Annual Newsletter of the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center, Hokkaido University

S LAVIC-EURASIANR ESEARCHC ENTER NEWSNo. 28March 2024

Report on 2023 Summer International
Symposium: “The Phase of Catastrophe?
The Crisis of the 14th Century
in Afro-Eurasian Context”
Introduction: Perspectives of the
Symposium
The Slavic-Eurasian ResearchCenter’s 2023 Summer International Symposium: “The Phaseof Catastrophe? The Crisis of the
14th Century in Afro-EurasianContext” has ended. Once again,
I would like to express my sincere
gratitude to all those who supported
the symposium. The main aim of
this symposium was to understandthe “crisis of the 14th century” as aworld-historical phenomenon thattransformed a world system intoanother. For this purpose, we need tothink not only in a Western context,
but also on an Afro-Eurasian scale.
Throughout the discussions of
the symposium, the following
five points emerged on the “crisisof the 14th century”: 1) regional
diversity, 2) chronological diversity,3) historiography, 4) temporalcycles, and 5) the emergence of a
new era and new powers.

No.28 March 2024

1. Regional Diversity: Different Climates
The first point is regional diversity. For example, with regard to the Great Famine (1315–1322),
the Byzantine empire experienced a drought (1315, 1317) during the same period, a different kindof extreme weather than in rainy northwestern Europe (Preiser-Kapeller). Regional deviationfrom the Great Famine was also observed in Russia, where the Great Famine occurred earlier
than in northwestern Europe, from 1305–1309, but also with heavy rains (Shakhmatov). In East
Asia, on the other hand, unlike Europe which experienced a significant cooling trend, averagetemperatures continued to rise consistently from 1290 to 1320. Furthermore, precipitation, whichis generally inversely related to temperature in East Asia, did not decline during the 1320s. Amidthese climate anomalies, floods accompanied by famines occurred frequently in the territory of
the Yuan dynasty (China) during this period (Uno).
However, in more northern areas, especially around the Amur River estuary, historical
records concerning the activity of “barbarians” in the region indicate cold temperatures from thelate 13th to the beginning of the 14th centuries (Nakamura). General terms are not sufficient foran understanding of the climate of East Asia. In addition, in West Asia, between Europe and East
Asia, especially in the Baghdad region, there was a marked cooling from the end of the 1260s to
the 1280s, corresponding with a period of political turmoil in the Ilkhanate (Iran and Iraq), Golden
Horde (Russia), and Yuan dynasty. This period also coincides with the beginning of the Wolf Solar
Minimum (ca. 1282–1342), a period of declining solar activity. However, cold events cannot be
generalized on the Afro-Eurasian scale. As mentioned earlier, East Asia began to warm from the
1290s, and Central Asia was exceptionally warm and humid during this period. Qaidu (d. 1301),
based in this region, reached
the peak of his power in thisperiod (Isahaya & Nakatsuka).
In the context of global climatechange, the largest eruption in
the past 2,500 years, which
probably occurred around
1257, of Mount Samaras inIndonesia, is also noteworthy.
Even in Europe, the effectsof this volcanic eruption areevident in the historical records
of western Germany, in theform a cool summer and crop
A scene from the discussion
failure in 1258 (Ohnuki).
As for the Black Death, it was not until 1348 that the plague struck the two thalassocraciesof Genoa and Venice, but of course it reached the northern coast of the Black Sea, where the ships
carrying the plague left port. By the spring or summer of 1346, the plague had reached several of
the cities of the Golden Horde, such as Urgench, Sarai, and Azak (Favereau). Recent paleogenetic
studies indicate that the origin of this second plague pandemic was at the foot of the Tien Shan
Mountains between 1316 and 1340, or the first half of the 14th century (Slavin). This area was
the base of the Chagatai Khanate (Central Asia).
2. Chronological Diversity: Periods of the “Phase of Catastrophe”
As we have seen in the previous section, the timing and impact of climate change varied on an
Afro-Eurasian scale. This is also closely related to the issue as to when the “phase of catastrophe”
emerged in each region—or, did not emerge at all. In the Byzantine empire, the phase took place
during the civil war period between 1341 and 1357. It also coincided with the period of the Black2

No.28 March 2024

Death (Preiser-Kapeller). On the other hand, a different picture can be drawn when we look at theother side of the Black Sea. After surviving the Black Death, the Golden Horde conquered Tabriz,the capital of a post-Ilkhanate dynasty in 1357, thereby marking the culmination of the Golden
Horde’s territorial expansion. The subsequent “phase of catastrophe” of the Golden Horde wasconnected to a political crisis; in 1360, the dominance of the Batuid family in the White Hordeand that of the Ordaid family in the Blue Horde both ended (Favereau). Although the written
sources concerning the Golden Horde do not tell of any environmental crisis, it is also likely thata major dzud, a cold and snowy spell, may have occurred in the territory of the Golden Horde in
the following year, 1361 (Shakhmatov).
3. How was the Crisis Narrated?
What do contemporary historical sources tell us about this “phase of catastrophe”? The Byzantine
historiography represents the extreme weather of the crisis period of the 1340s and 1350s as a signof divine disapproval, while the Great Trouble in the Golden Horde from 1359 is only described
as a political crisis. The cause of the trouble is attributed to Birdibek’s (d. 1359) murder of his
own brothers and son (Favereau). Conversely, with respect to the Ilkhanate, the Persian court
chronicles hardly mention any climate events. It is possible that the court chroniclers, extollingthe virtues of the Khans, did not wish to present them as being on bad terms with Heaven (Landa).
Furthermore, in the Yuan dynasty, the 14th-century materials do not only speak of decadence andcatastrophe, but also of challenges against the backdrop of a large-scale network that extended east
and west across Eurasia, as seen, for example, in the travel account of Wang Dayuan (d. 1350)(Fiaschetti). In this sense, Arghūn Shāh al-Nāṣirī (d. 1349), who traversed from the Yuan dynasty
to the Ilkhanate and eventually came to power in the Mamluk Sultanate (Egypt and Syria), is atypical “14th-century figure” (Qiu).
4. The Importance of Temporal Cycles
It is also important to think of a “crisis” not as a single year, but as a cycle. In the history of East
Asia in particular, the most devastating famines have occurred when harvest yields return to normal
after a 10 to 20 year period of good harvests. This is the theory that climate change of 16 to 64 year
cycles, neither short nor long term, has taken a toll on society (Nakatsuka). This theory might not
only be applicable to cases in East Asia. Societies in western Germany suffered from a massive
famine in 1224–1226, which was caused by a sudden change from a warmer climate prior to
the 1220s to a colder climate with a tendency toward more rainfall (Ohnuki). On the other hand,
while cycles create “crises,” they also form “patterns.” During the Yuan dynasty, which opened
a network on a Eurasian scale, the overlap of the nomadic cycle of seasonal migration and themaritime cycle defined by
the monsoons generated aunique rhythm in taxation,
trading, and diplomacy(Yokkaichi).
5. The Emergence ofa New Era and New
PowersThus, the 14th century
was a period of transition
from the Medieval Warm
Period to the Little Ice
Age, but it was also aperiod of transition from
Participants of the symposium3

