YOUR HOMEWORK: Our next event is Bette's Speakeasy with Tetiana Boriak on ‘Exporting Chaos’ — Sunday, Nov 16 — links included!

Bette members: please register for Sunday, November 16, Bette’s Speakeasy with Tetiana Boriak, a Ukrainian historian whose work on the ‘mental war’ is vital. Links to read her work in English included

***Bette members will find the registration link below the paywall. To join our community events and to help support independent investigative journalism in a time of grave peril, please upgrade to a paid membership.***

Mark your calendars for our upcoming community event for all paid members: Bette’s Speakeasy with Ukrainian historian Tetiana Boriak, co-hosted by cultural anthropologist Stephen Douglas, Sunday, November 16, 11 am Pacific.

Registration can be found by scrolling all the way to the end of this post, below the paywall.

Douglas of Decoding Trolls and Disinfolklore led me to historian Tetiana Boriak, and her work — “How Russia Formats Identity and Tries to Conquer the World with the Help of the Mental War” — and I immediately reached out to her so we can learn from her work on the Holodomor, Soviet totalitarianism, memory studies and social history — her areas of expertise.

Here is Douglas’ post that features her work:

Podcast | How Russia's Mental War Against Us Will Persist After Ukraine's Victory

And here is her CV:

Tetiana Boriak – refugee from the Russian war, Ukrainian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences (Dr. habil.) (2024), PhD in History (2008), Associate Professor, Researcher at History Faculty, Vilnius University (Lithuania). Received her MA in History from Kansas University (Lawrence, KS, 2004–2006). She specializes in Holodomor, Soviet totalitarianism, memory studies and social history. Author of three books, two awards: “Oral History as a Source for Holodomor Studies: Formation of Eyewitness Testimony Collections and their Informative Value” (2024; Research Prize of the Rector of Vilnius University 2024 for “significant research work”); “1933: “Why Are You Still Alive?” (2016; the all-Ukrainian award “the Book of the Year” (2016, nomination “History”, category “Research/Documents”). MSCA4Ukraine (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for Ukraine) Fellow (2025–2027). In 2013–2014 Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University (Ukrainian Research Institute, Boston, MA). Author of 90 articles of them about 40 articles on Holodomor. In 2010–2017 was an assistant of the journalist, researcher, columnist of the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum in the project of preparation of an English-language book about the Holodomor in Ukraine for a Western audience: “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” (2017; two awards). Host of the historical educational program “History with meat” (2017– February 2022) – about 70 episodes, available on YouTube. Editorial board member of several journals and a member of several historical professional associations. Participated in more than 70 conferences.

Your Homework

Okay, friends, here is your homework. So much good stuff to pour through and I will join you in pulling some late nights to prepare for this incredible opportunity:

Tetiana Boriak’s publications and her additional reading recommendations:

Books

Oral History as a Source for Holodomor Studies: Formation of Eyewitness Testimony Collections and their Informative Value. Kyiv, 2024. 632 pp. (monography); was awarded the Research Prize of the Rector of Vilnius University 2024 for significant research work

Full text: http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?C21COM=2&I21DBN=ELIB&P21DBN=ELIB&Image_file_name=book/0017991.pdf&IMAGE_FILE_DOWNLOAD=0 (in Ukrainian)

1933: “Why Are You Still Alive?” / ed. Tetiana Boriak. K., TOV “Publishing House “Clio””, 2016. 720 p. (compilor; author of monography part (pp. 21–118); winner of “the Book of the year” (2016) in category “research/documents” of nomination “History” (in Ukrainian)

Articles

Kultūra kaip ginklas. Kaip Rusija pavertė kultūrą ir švietimą pasaulinės įtakos ginklais, Spektrum, Vilniauas Universiteto Mokslo Populiarinimo Žurnalas 2(24)2025, p. 20-25

Full text: https://issuu.com/vu_lt/docs/vilniaus_universiteto_mokslo_populiarinimo_urnala (in Lithuanian)

How Russia shapes identity and conquers the world through words with the help of cognitive warfare, InformNapalm, 16 October 2025

Full text: https://informnapalm.org/ua/format-c/ (in Ukrainian)

“You will die all the same”: Soviet social engineering and human dimension of the Holodomor. “I came out of the death…”. Holodomor 1932–1933 in memory on kids: Testimonies. Compilers: L. Bilousova, H. Boriak. In 2 volumes. Kyiv, 2023, p. ХІХ–ХL

Full text: http://resource.history.org.ua/item/0017826 (in Ukrainian)

Holodomor in Ukraine. The Polish Dimension of the Tragedy, Ukraińcy i ich sąsiedzi na przestrzeni wieków: polityka, gospodarka, religia, kultura i życie codzienne. T. 5, redaktorzy Roman Drozd, Bohdan Halczak. Słupsk, Ukraińskie Towarzystwo Historyczne w Polsce (Warszawa), 2025, p. 97-111 (in English)

“Please note that the famine was man-made”: sources of personal origin about the famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine 1932–1933, Genocidas ir resistencija. Ukrainos kovos simtmetis. Vilnius, 2023, p. 164-179 (in English and Lithuanian)

Full text: https://www.academia.edu/130175973/Articles_boriak (in English)

Soviet information warfare on the Holodomor vs historical sources: Actors of the memory battle, Etnografia Polska. Special issue “Ukraine: lived experiences of past and present”, 2023, p. 25-47

Full text: https://www.academia.edu/123380009/Soviet_Information_Warfare_on_the_Holodomor_vs_Historical_Sources_Actors_of_the_Memory_Battle (in English).

