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Blog Posts
- Introduction to the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social SystemIntroduction In Fall 2025, this project began as a research paper on the motives for defection among former Red Army soldiers during the Early Cold War. My project supervisor, Dr. Seth Bernstein, introduced me to the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System database, which had collected 705 interviews from Soviet emigrés. These interviews became… Read more: Introduction to the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System
- Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System: Data PointsData points This spreadsheet yields significant quantitative data about the Harvard Project as a whole, but a few visualizations help to highlight certain data points. The visualizations highlight the social history of the respondents, such as their ethnicity, sex, education level, and occupation. If I had more time and more programming skills, I would have… Read more: Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System: Data Points
- Soviet Data Digitization and ContextualizationSoviet Data Digitization and Contextualization Introduction Starting in August 2025, I began collecting, digitizing, and contextualizing data on Russia and the Soviet Union for the KGB Lab’s website. This blog post serves as a reflection on why I chose to analyze many of the sources, as well as a commentary on the importance of viewing… Read more: Soviet Data Digitization and Contextualization
- Introduction to the KGB/Soviet Secret Police DatabaseIntroduction to the KGB/Soviet Secret Police Q&A Database What does a secret police interrogation sound like, exactly? What are the stories of the interrogated? How are secret police interrogation questions formed – do they follow any particular syntactic constructions? Which questions elicit the longest answers, and which ones the shortest? How does the language of… Read more: Introduction to the KGB/Soviet Secret Police Database
Data and Tables
- Political Knowledge and Attendance at Political Information Sessions and Agitational BesedyPolitical Knowledge and Attendance at Political Information Sessions and Agitational Besedy Pie charts that show the political knowledge of individuals who attend political information sessions and small political talks, compared to those who do not. The graph above shows the quality of political knowledge among Soviets who attend political information sessions or agitational besedy (small… Read more: Political Knowledge and Attendance at Political Information Sessions and Agitational Besedy
- Levels of Activism of Students in Political Education ClassesLevels of Activism of Students in Political Education Classes Pie charts showing the attendance and work completion of political education classes at each academic level The graphs above show the percentage of classroom activism at each level of education. Activism, in this sense, refers to a student’s purposeful lack of participation. As students became more… Read more: Levels of Activism of Students in Political Education Classes
- Preferences in Political LecturesPreferences in Political Lectures Pie charts showing the preferences of political lecture topics The graph above shows the percentages of preferences for political lecture topics by Soviet Factory workers. Three factories were polled for this data compilation in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol’krai, and Moscow Oblast. Similar results were found in other factories and cities around the Soviet… Read more: Preferences in Political Lectures
- Ethnic Groups in Gulag Camps, 1937-1940Ethnic Groups in Gulag Camps, 1937-1940 Pie charts showing the ethnic composition of Soviet Gulags The pie charts above show the ethnic ratios in Soviet Gulags from 1937 to 1940. This period of time includes the 1937-38 terror, which explains the drastic rise in gulag populations, especially among Russians. It should be noted that groups… Read more: Ethnic Groups in Gulag Camps, 1937-1940
- Offenses of GULAG Population, 1934-1940Offenses of GULAG Population, 1934-1940 Pie charts showing the percentage of Gulag prisoners with each type of offense The graph above shows the percentage of offenses committed by laborers in Gulags. The data show that counterrevolutionaries made up a surprising minority of the gulag population. However, this does not mean that there was a minority… Read more: Offenses of GULAG Population, 1934-1940