Professional Affiliation

Ph.D. in History, University of Chicago; Center Associate, Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University

Expert Bio

Andrey Shlyakhter is an international historian of the Soviet Union and its neighbors. His research explores the interaction of economics, security, and ideology at state frontiers. Dr. Shlyakhter received his Ph.D. in December 2020 from the Department of History of the University of Chicago with the comparative dissertation, “Smuggler States: Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Contraband Trade Across the Soviet Frontier, 1919-1924,” which was honored with a 2021 Ab Imperio Annual Award and was a finalist for the 2022 Herman E. Krooss Prize for Best Dissertation in Business History. The dissertation informs his postdoctoral book project, Smuggled Goods, Soviet Borders: Contraband Trade and the Making of the Soviet System, 1917-1930. Dr. Shlyakhter has held fellowships at Tel Aviv University, University of Toronto, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the Kennan Institute, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; his scholarship has been supported by the SSRC, the Fulbright-Hays Program of the U.S. Department of State, IREX, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Business History Conference, and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. In September 2024, Dr. Shlyakhter will join the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, as a Petro Jacyk Post-Doctoral Fellow in Ukrainian Politics, Culture, and Society. 

Wilson Center Project

Smuggled Goods, Soviet Borders: Contraband Trade and the Making of the Soviet System, 1917-1930 (book manuscript)