History as a military and political weapon in Russia: How to respond. Warsaw East European Review, 2024, vol. XIV, pp. 63-82

Full text: https://www.academia.edu/128574786/History_as_a_Military_and_Political_Weapon_in_Russia_How_to_Respond_and_to_Resist (in English)

Holodomor: how Stalin etxterminated Ukraine with famine, and but wants to repeat, Spektrum. Vilnius University Research Popular Journal, # 2(36), 2022, p. 2-7

Full text: https://www.vu.lt/naujienos/spectrum/kaip-atrodysime-ateityje-2022-ruduo (in Lithuanian)

The toolkit of oral history in the context of the formation of a mass of oral history sources for the Holodomor in Ukraine of 1932–1933, Scientific Journal of Polonia Universtity (PNAP), 2022, vol. 52 nr 3 (Czestochowa 2022), p. 27-40

Full text: http://pnap.ap.edu.pl/index.php/pnap/issue/view/59/43

Mapping the Holodomor using GIS technologies: the module «Testimonies» (MAPA project). Space in Historical Research, 2023, vol. 4. Pp. 134-140

Full text: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iEryXgqsyuNng4XXLrap9EOnjPLmaMgJ/view

(in English)

Information war of the USSR (1945 – beginning of 1980s): how propaganda turned testimonies of Ukrainians about repressions and famine of 1932–1933 into “adventure novels”. Research Papers of the National University “Ostrih Academy”. Series “Historical Science” / ed. V. Trofymovych (head) [et. al.]. Ostroh: Publishing House of the National University “Ostrih Academy”, 2023. Issue 34, p. 66-73

Full text: https://journals.oa.edu.ua/Historical/article/download/3715/3357/6389 (in Ukrainian)

Food help of Kremlin as a tool of Holodomor in Ukraine, Atrocities of Totalitarian regimes in Ukraine: research and educational view. Kyiv, 2012, p. 10-33

Full text: https://www.academia.edu/126839132/Food_help_of_Kremlin_as_a_tool_of_Holodomor_in_Ukraine (in Ukrainian)

“My dead historian”: diaries notes on the Holodomor, Ethnic History of European Nations. 2022. Issue 68, p. 80-92.

Full text: http://ethnic.history.univ.kiev.ua/data/2022/68/articles/9.pdf (in Ukrainian)

Oral history sources about the Holodomor in Ukrainian occupational press during the Second World War. In: Manuscript and Book Heritage of Ukraine. 2022. Issue. 28, p. 390-403

Full text: http://rksu.nbuv.gov.ua/doc/rks_2022_28_23 (in Ukrainian)

Other historians’ publications on the topic

Larysa Yakubova, Rashyzm: a beast from the abyss. Kyiv: Akademperiodyka, 2023, 318 p.

Full text: http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?C21COM=2&I21DBN=ELIB&P21DBN=ELIB&Image_file_name=book/0018160.pdf&IMAGE_FILE_DOWNLOAD=0 (in Ukrainian)

Myroslava Antonovych. The Holodomor-Genocide and the Ongoing Russian Genocide in Ukraine: Intent, Victims and Perpetrators, Saar Expert Papers, 7 p.

https://jean-monnet-saar.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Genocide_Ukraine.pdf (in English)

Link to the article by R Serbyn “The Ukrainian Famine 1932-1933 and the Ukrainian convention on genocide”, pp. 34-83 in:

Famine in Ukraine 1932–1933: Genocide by other means / Edited by Taras Hunczak and Roman Serbyn. Shevchenko Scientific Society, USA. New York, 2007. 154 p.

Full text: http://history.org.ua/LiberUA/FamUkrGenocide_2007/FamUkrGenocide_2007.pdf (in English)

Kulchytsky S. The famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine: an anatomy of the Holodomor / Translated from the Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella. Edmonton; Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2018. 175 p. (in English)

Applebaum Anne. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2017. 496 pp. (in English)

Anne Applebaum. The Ukrainian Famine: What We Know Now—And Why It Matters. CREES 60th Anniversary Signature Lecture (Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies, University of Michigan, Sep 23, 2019)

(in English)

Levchuk N., Wolowyna O., Rudnytskyi O., Kovbasiuk A., Kulyk N. Regional 1932-1934 Famine Losses: A Comparative Analysis of Ukraine and Russia, Nationalities Papers, vol 48, no. 3, 2020

Full text: http://inform-decisions.com/articles/pdfviewer/viewerno.html?file=/articles/mpdfs/no_regional.pdf (in English)

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