Denis V. Volkov
- Associate Professor, Leading Research Fellow:Faculty of Humanities / Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies
- Denis V. Volkov has been at HSE University since 2019.
Responsibilities
Deputy Director of IOCS
Research
Head of CSMECCA (Centre for the Study of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia) https://iocs.hse.ru/en/csmecca/
Teaching
Research Seminar ‘Middle Eastern History, 20th Century’ (2019)
MA course ‘Muslim Civilisations: Religion and Empires’
BA course ‘Cross-Disciplinary Methodologies in the Study of the Persianate World’
Public course ‘The Persianate World: History, Geography and Civilisation’
Public course ‘Islam’
Education and Degrees
- 2015
PhD in Middle Eastern Studies
University of Manchester
Thesis Title: Oriental Studies and Foreign Policy: Russian/Soviet ‘Iranology’ and Russo-Iranian relations (1863-1941) - 2008
Degree
Russian Foreign Trade Academy - 1997
Master's
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Continuing education / Professional retraining / Internships / Study abroad experience
2005-2008: Russian Foreign Trade Academy (International Econimics)
Awards and Accomplishments
2020 — The IRI World Award 'Book of the Year'
2020 — The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Research Grant
2019 — The ASMEA Grant
2018 — The BIPS (British Institute of Persian Studies) Research Grant
2017 — The BIPS (British Institute of Persian Studies) Research Grant
2014 — The University of Manchester President's Distinguished Achievement Award
2014 — The University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities Distinguished Achievement Award
2013 — I.B. Tauris Prize for Best Paper at Symposia Iranica conference
2012 — The Abdullah Mubarak/BRISMES Scholarship for 2012
International Awards and Grants
2020 - The IRI World Award 'Book of the Year'.
2020 - The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Research Grant.
2019 - The ASMEA Grant.
2018 - The BIPS (British Institute of Persian Studies) Research Grant.
2017 - The BIPS (British Institute of Persian Studies) Research Grant.
2014 - The University of Manchester President's Distinguished Achievement Award.
2014 - The Uni. of Manchester Faculty of Humanities Distinguished Achievement Award.
2013 - I.B. Tauris Prize for Best Paper at Symposia Iranica conference.
2012 - The Abdullah Mubarak/BRISMES Scholarship for 2012.
Publications16
- Chapter Volkov D. V. The Late USSR and the Early Islamic Republic of Iran, in: The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 8. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2023. P. 1-27. (in press)
- Article Volkov D. V. Bringing Democracy into Iran: A Russian Project for the Separation of Azerbaijan // Middle Eastern Studies. 2022. Vol. 58. No. 6. P. 989-1003. doi
- Chapter Volkov D. V. In the Glocal Crossfire: Russia, Britain, and the Caspian (1916-1919), in: The Caspian in the History of Early Modern and Modern Eurasia. Cornell University Press, 2022. P. 1-21. (in press)
- Article Волков Д. В. Особенности формирования внешнеполитических решений СССР в отношении Исламской Республики Иран // Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность. 2022. № 5. С. 110-122. doi
- Article Atabaki T., Volkov D. V. Flying Away from the Bolshevik Winter: Soviet Refugees Across the Southern Borders (1917–30) // Journal of Refugee Studies. 2021. Vol. 34. No. 2. P. 1900-1922. doi
- Article Volkov D. V. Slavery and Empire in Central Asia, by Jeff Eden (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2018; pp. 227. £75) // English Historical Review. 2020. Vol. 135. No. 572. P. 225-226. doi
- Article Volkov D. V. The Evil Genius of Iranian Constitutionalism? ‘Bloody Shapshal’ at the Qajar Court. // Middle Eastern Studies. 2020. Vol. 56. No. 4. P. 535-548. doi
- Book Атабаки Т., Раванди-Фадаи Л. Жертвы времени: жизнь и судьба иранских политических деятелей и трудовых мигрантов в межвоенный период / Отв. ред.: Д. В. Волков, Н. М. Мамедова; науч. ред.: Д. В. Волков, Н. М. Мамедова. М. : ИВ РАН, 2020.
