Nikolay Sarkisyan

Biography

I am currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow, working on a project about historical revolutionary museums in Petrograd-Leningrad from 1917 to 1941. This project, funded by the Horizon 2020 European Commission Grant Agreement number 10102852, lets me look into how Russian revolutionary traditions changed in museum spaces, especially during the 1920s and 1930s.

I started my academic journey at the University of Oslo, where I finished my PhD focusing on how the idea of tolerance affected contemporary Russian governance. This work gave me deep insights into the connections between politics, society, and history in post-Soviet Russia. I contributed to the university’s curriculum by teaching courses on contemporary Russian politics and conducting Russian language classes..

From 2014 to 2017, before starting my doctoral studies, I worked at two important (formerly) historical-revolutionary museums: the Museum of Political History of Russia (formerly the Museum of the Revolution) and the Smol’ny Museum (previously the Museum of Lenin in Leningrad). My experiences in these museums were not just professionally enriching but also served as a source of inspiration for my current research project.

I have a Master’s degree in Sociology from the European University at St Petersburg and a Specialist degree in History from St Petersburg State University. My research interests are diverse and always changing. I first focused on political science for my thesis, but then moved (back) to history, looking at the roots and development of Russia’s revolutionary tradition. This research isn’t just about history; it also deals with bigger questions about Soviet power, Stalinism, and the 1917 Revolution.

In Michaelmas Term 2023, I explored new academic areas by teaching a course on post-Soviet red-brown literature. This shows my growing interest in comparative literature and the sociology of literary work, and it might be the start of a new phase in my academic career. In Trinity Term 2024, I taught a short hands-on seminar on how to navigate digital collections of sources and research materials about Russian and Soviet history and culture located in Russia-based repositories.

Research Interests