Oleksa Drachewych is a specialist in the history of the Soviet Union, international communism, and global history and international relations in the twentieth century. He is also the network editor for H-Russia. He has been at King’s since Fall 2019. He also teaches at Western University main campus and previously also taught at the University of Guelph, McMaster University, and Trent University, Durham Campus
Education
- PhD – McMaster University, 2017
- MA – Queen’s University, 2010
- BA – Western University, 2009
Teaching
Professor Drachewych was the recipient of the King’s Award for Excellence in Teaching for Part-Time Faculty in 2022.
Currently teaching (2026-27):
- History 1404E: Hitler, Stalin & Mussolini: The Totalitarian Age (online)
- History 2151A: The First World War: A Global Revolution (online)
- History 2152B: The Second World War as World History (online)
- History 2432G: Age of Empire: Europe in the Early Modern World
Previously taught:
- History 1812F: Revolutions in World History
- History 2179: The Two World Wars
- History 2301E: The United States, Colonial Era to the Present
- History 2403E: Europe and England in the 16th and 17th Century
- History 3496G: Selected Topics in European History: The Uses and Abuses of History in Russia and Eastern Europe
- History 4499G: Selected Topics in European History: Russia and the West
Research
- History of the Soviet Union
- The Global Impact of the Bolshevik Revolution
- History of Modern Europe
- History of Modern International Relations
- International communism, especially the Comintern era
- The Second World War and atrocity
- The Russo-Ukrainian War
Selected Publications
BOOKS
Replaying the Second World War: The Soviet Inspiration for Russian Atrocities in the Russo-Ukrainian War (ibidem Press, 2026).
Co-editor of Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020).
The Communist International, Anti-Imperialism and Racial Equality in British Dominions (Routledge, 2018).
SELECTED CHAPTERS AND ARTICLES
“Communism, Anticolonialism and Antiracism: The Comintern, Communists, and the Roots of a Global Revolutionary Campaign, 1919-1943,” Routledge History of Communism, edited by Melissa Feinberg and Lisa Kirschenbaum (London: Routledge, 2026), 32-46.
“‘I guess I'll shake your hand but I have only one thing to say to you: You need to get out of Ukraine’: The historical roots of Canada’s position on the Russo-Ukrainian War,” Across the North Atlantic: Europe and Canadian Foreign Policy in the Cold War, edited by Asa McKercher & John Keess (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2026), 316-340.
“Russia’s War against Ukraine: The Early Historiography of an Escalation” Russian Review 84, no. 4 (October 2025): 681-687.
“The Comintern and the National and Colonial Question: The Roots of Soviet Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Racism Reconsidered,” Russian History 50 (May 2024): 218-241.
“Transnational Anti-Imperialism and the Left in the First Half of the Twentieth Century,” American Historical Review 129, no. 1 (March 2024): 243-246.
“Broadening the Native Republic Thesis: De-siloing Comintern Histories,” Twentieth Century Communism 24 (2023): 110-131.
“The Bolsheviks’ Revolutionary International: The Idea and Establishment of the Communist International, 1914-1922,” Russian International Relations in War and Revolution, 1914-22, Book 2: Revolution and Civil War, edited by David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, Oleg Budnitskii, Michael Hughes & David MacLaren McDonald (Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2021), 317-340.
“Great Disappointment, Shifting Opportunities: A Glimpse into the Comintern, Western European Parties and their Colonial Work in the Third Period,” Twentieth Century Communism 18 (Spring 2020): 150-173.
With Ian McKay, “Transnational Leftism? The Communist International, the National, Colonial and Racial Questions, and the Strengths and Limitations of the ‘Moscow Rules’ Paradigm,” Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions, edited by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), 3-49.
“Race, the Comintern and Communist Parties in British Dominions, 1920-1943,” Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions, edited by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), 247-269.
“Conclusion: Future Avenues for the Study of the Comintern and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions,” Left Transnationalism: The Communist International and the National, Colonial and Racial Questions, edited by Oleksa Drachewych and Ian McKay (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020), 407-411.
“Settler Colonialism and the Communist International,” Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism, Second Edition, edited by Immanuel Ness and Zak Cope (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
“The Communist Transnational? Transnational Studies and the History of the Comintern,” History Compass 17, no. 2 (Feb. 2019).
Other
Professor Drachewych has also written about the Russo-Ukrainian War for The Conversation Canada, The Toronto Star, and Active History. His commentary on the Russo-Ukrainian War has been featured on Kyiv Independent, CTV News, CBC News, NBC News and on radio stations across Canada.