School of Asian Studies

Publications

• Book

  Son Z.

  The Russian Koreans in the 1920s and 1930s. An Ethnic Community in the Face of Soviet Power

  This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of the history of Soviet Koreans (1920s-1930s), focusing into their experiences in the USSR. It examines the impact of Stalin's foreign and domestic policies on
  Soviet Koreans, their role in the socio-economic development of the Far East, and their contributions to the Red Army, as well as the cultural and educational aspects of their lives. Key themes include the political repression of Soviet Koreans during Stalin’s era and their subsequent rehabilitation in the Russian Federation.

  
  

  Brill, 2025.

• Article

  Hoyer D., Holder S., Bennett J. et al.

  All Crises are Unhappy in Their Own Way: The Role of Societal Instability in Shaping the Past

  Societal “crises” are periods of turmoil and destabilization in sociocultural, political, economic, and other systems, often accompanied by violent power struggles, and sometimes significant changes in social structure. The extensive literature analyzing societal crises has concentrated on a relatively small sample of well-known cases (such as the fall of the Roman Empire), emphasizing separate aspects of these events as potential causes or consistent effects. To investigate crises in an even-handed fashion, and to avoid the potential small-sample-size bias present in several previous studies, we have created the Crisis Database (CrisisDB). CrisisDB uniformly characterizes a sample of 168 historical cases spanning millennia — from the prehistoric to the post-industrial — and varying polity complexities in diverse global regions. It features data on factors that are identified as relevant to explaining societal crises and significant “consequences” (such as warfare or epidemics), including institutional and cultural reforms (such as constitutional changes) that might occur during and immediately following the crisis period. Here, we study some examples from the CrisisDB and demonstrate our analyses, which show that the consequences of crisis experienced in each society are highly variable. The outcomes are uncorrelated with one another and, overall, the set of consequences is largely unpredictable, leading us to conclude that there is no “typical” societal crisis of the past. We offer some alternative suggestions about the forces that might propel, or mitigate, these varying consequences, highlighting areas that would benefit from future exploration, and the need for collaborative and interdisciplinary work on the study of crises.

  Social Science History. 2025. P. 1-33.

• Book chapter

  Kharina O.

  Post-Soviet Realignment: Key Milestones in Pakistan–Russia Bilateral Relations

  The post-Cold War international order has bes characterized by significant shifts in the foreign polic strategies of nations, as global geopolitical dynamics underwent profound transformation. For Pakistan and Russia, the end of the Soviet Union marked a pivotal turning point providing an opportunity to recalibrate their historically complicated relationship, The Cold War had positioned Pakistan and Russia on opposing sides of the ideological divide. 

  In bk.: Pakistan-Russia Relations. A Comprehensive Historical and Strategic Analysis. Islamabad: Centre for Strategic Perspectives. Institute of Strategic Studies, 2025. Ch. 2. P. 18-36.

• Working paper

  Ustyuzhanin V., Zinkina J. V., Korotayev A.

  Extended Family Structures Exert a Causal Influence on Fertility

  Research of the impact of kin alloparenting on reproduction mainly focuses on mother’s parents and parents-in-law. The impact on fertility of extended families and the alloparental help with childcare they can provide has received much less attention. Moreover, there is an important lacuna in the existing studies of this problem, as it is mostly approached through correlational studies, while the presence of a causal link remains unclear. Using an instrumental variables approach, we demonstrate that prevalence of extended family structures exert a causal influence on fertility. A one standard-deviation increase in prevalence of extended families is associated with approximately 1.07 additional children per woman. These results highlight that family structure is not only statistically significant but also demographically consequential in shaping fertility outcomes.

  SocArXiv. Soc. SocArXiv, 2025