No.28 March 2024

the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. The “Mongol globalization,” which expanded andintegrated its network to the Afro-Eurasian scale, created “middle grounds” in various places, whichbecame the sites of both negotiations and conflicts. Another characteristic of the globalization ofthis era is that the effects of what happened at the “middle grounds” spread to other parts of theworld. The same was true for crises such as the Black Death (Di Cosmo).
This “crisis” led to the collapse of the Mongol empire, but new powers emerged in Eurasia
to replace it. In the Golden Horde, for example, the downfall of the royal families in the 1350s
gave those of collateral descent a chance to rise to power. Timur (d. 1405), who was to build
a great empire in Western Eurasia, also came to power under these circumstances (Favereau).
Anatolia, which had suffered a major decline in population and economy under the Byzantines,
began to recover after 1500 under the rule of the Ottoman empire, which had gained supremacy
in the Eastern Mediterranean (Preiser-Kapeller). In China, the Ming dynasty, which emerged
from South China, overthrew the Yuan dynasty. It is noteworthy that these new Eurasian powers
emerged from Transoxiana, Anatolia, and South China, none of which had been political centers
before the “crisis.” In the Eurocentric historical narrative, it is Portugal, a previously provincial
country, that became responsible for the great leap of Europe after recovery from the “crisis of the
14th century.” However, when we think on an Afro-Eurasian scale, we understand that the rise of
the peripheries and their imperialization was not a Western phenomenon alone. The “crisis” forthe old powers was also the “future” for the new powers.

Isahaya Yoichi

The Plenary Meeting of the Platform
for Exploration in Survival Strategies andthe International Symposium: “Survival
Strategies of Ukraine and Russia”
The Center’s Platform for Exploration in Survival Strategies held the international symposium“Survival Strategies of Ukraine and Russia: A Year On from the Outbreak of War,” bothin-person and online, on February 20–21, 2023, concurrent with the Plenary Meeting.
Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine has laid bare the fact that the continued existence ofan independent nation and its people, and of human society itself, cannot be fully guaranteed.
While the sacrifices caused by this war are extremely serious, new movements have also
emerged, such as the unity shown by the Ukrainian people and the various accompanying
cultural and social activities,
as well as the revitalizationof international relationships,
including support for Ukraine
from Western countries andJapan. Many of these are topics
deserving of attention within
the Exploration in Survival
Strategies research.
As an initial step in theplan of the Plenary Meeting of
the Platform for Exploration in
Survival Strategies, the leading The report on Ukrainian women poets in wartime4

No.28 March 2024

authority on global cold
war history Professor Odd
Arne Westad gave a keynote lecture, explaining themodern situation of China’s“renewed imperialism,” on
the basis of his own recent
research interest, namely the
global transformation of imperial rule in the nineteenth
century. Afterwards, wewelcomed researchers from
University College London, which has an exchange
Participants of the symposiumagreement with the Center inorder to reflect on the state of academic study of the history and politics of the thirty years
since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This took the form of a round-table discussion in
search of possibilities of future research on Russia, given the complex relationship between
vertical authority and horizontal human networks. In addition, representatives of the respective
sections of the Platform for Exploration in Survival Strategies held a brainstorming session on
methods of researching survival strategies from the angles of international politics, history andculture in the light of the current war, with the discussion including reflections on previous
research and new points worthy of consideration, as well as methods of interdisciplinary
collaboration.
The symposium on survival strategies of Ukraine and Russia commenced on the eveningof the first day. During the first session, a discussion on Ukrainian politics took place, tackling
how previously-indicated issues such as the vulnerability of democracy, the influence offinancial conglomerates, and corruption are progressing during wartime, and what kind ofsolutions can be considered. On the second day, topics raised at the second session included
the relationship between Russia’s population policy, gas exportation, and the war, and how
to estimate trade statistics in a situation where such statistics are no longer released. The third
session cast a spotlight on the activities of poets, filmmakers and other artists in Ukraine,
which has been in a state of partial war since 2014. The speaker’s voice was thick withemotion while reading a poem on the devastation of the Donbas region. At the fourth session,
discussions were held on the future direction of historical research in Ukraine, particularly inassociation with world history and European history. One speaker, who participated onlinefrom Kyiv, spoke about the tense situation of evacuating to shelters due to air-raid alarms.
During the final wrap-up discussion, in response to criticism regarding the generally shallow
understanding of Ukraine among researchers of Russian studies, a lively debate on the future
direction of research took place.
While the current war has produced differences of opinion among scholars, at this
symposium we were able to grasp the situation in Russia and Ukraine from multiple aspects,
and hold constructive discussions with an ongoing awareness of the possibility of different
interpretations. Although the event was held with a limited number of in-person attendees due
to coronavirus measures, the actual number of participants (in-person and online combined)
reached 151 persons.

Uyama Tomohiko & Naganawa Norihiro

5

No.28 March 2024

“Ukraine Initiative”:
Invitation of Ukrainian Specialists
How should the respective fields of academia confront the Russian invasion of Ukraine, andlocate a new vision going forward? In order to tackle such questions, the SRC has organizedmultiple international and domestic seminars over the past eighteen months. The amount ofresearch on Ukraine remains small, even in current times, and there is a resulting tendency
for these issues to be argued from the perspectives of research on Russia, the EU, and theUSA. There is, therefore, significance in the task of focusing on the subjective viewpointof Ukraine, and incorporating this into academic discussions. Among the SRC’s academic
events, the international symposium “Survival Strategies of Ukraine and Russia: A YearOn from the Outbreak of War,” held on February 21 and 22, 2023, proved to be a turning
point. As a major project in continuation of this symposium, we investigated the possibilityof inviting Ukrainian specialists during fiscal year 2023. In concrete terms, the “Ukraine
Initiative” was conceived, with David Wolff taking a leading role, within the framework of
the SRC’s Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program and the construction of the international
Platform for Exploration in Survival Strategies. These initiatives invited Professor Serhii
Plokhii, Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University, and Dr. Olesya
Khromeychuk, Director of the Ukrainian Institute London, respectively. Professor Plokhii’s
stay lasted for just over two months, from May 25 to July 27, and Dr. Khromeychuk stayed inJapan for approximately one month, from June 1 to July 3. In addition, Dr. Uilleam Blacker,
Associate Professor of Ukrainian and East European Culture at University College London(UCL)’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, who was visiting the SRC during
the same period, also joined the team.
The team traveled to Tokyo on June 8, and held lecture meetings on the Russo-Ukrainian
war entitled “International Seminar: The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History” onJune 9 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Hongo Campus of the University of Tokyo
on June 10. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, around twenty of the Ministry’s junior officers
attended Professor Plokhii’s lecture, and the subsequent discussion session also included Dr.
Khromeychuk and Dr. Blacker. The lecture at the University of Tokyo seminar given by Professor Plokhii and Dr. Khromeychuk, which was jointly hosted with several domestic academic
societies in relevant fields—the Japanese Association for Ukrainian Studies, the Japanese
Association for East European
Studies, the Japanese Society for
the Study of Russian History,
and the University of Tokyo’s
Department of Occidental History(European History)—gathered an
audience of approximately seventy researchers in the humanities
and social sciences, both domestic
and international. In addition,
on June 12 the team conducted
an interview with the Ukrainian
Ambassador to Japan, and held
a press conference at the Japan
National Press Club (JNPC)A scene from the discussion
during the afternoon. The pressat the University of Tokyo6