- Book Volkov D. V. Russia's Turn to Persia: Orientalism in Diplomacy and Intelligence. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018. doi
- Chapter Volkov D. V. Vladimir Minorsky (1877-1966) and the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), or The Centenary of ‘Minorsky’s Frontier’, in: Russians in Iran: Diplomacy and Power in the Qajar Era and Beyond. I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2018. P. 188-216.
- Chapter Volkov D. V. War and Peace in the Other and the Self: Iran through the eyes of Russian spies – The case of Konstantin Smirnov (1877-1938) and Leonid Shebarshin (1935-2012), in: Cahiers de Studia Iranica Vol. 62. P. : Peeters Press, 2018. P. 223-258.
- Article Volkov D. V. “Fearing the Ghosts of State Officialdom Past? Russia’s Archives as a Tool for Constructing Historical Memories on its Persia Policy Practices.” // Middle Eastern Studies. 2015. Vol. 51. No. 6. P. 901-921. doi
- Article Volkov D. V. “Individuals, Institutions, Discourses: Knowledge and Power in Russia’s Iranian Studies of the Late Imperial, Soviet and Post-Soviet Periods.” // Middle East Topics & Arguments. 2015. Vol. 4. No. 1. P. 61-79.
- Article Volkov D. V. “Rupture or Continuity? The organizational set-up of Russian and Soviet Oriental Studies before and after 1917.” // Iranian Studies. 2015. Vol. 48. No. 5. P. 695-712. doi
- Article Volkov D. V. “Persian studies and the Military in Late Imperial Russia (1863-1917): State Power in the Service of Knowledge?” // Iranian Studies. 2014. Vol. 47. No. 6. P. 915-932. doi
- Article Volkov D. V. “The Iranian Electric Power Industry after the Islamic Revolution: Nuclear Developments and Current Conditions.” // New Middle Eastern Studies. 2012. P. 1-8.
Conferences
- 2019
Twelfth Annual ASMEA Conference Past, Present and Future in the Middle East and Africa (Washington DC). Presentation: Flying Away from the Bolshevik Winter: Soviet Refugees Across the Southern Borders (1917-1946)
- Workshop: The Iranian Revolution at 40: Source Perspectives and Criticism (St Andrews). Presentation: The Russian Analysis of the 1979 Revolution
- Workshop: The Iranian Revolution at 40: Source Perspectives and Criticism (St Andrews). Presentation: Bringing Democracy into Persia: One Russian Project for the Separation of Iranian Azerbaijan
- The Caspian in the History of Early Modern and Modern Eurasia (New Haven). Presentation: Bringing Democracy into Persia: One Russian Project for the Separation of Iranian Azerbaijan
International Awards and Grants
2020 - The IRI World Award 'Book of the Year'.
2020 - The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Research Grant.
2019 - The ASMEA Grant.
2018 - The BIPS (British Institute of Persian Studies) Research Grant.
2017 - The BIPS (British Institute of Persian Studies) Research Grant.
2014 - The University of Manchester President's Distinguished Achievement Award.
2014 - The Uni. of Manchester Faculty of Humanities Distinguished Achievement Award.
2013 - I.B. Tauris Prize for Best Paper at Symposia Iranica conference.
2012 - The Abdullah Mubarak/BRISMES Scholarship for 2012.
Courses (2022/2023)
- Muslim Civilizations: Religion and Empires (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1 module)Eng
- Three World Religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 3, 4 module)Rus
- Past Courses
Courses (2021/2022)
- Modern Iran: History, Religions, Politics (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 3, 4 module)Rus
- Muslim Civilizations: Religion and Empires (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1 module)Eng
- Three world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 3, 4 module)Rus
Courses (2020/2021)
- Iranian cultural continent: History, geography, civilization (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 1, 2 module)Rus
- Islam (Minor; Faculty of Humanities; 3, 4 module)Rus
- Muslim Civilizations: Religion and Empires (Master’s programme; Faculty of Humanities; 1 year, 1 module)Eng
Courses (2019/2020)
- Islam (Minor; Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs; 3, 4 module)Rus
- Research Seminar "Main Directions of Socio-Political, Economic and Historico-Cultural Processes in the East" (Bachelor’s programme; Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs; 2 year, 1, 2 module)Rus
Employment history
Nov.2019-present: Associate Professor and Leading Research Fellow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow
Sep.2019-present: Associate Professor, Chair in Theory of Area Studies, MSLU, Moscow
2018-2019: Researcher at the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam)
2016-2018: Assistant Professor in Middle Eastern History (fixed-term), Uni. of Manchester.
