Prof. Dr. Martin Aust

University of Bonn
Institute of History
Department of Eastern European History
Adenauerallee 4-6
D-53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 228 73-9304
martin.aust[at]uni-bonn.de

Current Position

Professor of History and Culture of Eastern Europe and Russia

Research

At Bonn University, Martin Aust has continued his work on early modern Russia. The department of Eastern European and Russian History of Bonn University is currently working to establish a European forum on Premodern Russian History. Research topics include politics, society and religion in premodern Russia, varieties of dependency in the premodern Russian empire and comparative perspectives. In regard to politics and society, it is remarkable that it was not only peasants who were enslaved in premodern Russia. Russian nobles used to call themselves slaves of the Tsar in their correspondence with the ruler. Thus, premodern society in Russia displays multiple layers of dependency. It is still an open question as to how this multi-layered dependency played out in various regions of the expanding empire from the 16th into the 18th centuries.

3 books, 7 edited volumes, 36 scientific papers. 17 international lectures and presentations, 4 ongoing doctorate theses, 35 Magister, MA and BA theses as supervisor/first reviewer.

Education

• 2008                          Habilitation and Venia legendi in Eastern European and Russian History
• 1999–2002                PhD in Eastern European and Russian History, Free University Berlin, Germany
• 1993–1998                M.A. in Modern History, Eastern and Southeastern European History and Political Science, University of
                                    Hanover and Free University Berlin, Germany

Academic Positions

• 2015–present            Professor of the History and Culture of Eastern Europe and Russia, University of Bonn, Germany
• 2015                          Visiting Professor, History Department, University of Basel, Switzerland
• 2010–2015                Professor of Eastern and Russian History, LMU Munich and University Regensburg, Germany
• 2003–2010                Research Associate, History Department, CAU Kiel, Germany
• 2002–2003                Research Associate, Center for Comparative History of Europe, Berlin, Germany

Participation in Centers and Collaborative Projects

Founding member (2012) of the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at LMU Munich, Germany; Research associate since 2015.

Additional Academic Activities

Co-editor of the series “Imperial Subjects. Autobiographik und Biographik im imperialen Kontext” [Imperial Subjects: Autobiography and Biography in Imperial Context]; Reviewer for national and international research foundations and scientific journals; External member of an appointment committee for a chair of Eastern European History at a German university (2015).

Third-Party Funding

German Research Foundation (DFG) Heisenberg Fellowship (granted in 2010, declined due to a professorship at the LMU Munich); DFG-SNF research project “Imperial Subjects” (LMU Munich, University of Basel 2013-2016); conferences funded by the ZEIT Foundation (2005) and the Thyssen Foundation (2008); DAAD Summer Schools (2012-2015) – a total of approximately € 0.5 million ad personam.

Selected Publications

1. Adlige Landstreitigkeiten in Russland. Eine Studie zum Wandel der Nachbarschafts-verhältnisse 1676-1796 [Nobles and their Land Disputes in Russia. A Study on the Shift of Neighborhood Conditions 1676-1796]. Wiesbaden 2003.
2. Polen und Russland im Streit um die Ukraine. Konkurrierende Erinnerungen an die Kriege des 17. Jahrhunderts in den Jahren 1934 bis 2006 [Poland and Russia in the Dispute over Ukraine. Competing Memories of the Wars of the 17^th Century in the Years 1934 to 2006]. Wiesbaden 2009.
3. Die Russische Revolution. Vom Zarenreich zum Sowjetimperium [The Russian Revolution. From Tsarist Russia to the Soviet Empire]. Munich 2017.
4. With L. Steindorff: Russland 1905. Perspektiven auf die erste Russische Revolution [Russia 1905. Perspectives on the First Russian Revolution]. Frankfurt/M. 2007.
5. With D.l Schönpflug, Vom Gegner lernen. Feindschaften und Kulturtransfers im Europa des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts [Learning from your Opponents. Enmities and Cultural Transfer in 19^th and 20^th Century Europe]. Frankfurt/M. 2007.
6. With K. Ruchniewicz and S. Troebst: Verflochtene Erinnerungen. Polen und seine Nachbarn im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert [Entangled Memories. Poland and its Neighbors in the 19^th and 20^th Century]. Cologne 2009.
7. With A. Miller and R. Vulpius: Imperium inter pares. Rol’ transferov v istorii Rossijskoj imperii (1700-1917) [Imperium inter pares. The Role of Transfers in the History of the Russian Empire]. Moscow 2010.
8. Globalisierung imperial und sozialistisch. Russland und die Sowjetunion global 1851-1991 [Imperial and Socialist Globalisation. Russia and the Soviet Union Worldwide 1851- 1991]. Frankfurt/M. 2013.
9. With J. Obertreis: Osteuropäische Geschichte und Globalgeschichte [Eastern European History and Global History]. Stuttgart 2014.
10. With F. B. Schenk: Imperial Subjects. Autobiographische Praxis in den Vielvölkerreichen der Romanovs, Habsburger und Osmanen im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert [Imperial Subjects. Autobiographical Practice in the Multinational Romanov, Habsburg and Ottoman Empires in the 19^th and early 20^th Centuries]. Cologne 2015.