Research interests

• Politics and culture in late Imperial Russia
• Russian identity, Russian nationalism
• Historiography of modern Russia
• Political violence
• Memory

Current research

Broadly speaking, my research work has encompassed two major areas to date.

The first of these is the radical right in late imperial Russia. This was the subject of my first monograph, titled The Radical Right in Late Imperial Russia: Dreams of a True Fatherland? (Routledge, 2016) The work assessed the changing social dynamics of the populist-nationalist radical right as it emerged in the early twentieth century in Russia. Key concepts examined were national identity, the use of anti-Semitism and the adoption of violence by the major groups assessed. I also considered the civic society projects of the far right and their approach to renewing Russia in the late imperial period, which many of their activists saw as a time of degeneration and decay. This is also something I have explored in research articles.

My current research is on martyrdom and martyrology in revolutionary Russia. I am most interested in the wave of martyrdoms on both right and left that emerged in the era of mass violence around the 1905 revolution in Russia, but I will contextualize the project more broadly – cases I have examined span from 1881 to 1918. The project will explore the intersections between these violent, noble deaths that emerged in public life in the late imperial period. Articles on this project have been published in The Russian Review (2022) and The Slavonic and East European Review (2022): I am continuing to work on the core of what I envisage to be my second monograph.

I am also interested in the history of sport and physical culture in late imperial Russia. I published an article in The Slavonic and East European Review on the Sokol movement in 2017, and I envisage future research in this area.

I have a broad range of teaching experience in European and world history, but my primary focus is always the history of modern Russia. My current undergraduate teaching consists of a number of modules on Russian history from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and a team-taught module on the radical right.

I have experience of teaching postgraduate students on a variety of modules, with a special focus on the history of Russia considered within a transnational (sometimes European) frame.

I would be pleased to hear from potential students on any aspect of modern Russian history.

Dr George Gilbert is a Lecturer in Modern Russian History at the University of Southampton.

I am a specialist in modern Russian history, with my own research focusing most closely on events, places and people from the exciting revolutionary period of Russia’s history (c. 1881-1917).

My first monograph, The Radical Right in Late Imperial Russia: Dreams of a True Fatherland (2016) was nominated for the Alec Nove Prize in Russian and East European Studies. I edited a collection Reading Russian Sources (2020), part of Routledge’s Guides to Historical Sources series, a book that won Best Historical Materials for 2020 and 2021 from the American Library Association. My current research project explores cases of political and religious martyrdom in late Imperial Russia; more broadly, I am interested in social and cultural history, nationalism, national identity, and commemorative culture. The articles reflecting these diverse interests have appeared in leading journals including Kritika, The Slavonic and East European Review, and The Russian Review.

I am a member of the British Association of Slavonic and East European studies (BASEES), currently sitting on the Research and Development Committee (2022-), having previously held the role of Secretary (2019-22). I am also an active member of the Study Group of the Russian Revolution: responsibilities here include conference organizer (2023, 2024). I am an affiliate member of the Association of Slavonic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Since 2021, I have been on the editorial board of the journal The Slavonic and East European Review.

At Southampton, I am co-director for the Centre for Eastern European and Eurasian Studies (CEEES) and am also affiliated to the Parkes Institute for the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations across the ages. 

I have a wide range of teaching experience in Russian history and modern European and world history more broadly. In addition to my undergraduate teaching, I would be particularly interested in supervising research students in aspects of modern Russian history.

Prizes