Bard College and Smolny Beyond Borders Program Cited in the Moscow Times: “What Happens When Your University is Banned in Russia”

In 2021, Bard College became the first institute of higher learning to be banned in Russia when it was placed on a list of “undesirable organizations,” a designation that declares such organizations to be a national security threat and has since been applied to a growing number of universities that includes Yale and Brigham Young, writes Charlie Hancock for the Moscow Times. The move, part of a larger strategy of intimidation by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, resulted in the closing of Smolny College—a liberal arts program created in 1994 at Saint Petersburg State University in close collaboration with Bard—whose alumni/ae includes Sasha Skochilenko ’17, artist, musician, and former political prisoner. “From the Russian point of view, the Anglo-American tradition and the freedom it supports is connected with the ability to innovate,” Bard President Leon Botstein told the Moscow Times, adding that academic freedom is seen by the Kremlin as a threat. “Scholarship and learning are not autocratic enterprises—they are inherently committed to freedom and disputation and dissent.” The Smolny Beyond Borders Program, operated out of Bard College Berlin, now carries on the legacy of Smolny College from afar.

Post Date: 07-23-2025