Alexey Izosimov

My PhD thesis explores the social and cultural history of restoration and preservation in late Soviet Russia. It looks at the surge of interest in the pre-Bolshevik past in the post-war Soviet Union through the lens of non-professional engagement with medieval Russian heritage. I examine how embodied practices of caring for tangible heritage bridged late Soviet identities and the pre-revolutionary imaginaries, fostering a sense of historical continuity. My research draws on personal archives, oral histories, and amateur photographs. Alongside my dissertation, I also write on contemporary heritage activism in Russia and its evolving forms.

My research is supervised by Prof. Catriona Kelly and supported by the Cambridge International Scholarship (Cambridge Trust). 

I am a co-convenor of the Reconsidering Soviet Studies seminar which brings together early-career researchers from across Europe and the United States. I also supervise undergraduates on the course Introduction to Russian Culture (SLA3).

I grew up in Moscow, where I completed a BA in History at the Higher School of Economics. I then pursued an MA in Medieval Studies at Université Sorbonne. My BA thesis focused on the illustrative cycle of a late thirteenth-century didactic Old French Summa, while my MA thesis examined the afterlife of this visual tradition in the fourteenth century.

After graduating from the Sorbonne, I co-founded the Russian-language media platform @vlesah which explores the cultures of Russia’s non-capital regions and documents the work of heritage activists. Since leaving Russia in 2022, I have shifted my focus from medieval to Soviet studies, bringing together my journalistic and academic interests through research on the fates of pre-Soviet heritage in late Soviet Russia. Before moving to Cambridge, I was an associate researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig and a predoctoral research fellow at the Lotman Institute for Russian Culture at Ruhr University Bochum. Alongside my academic work, I continue to work as a journalist, overseeing editorial strategy, developing special media initiatives, and producing and hosting podcasts.

Selected Conference Papers 

• Youth Heritage Activism in Late Soviet Russia: Voluntary Work, the Values of the Technical Intelligentsia and Intergenerational Dialogues, — paper in panel Stones of Dissent: Heritage and Civic Agency in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, BASEES 2026, Birmingham, April 2026
• Out of the Capital: Student-Led Restoration Initiatives in Late Soviet Russia, — Critical Heritage Studies in the Post-Socialist Space, Sorbonne Université, Paris, December 2025 
• Beyond Expertise: Volunteer Restoration in Late Soviet Russia, — Who Owns Heritage? Local Communities and the Fight for Historical Monuments in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Masaryk University, Brno, November 2025 
• From Construction Brigade to Cooperative: Ruptures and Continuities in Heritage Volunteering, — paper in panel Heritage Activism: Ruptures and Continuities from the Late Soviet Era to Contemporary Russia, ICCEES 2025 World Congress, London, July 2025  
• Imagining Alternative Pasts for a Better Future: Heritage and Memory Activism in Contemporary Russia, — The Weaponisation of History: Refracting Soviet Memories in Contemporary Russia and Beyond, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, June 2025