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Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

380 followers 470 following 100 posts

Historian of modern Europe with a focus on CEE, working on diasporas, mass politics, propaganda, and crowdfunding across borders.

Research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of History, associate at @ox.ac.uk and @ulbruxelles.bsky.social

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Vaida Niksaite @vaidanik.bsky.social · Nov 27

Thrilled to share our new open-access article, co-authored with Robin J. C. Adams, for @conteurohistory.bsky.social - this time focusing on #Poland in the aftermath of #WW1.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

CEPH

@cephie.bsky.social

1) Which is more effective, grassroots or government fundraising initiatives? What happens when you combine both? And how do new nations finance themselves in eras of uncertainty?

#econsky #economichistory #nsrpproject

February 4, 2026 at 11:50 AM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Will Mawhood

@viljamsmauhuds.bsky.social

Doubt I post on here enough for this to reach any sort of audience, but anyhow:

I'm thinking of starting a Substack with deep dives on subjects relevant to the Baltics - there are great journalists here, and a few elsewhere who know the region, but there's a lot of absolute toss

February 3, 2026 at 4:18 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Lorenzo Piccoli

@lorenzopiccoli.bsky.social

Belgian Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt announced that she is exploring plans to send undocumented people convicted of a crime to third-country prisons as part of efforts to escalate deportations of irregular migrants and ease prison overcrowding.

www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Belgium open to housing foreign prisoners in other countries, minister says

Belgium’s Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt is looking at “every possible solution” to increase the number of irregular migrants returned from Belgium, including renting prison space abroad to h...

www.euronews.com

January 30, 2026 at 5:11 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Konstantin Tarasov

@ktarasov.bsky.social

My article in @fwwsjournal.bsky.social ! Open access! #FWW #WWI

In it: social revenge as a key cause of soldiers’ unrest in 1917 and struggles for dignity and equality against paternalistic orders during #RussianRevolution

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

January 25, 2026 at 7:22 AM

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

On January 29, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, join online the lecture by Prof. Vera Tolz (University of Manchester) at #CEU
events.ceu.edu/2026-01-29/e...

Echoes of Deceit - Media, Pandemics and the Disinformation Lifecycle

events.ceu.edu

January 22, 2026 at 4:59 PM

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

The conversation between @timothysnyder.bsky.social and Pieter Lagrou at BOZAR in Brussels is now available online:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jstB...

Meet the Thinker: Timothy Snyder | Bozar Brussels

YouTube video by Hannah Arendt Instituut

www.youtube.com

January 22, 2026 at 11:14 AM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Nicolas Beaupré

@nicolasbeaupre.bsky.social

PFAS are linked to cancer and contaminate our water and food - yet chemical giants are lobbying to weaken protections to our health. Europe can still act. I just signed. Will you? action.wemove.eu/sign/2026-01...

Ban Forever Chemicals Now

Forever chemicals are poisoning Europe’s water, food, and even our blood. Chemical giants are lobbying to weaken protections - but people across Europe are pushing back. Sign now to ban PFAS and put h...

action.wemove.eu

January 14, 2026 at 6:31 AM

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

Le séminaire REPINE poursuit son exploration de l’influence sous toutes ses formes.
📅 Mardi 20 janvier (16–19h) : séance sur les controverses de l’influence numérique, avec Romain Badouard et Aleksandr Alymov. Participation à distance sur inscription : enseignements.ehess.fr/2025-2026/ue...

Néobab

enseignements.ehess.fr

January 8, 2026 at 4:52 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Michael Kagan

@michaelgkagan.bsky.social

I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war

January 3, 2026 at 9:13 AM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Harry C. Merritt

@harrymerritt.bsky.social

Something to look forward to in the new year--in 2026, my book, Latvian Soldiers of World War II: Fighting for the Homeland in Nazi and Soviet Service, will be published with Oxford University Press.

December 30, 2025 at 3:03 PM

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

Last jam of the year.
#rosehip

December 30, 2025 at 4:01 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Venus Bivar

@vbivar.bsky.social

Read this cover to cover over the summer (a luxury I rarely allow myself) and finally had time to take notes. Main take-aways:

1. There is no equality without freedom and vice versa. They are not mutually exclusive, as liberalism would have us believe.

www.penguin.co.uk/books/314162...

