A Russian Voyage of Empires
Guest: Edyta Bojanowska on A World of Empires: The Russian Voyage of the Frigate Pallada published by Harvard University Press.
August 17, 2019
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Russian Socialists in the Struggle for Democracy
For the past few weeks, protests for fair elections in upcoming municipal polls have become weekly in Moscow and St. Petersburg as thousands have defied authorities to attend unsanctioned rallies. The police crackdown has been particularly harsh in Moscow. Protests on July 27 and August 3 resulted in over 2000 detentions. Images of police in riot gear wrestling citizens to the ground and beating peaceful protesters were reminiscent of the mass protests against election fraud in 2011-2012.
Members of the Russian Socialist Movement, a small Marxist, anti-Stalinist organization active in the Russian left, have been participants in local electoral campaigns and in the protests. Two RSM activists, Valeria Kovelishina and Ilya Budraitskis talk about the Russian Socialist Movement, their electoral work, the protests for democracy in Russia and what they might mean for the future.
August 10, 2019
Witnessing the Collapse of Communism
Roundtable discussion marking the 30th anniversary of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. Participants include Timothy Garton Ash, Bridget Kendall, and Jens Reich.
August 2, 2019
Rasputin, the Man and the Myth (Rebroadcast)
Guest: Doug Smith on Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs.
July 27, 2019
The Evictors
Around Moscow, there’s a whole industry of so-called “black creditors” — microfinance institutions (or MFOs) that swindle and seize debtors’ homes. Ivan Golunov’s investigation for Meduza has discovered that almost 500 apartments have been seized from their owners over the past five years without so much as a court order. In fact, this scheme involves more than simply “squeezing” people from their homes. It is possibly part of a wider, international money-laundering system. Here’s Meduza special correspondent Ivan Golunov on the ins and outs of this industry.
July 19, 2019
Nationalism
The Judeo-Bolshevik Myth
Guest: Paul Hanebrink on A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism published by Harvard University Press.
May 24, 2019
Local Perpetrators and the Holocaust in Ukraine
Guest: Jared McBride on the Holocaust, Soviet Secret Police Archives and Local Perpetrators in Western Ukraine.
May 8, 2019
Soviet Secret Police, Collaborator Trials, and the Holocaust
Partial transcript of the event “Shaping National Memory: Ukrainian Secret Police Archives and WWII” at the University of Pittsburgh featuring Jared McBride.
May 7, 2019
Russian Nationalism
Guest: Marlene Laruelle on Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrines, and Political Battlefields, published by Routledge, and her edited collection Entangled Far Rights: A Russian-European Intellectual Romance in the 20th Century, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
March 10, 2019
Transcript: Russian Nationalism
Partial transcript of my interview with Marlene Laruelle on Russian nationalism.
March 8, 2019
Nation, Nationality, and Empire
Guest: Ronald Grigor Suny on nationality, nation, and empire in the Soviet Union.
August 24, 2018
Georgian Diaspora and the Soviet Empire
Guest: Erik Scott on Familiar Strangers: The Georgian Diaspora and the Evolution of Soviet Empire.
April 19, 2017
Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine
Guest: Sophie Pinkham on Black Square: Adventures in Post-Soviet Ukraine.
December 12, 2016
Lev Gumilev’s Eurasianism
Guest: Mark Bassin on The Gumilev Mystique: Biopolitics, Eurasiansism, and the Construction of Community in Modern Russia.
August 7, 2016
