📚Historian, PhD · Researcher · Public Historian
About
I am a historian working on modern Russian and Soviet history, international economic relations, and the history of everyday life. A recurring theme in my research is the way large political and economic transformations are negotiated in practice: through institutions, trade, professional networks, material culture, and individual experience.
My work on Soviet–Japanese relations has focused in particular on the post-war restoration of trade and economic contacts. It draws on diplomatic, institutional, business, and personal sources, and on extensive archival research in Russia, including the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF) and the Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE). I defended my dissertation at Saint Petersburg State University in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Mikhail V. Khodyakov, and taught History and International Relations there between 2007 and 2010.
Alongside my academic career, I worked for a decade with the Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. — first as a commercial representative for the Urals region in Yekaterinburg (2000–2007) and then as head of the financial-analysis department in Saint Petersburg (2007–2010). This experience of international trade in practice informs the questions I ask as a historian of economic relations.
After moving to France I undertook French studies at the CIREFE, Université Rennes 2, and built research links with several universities in France and Germany (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Rennes 2, Lyon III, Leipzig). I am a member of the Société Française d’Études Japonaises (SFEJ). My research has been presented internationally, including academic engagements in London in 2006 and at the Third European Congress on World and Global History (London, 2011).
My doctoral work on Soviet–Japanese fisheries relations led me to the ecology, conservation, and maritime-law dimensions of marine resources, and more recently to the history of Soviet science — in particular the history of Soviet glaciology, which draws on the same archives and institutional mechanisms.
Alongside academic research, I am interested in public history and in wine as a historical object. Wine provides a way to explore trade, consumption, cultural transmission, memory, and everyday practices across different societies.
- Soviet and Russian History
- International and Economic History
- Russia–Japan Relations
- History of Everyday Life
- Fisheries, Ecology & Maritime Law
- History of Soviet Science (Glaciology)
- Archival Research
- Wine and Cultural History
Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD), History
Saint Petersburg State University
University Diploma in French Studies
CIREFE, Université Rennes 2
Master of Research in History
Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg
I am a historian of modern Russia and the Soviet Union, with a particular focus on Russia–Japan relations, international economic history, and the history of everyday life.
My doctoral research at Saint Petersburg State University examined trade and economic relations between the USSR and Japan from the mid-1950s to the early 1980s. I defended the dissertation in 2010 for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences (PhD-equivalent), under the supervision of Prof. Mikhail V. Khodyakov.
My work asks how international relations operate beyond formal diplomacy: through trade, institutions, business networks, regional interests, fisheries, technology, and everyday practices. Research from this programme was presented in Russia and internationally, including London academic engagements in 2006 and 2011.
Russia, the Soviet Union & International Economic Relations
Trade, institutions, economic diplomacy, and the practical reconstruction of international exchange in the post-war period.
Russia / USSR & Japan
Soviet–Japanese economic relations, business actors, diplomatic contacts, fisheries, and the restoration of trade after 1945.
Everyday History (Alltagsgeschichte)
The relationship between institutions and lived experience, with attention to social practices, material culture, memory, and individual agency.
Wine, Society & Cultural History
Wine as a historical object through which to study trade, consumption, cultural transfer, social practices, and the circulation of knowledge.
Doctoral research and verified publications on Soviet–Japanese economic relations, fisheries, trade, and business history.
Archival research is central to my work. My doctoral research drew on materials from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF) and the Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE), alongside statistical collections, trade documentation, periodicals, memoirs, and Japanese and Soviet institutional sources.
I am especially interested in reconstructing the people, institutions, and practical negotiations that connected political decisions with economic exchange.