M. Gessen Spoke with WMCU’s Here and Now About Kronika, Joint Civic Tech Project of Bard College and PEN America

“At this point, it might be easier to answer the question, ‘Where isn’t history being erased?’” said M. Gessen, distinguished visiting writer at Bard College. In an interview with WMCU’s Here and Now, Gessen outlined how Kronika, a joint civic tech project of Bard College and PEN America, has gone from being an archive to a set of tools in response to worldwide threats to free speech. “We had to turn Kronika into a toolkit,” Gessen said. “At this point, we no longer think of it as an archive. We think of it as a set of instruments that people can use to preserve media in any language.” Born out of the Russian Independent Media Archive, Kronika has positioned itself as a worldwide utility with the goal of helping to preserve the work of journalists and writers. In the interview, Gessen pushed back on the idea that the internet is forever, saying that, ultimately, keeping something online costs money, especially in the face of government censorship. “We learn a lot about a regime when we see what information it wants deleted,” they said.

Post Date: 02-16-2026