Michels' publications include 'At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Russia,' published in 1999 by Stanford University Press.
But Michels said a look further back into Russian history is required to appreciate the sense of destiny that drives Vladimir Putin, with his purposefulness rooted in ages-old Ukrainian-Russian dynamics. Michels, who specializes in early Russian, Ukrainian, and Hungarian history, acknowledges the relevance of 20th century history, including World War II analogies and Stalinist influences, in framing the present discourse. The public dialogue about the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been dominated by 20th-century historians and political scientists, according to UC Riverside Department of History Professor Georg Michels.
