianity, Buddhism, Central Asian Studies, Eurasian Nomads, Medieval Islam, and 16 moreSilk Road, Bulgaria, Central Asia, Medieval Balkans, Archaeology of Central Asia, Bulgarian history, Archaeology of the Avars, Byzantine historiography, Bulgarian archaeology, Medieval Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Turks, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Early medieval Bulgaria, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Russian Studies, Medieval History, History of Christianity, Central European history, Eastern European history, and 19 moreEurasian Nomads, Early Medieval Archaeology, Numismatics, History of Hungary, Byzantine History, Ethnicity, Medieval Balkans, Bulgarian history, Archaeology of the Avars, Byzantine historiography, Bulgarian archaeology, Slavs, Pechenegs and Cumans, Medieval Bulgaria, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Early medieval Bulgaria, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Medieval History, Armenian Studies, Historiography, Iranian Studies, Central Asian Studies, and 16 moreEastern European history, Eurasian Nomads, Medieval Islam, Early Medieval Archaeology, Numismatics, Byzantine History, Russian History, Ethnicity, Medieval Balkans, Byzantine historiography, Khazar archaeology and history, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Early medieval Bulgaria, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Historiography, Central Asian Studies, Eurasian Nomads, 18th & 19th Centuries, Central Eurasian Studies, and 9 moreMedieval Balkans, History of History, Byzantine historiography, Khazar archaeology and history, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Early medieval Bulgaria, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Russian Studies, Jewish Studies, Historiography, Jewish History, Eurasian Nomads, and 19 moreByzantine Studies, Late Antiquity, Abbasid History, Armenian History, Umayyads (Islamic History), Islam, Iranian History, Medieval Balkans, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Byzantine historiography, Khazar archaeology and history, South Caucasus, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Early medieval Bulgaria, and Byzantine history and archaeology
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Christianity, Eurasian Nomads, Russian History, Islam, Medieval Balkans, and 15 moreMedieval Hungary, Bulgarian history, Byzantium, Orthodox Christianity, Byzantine historiography, Pechenegs, Volga Bulghars, Kievan Rus', Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, Christianization in Medieval Europe, Superstition, Germany and Eastern Europe countries, Early medieval Bulgaria, Medieval missionary history, theories of conversion, European Paganism, Byzantine history and archaeology, Volga Bulgaria, and Bruno of Querfurt
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15 June 2022, 2022 '‘The future is certain, it’s the past that keeps changing’: The transformation of Soviet propaganda during WWII' History of War Seminar Series, All Souls College, Oxford Universty, UK Even though swiftness... more
15 June 2022, 2022 '‘The future is certain, it’s the past that keeps changing’: The transformation of Soviet propaganda during WWII' History of War Seminar Series, All Souls College, Oxford Universty, UK
Even though swiftness does seldom stem to mind when thinking of the Eastern Front during WWII, which saw a virtually unprecedented bloodshed and destruction over the course of almost four years, it did bring quite fast change in the realm of Soviet propaganda. Although after more than a decade and a half of internationalism and downplaying everything Russian, the second part of the 1930s saw Russian history’s rise in importance, it was only in 1941 that Moscow switched gears. Stalin himself set the tone when, on November 7, 1941, commemorating the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution he gave one of his rare public speeches. With most of the troops parading on the Red Square being sent, after their march, to the front merely 19 miles from the capital, Stalin recalled the images of some of the greatest Russian rulers and generals, ‘Aleksandr Nevsky, Dimitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dimitry Pozharsky, Aleksandr Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov’ who should ‘inspire you in this war’. The war was waged to defend not the ‘Soviet state’ but the ‘Russian motherland’, the military heroes of old Russia and the Orthodox saints were reinstated and put forward as examples for the military. Pan-Slavism, deemed outdated and outright dangerous during the preceding two decades was suddenly rehabilitated, and the ideological resistance against the German invasion was organized not exclusively around proletarian internationalism and Russian nationalism but also under the umbrella of Slavic resistance to German aggression. By 1945 the transformation, at least on the level of propaganda, was almost complete: Russia was portrayed as not only being one of the components of an internationalist country but in essence the very heart of it, which led the world to victory over Nazism.
While throughout the 20th century wars did often prompt propaganda machines to rapidly change their stance, no change was greater than that exemplified by the Soviet Union during what later quite tellingly came to be known as the Great Patriotic War. The paper aims to shed light on the roots and evolution of Soviet propaganda during the war while dealing with issues related to the paradoxes and problems stemming from its relative ideological flexibility.
