Smolny Beyond Borders was created by recent faculty members of Smolny College (Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University) and other liberal arts programs for students who left Russia and countries of Eurasia due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and the declining educational situation in those countries. It offers rich online courses and public lectures that all share the same goal of understanding the cultural and political processes that paved the way for the start of the war.