The Dawn of Everything

For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike - either free and equal, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those...

www.penguin.co.uk

December 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Constance Bantman

@constancebantman.bsky.social

Car il est bien connu qu’à un moment Dreyfus est parti se dorer la pilule en toute quiétude pour se remettre de toutes ces émotions.

Nils Wilcke @nilswilcke.bsky.social · Dec 21

Sarkozy en voyage privé en Guadeloupe pour une semaine alors qu'il est sous contrôle judiciaire. L'ex président a été aperçu par de nombreux Guadeloupéens, en train de faire son footing en bord de plage, grâce à une autorisation exceptionnelle la1ere.franceinfo.fr/guadeloupe/b...

Nicolas Sarkozy en voyage privé en Guadeloupe pour une semaine... sous contrôle judiciaire

L’ancien président Nicolas Sarkozy est arrivé en Guadeloupe ce vendredi 19 décembre pour une semaine de vacances, accompagné de sa famille. Ce séjour intervient alors qu’il est sous contrôle judiciair...

la1ere.franceinfo.fr

December 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Lewis Baston

@lewisbaston.bsky.social

I read somewhere that the secret key to postwar British history is that in any incident, meeting, whatever, there’s a high chance that most participants are a bit tipsy and someone round the table is absolutely steaming drunk.

Coates is Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · Dec 19

Happy 79th anniversary to this diary entry from Evelyn Waugh, in which he drinks enough to make you wonder how he lived for a further 19 years:

Thursday 19 December 1946
I went to London by the early train. I have now reached an age when any disturbance of routine is disagreeable, and I sat misanthropic, smoking cigars, while the train lost more and more time until it halted for three-quarters of an hour in a snowstorm just outside the Paddington station. I had time to try on a suit which has taken six months to make and then went to luncheon at the Beefsteak where I talked to Harold Nicolson and Clive Bell and drank enough wine to fuddle me slightly. In that condition I went to Duckworth and signed sixteen copies of When the Going was Good for Christmas presents. Also to the travel agency who are sending me to Hollywood. At 5 o’clock there was the Beefsteak committee meeting. My candidates Maurice Bowra, Ran Antrim and Randolph Churchill all got in the latter after long discussion in which 1 Hugh Sherwood made a spirited defence and overbore two men who had come with the firm purpose of blackballing him. During the meeting I drank a lot of whisky and went rather drunk to a cocktail party given by John Murray’ where I got very drunk. Rose Macaulay attempted a serious conversation in which I did not shine. I spent most of the time with Hermione Ranfurly jeering at people who were introduced to me and ended by bearing off a diminutive man called Gibbings to White’s for champagne cocktails. From then my memory is vague but I went to bed early I think at the Hyde Park Hotel.

December 19, 2025 at 10:19 AM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Gwendal Piégais

@gwendalpiegais.bsky.social

📆🚨 Nouvelle saison du séminaire "De Plus Grandes Guerres" à SciencesPo. Avec @tvaisset.bsky.social @camillemahe.bsky.social @daccoulon.bsky.social Claire Miot et Guillaume Piketty nous accueillerons des chercheuses et chercheurs pour parler alimentation, alcools, déchets, occupations, famines…

December 18, 2025 at 6:41 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Gwendal Piégais

@gwendalpiegais.bsky.social

Call for papers: “Experiencing, reporting, recording civil wars, 1917-1949” University College Dublin (@ucddublin.bsky.social), 25-26 June 2025.
Deadline: 13 February 2026. More info to come here: civil-wars.eu/workshops/
#CivilWar

