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About Polina Popova
I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago (History department) writing a dissertation under Professor Jonathan Daly's guidance. I was born in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) and spent my youth in Moscow (Russia), moving to Chicago in 2007 after I graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow State University with a degree in philosophy and religious studies. In the U.S., I started studying history - first at DePaul and then at UIC. My current research is about the history of the Soviet children's literature of the Interwar period. More specifically, I am writing about biographies of Party Leaders and Red Army Commanders written for children under Stalin in the 1920s and the 1930s. I am also a children's book collector and enthusiast. I have been a New Books Network host since 2022.
Polina Popova is a Ph.D. student at the history department of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
NBN Episodes hosted by Polina:
February 14, 2026
The Peasants' War
During the First World War, Russia relied on the mass mobilization of its peasant population. In the summer of 1914, approximately four million peasan…
November 21, 2025
Death and Burial in Socialist Yugoslavia
Across the globe, memorial and grave sites are being increasingly weaponized in conflicts and politicized by parties to advance agendas. Here, Carol S…
August 29, 2025
A Modern History of Russian Childhood
A Modern History of Russian Childhood: From the Late Imperial Period to the Collapse of the Soviet Union (Bloomsbury, 2020) examines the changes and c…
May 23, 2025
Stalin's Final Films
Stalin's Final Films: Cinema, Socialist Realism, and Soviet Postwar Reality, 1945-1953 (Cornell UP, 2024) explores a neglected period in the history …
April 26, 2025
Gulag Fiction
Gulag Fiction: Labour Camp Literature from Stalin to Putin (Bloomsbury, 2024) is a unique exploration of Russian prose fiction about the Soviet labour…
February 26, 2025
Collective Body
Dislodging the avant-garde from its central position in the narrative of Soviet art, Collective Body: Aleksandr Deineka at the Limit of Socialist Real…
January 20, 2025
British Children's Literature in Japanese Culture
Whether watching Studio Ghibli adaptations of British children's books, visiting Harry Potter sites in Britain or eating at Alice in Wonderland-themed…
August 24, 2024
Writing Rogues
Plot elements such as adventure, travel to far-flung regions, the criminal underworld, and embezzlement schemes are not usually associated with Soviet…
May 13, 2024
A Woman's Empire
A Woman's Empire: Russian Women and Imperial Expansion in Asia (U Toronto Press, 2023) explores a new dimension of Russian imperialism: women actively…
March 17, 2024
Military Masculinity and Postwar Recovery in the Soviet Union
Catastrophic wartime casualties and postwar discomfort with the successes of women who had served in combat roles combined to shatter prewar ideals …
December 15, 2023
Seven Myths of the Russian Revolution
Seven Myths of the Russian Revolution (Hackett, 2023) is a major contribution to our understanding of the Russian Revolution, from World War I to cons…
September 16, 2023
Word Play
Ainsley Morse's book Word Play: Experimental Poetry and Soviet Children's Literature (Northwestern UP, 2021) traces the history of the relationship be…
March 20, 2023
Picturing the Page
Based on sources from rare book libraries in Russia and around the world, Picturing the Page: Illustrated Children’s Literature and Reading under Leni…
December 23, 2022
Translating England into Russian
From governesses with supernatural powers to motor-car obsessed amphibians, the iconic images of English children's literature helped shape the view o…