Ekaterina Schulmann joins Pushkin House's Board of Trustees

We are extremely proud and excited to announce the appointment of a new Trustee, Ekaterina Schulmann, to the Board at Pushkin House!

Ekaterina Schulmann is a prominent Russian political scientist. She specialises in the legislative process, bureaucracy and decision-making mechanisms in contemporary autocracies, with a particular focus on Russia. Ekaterina moved to Berlin in 2022, where she is currently a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin and teaches political science at the Osteuropa Institut, Freie Universitat Berlin. Before 2022, she was an associate professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and a senior lecturer at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and head of its Center for Legislative Studies. She is the author of several political science books in Russian, and one of the co-authors of The New Autocracy: Information, Politics, and Policy in Putin’s Russia (2018).

On her YouTube channel, Ekaterina shares her understanding of Russian politics with more than 1.2 million subscribers: it is one of the most closely-followed online sources of insight and analysis for Russian-speaking audiences on the Internet. She also hosts Статус (Status), a popular weekly online programme running since 2017, first on the independent radio station Эхо Москвы, and now in collaboration with the Russian platform of the German Bild. Ekaterina’s keen interest in literature and reading is shared through free lectures about Russian writers and informal videos about her favourite books on YouTube, as well as in her new literary podcast Закладка (Bookmarks), which she co-hosts with the literary critic Galina Yuzefovich.

Over the past two years, Ekaterina has become a beacon for the Russian community (Pushkin House team members included). With her political understanding and accessible way of explaining things, people look to her for trustworthy advice. Expertise aside, she has become almost a therapeutic presence who offers reassurance, hope and a rare voice of reason during chaotic times.

Ekaterina has a long standing relationship with Pushkin House – having been the chair of the panel of judges, and on the advisory board, for the Pushkin House Book Prize since 2022. We appreciate her deep involvement in curating the selection of works that foster a better understanding of Russian politics, history and society. We have also welcomed Ekaterina’s participation in high-profile events organised by Pushkin House, where she has shared insights into the political future of Russia in 2022, and the evolution of the regime and the reaction of Russian society in 2023, which are available to watch on our YouTube channel. She also hosted a private dinner and intimate Q&A for Patrons of Pushkin House earlier this year.

We are honoured and excited to welcome Ekaterina to Pushkin House, and look forward to the expertise, passion and energy, as well as the institutional understanding and new ideas, that she will bring.