Miłosz J. Cordes

Author: Miłosz J. Cordes

  • A Very Satisfying Book DIscussion at the Tartu Conference

    A Very Satisfying Book DIscussion at the Tartu Conference

    Delighted to have taken part in a panel discussion of my book, Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast (Routledge), at the 10th Annual Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies — “Global Flows and Frictions in Eastern Europe and Eurasia” — last week.

    I was joined by two outstanding scholars for what turned out to be a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation: Andrey Makarychev (University of Tartu) and Kacper Wańczyk (War Studies University, Warsaw). I am deeply grateful for their careful engagement with the book and for the insights they brought to the discussion.

    The book traces how the discourse of memory and identity in Kaliningrad Oblast evolved over more than a quarter of a century after 1991 — examining how German and East Prussian myths were reused and adapted in the post-Soviet context, and the role the region came to play in the broader memory politics of the Russian state.

    The timing of this discussion felt particularly significant. Kaliningrad Oblast sits at the heart of one of the most strategically sensitive corners of Europe — bordered by Lithuania and Poland, separated from mainland Russia, and directly adjacent to the Baltic Sea. With Finland and Sweden now full NATO members, and with the wider Baltic–Central–Northern European security architecture under pressure as never before, the region’s dynamics matter far beyond its borders. Understanding how identity, history, and memory are instrumentalised in Kaliningrad is essential for understanding Russia’s posture in this part of the world and beyond.

    Thank you to the organisers at the Centre for East European and Eurasian Studies (CEURUS), Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu for bringing together such a rich and diverse scholarly community. Conversations like the one in Tartu remind me why this research matters — and why it needs to continue.

    Many thanks to DIS Study Abroad for being so supportive from the beginning of the book project up to presenting it to professional audiences across Europe.

  • 10th Tartu Conference Came to an End

    10th Tartu Conference Came to an End

    The 10th Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies of University of Tartu came to an end. It brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. I am grateful to have engaged with such rigorous, policy-relevant scholarship.

    💐 Many thanks for DIS – Study Abroad, especially to Helle Rytkønen and Neringa Bigailaitė Vendelbo, for providing this excellent opportunity. I met so many people whose experience I would love to share with another cohort of DIS students in the coming weeks and months. You can be sure that one way or another they will join our classrooms, online discussions, field trips and study tours. Thanks to them, my eyes have become more open than just a week ago.

    The conversation between researchers and institutions needs to continue — and deepen. Here are three takeaways for me:

    1️⃣ Academia + state institutions, working together. The research presented — on disinformation patterns, minority resilience, memory politics, and reflexive control — is exactly the kind of evidence base policymakers need. Bridging the gap between rigorous scholarship and government decision-making isn’t optional; it’s a strategic necessity.

    2️⃣ Resilience is built locally, not just decided centrally. From Estonia’s community houses to Ukraine’s wartime civic identity shifts, the conference highlighted how societal cohesion at the grassroots level is itself a security asset.

    3️⃣ Education as a long-term defence. Whether it’s media literacy among communities navigating “news repertoires,” or historical and civic education that builds resilience against revisionist narratives — investing in education today is what sustains the actions we take now. Hybrid threats are won or lost over years, not news cycles.

  • At Bocconi University on Diplimatic Experience and Kaliningrad Oblast

    At Bocconi University on Diplimatic Experience and Kaliningrad Oblast

  • 10th Tartu East European and Eurasian Conference

    10th Tartu East European and Eurasian Conference

    On June 8-10th, I will be partaking in the 10th Annual Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies. My panel will revolve around my book published last year, Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast. I will also be chairing over another panel, Geopolitics and Migration: War, Activism, and the Liminal Identities of Russian and Belarusian Diasporas that features presentations by outstanding scholars in the field.

    The conference programme can be found here.

  • European Politics in Brussels

    European Politics in Brussels

    Another group of students of mine went to Brussels to talk to diplomats, EU officials, academics and professionals from the broader EU ecosystem to talk about the Union’s foreign and security policies in the current turbulent circumstances.

  • Online Discussion about My Book on June 30th, 12:00 CET

    Online Discussion about My Book on June 30th, 12:00 CET

    🗓️ Save the date: on Monday, June 30th at 12:00 CET I will be talking about my latest book, Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast. Together with Iwona Reichardt and Krzysztof Żęgota, we will look at the intricacies of Kaliningrad Oblast’s history and its uses in the context of contemporary Russia’s domestic and foreign policies.

    Published by Routledge, the book summarises debates on the Oblast’s regional identity until 2018 (the end of Vladimir Putin’s third presidential term) and makes the connection between the region’s specific geographical location, its non-Russian civilisational legacy and the weaponisation of memory by the incumbent Russian political regime at the federal and international levels.

    Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast helps understand the reasons behind Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and shed light on strategies employed to sustain the system created in Russia over the last 25 years.

    Many thanks to the Richard Pipes Laboratory at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Wojciech Łysek for suggesting and organising the event!