No.28 March 2024

conference, at which consecutive
interpretation was provided,
attracted an audience of over one
hundred, combining in-person
and online attendees. The teamthen conducted multiple newspaper and television interviews after
the conference. Interest in the
Ukraine war was high throughout
the trip, with audiences at eachvenue listening keenly to the
speakers and participating inquestion and answer sessions.
The press conference at the JNPC
Furthermore, in West Japan, Professor Plokhii went on to speak at
the 163rd Nichibunken Lecture at
the International Research Center
for Japanese Studies in Kyoto on
June 15, on the topic of “Nuclear
Power and the Arrogance of Man:
Revisiting the World’s Worst
Nuclear Disasters”.
Following the team’s returnto Sapporo, on June 30, the SRC
hosted a workshop for young
researchers. The workshop, which
was aimed at building a foundation for Ukraine research in JapanThe Nichibunken Lecture at the Internationaland cultivating young talent,
Research Center for Japanese Studies
included five Japanese researchersand graduate school students, and one graduate student from the University of Seoul, a partner
university to Hokkaido University.
We have also continued to carry out various dialogues within Hokkaido University.
On June 23, we hosted an informal luncheon conference at the SRC, where our guests spoke
about the current state of Ukraine research in the USA and UK and the initiatives of theHarvard Ukrainian Research Institute, the Ukrainian Institute London, and UCL’s Schoolof Slavonic and East European Studies. An exchange of opinions took place, including
SRC staff members and Hokkaido University graduate students. Furthermore, at Hokkaido
University’s headquarters, Professor Plokhii engaged in a discussion with Professor Aya
Takahashi, Vice-President of the University, confirming the strengthening of the SRC’s
cooperation with Harvard University as well as the policy of ongoing contribution to thedevelopment of Ukraine research. These activities have, in fact, been highly evaluated, leading
to the University’s decision to grant assistance to the establishment of the Research Unit for
Ukraine and Neighboring Areas.

Aoshima Yoko

7

No.28 March 2024

Platform for Explorationsin Survival Strategies Has Opened
In April 2022, with financial reinforcement from the national government, the SRC launcheda five-year project to explore survival strategies in a changing world order with a view toward
redefining its missions. For details, please visit https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/srcw/en/.
Why “survival strategies”? We are witnessing an unprecedented crisis in the world order,
which we have taken for granted as the pivotal precondition for sustainable development.
Today’s world order derives from the period around the 1870s, when the globe was coveredand dominated by the Western empires. Notwithstanding the many negative consequencesof their colonialism, these empires also fostered and maintained liberal values and the international infrastructure of democracy, human rights, multiculturalism, free trade, freedom of
movement, and globalization. Recent years, however, have seen the traditional core of theWest, American and British citizens in particular, speaking out against the very values andinfrastructure that have underpinned their prosperity and predominance: the United States,
the last standing Cold War superpower, has slumped into America First-ism, while theUnited Kingdom has exited from the European Union. Meanwhile, China, India, and otheremerging economies are thriving, innovatively appropriating for their own purposes the very
infrastructure that the Western powers have built. This dynamism, with the core of the systemwithering and its peripheries stirring, is very familiar to students of the Russian Empire andthe Soviet Union: it was the discontent of the Russians as a core nation of empire that madetheir empire unsustainable. While many experts have regarded the year 1991, namely thedemise of the Soviet Union, as marking the end of the 20th-century, we are now witnessing
the end of the long 20th-century.
Slavic Eurasia, a periphery in the long 20th-century world order, has constantly interactedwith the West and thereby has shaped the transformation of the order itself. Recent years
have seen Russia become a decisive factor in the world’s dis/order with the annexation of
Crimea in 2014, interventions in Syria in 2015 and the US presidential election in 2016, andthe invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Central and Eastern European countries have ardently longed
for their integration into Europe, while simultaneously challenging the European Union’s
coherence. Central Asian countries are artfully playing with hegemonic Russia, growing
China, influential Europe and the US, as well as friendly Korea and Japan. While Japan has
enjoyed economic prosperity based on the alliance with the West and the 20th-century modelof industrialization, should we continue on this paved path, when the two prerequisites are
no longer sustainable?
As Japan’s national center for Slavic and Eurasian studies, the SRC has observed tectonic
changes in the political regime, economy, society, and culture of the Eurasian continent ingeneral, and Russia and its neighbors in particular. Predicated upon the experiences andlessons we have learned from a wide variety of peoples in this landmass, we will attempt tounderstand and explain to a broader public the global crisis we are confronting. While theJapanese tend to see the US-China collision as an existential crisis, we must take seriously the
profound crisis that emanates from a part of the world that is alien to Japanese and Westernperception. This project sets as a pillar of our exploration the entanglements of Russia and the
Middle East. The SRC has always incorporated Europe and Northeast Asia into its research
agenda, and has demonstrated its presence and competence. Yet Japanese scholarship has
so far lacked an understanding of how Russia and the Middle East interact in a way that
determines war and peace in our world. Our survival strategies research will fundamentallyprobe the meaning of Slavic and Eurasian studies on the global scale, and articulate the8No.28 March 2024

special contributions of Japanese scholarship of Slavic Eurasia. We shall achieve these goals
through highly energetic synergy with international scholars that transcends borders andacademic disciplines.

Naganawa Norihiro

Adoption of the Research Unit
for Ukraine and Neighboring Areas
Establishment Project
As one of Hokkaido University’s new initiatives to promote the “strengths and distinctive
features of each department,” a project to establish a Research Unit for Ukraine and Neighboring
Areas (referred to as the “Ukraine Research
Unit”) as one of the research units within the
SRC was adopted on November 14, 2023. The
project will run from 2023 until March 2025, andwill be tackled as a start-up with anticipation offurther expansion after completion of the term.
In light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it canbe stated that the task of obtaining a correctunderstanding of the background and current
situation, as well as knowledge needed for future
response, is an urgent global issue. The SRC
intends to employ our strengths, cultivated overalmost seventy years of interdisciplinary researchin the humanities and social sciences, to 1) build
Hosted the plenary meetinga Ukraine-related library collection, 2) expand
in February, 2024
the international network of Ukraine researchwithin and outside Japan, implement joint research, and disseminate research results, and 3)
proactively conduct outreach activities to the general public.

Aoshima Yoko

Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program

The SRC invited the following scholars as Foreign Fellows for 2023–24
Name: Robert David Greenberg
Position; Affiliation: Professor and Dean of Arts, University of Auckland
Research Topic at the SRC: Narratives on Language Identity from the Former Yugoslavia
to Ukraine: The Impact of War on Language Status and Planning
Name: Ildus Gubaidullovich Ilishev
Position; Affiliation: Independent Scholar, Deputy Prime-Minister of the Republic of
Bashkortostan, Russia, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary (Ret.)
Research Topic at the SRC: The War in Ukraine as a Delayed Democratization of Russia
9No.28 March 2024

Name: Mark Naumovich Lipovetsky
Position; Affiliation: Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, Columbia University, Department of Slavic Languages
Research Topic at the SRC: The Trickster’s Modernity: Narratives of Soviet and Post-Soviet
Cynicism
Name: Serhii Plokhii
Position; Affiliation: Professor and Director, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University
Research Topic at the SRC: The International Reaction to the Annexation of the Crimea (2014)
Name: Mykola Yuri Ryabchuk
Position; Affiliation: Principal Research Fellow, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies
Research Topic at the SRC: A Return of Geopolitics? Russian War in Ukraine and theProspects for the New Global Order
Name: Batbayar Tsedendamba
Position; Affiliation: Principal Researcher, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Institute ofHistory and Ethnology
Research Topic at the SRC: Iosif Stalin and Ethnic Mongolian Territories of the USSR:
Buryatia, Kalmykia and Tannu Tuva (1930–1944)

