DrVasily Borovoy

I am a historian of the late Russian Empire and early Soviet Union with particular interest in the interplay of empire and capitalism in the European North of Russia. 

Currently I am the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Researcher at the School of History at UCD where I work on transforming my PhD dissertation into a book tentatively titled Northern Riches: Infrastructure, Governance, and the Marketisation of Natural Resources in the European North of Russia. It scrutinises the discursive and practical construction of the European North of Russia, also known as the Russian North, between the Great Reforms of the 1860s in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Great Break isolationist campaign of 1929. I am particularly interested in the extractive economy, broadly defined, and commoditisation of nature in the process of political consolidation and territorialisation of Russia under various regimes. The book engages this perspective by investigating developmental strategies and arrangements for the northern region provided by the state, public, scientific, commercial, and local actors. In addition I have a long-standing interest in energy history of the Russian imperial and Soviet Arctic, namely coal mining on the Spitsbergen Archipelago, that also weaves into my book project.

I have completed my PhD in history at UCD in 2025, MA in Russian history at the European University at St. Petersburg in 2015, and BA in history at the Northern (Arctic) Federal University in Arkhangelsk, Russia in 2011.