/ˈmi.wɔʂ/ Miłosz J. Cordes

Category: posts

yes, i write occasionally

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

    Online Book Discussion 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 / Taylor & Francis Group, the book summarises debates on the Oblast’s regional identity until 2018 (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.

  • Journal paper: Kaliningrad Oblast, EU Enlargement and Memory Politics in Russia

    Journal paper: Kaliningrad Oblast, EU Enlargement and Memory Politics in Russia

    The question of European Union’s enlargement and its impact on non-hard security, non-economic issues related to Kaliningrad Oblast remains scarcely addressed in academia. Most works focus on NATO, not the EU as the main factor of geopolitical dynamics in the Baltic Sea Region and parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

    In my recent paper for “Sprawy Międzynarodowe”, I address the evolution that memory politics in Russia has undergone since Vladimir Putin’s comeback to presidential seat in 2012 and the so-called new conservative project. His campaign programme articles paved the way for redefining official understanding of Russianness, which particularly affected Kaliningrad Oblast with its pre-1945 past.

    The subsequent years witnessed an attempt to holistically redefine the existing narratives of the past in the semi-exclave and weave them into the concept of Russia as a unique civilisational centre and the Oblast as its frontier.
    The foundations of this process were laid already in the early to mid-2000s and were linked to the 2004 EU enlargement with neighbouring Poland and Lithuania joining and the emergence of EU’s redefined Neighbourhood Policy. This paper seeks to look at these events to identify linkages between enlarging the EU and redefining part of its external policies and Russian memory politics in the particular case of Kaliningrad Oblast.

  • Meeting with Head of Mission of Greenland in Brussels

    Meeting with Head of Mission of Greenland in Brussels

    So much has been said about Greenland in the recent weeks in the U.S., Denmark and elsewhere in Europe that one feels the Greenlanders themselves might find it challenging to convey important messages about their country and its future.

    My European Game of Politics: Crisis and Survival course at DIS – Study Abroad had the honour and the pleasure of meeting with Inuuteq Holm Olsen, Head of Mission at the Greenland Mission to the EU. Together with my students and, we held an open talk about what happened in the history of Greenland and the Greenlanders and how taking full ownership of affairs in their country after centuries of colonial presence of Europeans needs to be a well-thought process that might but does not mean independence in the foreseeable future.

  • Speaking at CBSE Cambridge 2025

    Speaking at CBSE Cambridge 2025

    I will be speaking at the upcoming Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe at Cambridge University, organised by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies. My presentation will be about memory politics in Kaliningrad Oblast. I will also host a panel discussion on weaponisation of memory in contemporary Russia.