New Members

Special Associate Professor
On August 1, 2023, Dr. Yoichi Isahaya was appointed as a Special
Associate Professor. Joint research between the humanities and thesciences occupies an important position in the “Project of Exploring
Survival Strategies,” which is budgeted by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology currently in progress at theCenter. While survival and resilience are pressing issues, there are few
researchers at the Center able to tackle it directly. Moreover, following
the retirement of Professor Tabata, the difficulty of securing such humantalent has become even more keenly felt.
Dr. Isahaya, who has been appointed to the role, specializes in the history of the Mongol
Empire. With the ability to analyze documents in Arabic, Persian and classical Chinese,
he wrote his doctoral thesis on astronomy of the classical Chinese world and the Islamic
world, into which the Mongol Empire extended. Currently he focuses on the crisis causedby climate change in the 14th century in the context of the decline of the Mongol Empire
as a historian. To this end, he is collaborating with leading scholars both in Japan andoverseas from a broad range of fields including astronomy, meteorology and environmental
history, in addition to proceeding with a large-scale joint research project with multiple
external researchers. The quantity and quality of his research results are outstanding among
researchers of his generation, and he has already established a clear position internationallywith regard to astronomy in the Islamic world. In addition, Dr. Isahaya has achieved ample
educational results as a university teacher, receiving reports of high praise from his students.
After careful evaluation of the above performance and a comprehensive decision, we haveappointed Dr. Isahaya as a Special Associate Professor with full confidence that he will10

No.28 March 2024

serve as indispensable talent for the implementation of the aforementioned project. In July
2023, when the screening process was complete, the international symposium “The Phase of
Catastrophe: The Crisis of the 14th Century in Afro-Eurasian Context,” in which Dr. Isahaya
played a central role as organizer, was held to great acclaim. Accordingly, his forthcoming
activities are eagerly anticipated. Since the position is granted to the project itself, his tenure
will last until March 2027.

Nomachi Motoki

University Research Administrator
During the winter of 2022, the Center publicly advertised the role of
URA, the first to be affiliated with this department, with the aim offurther expanding and improving the Center’s research activities andenvironment. URA is a position that provides support and management
for the purpose of stimulating research activities. At the Center, the
URA will have a particular focus on management of public relations,editing and publishing, and support for foreign researchers, in addition
to a diverse range of anticipated activities conducted in coordination withthe administrative office.
With a large number of applications received from regions across Japan,
alongside multiple applications from foreign nationals, the recruitment process demonstrated
the increasing internationalization of the university sector. After careful and impartial
screening of applicants, Sayaka Tamiya was appointed to the role.
Ms. Tamiya, a graduate of Hokkaido University’s School of Law, progressed to postgraduate study at Kobe University’s Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies,
where she was awarded a Master of Law degree. She subsequently accumulated a broad
range of practical experience in her roles at the National Institution for Academic Degrees
and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education and the secretariat of Hokkaido Universityof Education. While this is Ms. Tamiya’s first appointment as an URA, she has alreadycarried out a steady number of duties in the short time since taking up the post, inspiring
great confidence in all of us at the Center.

Nomachi Motoki

Assistant Professor
On March 1, 2024 (accidentally, it coincided with the Independence Dayof the Bosnia and Herzegovina), Dr. Jasmina Gavrankapetanović-Redžić
joined the SRC as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Gavrankapetanović-Redžić
was already well-known to the SRC for her important contributions toBalkan studies, including her publications in Acta Slavica Iaponica.
Thus, we are very pleased to welcome her as a new faculty member,as Balkan Studies, despite its importance, has long occupied a marginal
position at the SRC.
Previously, she was an Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine
Arts at the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dr. Gavrankapetanović-Redžić
specializes in the modern history of the former Yugoslavia, with a particular focus on Bosnia
and Herzegovina. At the same time, she is an expert in art studies and has worked on thepolitics of memory from an interdisciplinary perspective, especially by combining the two
aforementioned fields—history and art studies—in a broader comparative context, which

11No.28 March 2024

resulted in her Ph.D. dissertation titled Politics of Memory in Visual Arts—Contemporary
Art from Okinawa and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014).
Dr. Gavrankapetanović-Redžić’s career is surprisingly international: A true polyglot anda diligent worker, she earned three MAs (Japan, Italy, and the UK), one Ph.D. (Serbia), andthen became a postdoc, again in Japan, at Doshisha University. During her new scholarly
challenge in Japan, now at the SRC, Dr. Gavrankapetanović-Redžić will work on the analysisof the political representation of Muslims in the two important events that preceded the war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995), namely the 1991 elections and the 1992 independence
referendum. Dr. Gavrankapetanović-Redžić has already started this research project and will
publish a monograph on this topic.
We believe that Dr. Gavrankapetanović-Redžić’s scholarly activities will not only
enhance the SRC’s Balkan studies, but will also contribute significantly to the SRC’s current
joint project “Survival and Resilience in a Changing World Order.”Nomachi Motoki

Professor Shinichiro Tabata’s Retirement
and Final Lecture
On the evening of March 3, 2023, Professor Tabata, who has worked at this Center for nearly
40 years, presented the 44th Public Lecture as his final lecture. While Professor Tabata’s
final lecture could have served as a retrospective of his career as a researcher, instead, at
his own insistence, he gave a future-oriented talk entitled “Post-Putin Russia: How will the
Economy be Restored?”, which was both bleak and critical. The lecture summarized several
topics that Professor Tabata has worked on thus far, and his suggested perspective contained
a clear outlook on the dark clouds gathering in the future. At present, Russian oil and gas
exports have dramatically decreased, and exports to Western countries are now virtually zero.
Import substitution has progressed in agriculture since 2014, and while Russia has become anet exporter of grain, in all other aspects its technology gap and disparity in living standards
with Western countries continues to widen. In the background of this situation is an economy
that has become reliant on the production and export of oil and gas, leading to the so-called
Dutch disease whereby an internationally-competitive manufacturing industry could not
be cultivated due to the rising exchange rate. For the Russian economy to recover, direct
investment from foreign nations will be crucial, and the question of whether an alliance with
the West can be achieved will be key. To do so, Russia must cease its foolish war as soon
as possible, and become a country thatits young people who have left to go
abroad will return to. This was a deeply
resounding conclusion from Professor
Tabata, who ordinarily refrains fromusing emotion-laden words.
The final lecture was held in room
W203 of the Humanities and Social
Sciences Classroom Building and also
as a webinar, with over 80 in-person
attendees in addition to more than 100
online. At the close of the lecture, ProfesProf. Tabata receiving a bouquet of flowers
sor Tabata was presented with bouquets
after his lecture12No.28 March 2024

of flowers, not only from this Center, but also from Hokkaido University Arctic ResearchCenter, with which he holds close connections through joint research.