    Registration link: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/PBBaSO1NR3qw7PNZV7qxwA

  • Book Release: Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast

    Book Release: Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast

    When I began my postdoctoral research at Lund University’ I did not expect the team of scholars I joined to be so interested in the memory politics in Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. I had just spent three years there as a diplomat which, on top of my previous academic research at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, had given me much food for thought. It thus did not take much for Per Anders Rudling and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to convince me to revise to my original Ph.D. dissertation to update it and make it fit the rigours of an academic monograph.

    I embarked on a journey which turned out to be more straining and more satisfying than any other one in my hitherto academic life. Three years later, here it is. Collective Memory in Post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast has just been published as part of the Routledge Histories of Central & Eastern Europe series.

    The book features summary of debates of what it meant to be an inhabitant of Russia’s westernmost region in the first 25 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It traces changes going beyond the region itself – from the initial high hopes and much uncertainty to the emergence of a certain degree of regional pride and to an increasingly sharp reaction of federal authorities against a diverse, inclusive narrative of the Oblast’s pre-1945 non-Russian and non-Soviet past.

    Kaliningrad Oblast was a playground for refined official Russian memory policies already ten years ago. Its complex history reveals tensions affecting both domestic and foreign policies of the Kremlin and the inability to accommodate the rich cultural landscape of the northern part of East Prussia under the conditions of the increasingly authoritarian regime. The book is also a study of the use of old Wilhelmine, Weimar and Nazi Germany myths about East Prussia in the changed geopolitical circumstances after the Second World War and in the run-up to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, war in Donbas and full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

  • On Denmark’s Security Dilemmas for Wingate University Students

    Last week, I had the pleasure to spend a whole day with Wingate University students, taking part in the Travel as a Catalyst for Change: What We Can Learn from Denmark programme, organised by DIS Study Abroad.

    My presentation was dedicated to Denmark’s security dilemmas ever since mid-19th century. We went through the trauma of the Second Schleswig War, the desire for neutrality and, when it became impossible, the strong belief in NATO and transatlantic relations as the rudiments of the nation’s security. Only recently this picture has begun to change, with the 2022 referendum on dropping the EU defence cooperation opt-out clause, reverting from expeditionary forces model to more in-country territorial defence capabilities and larger defence spending.

    We also went to my postdoctoral alma mater, Lund University, to talk about Sweden’s approach to security. Although it is culturally close to Denmark, Sweden has taken a different route over the last decades. Only due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine Stockholm has drawn closer to the core of Western collective defence efforts, just as Denmark and other Nordic countries with their distinctive takes on how to maintain peace in Europe.

    The possibility to meet with students whose study focus is not politics, international relations and security is in many ways something I cherish. It encourages me to think about the way I tackle such complex issues and deliver them to people who live their lives outside of my professional bubble. Strengthening such skills has recently become critical due to developments on both sides of the Atlantic. Growing polarisation, negative consequences of the ubiquity of social media, as well as isolationist and chauvinist tendencies can only be addressed with grassroots education work, inclusive discussions and community building approach.

    We will not achieve it without stepping out of our comfort zones and exposing ourselves to others’ views. I am ever so grateful to such opportunities in my daily academic work.

  • Roundtable on Danish-Ukrainian Academic Research Cooperation

    Roundtable on Danish-Ukrainian Academic Research Cooperation

    Ukrainian scholars staying and working in Denmark have provided a substantial boost to the country’s research capabilities. At the same time, their presence here is marked by tragic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, already since the annexation of Crime and the regional-scale war in Donbas.

    I was honoured to participate in Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) – Aarhus University’s and Ukrainian Academic Network in Denmark’s roundtable where I presented my own research on official Russian memory policies. I also talked about DIS – Study Abroad’s cooperation with Ukrainian institutions, part of which is my summer course on security developments in Central and Northern Europe, attented by students from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. Many thanks to Lesia Heiko, PhD and the team for this opportunity!

  • 2025 Conference on Baltic Sea Studies in Europe

    2025 Conference on Baltic Sea Studies in Europe

    Last week’s Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe, hosted by Centre for Geopolitics at University of Cambridge, was by all means an extraordinary event. Rarely can one immerse oneself in so many in-depth discussions about a variety of matters related to the Baltic Sea – its history, present and future.

    For three days, I had the honour of interacting with outstanding scholars and practitioners who proved that the ongoing tensions in the Baltic region require even more acute analysis and critical approach. For that reason, CBSE has become a byword for highest-level academic endeavours pertaining to the Baltic Sea and its surroundings.

    Collective memory is part of security in a growing number of ways. Although this realisation is now widespread, our efforts to grasp disturbing narratives of the past presented by the Russian authorities are still at an initial stage. I am thus grateful to Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies for the opportunity to present my recent paper on Kaliningrad Oblast, EU enlargement and memory politics in today’s Russia. It was a project on the sidelines on my book dedicated to collective memory in post-Soviet Kaliningrad Oblast, which will be published in mid-June by Routledge.