Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock

Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock currently teaches Russian History at Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut). She earned her Ph.D. in History at the University of California-Berkeley in 2010, and is completing her book on the role of religion and atheism in Soviet ideology, provisionally titled A Sacred Space Is Never Empty: The Spiritual Life of Soviet Atheism. In 2014-2015, Smolkin-Rothrock is a Research Scholar at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C.

What are Russians celebrating when they celebrate National Unity Day?

Russians celebrate National Unity Day on 4 November, but the name masks Russian anxieties about disunity and disintegration.

By Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock

/ 5 Nov 2014