iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Got the publication date for my book🐦‍🔥 “How to Survive Authoritiarianism” is coming to Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Waterstone and all others near you this September. It’s a weird time to write about democracy & authoritarianism. www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-sur...

barnesandnoble.com

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

News are out: I am writing a book! “How to Survive Authoritarianism. A Russian’s Phrasebook for Everyday Life in America” is our tourist guide to the new type of tyranny emerged in the 21 century. We want to help ordinary people to recognize their new reality, resist it and ultimately survive it.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

I think Americans should learn a great Russian phrase “grandpa forgot to take his meds again” that perfectly describes gerontocracy and how stupid a leader’s behavior becomes with time

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Department of the Special Military Operation

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

This year US & Russia are on the journey of property redistribution. Trump is making deals, nationalizing (partially) US Steel & Intel. Media are looking at this as primarily economic transformation. Reality is more complicated (sorry, Bernie): insideauthoritarianism.substack.com/p/nationaliz...

insideauthoritarianism.substack.com

Nationalization isn't about state-run capitalism. It's an underestimated sign of authoritarianism.

I look with fascination how this year both United States & Russia have embarked on the journey of mass property redistribution.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

There appears to be a duality btw women's rights & men's ability to show masculinity. In times when politicians dehumanize opponents, Swift was humanizing. On her podcast initiation into the manosphere that takes issue with her — and liberated women more broadly: open.substack.com/pub/insideau...

open.substack.com

Taylor Swift Understood the Assignment. Democrats Still Don't.

When Taylor Swift announced her new album "The Life of a Showgirl" on the "New Heights" podcast, many dismissed it as cheeky and unserious: the world's biggest superstar announcing her 12th album...

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Launching my Substack, Insider’s Guide to Authoritarianism. First post is about Taylor Swift’s first podcast appearance — how she crossed into a male-dominated space under attack, while Democrats still don’t understand how to bridge that divide. insideauthoritarianism.substack.com/p/taylor-swi...

insideauthoritarianism.substack.com

Taylor Swift Understood the Assignment. Democrats Still Don't.

When Taylor Swift announced her new album "The Life of a Showgirl" on the "New Heights" podcast, many dismissed it as cheeky and unserious: the world's biggest superstar announcing her 12th album...

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

Why the press conference of the California governor looks like any opposition event in Moscow I was at 🤡 The speed of democratic backsliding is insane. By any logic such intimidation should not be happening this early, especially to a governor

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

How long ago did Google main page became so propagandistic? I never use search and I was shocked now when I did, I am having authoritarian flashbacks

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Russsia just declared Yale University an “undesirable organization.” It means anyone affiliated with Yale (with any citizenship) — or even who has used Yale logo in a post — can get up to 6 years of prison. Official reason: the university hosts a “training center for protest activity leaders.”

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Are we sure that TikTok is selling its US segment finally (per recent reports)? They are hiring too many policy people, inc. on state level, for a company that is supposedly leaving the market

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

On 4th of July. What I was thinking about lately. In America, there is not even an idea of being against the American state. Unlike nations built around shared ethnicity or culture, America was founded as an ideological project — the American dream itself is supposed to be non-partisan.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

My Harvard school is basically opening a second campus in Canada this fall. Wild times.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Got a spread at Sunday’s edition of New York Times! You can read for free using the gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/o...

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Reposted by Maria K

New York Times Opinion @nytopinion.nytimes.com · 09/06/2025

“Our American friends often struggle to describe what exactly is happening. That’s because, in part, they simply don’t have the language for it,” write Maria Kuznetsova and Dan Storyev, two human rights experts who fled Russia. “We do.”

nytimes.com

Opinion | Here’s What’s Happening in America, in Six (Mostly) Russian Terms

To help Americans name their new reality, we wrote a phrase book of authoritarianism.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

My essay for New York Times on how authoritarianism is coming to America. I see American struggle to describe the new reality — so, I translated some Russian terms that do. Trump, Putin, Elon — and how police and armed forces are becoming political instruments: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Here’s What’s Happening in America, in Six (Mostly) Russian Terms

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Times so weird that our Harvard graduation ceremony is at the same time that Harvard has a court hearing on cancelling all of our visas. We will probably know the decision while still at the ceremony. Insane.

