PhD in History, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland).
Born in Donetsk, Ukraine. Until 2014 he studied at Donetsk National University. He received a bachelor’s degree in History from Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University (2015) and a master’s degree in Religious Studies from the National Pedagogical Drahomanov University (2017). In 2015-2016 he studied at the Wroclaw University (Poland) under the program “Polish Erasmus for Ukraine”.
Since 2012 he is a member of the Workshop for the Academic Study of Religions (formerly – Youth Association for the Study of Religions), in 2020-2024 he ws a Head of the Workshop for the Academic Study of Religions. He works as the Head of the Religious Studies section of the Kyiv Minor Academy of Sciences as well as Religious Studies Lecturer in Kyiv School of Economics. In 2019-2022 he worked as an Assistant Consultant to the Member of Parliament of Ukraine.
From 2021 to 2024 he was a member of the expert commission on history of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine at the request of the Workshop of Academic Religious Studies. And from 2024 to 2025 a member of the expert group on updating school history curricula.
He is awarded with the Gratitude of the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Gratitude and Certificate of the Department of Education and Science of the Kyiv City State Administration, the Certificate of Honor of the Central Election Commission, Acknowledgment of the Kyiv City Mayor. In 2026, Karen won the Kyiv city stage of the “Teacher of the Year” competition.
Research interests: Religion in the USSR, Religious Images in the Cinema, Religion in School Textbooks
X: https://x.com/KSNikiforov
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-nikiforov-228747355/
Selected publications
- Nikiforov, K. (2025). Experimenting with ESP in Kyiv. In Dwelling in Parallel Worlds: Esoteric and New Age Milieus in the Soviet Period and Afterward. Berlin: LIT Verlag.
- Basauri Ziuzina, A. M., Leshchinsky, A., Nikiforov, K., Pidhorna, L., & Sevastianiv, U. (2022). “Religion on Fire”: Documenting Russia’s War Crimes in Ukraine. Relihiieznavchi narysy, 12, 24–41. https://doi.org/10.71294/ersj.2022.02
- Salata, O., & Nikiforov, K. (2021). Adventists and Pentecostals of Donetsk Region in the Late Soviet Era: Between the Scylla of Legalization and the Charybdis of Opposition. Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, 41(4), 95–106.
- Nikiforov, K. (2021). The Orthodox Church and the Soviet authorities in the Donetsk region, 1965–1985. TEKA Komisji Polsko-Ukraińskich Związków Kulturowych, 6, 71–82. [in Ukrainian]
- Nikiforov, K. (2020). State–religious relations in Donetsk Oblast (1965–1991): a historiography of the question. In The Development of Contemporary Education and Science: Results, Problems, Prospects (pp. 158–167). Konin–Uzhhorod–Kherson–Kyiv: Posvit. [in Ukrainian]
- Nikiforov, K. (2019). Evangelical Christian Baptists and the Soviet authorities in the Donetsk region during the “stagnation” era. Visnyk Mariupolskoho derzhavnoho universytetu. Seriia: Istoriia. Politolohiia, 24, 98–105. [in Ukrainian]
- Nikiforov, K. (2018). Key aspects of the activity of the state body for religious affairs in the Ukrainian SSR, 1965–1991. In L. Vladychenko & A. Yurash (Eds.), The State Body of Ukraine for Religious Affairs: A Century of Tradition (pp. 178–187). Kyiv: Dukh i Litera. [in Ukrainian]
- Nikiforov, K. (2018). Administrative, planning-and-statistical and educational work of the Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs for Donetsk Oblast (1965–1991). Novi storinky istorii Donbasu, 27, 192–200. [in Ukrainian]
- Nikiforov, K. (2018). Relations between the Commissioner of the Council for Religious Affairs for Donetsk Oblast and local state and party bodies in the “late USSR” (1960s–1980s). Relihiieznavchi narysy, 8, 102–114. [in Ukrainian]