Episodes
Aug. 5, 2024
The Eastern International
Guest: Masha Kirasirova on The Eastern International: Arabs, Central Asians, and Jews in the Soviet Union's Anticolonial Empire published by Oxford University Press.
July 29, 2024
The Soviet Bid to Run the World
Guest: Sergey Radchenko on To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power published by Cambridge University Press.
July 1, 2024
The Rise and Fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin
Guests: Anna Arutunyan and Mark Galeotti on their new book Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the New Fight for the Future of Russia published by Penguin.
June 24, 2024
Russians in Latvia
Guest: Kevin Platt on Border Conditions: Russian-Speaking Latvians Between World Orders published by Cornell University Press.
June 17, 2024
Ilf and Petrov’s American Road Trip
Guest: Lisa Kirschenbaum on Soviet Adventures in the Land of the Capitalists: Ilf and Petrov's American Road Trip published by Cambridge University Press.
June 10, 2024
Soviet Afghan War and Islam
Guest: Vassily Klimentov on A Slow Reckoning: The USSR, the Afghan Communists, and Islam published by Cornell University Press.
June 3, 2024
Populist Elitism in Russia and the US
Guest: Alexandar Mikhailovic on the unlikely convergence of the American and Russian far-right.
May 20, 2024
Soviet Industrial Ecology
Guest: Elena Kochetkova on wood, forests and industrial ecology in the Soviet Union.
May 13, 2024
Everyday War in Donbas
Guest: Greta Uehling on the ethics of care in Everyday War: The Conflict over Donbas, Ukraine published by Cornell University Press.
May 6, 2024
Sugarland
Guest: Artan Hoxha on his new book, Sugarland: The Transformation of the Countryside in Communist Albania published by Central European University Press.
April 29, 2024
Citizen Poet
Guest: Russian poet Dmitrii Bykov on the War in Ukraine, the role of art in politics, satire, his poisoning in 2019, protest, love and family.
April 22, 2024
Baku Oil and the Soviet State
Guest: Sara Brinegar on her book The Power and Politics of Oil in the Soviet South Caucasus: Periphery Unbound, 1920-29 published by Bloomsbury.
April 15, 2024
Gleaning for Communism
Guest: Xenia Cherkaev on her book Gleaning for Communism: The Soviet Socialist Household in Theory and Practice published by Cornell University Press.
April 8, 2024
The Tunguska Mystery
Guest: Andy Bruno on his new book Tunguska: A Siberian Mystery and its Environmental Legacy published by Cambridge University Press.
April 1, 2024
Sesame Street in Russia
Guest: Natasha Lance Rogoff on making Sesame Street in Russia in the turbulent 1990s.
March 25, 2024
Soviet Investigation of Nazi War Crimes
Guest: Paula Chan on the Extraordinary State Commission and its investigations in the Nazi atrocities in the Soviet Union.
March 11, 2024
Black Skies Over Krasnoyarsk
Guest: Mariia Koskina on Siberian industrialization, the environment and the black skies over Krasnoyarsk.
March 4, 2024
Revisiting Nagorno-Karabakh
Guests: Tigran Grigoryan (The Regional Center for Democracy and Security) and Kelsey Rice (Berry College) revisiting the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Feb. 26, 2024
The Soviet Avant Garde
Guest: Natalia Krylova on life, love, language, and the Soviet Avant Garde.
Feb. 16, 2024
Russia’s Prison Knocking Language
Guest: Nicholas Bujalski on his prize-winning Russian Review article, “Tuk, tuk, tuk!” A History of Russia’s Prison Knocking Language.”
Feb. 9, 2024
Ukraine’s Gloomy Winter
Guest: Brian Milakovsky with a grim update on Ukraine, the war, and the shrinking prospects of even a lousy peace.
Feb. 2, 2024
A Century Without Lenin
Guest: Christopher Read on Vladimir Lenin's legacy 100 years since his death.
Jan. 26, 2024
Genealogy in Russia
Guest: Maria Lotsmanova on her genealogical journey to find information about her repressed great-grandfather, Jacob Jansen.