Aliaksandr Piahanau

I am a historian of modern Europe with an expertise in political, social, and energy history from 1850 to 1950.

My particular focus lies in international conflicts and cooperation in Central Europe, especially between the two world wars. Since May 2023 I am a researcher in Energy History at the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm).

In 2023-26, together with Per Hogselius (PI) & Marta Musso, I explore 'coal transnsationalism' in Europe in 1918-39. We investigate how international experts, municipal actors and infrastructure engineers dealt with the fundamental dependence on coal as the main energy source of the interwar period.

PostDocs:

2021/23: Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Wenner-Gren Fellowship for 24 months, Stockholm, Sweden).

2019/21: ERC PREWARAS project "Political Violence & Armed Associations in Europe, 1890-1914", University of Padova (15 months, Padova, Italy).

Internships:

2023: Environmental Humanities, University of Utrecht (4 months; Netherlands).

2017: Institute of Political Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovak National Scholarship for 2 months, Bratislava, Slovakia).

2011: Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences (Visegrad Scholarship for 9 months; Bratislava, Slovakia).

2009/10: Institute of Czech History, Charles University of Prague (Visegrad Scholarship for 9 months; Prague, Czechia).

Teaching experience:

Course responsible and teacher for “History of Science & Technology” course, KTH, Stockholm (2024-26).

Course responsible and teacher for “Energy & Geopolitics” course, KTH, Stockholm (2023-25).

Course responsible and teacher for “History of Russia”, Faculty of International Relations, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary (2011).

Education:

2015/18: Doctoral studies in History at the University of Toulouse 2 (France), Framespa Laboratory. Thesis:Hungary’s policy towards Czechoslovakia (1918-1936).

2010/11: Hungarian Studies at the Balassi Institute (Budapest, Hungary).

2004/16: World and Central European History. Degrees of Specialist (2009), Master (2010), Researcher (2016) from the Belarusian State University (Minsk, Belarus).

I master at different levels English, French, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, and Belarusian. While most of my academic publications are in Russian, some are also in English, and many are available on my profile at academia.edu

Key Publications:

• A. Piahanau and P. Högselius, eds. Special issue "European Energy Shortages During the Short Coal Age (1860-1960),"Journal of Energy History 14/1 (2025).
• A. Piahanau & B. Aleksov, eds.Wars and Betweenness: Big Powers in Middle Europe, 1918–45. New York – Budapest: Central European University Press, 2020.
• A. Piahanau, ed.Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe, 1914–1945.  Bristol: E-International Publishing, 2019.
•  
• A. Piahanau, “‘Each wagon of coal should be paid for with territorial concessions.’ Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Coal Shortage in 1918–21,”Diplomacy & Statecraft 34/1 (2023): 86–116.
• A. Piahanau, “Losers of Modernisation. The Decay of the Burgher Shooting Societies in Dualist Hungary, 1867–1914,”Slavonic and East European Review 101/1 (2023): 28–63.
• A. Piahanau, “Hungarian Royal Gendarmerie and Political Violence in ‘Happy Peaceful Times,’ 1881–1914,”Crime, History & Societies25/1 (2021): 85–110.
• A. Piahanau, “Unrequited love? The Hungarian democrats’ relations with the Czechoslovak authorities (1919 – 1932)” Hungarian Studies Review 45/1–2 (2018): 20–60.
• A. Piahanau, “Czechoslovak-Hungarian Border Dispute”, 1914-1918-online.International Encyclopedia of the First World War (2018/2023).
• A. Piahanau, “A Priest at the Front. Jozef Tiso Changing Social Identities during the First World War,” Revue des études slaves 88/4 (2017): 721–741.
• A. Piahanau, ‘Book review on Antoine Marès. Edvard Beneš. Un drame entre Hitler et Staline. Paris: Perrin, 2015,’Hungarian Historical Review 6/1 (2017): 258–261.
• A. Piahanau , “Hungarian War Aims during WWI: between Expansionism and Separatism,”Central European Papers 2 (2014): 95–107.
• A. Piahanau, “Slovak-Hungarian relations in the mirror of the Soviet-German conflictive alliance (1939–1941)”Prague Papers on the History of International Relations 2 (2012): 144–163.