The Duck of Minerva

Lisa Gaufman

Elizaveta Gaufman is Assistant Professor of Russian Discourse and Politics at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She is the author of "Everyday Foreign Policy: Performing and Consuming the Russian Nation after Crimea" (2023) and "The Trump Carnival: Populism, Transgression and the Far Right" (2024).

Recent Posts

Probiotic disinformation

Probiotic disinformation

by Lisa Gaufman | 9 May, 2025 | , ,

“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” is something I would say at the risk of alienating the younger readership of this blog, but given that most of us are old here, it should be fine. I have been busy working on Russian Neo-Nazis, so I almost forgot that back in the simpler times I was also interested in how identities are eaten. Thankfully, a Russian outlet Agentstvo reminded me of that in their recent material about kefir. For those who are not Trader Joe’s or Eastern European Deli aficionados, kefir is a fermented milk drink from the Caucasus region with lactic bacteria...

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Grabbing the world by the norms

Grabbing the world by the norms

by Lisa Gaufman | 17 January, 2025 | , ,

With the news avalanche that is Trump, it’s hard to keep track of all the outrageous things he says and does. With his recent very vocal attempts at land grabs (that we are not entirely sure will stay rhetorical) that are already being normalized in both right-wing and mainstream media, it’s important to look back at what is at the heart of Trump’s political philosophy that he himself doesn't realize. Breaking Point Carnival is hardly the term that comes up often in foreign policy, but Mikhail Bakhtin has helped understand the mechanism of populism. Carnival is about norm-breaking and...

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And All That Jezebel

And All That Jezebel

by Lisa Gaufman | 5 August, 2024 | ,

Ah, the avalanche of racism and misogyny that came after the Kamala Harris announcement. The “Kamala is not really black” narrative has been dissected by Adam Serwer in great detail. Spoiler alert: all of these “DEI” discussions are inherently racist and white supremacist because they assume that a person of color is unable to succeed in the same way as a white person. Even though so far the GOP has focused on cats, biological children, “cackling” and paper straws (ikr), there are already some deeper philosophical discussions about Harris carrying the spirit of Jezebel.  That one was...

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Bloody Carnival

Bloody Carnival

by Lisa Gaufman | 15 July, 2024 | , ,

A lot of ink has been spilled and bytes spent on the reflections over Trump's failed assassination this past weekend. I won't pretend I know better, although as a regular academic that's kind of my job and an occupational hazard. But as soon as my co-author texted me about the events in Butler, PA, I responded that a carnival usually ends with the execution of the mock-king. Once more details started to come in, especially about the identity of the shooter, it made even more "sense" (if any sense can be found in an act of violence). Let me explain. 6 years ago, I posted on the Duck...

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Judging a book by its cover II

Judging a book by its cover II

by Lisa Gaufman | 3 October, 2023 | , ,

Part I here if you are interested On the day of German reunification anniversary I bring you the sequel to the post on the new Russian history book. Only, if you read this history book, you will not find the term "reunification" - it's reserved for Crimea and Donbas - instead, you will find a passage about Western Germany "annexing" the Eastern one. Believe it or not, it is actually a toned down version of another history textbook co-authored by Medinsky: in "World History for 11th grade" he straight up called it an "Anschluss" highlighted in bold. Yes, the untranslated German term that was...

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Judging a book by its cover II

Judging a book by its cover

by Lisa Gaufman | 17 August, 2023 | ,

When I was in middle school I loved history: ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Middle Ages always fascinated me. Often during the summer vacation, I would read the history books in advance to prepare for the upcoming history classes (big surprise, I am a nerd). Old habits die hard, so this summer I picked up - actually, clicked on - the updated version of the Russian history book for high-schoolers "Russian history 1945 - beginning of 21st century". This version is co-written by the former culture minister and current aide to President Putin Vladimir Medinsky and the rector of...

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Probiotic disinformation

People were hoping for Tchaikovsky, but got Wagner instead

by Lisa Gaufman | 26 June, 2023 | ,

If you spent the entire Friday night and Saturday glued to the news about Prigozhin's armed rebellion, you are either an IR-head, a Russia-watcher or the Ukrainian army running out of popcorn. The avalanche of hot-takes about the start of a civil war, theoretical debates about a coup or not a coup and an army of blue-check grifters with the latest FSB letters reigned the day. The pundits who rushed to their keyboards with the news of Russia's impeding collapse saw their takes turn to pumpkins even before midnight: after Wagner's mostly unobstructed march to Moscow and seizing Rostov on Don...

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Indoctrinate Me Softly

Indoctrinate Me Softly

by Lisa Gaufman | 1 December, 2022 | ,

“Some came to kill and the others came to protect” says the main male character with a charisma of a doorknob to his love interest in the “based on real events” movie “Crimea” (2017), financed by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The hour and a half epic features many equally deep and meaningful conversations between a female Ukrainian journalist from Kyiv and a male Russian soldier from Sebastopol whose romance is set against the annexation of Crimea in 2014. In its official annotation, “Crimea” promises not a saga of the two warring clans of Montague and Capulet. This is a story about...

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No, Critical Race Theory was not a “thing” in the Soviet Union

No, Critical Race Theory was not a “thing” in the Soviet Union

by Lisa Gaufman | 5 November, 2021 | ,

According to a recent tweet, which I am not going to link to, "CRT" led to "multiple civil wars and transnational conflicts by the 1990s" in the Soviet Union. The simple answer is no, but let me explain in more detail. Some have dubbed the Soviet Union an "affirmative action empire" that glorified internationalism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism; at home, however, one could see a much less rosy picture. The notion of nationality, which is bound in Western Europe to the concept of citizenship, derives in Russia from a Soviet atavism that included ‘Natsional’nost’ (ethnicity) in the vital...

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Light Summer Reading

Light Summer Reading

by Lisa Gaufman | 21 July, 2021 | , ,

Ah, those days when you did not feel guilty for reading something that does not contain the term “poststructuralism” and/or footnotes. Back in my teenage years, I used to devour all the books I could get during the summer. I had some favorites: Alexandre Duma’s The Count of Monte-Christo (1844-1846) and The Valley of the Moon (1913) by Jack London. If the Monte Christo long-drawn out revenge plot is a great motivational read for staying in academia, The Valley of the Moon was a type of a comfort read with its slow-paced love story/farming manual features.  Following Paul Musgrave’s...

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