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
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The Soviet Lives of Western Culture
Guest: Eleonor Gilburd on To See Paris and Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture published by Harvard University Press.
September 23, 2019
Investigating Hitler’s Remains
Guest: Lana Parshina on The Death of Hitler: The Final Word published by Da Capo Press.
September 16, 2019
The Politics of Immigration in Russia
Guest: Caress Schenk on Why Control Immigration? Strategic Uses of Migration Management in Russia published by University of Toronto Press.
September 7, 2019
Central Asian Migrants in the USSR
Guest: Jeff Sahadeo on Voices from the Soviet Edge: Southern Migrants in Leningrad and Moscow published by Cornell University Press.
September 2, 2019
Amerika
US Spy or Nigerian Scam Artist?
The Ryan Fogle spy scandal is unfolding. Who knows what will come of it over the next hours, days, and weeks. At the moment it
May 14, 2013
US Prison Industrial Complex Versus the Stalinist Gulag
In a recent column, “Incarceration Nation, Fareed Zakaria claimed that number of people in the United States under “correctional supervision” exceeded that of Stalinist Russia.
May 11, 2013
Boston Conspiracy Theories Unite Americans and Russians
This week’s Russia! Magazine column, “Tsarnaev Conspiracy Theory Simulacrum“: The bombings in Boston carried out by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brought the United States and
April 25, 2013
The Tsarnaevs’ Traumatic Narratives
I don’t have much to add about the biographies of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. I certainly won’t presume the cause or intent of their bombings
April 21, 2013
The Let’s Pretend Game
This week’s Russia! Magazine column, “The Magnitsky Minstrelsy“: The passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012 last December sent US-Russia
April 18, 2013
Medvedev and Putin Disagree on Libya! The End is Surely Nigh!
Putin and Medvedev disagree on the NATO air strikes on Libya! Sound the alarms! The tandem is collapsing! Oh, the horror! The horror! Yesterday Putin
March 22, 2011
Craving Cold War
Back in late 2008, when Pajamas Media was still having me write articles on Russia (they’ve since stopped asking, I think, because I wasn’t anti-Russian
July 11, 2010
Are your barbecues breeding Bolsheviks?
Are your backyard barbecues breeding Bolsheviks? Deep cover agents posing as a two car garage, 2.3 kid, suburban, all-American family? Mysterious sultry, salon dyed Slavic
July 2, 2010
Stalin’s Shadow over the Tea Party
I don’t usually comment on American politics. I rarely devote my time to reading about the place. The level of hyperbole and rhetorical inanity makes me want to vomit. Also, since I’ve been in Moscow, the US looks even crazier than it does when I’m there (the strange effect of this is that Russian politics looks downright normal). I’ve also totally shied away from US-Russia foreign policy issues. I used to. Not anymore. There are people out there who do it better, and frankly, the debate is so locked in Cold War binaries, I can’t help to find it all a bit boring, repetitive, and quite nauseating. So if you’re here looking for a treatise on START, ruminations on the Great Game, or how America is encircling Russia or how
April 17, 2010
RT’s Agitprop
When I first saw the ads Russia Today is using in its American and UK ad campaign, I immediately had the reaction that most Americans and British probably had. Comparing Obama to Ahmadinejad? That’s like comparing Christ with the devil! Is RT crazy or just stupid!? But then I started to think about the ad, realizing my gut reaction is exactly what it was supposed to provoke.
January 27, 2010