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Topic · Political Science and International Relations

Soviet and Russian History

Soviet and Russian History is a research topic within Political Science and International Relations. Science Explorer counts 14k research works in it since 1950. 10.4% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the formation, impact, and legacy of the Soviet Empire, focusing on topics such as Stalinism, national identity, colonialism in Central Asia, cultural diplomacy, ethnic cleansing, and post-Soviet politics. It delves into the complexities of the Soviet Union's ethnographic knowledge, architecture, gender dynamics, and the interplay between various ethnicities within the empire.

  • Soviet Union
  • Empire
  • Stalinism
  • National Identity
  • Central Asia
  • Colonialism
  • Cultural Diplomacy
  • Ethnic Cleansing
  • Post-Soviet Politics
  • Migration
Research works
14k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.5k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+26%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Russia
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soviet and Russian History

Which countries lead Soviet and Russian History research?

By volume, Russia and the United States publish the most (893 and 623 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russia 893 works
  2. 2 United States 623 works
  3. 3 Ukraine 203 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 182 works
  5. 5 Kazakhstan 170 works
  6. 6 France 132 works
  7. 7 Uzbekistan 131 works
  8. 8 Germany 120 works
  9. 9 Poland 108 works
  10. 10 Kyrgyzstan 77 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Russia: 33.9%United States: 23.6%Ukraine: 7.7%United Kingdom: 6.9%6 others listed: 27.9%34%largest
Russia893 · 33.9%United States623 · 23.6%Ukraine203 · 7.7%United Kingdom182 · 6.9%6 others listed737 · 27.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Soviet and Russian History research?

By volume in 2022-now, Russian Academy of Sciences publishes the most Soviet and Russian History research, followed by Weatherford College and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 247 works
  2. 2 Weatherford CollegeUnited States 78 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 44 works
  4. 4 National Research University Higher School of EconomicsRussia 36 works
  5. 5 Human Growth FoundationUnited States 30 works
  6. 6 National Academy of Sciences of UkraineUkraine 29 works
  7. 7 Kyrgyz State National UniversityKyrgyzstan 25 works
  8. 8 L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National UniversityKazakhstan 25 works
  9. 9 Karaganda Buketov UniversityKazakhstan 25 works
  10. 10 Russian State University for the HumanitiesRussia 24 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soviet and Russian History?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soviet and Russian History include John C. Reed and Francis Fukuyama.

  1. 1 John C. Reed United States 135k citations
  2. 2 Francis Fukuyama United States 110k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Soviet and Russian History?

The most cited paper in Soviet and Russian History is "The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism" (Yuri Slezkine, 1994), with 1,072 citations. Next come "Consensus and Ideology in American Politics" (815) and "Embedded and defective democracies" (782).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism Yuri Slezkine · Slavic Review 1994 1,072
2 Consensus and Ideology in American Politics Herbert McClosky · American Political Science Review Jun 1964 815
3 Embedded and defective democracies Wolfgang Merkel · Democratization Open access 2004 782
4 Structure and Example in Modular Political Phenomena: The Diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip Revolutions Mark R. Beissinger · Perspectives on Politics 14 May 2007 605
5 The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis Evsey D. Domar · The Journal of Economic History Mar 1970 594
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soviet and Russian History research done?

The largest centres of Soviet and Russian History research in 2022-now are Moscow (Russia), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Kyiv (Ukraine) and Weatherford (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Karaganda and Bishkek.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 MoscowRussia 356 works
  2. 2 Saint PetersburgRussia 94 works
  3. 3 KyivUkraine 90 works
  4. 4 WeatherfordUnited States 78 works
  5. 5 ParisFrance 78 works
  6. 6 TashkentUzbekistan 72 works
  7. 7 New YorkUnited States 67 works
  8. 8 AlmatyKazakhstan 59 works
  9. 9 BishkekKyrgyzstan 56 works
  10. 10 Nur-SultanKazakhstan 54 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. KaragandaKZ · 26.0 works72×
  2. BishkekKG · 55.9 works65×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Soviet and Russian History than the world average.

See Soviet and Russian History on the map

Where is the best place to study Soviet and Russian History?

Among universities, judged by research, Nazarbayev University, Weatherford College and Charles University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.65%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Nazarbayev UniversityCharles UniversityL. N. Gumilyov Euras…Weatherford College
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Nazarbayev UniversityKazakhstan 71.728.7%32.3×15 +39.2%
2Weatherford CollegeUnited States 61.78.5%19.2×78 +211.2%
3Charles UniversityCzechia 53.627.4%6.5×9 +156.2%
4L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National UniversityKazakhstan 53.314.0%54.4×25 +180.6%
5University of TartuEstonia 50.521.7%18.6×11 -12.2%
6University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 50.210.5%5.1×19 +208.6%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 49.521.5%3.3×14 +15.1%
8Al-Farabi Kazakh National UniversityKazakhstan 47.49.0%40.5×23 +10.8%
9National University of Kyiv-Mohyla AcademyUkraine 45.413.7%84.6×13 +288.5%
10National Research University Higher School of EconomicsRussia 44.811.5%29.3×36 -44.4%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Soviet and Russian History, country by country

Is Soviet and Russian History research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 26% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Soviet and Russian History.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Soviet and Russian History as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.012% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Soviet and Russian History0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soviet and Russian History over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Soviet and Russian History10.4% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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