Iwashita Akihiro

Ms. Mika Osuga, Happy Retirement!
Ms. Mika Osuga, who has long been responsible
for the editorial work of our media, including thisnewsletter, and for supporting visiting scholars
from abroad, will retire at the end of this academic
year (March 31, 2024). Ms. Osuga joined the SRC
in 1990, when the SRC was granted the status of a
National Joint Use Research Institute in Japan. Since
then, Ms. Osuga has been one of the driving forcesin the development of our Center, especially in thedissemination of our research activities and results.
To name just a few of her accomplishments, until her
retirement, Ms. Osuga edited 26 issues of this annual newsletter, 113 issues of the quarterly
newsletter in Japanese, 31 issues of Acta Slavica Iaponica, 29 issues of Slavic Studies inJapanese, and many occasional publications of the SRC. In addition to her editorial work,
she wholeheartedly supported foreign visitors so that they could live in Sapporo and workat the SRC comfortably and effectively.
Although her retirement is a great loss to us, Ms. Osuga’s role at the SRC has beensuccessfully taken over by Ms. Sayaka Tamiya, a University Research Assistant of the SRC
and the editor of this issue of the newsletter. We hope that Ms. Osuga will remember her
SRC colleagues and her work fondly, and we sincerely thank Ms. Mika Osuga for being apart of SRC for many years.

Nomachi Motoki

Our Faculty Members (FY2023)
Adachi Daisuke: Associate Professor, Modern Russian literature and culture; History ofrepresentation in 19th-century Russian literature
Aoshima Yoko: Associate Professor, European History; Central and East European Modern
History; History of the Russian Empire
Hattori Michitaka: Professor, Economy and political processes of Russia, Ukraine, andBelarusDavid Wolff: Professor, Russian and Soviet history; Siberia and the Far East; Cold War;Northeast Asian region construction
Iwashita Akihiro: Professor, Border studies; Tourism; Foreign policy; Northeast Asia
studies; Political geography
Uyama Tomohiko: Professor, Modern history and politics of Central Asia; Comparativeimperial history; Comparative politics
Naganawa Norihiro: Professor, Modern history of Central Eurasia
Isahaya Yoichi: Special Associate Professor, Histories of Premodern Central Eurasia;
Mongol Empire and Sciences

13No.28 March 2024

Sengoku Manabu: Professor, Comparative politics; Political economy; Welfare policies;
East European politics
Nomachi Motoki: Professor, Slavic linguistics
Jasmina Gavrankapetanović-Redžić: Assistant Professor, Modern history of Bosnia andHerzegovina; Visual culture; Media studies; Social memory studies

Special Assistant Professors
Inoue Takehiko: Modern and Contemporary History of Central Eurasia, Russian Buddhist
Cultural Studies
Murakami Tomomi: Archaeology; History of Textiles

Library and Information Service Staff
Tonai Yuzuru: Associate Professor, Library and Information Science; Bibliographer; Russian
History
Tamiya Sayaka: University Research Administrator, Publications
Osuga Mika: Research Assistant, Publications

Ongoing Research Projects
Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, excluding “Grants-inAid for JSPS Fellows” and “Grants-in-Aid for Publication of Scientific Research Results: Scientific Literature”

Scientific Research A
Headed by Nomachi Motoki: “Multi-hierarchical Approaches to Kashubian Grammar
on the Basis of a Newly Devised Corpus” (2017–23).
Headed by David Wolff: “Multi-Archival Analysis of Critical Junctures in Post-war
Northeast Asia” (2019–23).
Headed by Sengoku Manabu: “Correlation between Changes in Political Parties andChanges in Social Policy” (2020–23).
Scientific Research B
Headed by Adachi Daisuke: “A Comprehensive Study on the Melodramatic Imaginationin Russian and Former Soviet Culture” (2019–23).
Headed by Iwashita Akihiro: “Representations of “Territory” and Social Transformationin Northeast Asia” (2020–24).
Headed by Aoshima Yoko: “Melting Empire: Modernizing State and Destabilized
Society in the Borderlands of Late Imperial Russia” (2021–24).
Headed by Isahaya Yoichi: “Interdisciplinary Approach to the “Crisis of the 14th
Century”” (2021–24).
Headed by Uyama Tomohiko: “Contemporary History of Great Power Nationalism”(2023–26).
Headed by Tonai Yuzuru: “Siberian Intervention “On Site” and Diplomatic Visions ofJapan and Russia” (2023–26).
Headed by Nomachi Motoki: “The (Pre-) History of the Macedonian Literary Language:
An Interdisciplinary Approach” (2023–27).
Scientific Research C
Headed by Itani Hiroshi: “The Russian/Soviet Expansion Policies in Northeast Asia:
Japan-Russia Relations Over the Straits” (2023–25).
Headed by Murakami Tomomi: “Study on Silk of the Western Regions by Investigating
Textiles Excavated from Eurasia: Aiming at the Source Identification of Textiles” (2023–26).
14

No.28 March 2024

Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research
Headed by Murakami Tomomi: “A Study of Textiles Collected by the German Expeditions and Newly Excavated Textiles in the Xinjiang Region” (2020–23).
Headed by Adachi Daisuke: “Post-Socialist Melodramatic Culture” (2023–27).
Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists
Headed by Murakami Tomomi: “Circulation of Ancient Textiles and Transmissionof Textile Techniques from the Perspective of Central Eurasian Archaeological Materials”(2019–23).
Headed by Inoue Takehiko: “Buddhist Monks in Social Service in the Russian Empire”(2020–23).

Visiting Professors and Associate
Professors from Abroad (FY2023)
Name: Sabine Dullin
Position; Affiliation: Professor of History, Institut d’études politiques de Paris, Centred’histoire de Sciences Po
Research Topic at the SRC: Cold, Survival and Sovereignty. Yakutia-Sakha facing Soviet
Collapse and Ice Melting
Name: Irina Morozova
Position; Affiliation: Privatdozentin, University of Regensburg
Research Topic at the SRC: The paradox of progress. The decline of Soviet Modernity andthe rise of the oil industry in Atyrau, from the 1980s – onwards

Visitors from Abroad
Abel Polese (Dublin City University) for exchange of views (June 2021)
Sergiy Korsunsky (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Japan) for
exchange of views on bilateral communication (October 2021)
Andrzej Stelmach & Maciej Walkowski (Adam Mickiewicz University) for exchange ofviews (October 2023)
Sabri Kiçmari (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kosovo toJapan) for exchange of views on bilateral academic communication (February 2024)

Guest Lecturers from Abroad (FY2023)
International Seminar, “The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History” Serhii Plokhii(Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University) & Olesya Khromeychuk (Ukrainian
Institute London) (June 2023)
International Workshop, “Colonial and Postcolonial in Recent History of Central Asia”
Irina Morozova (University of Regensburg): “Diffusion of the Postcolonial: Reform in“Domestic Central Asia” in Relation to Soviet Policy in the “Foreign Orient” (the 1970–80s)”;
Isaac Scarborough (Leiden University (online)): “Reconsidering and Recalculating Soviet“Subsidies”: Financial Transfers to the Tajik SSR in the 1970s and 1980s”; Elmira Nogoibaeva (Center Polis Asia, Esimde Research Platform, Kyrgyzstan (online)): “Memories of15

No.28 March 2024

Urkun in 1916: De/anti-colonial Echo”; Alima Bissenova (Nazarbayev University (online)):““The Man with the Character of Horse”: The Narratives of the Revival of Horse Herding
and Kokpar in Kazakhstan” (October 2023)

