I study mass culture and labor movements, with a particular focus on the People’s Houses in the Russian Empire/USSR (Narodnii Dom) and Italy (Casa del Popolo) in the 1880s—1920s. My previous research has centered on intellectuals and artistic circles: Russian-Ukrainian historian Mykola Kostomarov and Brotherhood of Saints Cyril and Methodius, writer and publicist Marietta Shaginian and Symbolist circles in the fin de siècle period in the Russian Empire.

In recent years, I have delved into the experiences of Silver Age artists, musicians, and writers during the tumultuous period of War Communism (1918—1921). I explored the history of the Petrograd House of Arts, one of the first central cultural organizations after the Revolutions of 1917. Some of its members were deeply engaged with the working class, sparking my interest in the culture and daily lives of laborers. This curiosity ultimately led me to study the People’s Houses—cultural and political organizations for workers that proliferated worldwide, from Vladivostok to San Francisco.