The US-Russia Rivalry
Guest: Andrei Tsygankov on the ongoing US-Russia rivalry.
June 4, 2021
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The US-Russia-China Triangle
Guest: Thomas Graham on the new “Cold War,” the United States, Russia, and China.
May 28, 2021
Gulag Criminal Subculture
Guest: Mark Vincent on Criminal Subculture in the Gulag: Prisoner Society in the Stalinist Labour Camps published by Bloomsbury.
May 14, 2021
Prostitution in Late Imperial Russia
Guest: Siobhán Hearne on Policing Prostitution: Regulating the Lower Classes in Late Imperial Russia published by Oxford University Press.
May 7, 2021
Blind Activism in the Cold War
Guest: Cristina Galmarini on international blind activism from the communist bloc during the Cold War.
April 30, 2021
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:Â 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