Considering Eurasian History in Hokkaido
David Moon (School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College
London / Foreign Fellow, 2022)
On my first full day in Sapporo, a Sunday, jetlagged and mildly culture-shocked, I left myaccommodation and headed south towards the University Campus. It was a bright, sunny
day in early November. The campus resembled a park celebrating autumn. Its many trees
were covered in leaves that had turned into striking hues of gold, yellow and red. The ginkgo
trees were the most spectacular and, unfamiliar to a native of North East England, remindedme that I was in an unfamiliar environment as well as a different culture. I was approached
by a gentleman of retired years who politely greeted me in slightly accented English andasked if I would like a tour of the campus. He was a volunteer guide. We went to the Ōno
Pond, a peaceful expanse of water surrounded by more trees in their autumn colours, andthe avenue of poplars. We walked to the Furukawa Memorial Hall, an old, wooden buildingthat contrasted with the University’s modern buildings. He explained the university’s origins
as the Sapporo Agricultural College, founded in 1876. Then came a surprise: the bust of
William S. Clark, the president of Massachusetts Agricultural College in the United States.
He had been invited by the Hokkaido Development Commission to advise on establishingan agricultural college. Imperial Japan was seeking to “develop” its new settler colony on
the island it had recently renamed Hokkaido, in part to counter possible imperial Russian
expansion south from Sakhalin.
I was on familiar territory. In recent years my research has focused on Russian imperial
expansion in the Eurasian steppe, which it transformed into a settler, agricultural colony,1
albeit a long way from Sakhalin. The Russians were pioneers in settling and ploughing up
a semi-arid, grassland environment to convert it to European-style arable farming. In thelate nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States government learned from the2
Russians’ experience in its settler, agricultural colony in the Great Plains. Thus, in this period,
knowledge transfer was taking place between settler colonial states around the world. I wasfamiliar with the Indigenous peoples who had been dispossessed, displaced and worse in
the Russian Empire/Soviet Union and the United States, and wondered about the Indigenous
peoples of Hokkaido. During my stay in Sapporo, in my spare time I visited museums tofind out more about the Indigenous Ainu people and the colonization of Hokkaido. I learned
a great deal in the impressive Hokkaido Museum (https://www.hm.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp/en/).
It presents the geological and human history of the island, tracing the significance of theisland’s location between North and South, Russia and Japan, the life, culture and history of
the Ainu, their dispossession and displacement in imperial Japan, and the recent history of
Hokkaido, including life stories of Ainu people in recent years. The Ainu National Museum(https://ainu-upopoy.jp/en/facility/museum/), 90 kilometres south of Sapporo in Shiraoi, offersa lavishly-funded view on Ainu life and culture, with exhibits, performances of folk songs
and dances, a village with activities for visitors (I tried my hand at archery), in beautifullylandscaped grounds. It was a very pleasant day out, but I was left the impression that Ainu
life and culture were in the past with no significant place outside the museum in modern,
Japanese Hokkaido. I also enjoyed my visit, on a sunny but cold and snowy December
16No.28 March 2024

day, to the Historical Village of Hokkaido (https://www.kaitaku.or.jp/en/). Also situated inbeautiful grounds, the outdoor museum contains a collection of historic buildings from the1860s–1920s, including a replica of the Development Commission office as well as a school,
houses, shops and businesses from that period. It was opened in 1983 “to preserve important
cultural assets of Hokkaido for future generations.” Although not advertised as such, it isa museum of settler colonialism. I looked in vain for even a mention of the Indigenous
population the settlers displaced, but recalled that one of the features of settler colonialism isthe erasure of Indigeous peoples from history as well as their land. While visiting museums in
Hokkaido, I thought about museums and heritage sites in my native United Kingdom which
only in recent years have started to come to terms with present-day legacies of colonialism(all aspects) and slavery in Britain’s imperial history.
As an environmental historian, I always keep in mind the histories and environments
in which I am working as well that I am studying. I had not expected to learn so much from
Hokkaido. I drew on what I learned in the Hokkaido Museum in my first lecture at the
SRC. Entitled “East-West knowledge transfer in settler societies: how the U.S. Great Plains
became the ‘American Steppe’,” I opened by referring to the story of knowledge transferfrom Massachussets to Hokkaido in the Meiji period as context for my discussion of how
the U.S. authorities and settlers preferred to learn from the experience of Russian settler
colonialism in the Eurasian steppe than Indigenous knowledge of the peoples who had lived
for millennia in the Great Plains. The knowledge that was transferred from the steppes to
the Great Plains included varieties of crops suitable for the environment, the new scienceof understandings soils that was devised by Russian scientists, and techniques for planting
shelterbelts of trees to protect land against the drying effects of the wind. The knowledge wastransferred by migrants (Mennonite settlers, Jewish and White Russian emigres) as well as
direct contacts between scientists and government departments responsible for agriculture.
I focused on the Eurasian steppe, my main area of expertise, in my second lecture at the
SRC. Invited by Professor Yoichi Isahaya to take part in a workshop on “Waters in the Steppe”
organised under the auspices of the Hokkaido Assocation for Central Eurasia, my presentation
was entitled: “Were the steppe rivers drying up?: Debates over environmental change in the
Russian Empire.” I focused on the rivers Dnipro, Don and Volga (Itel), and Jaiyq (Ural). I
discussed how, over the nineteenth century, educated Russians became anxious that the stepperivers were drying up. They investigated whether and, if so, why this was happening. Several
pointed the finger of blame at deforestation. These concerns were part of wider anxieties in
the Russian Empire and around the world at this time that human actions were having anadverse impact on the environment. To place the nineteenth-century discussions about rivers
in broader contexts, I reviewed observations of the steppe rivers made over many centuries
and by people from backgrounds as diverse as the Ancient World, the Medieval Islamic World,
Imperial China, and Europe. None thought the rivers were drying up. The nineteenth-century
concerns were fueled by awareness of the importance of the steppe rivers for transport andcomunications, as sources of water for humans, their livestock and crops, and in identity
formation. The notion of the Volga as the Russian “Mother River” was developing at this time.
The eventual “solution” to the ”problem” of changing water levels in the steppe rivers camein the Soviet period when the rivers were dammed and turned into chains of artificial lakes,
but the roots of these engineering projects lay in the previous century. The consequences ofsuch projects were analysed in the other paper at the workshop, by Professor Tetsuro Chidaon: “The role of pastoralism in the recovery from the Aral Sea disaster in the Small Aral Sea
region in Kazakhstan.”17

No.28 March 2024

While my research on stepperivers may seem remote from my
new interest in the Indigenous population of Hokkaido, in the article
I am preparing for publication in
the Acta Slavica Japonica I am
trying to consider the rivers fromthe perspective of the different
peoples whose land they have flowed
through, including Mongol andTatar nomadic pastoralists as well as
Slavic farmers, and in the states they
Talking to Waters in the Steppe workshop
currently reach the sea in modernday Ukraine, Russian Federation,
and Kazakhstan.
In addition to my lectures at the SRC, I was very pleased to have the opportunity tolecture to students at Tokyo University, on the invitation of Professor Ikeda, on Russian andSoviet environmental history. The students took part in a lively discussion after the lecture
and three joined us for lunch afterwards at a nearby restaurant. I had not visited Tokyo before
and was pleased to spend a couple of days exploring the city, before returning to Sapporo on
the Shinkansen to Hakodate at the southern tip of Hokkaido, which took about four hours,
and then the local train at more leisurely pace to Sapporo.
As an environmental historian
I am keen to visit sites where theenvironment has been protected andspent a weekend at the Daisetsuzan
National Park in the mountains ofcentral Hokkaido. I combined theluxury and comfort of staying at a
hotel with hot spring baths (onsen)
in the resort of Sounkyo with theexcursion of a day’s snow shoehiking in the national park with a
Snow shoe hiking Daisetsuzan national park
guide.
I would like to end my essay by extend-ing my sincere thanks to the director, faculty
and staff of the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center. I benefitted enormously from the chanceto spend uninterrupted time reading, thinking and writing, and learning from stimulating
conversations, interesting seminars and symposia. Approaching the Slavic-Eurasian worldfrom the east, from Hokkaido, gave me a new perspective on this part of the world.

