Biography

Born and raised on Vasilyevsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, I went to Saint Petersburg State University where I did undergraduate studies in History and was actively involved in student unionism. Being forced into exile for opposing the war in Ukraine, I ended up at Cambridge where I continued my research on Commonwealth federalism. My PhD project, aimed at federalist rhetorical strategies in British settler colonies, deals with various modes of persuasion that different political actors in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa mobilised to incline omnifarious audiences towards the federalist agenda. With a necessary historicist pinch of salt, I still believe that the current federalist rhetoric can trace its intellectual genealogy to much earlier periods. The narratives built around the idea of a federal structure based on common principles shared amongst the polities, were at the centre of political rhetoric in many 'federal moments', not excluding the case I study or the current one in the EU. I daresay that global intellectual history is a fruitful field and rather potent instrument for comprehending political rhetoric of the past and, indeed, offering certain advice to contemporary international actors.

Previous Education

University of Cambridge World History