2015-2016: Presidential Post-doctoral Fellow, Université Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle.
2014-2015: Tutor of Russian, University of Manchester.
2013-2015: Teaching Assistant in ‘The Contemporary Middle East’ and ‘The Politics of National Identity in Post-Communist Russia’, University of Manchester.
2010-2014: PhD student
2006-2010: Head of Technopromexport Co. in Iran (Tehran)
2004-2006: Expert, Technopromexport Co., Moscow, Russia
1998-2004: Expert, Business Development, Technopromexport Co., Tehran, Iran
1995-1998: Persian (Farsi) Interpreter/Translator, Technopromexport Co., Tehran, Iran
CSMECCA on the pages of Middle Eastern Studies
The British journal Middle Eastern Studies, a flagship journal for the study of Middle Eastern history and culture, has recently published an article by Associate Professor Denis V. Volkov entitled "Bringing democracy into Iran: a Russian project for the separation of Azerbaijan". The article presents the results of a study which is part of a major international project entitled "The Caspian World: Connections and Contentions at Modern Eurasian Crossroads", carried out under the auspices of Yale University (USA) with the participation of scholars from Britain, France and the Netherlands.
‘To Read Such Papers, International Scholars Will Likely Want to Learn Russian’
The results of the competition for the best academic and popular science papers in Russian by HSE staff members have been announced. This competition is a new one, organized by the university to celebrate the Year of Science and Technology. 257 applications were submitted, with 35 winners announced in the academic category and 30 in the popular science one. The winners were announced on Alexander Pushkin’s birthday. The organizers plan to make the competition annual, potentially opening it up for all Russian and international researchers writing papers and involved in science communication in Russian.
Middle Eastern Studies published an article by an IOCS HSE’s scholar Dr Denis Volkov
Middle Eastern Studies, a leading journal in the field, has published an article authored by Associate Professor Denis V. Volkov. ‘The evil genius of Iranian constitutionalism? “Bloody Shapshal” at the Qajar court’ presents the findings of Volkov’s research that is part of a major international project ‘Life Writing and Historiography of the Modern Middle East’ carried out under the aegis of the Centre for the Study of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (CSMECCA) with the participation of the IOCS’ researchers as well as scholars from France, Austria, United Kingdom and the USA.
President of Iran awards a scholar from HSE
The Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies, HSE congratulates Dr Denis V. Volkov, Associate Professor and Leading Research Fellow, Head of the Center for the Study of the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia (CSMECCA) on the occasion of a new honourable award. Dr Volkov’s monograph Russia’s Turn to Persia: Orientalism in Diplomacy and Intelligence (Cambridge University Press, 2018) has been graced by the IRI World Award for Book of the Year.
Dr. Denis Volkov: ‘Was there “Russia Abroad” at all? Russian Emigration in the Middle East (1917–1946)’
The paper of Dr. Volkov was presented on December 11th, 2019 at the seminar “Oriental Cultures” (Moderator: Dr. Natalia Chalisova). This talk was about the interim research results achieved in a project carried out under the aegis of the International Institute of Social History (IISH, Amsterdam) and funded by the Farman‑Farmaian Family and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Flying Away from the Bolshevik Winter: Soviet Refugees Across the Southern Borders (1917–1946) — Dr Denis Volkov’s Paper
Methodologically drawing on the most recent works in Migration Studies and Russian Emigré Studies the current research studies migration from the USSR into Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan (1917–1946). Using recently declassified documents from archives in Britain, France, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran, research looks into the phenomena, such as displaced statehood, political activism and cross‑cultural interaction in the context of the migration/refugees policies of the relevant states (Britain, the USSR and the host countries).