While conducting research on the Russian fur trade, Department of History Professor Ryan Tucker Jones kept encountering whales, both in literature and in real life. Upon learning that the Soviet Union had conducted a massive illegal whaling campaign in the 20th century, he knew he had something important to write about. His resulting book, Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling, was shortlisted in June for the prestigious Pushkin House Book Prize and won the John Lyman Book Award from the North American Society for Oceanic History in 2022.