1 David Moon, The Plough that Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia’s Grasslands,
1700–1914 (Oxford University Press, 2013).
2 David Moon, The American Steppes: The Unexpected Russian Roots of Great Plains Agriculture, 1870s–1930s(Cambridge University Press, 2020).

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No.28 March 2024

Summer 2022 in Sapporo
Alyssa DeBlasio (Russian Department, Dickinson College / Foreign Fellow, 2022)
In summer 2022 I spent two unforgettable months as a fellow at the Slavic-Eurasian ResearchCenter at Hokkaido University. Though I was only in residence for a brief stay, my fellowshipwas more than two years in the making. I received notice of my initial award in December
2019, right before the onset of the pandemic; what would follow was two years of delays anduncertainties, as the world grappled with waves of Covid-19 illnesses and closed borders. The
SRC was helpful and prompt in communicating all travel and visa restrictions, but ultimately
all we could do was wait. In those early months of the pandemic, reading Japanese novels
and watching Japanese films in preparation for the trip became a welcome distraction fromthe uncertainty and suffering of the global crisis. More than two years later, and in a worldthat had been forever changed by shared experiences of Covid-19, my family and I boarded
a plane to Sapporo to make the trip that had for so long seemed like it might never happen.
When we arrived in Sapporo, we immediately felt a sense of comfort and ease.
Surprisingly, there was no big adjustment to this new environment, apart from the thirteenhour time difference and accompanying jetlag. The city was rationally laid out and, thus,
quickly became familiar; Sapporo is easy to navigate by both foot and public transport, withall necessary conveniences only a short walk away. The campus of Hokkaido University is
beautiful and the SRC, in turn, offers a collegial and conducive space for academic work.
The facilities at the Center surpassed my expectations: comfortable office space, a convenient
location, and excellent administrative support. In a lucky coincidence, my office windows
looked out over the university tennis courts, where I could listen to the meditative sounds ofmy favorite sport while writing.
The SRC strikes a welcome balance as both a quiet space for work and also an active
center for international collaboration. The Center hosts a Friday lunch series, which provides
a sense of community and an opportunity to learn about the work of faculty and othervisiting fellows. The SRC is also well-connected
to work happening outside of Japan, and regular
lectures, as well as international conferences,bring scholars from all over to Hokkaido, where
the Center serves as a meeting place for ideas
and conversation. During my time in Hokkaido,
the SRC arranged for me to give talks at Keio
University, in Tokyo, and at Osaka University.
These trips facilitated valuable connections withcolleagues across Japan, including those working
in my research field of Russian philosophy andintellectual history. I am especially grateful to
Associate Professor and Head of the Foreign
Visitor’s Program, Daisuke Adachi, for connecting
me with colleagues in Osaka and Tokyo, and to
Kanako Nakajima for outstanding administrative
support, including visa support for my family.
Sapporo is a wonderful setting for academic
work, but it is an equally glorious place for
exploring. The city is full of parks, shops, a few
museums, and an abundance of restaurants. My Also enjoyed the nature of Hokkaido
19

No.28 March 2024

young daughter found it a thrilling, friendly, and safe environment to explore and practiceher Japanese. From nearly any spot in Sapporo you can see the mountains that flank the city,
giving the impression that you are always within nature, even while in an urban space. On
the weekends, my family and I drove all around the prefecture, from coast to center, to get
as full a picture as possible of the landscape, culture, and cuisine of Hokkaido. Highlights
included Lake Shikotsu, Lake Toya, walking the crater of Mt. Usu, and the mountain passes
and waterfalls of Daisetsuzan National Park.
I remain grateful to the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center at Hokkaido University forsupporting my work, for welcoming me to Sapporo, and for connecting me to a network ofJapanese colleagues, especially after the difficult years of the pandemic. My only regret isthat my stay was so short, but I hope that it won’t be my last.

My Reflections from Sapporo
where Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Remain Vibrant
Robert Greenberg (University of Auckland / Foreign Fellow, 2023)
Sitting in the office at the Slavic-Eurasian
Research Center on my final day of my visiting
fellowship, I am already feeling nostalgic forthis wonderful place. I am incredibly gratefulto the SRC for granting me this time to reflect,
read, write, and probably most importantly, toengage with colleagues with similar interests.
I have particularly enjoyed my time with
Nomachi Sensei, with whom I can converse indepth on the history and structure of the Slavic
languages. We have long had the tradition of
speaking Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian together,and I have so enjoyed using my BCS withhim for so many hours over the past coupleof months. By now, my iPhone no longer
auto-corrects the non-English text messages
I am sending, and to me that is a clear sign ofthe frequency of our communication and the
beginning of a new phase in our collaborative
Lecture at the University of Tokyo,
work. We are looking to progressing our joint
Komaba Campus
project on the notion of “language affirmation”
of some of the more recent Slavic standard orliterary languages, and look forward to co-presenting that work in conferences and lectures in
the near future. We will work to develop a theoretical framework to describe the phenomenonof language affirmation, which we define as a two-way process whereby language codifiers
seek to gain international acceptance of the language they are promoting, and international
experts or linguists reciprocate by affirming the existence of the language in their writings.
Our intention is to focus first on the Macedonian and Montenegrin languages.
Our trip to Tokyo was a particular highlight of my stay here; I so enjoyed presenting toeager and bright young students on language ideologies impacting conflicts in the Balkans and20