Even though swiftness does seldom stem to mind when thinking of the Eastern Front during WWII, which saw a virtually unprecedented bloodshed and destruction over the course of almost four years, it did bring quite fast change in the realm of Soviet propaganda. Although after more than a decade and a half of internationalism and downplaying everything Russian, the second part of the 1930s saw Russian history’s rise in importance, it was only in 1941 that Moscow switched gears. Stalin himself set the tone when, on November 7, 1941, commemorating the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution he gave one of his rare public speeches. With most of the troops parading on the Red Square being sent, after their march, to the front merely 19 miles from the capital, Stalin recalled the images of some of the greatest Russian rulers and generals, ‘Aleksandr Nevsky, Dimitry Donskoy, Kuzma Minin, Dimitry Pozharsky, Aleksandr Suvorov and Mikhail Kutuzov’ who should ‘inspire you in this war’. The war was waged to defend not the ‘Soviet state’ but the ‘Russian motherland’, the military heroes of old Russia and the Orthodox saints were reinstated and put forward as examples for the military. Pan-Slavism, deemed outdated and outright dangerous during the preceding two decades was suddenly rehabilitated, and the ideological resistance against the German invasion was organized not exclusively around proletarian internationalism and Russian nationalism but also under the umbrella of Slavic resistance to German aggression. By 1945 the transformation, at least on the level of propaganda, was almost complete: Russia was portrayed as not only being one of the components of an internationalist country but in essence the very heart of it, which led the world to victory over Nazism.
While throughout the 20th century wars did often prompt propaganda machines to rapidly change their stance, no change was greater than that exemplified by the Soviet Union during what later quite tellingly came to be known as the Great Patriotic War. The paper aims to shed light on the roots and evolution of Soviet propaganda during the war while dealing with issues related to the paradoxes and problems stemming from its relative ideological flexibility.
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March 17, 2022 'The paradigm of the new international order’s challenges. Perspectives of security’, International Center for Geopolitical Forecasting "East-West" and Association of Political Studies of the city of Nur-Sultan, Nur-sultan,... more
March 17, 2022 'The paradigm of the new international order’s challenges. Perspectives of security’, International Center for Geopolitical Forecasting "East-West" and Association of Political Studies of the city of Nur-Sultan, Nur-sultan, Kazakhstan
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December 1, 2021 Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
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May 21, 2021 Cambridge Central Asia Forum in collaboration with the Centre of
Development Studies and GCRF COMPASS Project, University of Cambridge, Cambridge UK
Development Studies and GCRF COMPASS Project, University of Cambridge, Cambridge UK
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October 20, 2020, Eurasian Creative Guild and Open Central Asia Magazine, London
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Jan 2020, New York University
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January 2020, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
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May, 2019 University of Vienna, Austria
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March 2019, Yale University
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March 2019, University of Chicago
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June 15, 2018, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
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2018, Oxford University
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June 3, 2018, Oxford University, UK
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Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA
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June 2017, Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge University
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May, 2017, Riyadth
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November 26, 2016, Cambridge University International Research Seminar, Magdalene College, Cambridge University
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April 2016, Sciences Po
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November, 2015 Yale University
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October, 18 2015, 16th Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA
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October 12, 2015, Invited talk for the Judaic Studies Program, The State University of New York at Albany, NY, USA
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Russia’s Eighteen Years of Independence Conference, Harvard University
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-June, 20 2015, History and Historiography in the 20th Century Conference, University of Athens, Greece
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May 12, 2015, Keynote at the XV Scientific Readings of Young Scholars Dedicated to the Memory of the Outstanding Kazakh Orientalist VP Yudin: Domestic and Foreign Historiography of the Kazakh Statehood , RB Suleimenov Institute of... more
May 12, 2015, Keynote at the XV Scientific Readings of Young Scholars Dedicated to the Memory of the Outstanding Kazakh Orientalist VP Yudin: Domestic and Foreign Historiography of the Kazakh Statehood , RB Suleimenov Institute of Oriental Studies, Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences, Almaty, KZ
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- April, 23 2015. XXVIII International Conference on Historiography
and Source Studies of Asia and Africa: Asia and Africa in the Changing World, Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
and Source Studies of Asia and Africa: Asia and Africa in the Changing World, Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
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- March, 14 2014. Humanities in the 21th Century Conference, Oxford University, UK
- February 17, 2014, Cambridge Central Asia Forum’s Seminar, Cambridge University, UK
- November, 3 2013, 39th Byzantine Studies Conference, Yale University, New Heaven, CT, USA
- October, 17 2013. Invited talk at the UNM Institute for Medieval Studies Work-in-Progress Seminar, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
- October, 15 2013. Medieval History Workshop, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- October, 4 2013. 14th Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Cambridge University Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Workshop, Cambridge, UK
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June 6, 2013. History Research Day, Cambridge University, UK
- February 2013, Late Antique, Medieval, and Byzantine Workshop, Princeton University, US.
Islam na Rusi Konferentsiya, Lomonosov State University, Moscow.
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Russian Studies and Islam
May 17, 2012. Invited talk at the Volga-Kama Initative Colloqium, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
May 11, 2012, 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
- November 16, 2010, Medieval Seminar, Yale University, USA
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May 27, 2011. Revealing Records III. King's College, University of London, UK.
October 2, 2009. VII. International Vámbéry Conference. Dunajská Streda, Slovakia.