Atoms and Aliens in Eurasian Science Fiction
Guest: Anindita Banerjee on the nuclear in Soviet and Post-Soviet Science Fiction.
November 9, 2019
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Russians Under Nazi Occupation
Guest: Johannes Due Enstad on Soviet Russians under Nazi Occupation: Fragile Loyalties in World War II published by Cambridge University Press.
November 3, 2019
The Radioactive Mutants of Semipalatinsk
Magdalena Stawkowski on the rural Kazakh communities in the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site.
October 27, 2019
The Jewish Revolution in Belarus
Guest: Andrew Sloin on The Jewish Revolution in Belorussia: Economy, Race, and Bolshevik Power published by Indiana University Press.
October 21, 2019
The Soviet Nuclear Industry
Guest: Sonja Schmid on Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry published by MIT Press.
October 13, 2019
Academia
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
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
Kotkin and Zizek Discuss Stalin
Stephen Kotkin and Slavoj Zizek discussed Kotkin’s Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 at the New York Public Library. Both the audio and video are
April 1, 2015