Tobias is a global historian with a particular interest in the history of (state) socialism and (neo)liberalism. His research has mostly addressed Soviet and Eastern European encounters with the Global South, and economic reform debates in socialist countries. He taught both Russian and Latin American history in Denmark and the UK before joining Scripts in 2020 to study economists and marketisation debates in Eastern Europe and China in the late 20th century.

See also: https://fu-berlin.academia.edu/TobiasRupprecht

Research Interests

• Global History
• History of (state) socialism, esp Soviet history
• History of (neo)liberalism
• Latin American history, esp modern Chilean history

Current Research projects at SCRIPTS

The 'Peripheral Liberalism' group assesses the intellectual development and political impact of liberal ideas before and during the marketisation of (formerly) state socialist countries. It revisits debates on the expansion of markets and private property amongst economists, social scientists and dissidents in the Soviet Union/Russia, in Eastern Europe, and in China, in their transnational context from the 1970s to the 1990s. Marketisation was not usually envisioned as a wholesale import of the Western liberal model; both historical and contemporary models of authoritarian transition in other 'peripheral' countries provided inspiration, too. The group reconsiders the local intellectual roots and the non-Western exchange of ideas of political economy - within the socialist world but also in exchange with development dictatorships from Chile to South Korea. It also explores the counterreactions to these liberals, who were 'peripheral' in their national contexts, too: they were often marginal figures, politically influential for a while but usually confronted with hostile political elites and majorities of the population. 'Peripheral Liberalism' thus seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the genesis of modern hybrid regimes in much of the former socialist world that currently challenge the Western liberal script with a vengeance.

Edited volumes

• Rupprecht, Tobias (ed.) 2023: Special Issue. Russian Constitutional Crisis. Russian Constitution. 30 Years After, Russian History 50(1–2).

Recent articles and chapters (selection)

• Axe, Kevin / Rupprecht, Tobias / Trinkle, Alice 2024: Peripheral Liberalism. New Perspectives on the Liberal Script in the (Post-)Socialist World, in: Börzel, Tanja A. / Gerschewski, Johannes / Zürn, Michael (eds.): The Liberal Script at the Beginning of the 21st Century. Conceptions, Components, and Tensions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 297–316. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198924241.003.0015.
• Rupprecht, Tobias / Sahling, Cornelia 2024: Destructively Independent. The Russian Central Bank Leadership in the Runup to the 1993 Constitutional Crisis, Russian History 50(1–2): 68–88. https://doi.org/10.30965/18763316-12340059.
• Rupprecht, Tobias 2023: The Socialist Great Divergence. Why Mikhail Gorbachev Failed Where Deng Xiaoping Succeeded, Russian History 49(2–4): 336–351. https://doi.org/10.30965/18763316-12340052.
• Rupprecht, Tobias 2022: The Road from Snake Hill. The Genesis of Russian Neoliberalism, in: Slobodian, Quinn / Plehwe, Dieter (eds.): Market Civilizations. Neoliberals East and South, New York: Zone Books, 109–138. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1vbd2mv.7.

SCRIPTS Working Paper

• Axe, Kevin / Rupprecht, Tobias / Trinkle, Alice 2021: Peripheral Liberalism. New Perspectives on the History of the Liberal Script in the (Post-)Socialist World. SCRIPTS Working Paper No. 13, Berlin: Cluster of Excellence 2055 “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)”.

Others

• Rupprecht, Tobias 2022: The Russian invasion of Ukraine as a contestation of the liberal script? - No 1., Berlin: Cluster of Excellence 2055 “Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS)”, https://www.scripts-berlin.eu/blog/Blog-38-Ukraine-No_1/index.html (accessed 9 September 2022).