No.28 March 2024

in Ukraine. I am grateful to Yamazaki
Sensei of the University of Tokyo forsupporting this special event. Inspiredby the students’ many questions, I
felt optimistic for the future of Slavic
Studies in Japan, and I can only hope thatmy talk may have provided them withjust a little bit of insight into the valueof sociolinguistic and interdisciplinary
studies.
I already had been aware of the highquality of the research at the SRC frommy two previous short visits in 2010 and
After lectures at SRC
2016. I so enjoyed reconnecting withcolleagues from those visits, and learning more about their research. I had several long talks
with Adachi Sensei and Aoshima Sensei about the new directions in their research and spokeat length with several of the doctoral students. I was also pleased to interact with colleagues
from nearby units at the University, such as Ogura Sensei whose work focuses on Russianand Polish literature in the Humanities Faculty. I noted a great willingness on the part of
all the colleagues I met to engage in interdisciplinary work and was pleased that my own
interdisciplinary journey seemed to resonate with them. In retrospect, my two earlier visits to
the SRC felt rushed given how since 2008 I have been balancing my research activities withsignificant university leadership roles. As a result, I have had to rely on short and compressed
periods of time to focus on my scholarly pursuits; usually these periods have been during myweekends, holidays or under strong pressure to meet a deadline for a conference or sendingof an often overdue manuscript for publication. By contrast, during the past two months in
Sapporo I could immerse myself in my research and am so appreciative that I have had theheadspace to make meaningful advances in my research agenda. This fellowship enabled me tomake progress on a new research topic that has been outside my usual comfort zone- language,
identity, and war in Ukraine and the possible influence of parallel events in the Balkans during
the 1990s on the conflict and war in Ukraine since 2014. As a relative newcomer to UkrainianStudies, I was pleased that my time here overlapped with that of a prominent specialist inthat area, Professor Serhii Plokhy, the Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute,my neighbor on the fifth floor. I am grateful for Professor Plokhy’s comments during my
Bento Box presentation and my SRC lecture.
For many practical aspects of my stay, I was fortunate to be supported by the amazing
staff at the SRC, especially Nakajima San, who went above and beyond the call of duty toassist me throughout my stay here. I am also grateful to Tamiya San and Yamamoto San
for their kind assistance and efforts to problem-solve and make the technology work. I
enjoyed the spring blooms here on campus and walks around Sapporo including the visit
to the Botanical Garden with its Ainu Museum. I was pleased to learn more about the Ainu
people, and the Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies at Hokkaido university. I was glad
to initiate conversations on collaboration in this area with the Director of the Center, Kato
Sensei. I found out that interest among postgraduate students in Ainu and Indigenous Studies
has grown, and the program has taken new initiatives and has engaged in new research. In
general, I am hopeful for stronger collaborations between Hokkaido University and my own
institution and that colleagues from the SRC and in other units here would have the opportunity
to present their work at the University of Auckland in the coming years.

21No.28 March 2024

I have enjoyed immersing myself in daily life in Japan, from frequenting the local
businesses near the apartment to seeking out time to play the piano in one of the city’smunicipal buildings. My very limited Japanese always seems to evoke a smile on people’s
faces. As a blind person, I was first intimidated by the busyness of the place and was concerned
about the language barrier. However Sapporo citizens have been helpful and friendly. People
went out of their way to point me in the right direction or walk with me to a destination if
they had the time. It gave me a chance to practice my non-existent Japanese, or they had achance to use their English. I am also impressed at how the country has accommodated blind
people. Most sidewalks have raised lines that can guide my steps from place to place. Allelevators seem to speak, and I quickly learned how to say in Japanese “doors are opening”
or “fifth floor.” The subway tracks are separated from the platform by barriers and gates,
so it is far safer for me than the New York subway! I also benefitted from how orderly the
sidewalks are in Japan, with cyclists mostly obeying the rules. The sidewalks are truly forpedestrians, unlike in Auckland where the e-bikes and e-scooters are often strewn haphazardly
where pedestrians go. By the end of my stay, I felt very safe here and very much at home
and am even slightly worried about returning to the more challenging streets of my home
city of Auckland. Another contrast to the US and New Zealand is how Japan is friendly tome as a car-less person, with high-quality efficient and punctual public transportation. The
subways are clean and the announcements frequent. As a music lover, I also learned to enjoy
the jingle signalling an approaching subway train. Sapporo is surrounded by beautiful places,
so I had several fantastic weekend excursions to places like Otaru and up to Mt. Moiwa. The
latter is accessible on a city streetcar, bus, cable car, and small train. It was a very nice trip
for a transportation nurd like myself, not to speak of the stunning views and fresh air at thesummit. During my final weekend, Ogura Sensei kindly drove me and Nomachi Sensei toLake Shikotsu and Noboribetsu’s Hell Valley. It was wonderful to see these stunning places
and to speak Russian the whole way in the car and learn more about Slavic Studies in Japan.
My stay here has reinforced for me the importance of the field of Slavic Studies forour times. As we watch with horror the war in Ukraine, I admire the SRC for its efforts topromote Ukrainian Studies and for its emphasis on Slavic and Eurasian Studies that go wellbeyond the study of Russia. I am also impressed by the new directions of collaborative andinterdisciplinary research at the SRC, with programs such as the one in Survival Strategies
Research which I consider to be innovative and world-leading. As I prepare to return myoffice key to Nakajima San, I feel a deep sense of gratitude to this place which has inspired
me and reminded me of the relevance of what we do. Arigato gozaimas to everyone who hasmade my stay here so memorable and enjoyable.

Publications (2022–23)
David Wolff, TAKAO Chizuko and Ilya Altman, eds., “Sugihara
Chiune and the Soviet Union: New Documents, New Perspectives,”
Slavic Eurasian Studies, no. 35 (Sapporo: SRC, 2022).
Acta Slavica Iaponica vol. XLIV, 2023, refereed journal in
English and Russian.
Eurasia Border Review vol. 12 and vol. 13, 2022 and 2023,
refereed journal in English.

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No.28 March 2024

Post scriptum
We apologize for the delay in publishing this newsletter due to the extended illness of theprevious chief editor, Ms. Mika Osuga. Finding a suitable replacement proved challenging,but we are committed to maintaining the high standards set by Ms. Osuga at the SRC. Thanks
to Ms. Sayaka Tamiya, who joined the SRC in 2023 as a University Research Administrator
and took over the position of the editor-in-chief, the newsletter has resumed publication. Thisis the first issue edited by her. I firmly believe that Ms. Tamiya and her editorial team willcontinue to publish and develop the newsletter.

Dr. Motoki Nomachi, Director of the SRC

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No.28 March 2024

Contents
Report on 2023 Summer International Symposium: “The Phase of Catastrophe?
The Crisis of the 14th Century in Afro-Eurasian Context”................................ p. 1
The Plenary Meeting of the Platform for Exploration in Survival Strategies andthe International Symposium: “Survival Strategies of Ukraine and Russia”..... p. 4
“Ukraine Initiative”: Invitation of Ukrainian Specialists......................................... p. 6
Platform for Explorations in Survival Strategies Has Opened................................ p. 8
Adoption of the Research Unit for Ukraine and Neighboring Areas
Establishment Project..................................................................................... p. 9
Foreign Visitors Fellowship Program...................................................................... p. 9
New Members...................................................................................................... p. 10
Professor Shinichiro Tabata’s Retirement and Final Lecture............................... p. 12
Ms. Mika Osuga, Happy Retirement!................................................................... p. 13
Our Faculty Members (FY2023)............................................................................ p. 13
Ongoing Research Projects................................................................................... p. 14
Visiting Professors and Associate Professors from Abroad (FY2023)................... p. 15
Visitors from Abroad............................................................................................ p. 15
Guest Lecturers from Abroad (FY2023)................................................................ p. 15
Essay: Considering Eurasian History in Hokkaido
by David Moon.............................................................................................. p. 16
Essay: Summer 2022 in Sapporo
by Alyssa DeBlasio......................................................................................... p. 19
Essay: My Reflections from Sapporo where Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Remain Vibrantby Robert Greenberg..................................................................................... p. 20
Publications (2022–23)......................................................................................... p. 22
Post scriptum....................................................................................................... p. 23

Slavic-Eurasian Research Center
Hokkaido University
Kita-9, Nishi-7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0809 Japan
Telephone: (81) 11-706-2388
Facsimile:(81) 11-706-4952
E-mail: src@slav.hokudai.ac.jp
Website:http://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/index-e.html

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