Malte Rolf is professor of modern European history with an emphasis on Eastern Europe at the University of Oldenburg's Institute of History. His main areas of research include the multiethnic empires of Eastern Europe during the long nineteenth century, the nation states of Central and Eastern Europe in the interwar period, and the Soviet Union during the Cold War era. He is the author of Imperiale Herrschaft im Weichselland: Das Königreich Polen im Russischen Imperium, Elites and Empire: Imperial Biographies in Russia and Austria-Hungary (1850-1918) and Soviet Mass Festivals, 1917-1991.