Moscow, Domes of Churches in the Kremlin (1952) | Roger Fenton / Public Domain
Knowing your enemy as the key to victory is centuries-old wisdom. Washington seemed to embrace it during the Cold War, investing significant resources in the development of Soviet studies. In recent years, however, the situation has changed. Researchers and university professors are concerned about the deepening crisis in Russian studies in the United States. If this trend continues, many argue, there will be a shortage of experts needed to guide US policy towards Russia in the coming decades.
One of the most noticeable signs of declining interest in Russia at universities is the drop in Russian language class enrollments. According to the Survey of Enrollments in Russian Language Classes conducted by Study, Research, and Customs Programs Abroad (SRAS), about two-thirds of the 167 Russian language programs in the US reported negative growth in 2023. On top of that, more than a third reported strong negative growth exceeding 20 percent. The report highlights that this is the most significant decline since the survey began in 2002. At the same time, interest in other Slavic languages—Polish and Ukrainian—has increased among students in the US.
I reached out to Dr. Shannon Quinn, an associate professor of Russian at Michigan State University. “Enrollments in Russian language courses do seem to be lower since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and more attention is being paid to other places in the region,” she told me. “These places are all interesting in their own right, and so I think that it is a good thing that more people are learning about them.”
Dr. Alexandra Shapiro, a lecturer in the Russian Flagship Program at the University of Georgia, suggested that the decline in enrollment in the Russian language courses and programs is more a consequence of lack of funding than a result of the war in Ukraine. “We had a higher first-year Russian enrollment [in the 2023–2024 academic year]. We actually think that the war, for better or for worse, increased enrollments. There is, however, a general trend of downsizing language departments due to funding issues. For example, West Virginia University recently cut most of the languages altogether.” According to WVU’s website, the Russian major has indeed been discontinued, and this is not the only case. Just over a year ago, Ohio University stopped offering Russia-related courses for the first time in 75 years.
“The field of Soviet studies emerged as a product of federal funding during Cold War,” explained Dr. Scott W. Palmer, professor of history at the University of Texas at Arlington. According to Dr. Palmer, a main reason for the general decline in Russian studies has been a shift in federal funding and academic programs away from Russia towards other regions of the world, including Central Asia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and other areas of the former USSR. This bigger trend had led to a reduction in faculty specializing in Russia and, in some cases, the shrinking or complete closure of programs.
In the twentieth century, the situation with Russian studies in the US was indeed rather different. In his book Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America’s Soviet Experts, David C. Engerman explains that academic study of the USSR became a “vibrant enterprise making headlines, advising presidents, and shaping foreign policy” in the aftermath of World War II. An important milestone in the development of Soviet studies was the National Defense Education Act (NDEA), signed in 1958 under President Dwight D. Eisenhower after the Soviet Union launched the first-ever satellite, Sputnik. Over the first five years of NDEA, Slavic and European centers received $1.9 million. With the support of foundations and federal agencies, in subsequent decades Russian studies hubs developed at Columbia, Harvard, Berkeley, Indiana University, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, New York University, and other educational institutions across the country.
In the late twentieth century, the already-emerging crisis in Russian studies worsened after the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to Engerman, this was compounded by the September 11 attacks, which created a new type of enemy for the United States: “Not a single nation, but an idea, one whose adherents believed that they could and would convert the whole world to their way of life.” Moreover, following the new trend in academia, regional experts were gradually replaced with individuals possessing broader expertise.
The current crisis in Russian studies might have roots not only in changing political agendas but also in broader trends in the social sciences. “There aren’t that many sociologists and political scientists now who are trained as specifically Russianists or Slavists,” Dr. Nathaniel Knight, professor of Russian history at Seton Hall University, told me. “The reason is that experts in social sciences and especially political science are expected to have expertise in several areas and apply comparative methods. In addition, we can observe the general downturn of the humanities in the country, since more students gravitate towards STEM programs.”
Many have noticed that the war in Ukraine accelerated the process of the “decolonization” of Russian studies. More and more students are shifting their focus from Moscow and Saint Petersburg to Ukraine, Central Asia, and the Caucasus region. While some see this as a positive trend, others remain critical. In our conversations, two American academics pointed out that the choice of topics within the decolonization framework is often driven by the pursuit of funding. At the same time, Alexandra Shapiro noted that increased focus on other countries in the Eurasian region is unlikely to replace interest in Russia.
Most of my interviewees confirmed that the decline in enrollment in Russian language courses and the closure of Russian studies programs could lead to a shortage of experts capable of advising policymakers. Similar concerns were voiced long before the start of the war in Ukraine. As early as 2015, politicians warned that the trend of “atrophy” in the government’s Russia expertise since the end of the Cold War needed to be reversed. “Except for a few figures … it is difficult to find senior government officials grappling with Russia who intimately understand the country and its leaders,” Karoun Demirjian wrote nine years ago in the Washington Post. The situation has barely improved.
Since 2022, an additional difficulty for American students has been the closure of most academic exchange programs with Russia due to the war in Ukraine. “Previously Americans had the opportunity to go to Russia and immerse themselves in the language. These opportunities no longer exist. Russian programs are forced to move to Georgia, Armenia, and the Baltics,” explained Olya Ozhiganova, a private language instructor based in New York City. She also noted that due to the closure of many private Russian language schools and university Slavic departments, Russian private teachers are in much higher demand.
Russia-based historian Daniel Kotsyubinsky, who until 2022 taught Russian history to American exchange students, believes that continuing to study Russia in the US is fundamentally important. In our conversation, he emphasized that the process of academic decolonization should not occur at the expense of closing Russian studies programs. “In the twenty-first century, Russia, though less influential, has not become any less potentially dangerous. Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, like the United States. Decolonization of academic knowledge at the expense of paying less attention to Russia is self-deception, aimed not at understanding the other but at punishing the ‘bad guy.’”
