Russian TV is now “debating” whether it was right to restrict access to archives on Stalin-era repressions because “we shouldn’t talk about them during the war.” One question: why this bizarre selection of “works by British and American historians” with “catchy titles”?

Visited the @railwaymuseum.bsky.social in York for my placement at the @sciencemuseum.org.uk There’s a dog named Laddie who collected money for charity at a station. After it died, it was stuffed, put in a glass case, and kept collecting for 30 more years. Visitors still drop coins in it…

The people in the photo enjoy spending time reading through kilometres of documents produced by the secret services, trying to extract any trace of meaning from them. It was a great joy to co-organise a panel on preventative policing and repression in the USSR and Czechoslovakia at #ICCEES2025

Spent a wonderful two weeks working with Soviet documents at the Hoover Archives. Heading home with 3.5 GB of copied materials, recharged by the sunshine and Stanford University's energy.