What roles were traditionally assigned to women in times of war and political turmoil? How could we turn patriarchal myths against the dominant gender and political order? Feminist and researcher Asya Neverova on the history of the question and the re-appropriation strategy

Maria Markina, a singer and volunteer from Hamburg, talks about her experience of helping Ukrainian refugees, her volunteer organization, and the relations between volunteers from Russia and Ukraine

What kind of historical crossroads had Russia reached by the mid-noughties? What hopes and fears did the situation in the country bring with it? This is a little-known and prophetic text of the time, which was written by Stanislav Markelov, a human rights lawyer and antifascist murdered by Russian neo-Nazis on 19 January 2009

How did Iran’s political system evolve and why did it prove to no longer be viable? What provoked the mass protests of 2022? Journalist Nikita Smagin delves into the Islamic Republic’s recent history and surveys the contemporary situation in the country

How did World War I impact the Russian Revolution? Why did patriotic enthusiasm quickly give way to disillusionment? Or did the enthusiasm ever exist? Historian Konstantin Tarasov explains how the attitude towards war changed in Russian society as events unfolded

What happens to Russia after peace is achieved? How can we overcome the consequences of the February catastrophe? What political and economic measures can we anticipate today? Historian Alexander Shubin contemplates the past and future of Russian society