A poster saying “Educatuon not deportation” and two graduating Harvard students holding it

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

It will be funny if in a few years people start to get arrested for wearing Harvard symbols. I wish I was joking but I have half of a suitcase with symbols that were perfectly normal in late 2010s and are now extremist / terrorist / undesirable and probably most samples are destroyed.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Me in New York Times saying I am looking for a job (because where else I should announce it?), while simultaneously comparing American democratic backsliding to what I saw in Russia www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/u...

nytimes.com

Shock at Harvard After Government Says International Students Must Go

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

My piece on 100 days of Trump on how the end of USAID will provoke global instability: 1) much of the autocratic world will go into darkness; 2) predicting international security crises will be difficult; 3) Russia & China will fill the vacuum with disinformation. www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Authoritarian data pollution for big LLMs is real — and I do not think American Big Tech is ready to counter that. If you ask ChatGPT about Putin, it already gives quite a favorable article.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

I wrote a piece on AI girlfriends & boyfriends and how designing a “perfect” digital parter can harm women in real life — who once again are seen as objects, who always has to be agreeable, available, submissive. Just like AI. Happy March 8th. www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr...

hks.harvard.edu

HER Artificial Voice, His Real Aggression? Can AI Girlfriends Bring a New Wave of Women's Objectification?

The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to e...

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

New week, new authoritarian term to learn. Telephone law — a Soviet / Russian custom where court or parliamentary decisions aren’t based on justice or legal principles but on a phone call from “above” (authorities).

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

For those, who left X, I am bringing you gold from Michael McFaul

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

The speed of change in public discourse in the US (and what is even allowed to say) is staggering. I don’t remember anything like that even with Russian invasion of Ukraine. Am I reading too much into what is said by Trump vs done — or others also do not remember such fast-passed backsliding?

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

As many others, I noticed that my TikTok algorithm changed after Trump took office. The content became generic. As if I were on Instagram, X or LinkedIn. I stopped seeing political news, LGBTQ content and even Taylor Swift. Instead, to my horror, algorithm showed me Trump’s granddaughter.

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Reposted by Maria K

Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

Chinese DeepSeek model: “Putin has personality cult” 😧

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Reposted by Maria K

Erica Chenoweth @chenoweth.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I'm not teaching my grad course 'Civil Resistance: How It Works' this semester. But here is an abridged version of the course schedule, readings, and films I used the last time I taught it (in 2022). Just in case it's useful. drive.google.com/file/d/14RRJ...

drive.google.com

Readings - Civil Resistance How It Works Fall 2022.pdf

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I love how AI creators forget that other languages exist. DeepSeek, that is politically censored in English&Chinese, is super democratic in Russian: it claims that “Chinese authorities brutally suppressed” protests at Tiananmen and that “all information is censored”, it also calls Putin an autocrat.

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

The Meaning of Life - [course is not offered for 2025] - is probably the funniest thing I have seen at the Harvard course catalog

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

It seems that American TikTok is blocking some requests about Trump. When asking about him and 10yo girl, I get “this phrase may… violate…”When I do the same using VPN from EU, I get videos (“Trump tells 10-year-girl they’ll date”) Screenshots are mine, original idea: vt.tiktok.com/ZS6bGJ5fv/

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

How many countries you can name where: an old president tries to seize a part of another country while ranting about gender issues, oligarchs come to power, foreign social media platforms are randomly banned and unbanned, all while president’s closest allies openly perform Nazi salutes?

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Maria K @mariakuznetsova.bsky.social · 20/01/2025

When I had to escape Russia, I first moved to Georgia. Then I got to the US. I CANNOT WATCH THE SAME SERIES FOR THE THIRD TIME😭 It is just a copy-and-paste, I even hear the same phrases

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