I study how war is made to feel meaningful — and how societies come to accept violence
Postdoctoral Fellow & Instructor · Washington University in St. Louis
About
I am a historian who studies how societies make sense of war, identity, and power. My work brings together world history, Russian and Eastern European studies, and African history, with a focus on nationalism, propaganda, gender, and memory. I am particularly interested in how violence is narrated and justified — and how these narratives shape what people come to see as normal, necessary, or even meaningful. These narratives do not simply describe violence — they make it acceptable, necessary, and even desirable.
I work across Russian, Soviet, Eastern European, and South African contexts, tracing how ideas and narratives travel, evolve, and gain influence across very different political settings.
My forthcoming book, Destructive Imagination: Male Fantasies and the Emotional Roots of Russia's War in Ukraine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), examines how fantasy and emotion become part of the cultural logic of war, shaping both individual motivations and broader public narratives.
Before joining Washington University in St. Louis, I taught at National Research University Higher School of Economics and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. My doctoral research explored connections between South Africa and Russia, reflecting my broader interest in how histories and political imaginaries intersect across regions.
Forthcoming Monograph
Why do men go to war — and how does a society prepare them to do so? This book examines the emotional and imaginative landscape that made Russia's invasion of Ukraine possible, tracing the male fantasies, anxieties, and collective memories that were mobilized in the service of violence. Drawing on history, memory studies, and gender theory, it reveals how imagination itself can become a weapon.
It shows that war is not only strategic or ideological — it is also driven by fantasy, emotion, and gendered imagination. That is what makes it so hard to stop.
Praise for this book
Thoroughly researched and powerfully written, Destructive Imagination tells the story of how the dark side of Russian soldiers' fantasies — steeped in popular myth and made vivid through poem, song, memoir, and war reporting — transform at the front into actual bloody deeds. There is a pathology exfoliated in these pages. A terrifying, but important, necessary book.
This brilliant book brings to light shocking aspects of Russia's war in Ukraine practically unknown in the West. Drawing on social media and other sources, Kurbak builds a coherent picture of how combatants interpret and justify their brutal practices. The book opened my eyes to forms of brutality that are part of this war — and surely part of other conflicts in today's world. A must read for students of history, global studies, Russian studies, and media studies.
Maria Kurbak's absorbing book takes us into the darkest recesses of the Russian military psyche, uncovering how humiliation, longing, and masculine fantasy drive depravity and violence at the front and at home. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how the Russian nation's psychosexual military fantasies could lead to yet more conflict and catastrophe.
The masculine narratives analyzed here — ideologically driven, constructed by propaganda, permeated with demonization and sexual violence — attest to the deep psychological disorder of Russian society during the invasion of Ukraine. A striking picture of the struggle between humanity and inhumanity.
Scholarship
Education & Teaching
I teach courses on contemporary Russia, war, memory, and global politics — with a focus on helping students think critically about political narratives, propaganda, and the stories societies tell about themselves. My courses draw on primary sources, comparative case studies, and current events to make historical analysis relevant and urgent.
Courses
Public Engagement
I write and speak about war, propaganda, and political narratives for academic and public audiences — bringing historical analysis to bear on some of the most urgent questions of our time.
Washington University in St. Louis · Global Studies Program
For speaking engagements, media inquiries, or academic collaboration: