Dr. Chechesh Kudachinova
Postdoctoral Guest Researcher (Research Grant Gerda Henkel Foundation)
Academic Profile
The study aims to examine two key technologies of Muscovite colonial rule in Northeast Eurasia: captivity and slavery. It places these forms of historical dependency in conversation with other important topics of the Siberian past, such as the emergence of colonial structures and the patterns of asymmetrical power. The social history of the enslaved and captivated ones recovers the indigenous experiences forged within the orbit of the expanding Russian empire. By reconstructing the hidden spaces and silenced voices of two obscured groups, the study seeks to grasp their strategies for survival and advancement, their struggles against the colonial forces. More precisely, the study explores the details of the imprisoned and commodified individuals' lives, as well as the conditions of confinement and enslavement. Understanding the violated and briefly glimpsed lives allows us a deeper insight into their roles as subjects in the local dynamics of the region and in the early modern history.
August 2023–May 2024
Gerda Henkel Foundation Research Fellowship
2022–2023
Taught an undergraduate course on Russian corruption at the Deptartment of Sociology, Mannheim University
2015
PhD in Russian Imperial History, Humboldt University Berlin,
Thesis title "Mapping the Altai in the Russian Geographical Imagination, 1650–1900"
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- 2019. "The Muscovite Silver Crusade: Power, Space, and Imagination in Early Modern Eurasia." In AbImperio. Studies of New Imperial Histories and Nationalism 4: 49–72.
Book Chapters
- Forthcoming. "'All Roads North': Indigenous Poverty Mobilities, 'Renomadization' and Settler Colonialism In Modern Siberia." In Nomad Properties: Political Anthropologies of Nomadism from the 18th Century until Today, edited by Bernhard Kleeberg, Anna Möllers, and Dirk Schuck. Campus Verlag.
- 2020. "The View of the Golden Mountains: the Altai and the Resilience of Historical Imaginations." In Russia in Asia: Interactions, Imaginations, and Realities, edited by Matthew Romaniello, Jeff Hardy, and Jane Hacking, 29–50. Routledge Series of Modern History. New York: Routledge.
Book Reviews
- 2022. "GREGORY AFINOGENOV, Spies and Scholars: Chinese Secrets and Imperial Russia's Quest for World Power. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020." In The Canadian-American Slavic Studies 56(3): 383–386.