Orysia Kulick

Historian

Orysia Kulick is an American scholar and author. Her upcoming book, How Ukraine Ruled Russia: Regionalism and Party Politics after Stalin, looks at regional elites in post-Stalin Soviet Ukraine, at the personal networks that shaped Soviet Ukraine’s relations with Moscow, and how both influenced politics in the center of Soviet power. Orysia has published widely in areas of Soviet history, cultural resistance, and material cultures of authoritarianism, including an exhibition catalogue on War and Revolution: 100 years of Cultural Opposition in Ukraine. Her piece Gender and violence in Ukraine: changing how we bear witness to war was awarded the 2023 Heldt Prize for best article by the Association for Women and Slavic Studies (AWSS). She has made a number of research trips to Ukraine, most recently in March/April 2025 as scholar in residence at INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, in Lviv. Having returned since then to her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, Orysia is exploring new genres in her writing, reconnecting with her musical roots, and resuming her work at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives, where she catalogues collections related to displaced persons and World War II.