“Experiencing, reporting, recording civil wars, 1917-1949” University College Dublin, 25-26 June 2025
From 1917 to 1949, Europe saw a proliferation of internal conflicts and civil wars that were often connected with global conflicts and wars of decolonization.
Historians have long established the (re)founding nature of experiences such as World War I (often described as the crucible of the 20th century) and World War II. Despite the omnipresence of civil wars contemporary to these two major conflicts, their experience was almost often examined within narrow national frames. Yet , the experiences of Europe’s civil wars were both distinct and, above all, connected: many Spaniards who experienced exile during the Retirada joined the anti-fascist resistance in World War II; veterans of the Russian Civil War joined the Republicans; reporters sent to the Spanish Civil War travelled to other European conflicts to forge the narratives and images disseminated in the press and media; Greek officers who had served during the Russian Civil War featured prominently in the Greek Civil War. With time these cross-national experiences were overshadowed by one-sided national narratives, with limited archives available, and the experiences of the other side of the civil war often preserved in exile, excluded from the national community.
The aim of this international conference is to examine everyday experiences in Europe’s civil wars of 1917 and 1949, and to explore how they were recorded and narrated at the time and after the conflict. We particularly welcome papers which seek to explore entanglements and interconnections between different civil wars.

December 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Alex Drace-Francis

@alexdrace.bsky.social

V good piece - also exemplifies well a specific quality of historical research which AI doesn't do, namely pausing for thought

Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Dec 11

What does Gen AI mean for the work of the historian and the value of historical experience, skills and craft?

'The Historian in the Age of AI' by @chriscampbell1.bsky.social.

New Comment article now available in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' bit.ly/4atErTB #Skystorians 1/2

Front page of 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' Comment article, title 'The Historian in the Age of AI', by Chris Campbell. Full abstract: "This comment interrogates the methods and conclusions of Working with AI, a recent report conducted under the auspices of Microsoft, which identified historians as the profession with
the second-highest ‘AI applicability’. It finds that the authors’ conclusions are based on an erroneous simplification and misrepresentation of a historian’s typical professional tasks, which have been publicly amplified by extensive media coverage. This comment then offers a
wider provocation about the report’s conception of a professional historian, and whether it is related to the public application of ‘historian’ to a number of different practitioners with varied training and qualifications. In particular, it seeks to highlight a paradox which the report exposes: that we cannot defend the specialist training and expertise of professional historians against the encroachment of AI without also separating the academic skills and qualifications
of historians from those engaged in more popular forms of historical writing and communication. The comment questions how we might grapple with this paradox without reverting to academic elitism."

December 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

This Tuesday, December 16, from 3 to 6 pm Paris time, at the monthly REPINE seminar @ehess.fr, we will discuss practices of influence and #humanitarianism with two guest speakers, Francesca Piana and Sossie Kasbarian. All are welcome (online as well)!

enseignements.ehess.fr/2025-2026/ue...

Néobab

enseignements.ehess.fr

December 15, 2025 at 3:32 PM

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

Néobab

enseignements.ehess.fr

December 15, 2025 at 3:32 PM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Simon Nixon

@nixonsimon.bsky.social

Amazing, the @dailymail.co.uk manages to publish an entire lengthy feature bewailing (!!!!) the exodus of Poles from Britain without once mentioning Brexit. Apparently this outcome (which is surely exactly what they campaigned for in 2016) is all the fault of Keir Starmer.

mol.im/a/15379789

The great exodus: How Poles are ditching UK for their booming homeland

New statistics reveal that while 7,000 Poles arrived in the year ending last June, 25,000 returned home: a net outflow of 18,000. The UK's total Polish population has shrunk to 750,000.

mol.im

December 13, 2025 at 9:26 AM

Reposted by Vaida Niksaite

Naomi Klein

@naomiaklein.bsky.social

This is the desert of the real. The Wachowskis called it. But like Bernie says, no one wants this. Folks are organizing in amazing ways.

Senator Bernie Sanders @sanders.senate.gov · Dec 10

Mark Zuckerberg is building a data center in Louisiana that will use 3x more electricity than all of New Orleans.

Oligarchs want YOU to pay for these data centers with higher water & electric bills.

Americans must fight back against billionaires who put profits over people.

December 12, 2025 at 6:32 AM

Vaida Niksaite

@vaidanik.bsky.social

Tonight in Brussels, @dirkmoses.bsky.social gave a powerful talk on why separating war and genocide is an intellectual and legal aberration, followed by an illuminating discussion with the legendary Ilan Pappé, Pieter Lagrou, & others.
One of those days when I’m so very proud to be part of the #ULB