Welcome to the Centre for Russian and East European Studies' Blog

Operating since 1963 within the University of Birmingham, the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) has generated world-class social-scientific and humanities-based research and analysis on its region of focus for over half a century.  Recent events in Ukraine have once again demonstrated the strategic importance of its area of interest: the geographically vast territories between the river Oder and the Pacific Ocean, populated by states of varying power and coherence, with variably free societies and a wide range of ethno-political complications.

This blog will provide its readers with short articles aimed at stimulating thought and debate on current events, emerging research, and broader issues related to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, written by members of the CREES community, including current and former academics, researchers, PhD students and alumni.  Aiming to both provide ‘advice to the prince’ and ‘speak truth to power’ from within the social sciences and humanities, it will allow its contributors greater leeway than formal academic writing in expressing their opinions on subjects of acute concern to a wider audience.

Our first contribution is due to be published before the end of April 2014, with others to follow soon thereafter.  In time, we aim to transform this space into one of the premier sites for information and discussion on an always evolving and ever-complicated region.