The Soviet-Third World Cultural Nexus
Guest: Rossen Djagalov on From Internationalism to Postcolonialism: Literature and Cinema between the Second and the Third Worlds published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
January 15, 2021
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Dmytro Dontsov and Ukrainian Nationalism
Guest: Trevor Erlacher on Ukrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes: An Intellectual Biography of Dmytro Dontsov published by Harvard University Press.
January 8, 2021
Belarus Protests in Pittsburgh
I attended a Belarus solidarity rally in Pittsburgh. Here’s what some of the protesters told me.
January 4, 2021
Russian Other, American Other
Guests: Dina Fainberg and Victoria Zhuravleva on the history of Russian and American mutual perceptions.
December 18, 2020
Putin Kitsch in America
Guest: Alison Rowley on Putin Kitsch in America published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
December 11, 2020
Academia
REEES Faculty Spotlight: Katie Manukyan
Faculty Spotlight on the University of Pittsburgh’s Katie Manukyan.
August 21, 2020
Investigating Hitler’s Remains
Guest: Lana Parshina on The Death of Hitler: The Final Word published by Da Capo Press.
September 16, 2019
The Theater of Diplomacy
I wrote a review of Alexander Etkind’s Roads Not Taken: An Intellectual Biography of William C. Bullitt and Michael McFaul’s From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia for Bookforum. Unfortunately, the review is behind the dreaded paywall. So here’s the pdf.
March 29, 2018
The Russian Revolution as Past Made Present
Mikhail Zygar’s The Empire Must Die provides a narrative timeline for the Russian Revolution as an allegory for Russia’s present.
December 24, 2017
The Materiality of Russian Oil
I review Doug Rogers’ deconstruction of oil—not to uncover its relations of production—to trace the dispersion of its value in shaping the post-Soviet province of Perm.
December 24, 2017
August 7, 2017
A Life with the Russian Revolution
Guest: Alexander Rabinowitch on the Bolsheviks coming to power.
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May 17, 2017
Stalin, Clans and Terror
Guest: Arch Getty on Practicing Stalinism: Bolsheviks, Boyars, and the Persistence of Tradition.
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November 14, 2016
Autocracy, Marriage, and Power in Early Modern Russia
Guest: Russell Martin on the early modern Russian autocracy.
May 18, 2016
Pseudo-Doctorates in the Duma
Several years ago when I was living in Moscow I would often see people in the metro holding signs selling doctoral degrees. I even had
January 14, 2016