“Russia’s nature as an imperial power is incontrovertible,” Artem Shaipov and Yuliia Shaipova write. “So why has this fundamental, foundational fact about Russia been all but ignored in the West for so long, including among those who study and analyze the region?”

Shaipov and Shaipova suggest that the answer lies in the way Russian studies is taught in the West. But regardless of the reason, the war in Ukraine has sparked a newfound awareness of Russia’s imperial project, past and present. The essays below explore the nature of Russian imperialism and its relationship to the country’s latest war of conquest.—Chloe Hadavas

What the Fall of Empires Tells Us About the Ukraine War

Russia’s war can only be understood as a bloody post-imperial conflict, Anatol Lieven writes.

From Pushkin to Putin: Russian Literature’s Imperial Ideology

Russian classical literature, chock full of dehumanizing nationalism, reads disturbingly familiar today, Volodymyr Yermolenko writes.

It’s High Time to Decolonize Western Russia Studies

Why, Artem Shaipov and Yuliia Shaipova write, has it taken a war of conquest for experts to recognize Russia’s nature as a vast imperial enterprise?

Why Putin’s Denunciations of Western Imperialism Ring Hollow

Russia is among the world’s most ambitious imperial nations, FP’s Howard W. French writes.

For Opposition to Putin’s War, Look to the Fringes of His Empire

The dirty secret of the Russian military is that long-conquered subjects are the Kremlin’s cannon fodder, Alexey Kovalev writes.