Domestic Service in the USSR
Alissa Klots on domestic service and aging in the USSR.
August 24, 2019
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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
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
War
Sorting Out South Ossetia
What happened in South Ossetia? The war may be over but questions linger. Who started the war? Was there ethnic cleansing of Georgians? What role
October 23, 2008
Rice scolds Russia. Will anyone care?
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been on a whirlwind press junket scold Russia. Here is a clip of her rhetorical spanking at the
September 18, 2008
Anatol Lieven: “What is in fact better: authoritarian control from above or mass hysteria from below”?
Anatol Lieven’s “Lunch with Putin” deserves much thought and serious discussion. Here are his impressions from last week’s Valdai Discussion Club: [T]here was another way
September 17, 2008
“Who’s on first, what’s on second, and I don’t know’s on third”
The New York Times has published the transcripts of Georgia’s “evidence” that Russia started the war. You can even get your own .pdf version to
September 17, 2008
Georgia’s New “Evidence”
Georgia’s latest attempt to convince the world that the Russians started the war is a sad sign of desperation. In a continued effort to dupe
September 16, 2008
Chomsky on the “New Cold War”
Noam Chomsky has given his take on the whole South Ossetia-Russia-Georgia-US imbroglio. I haven’t read Chomsky in years. He rarely says anything he hadn’t already
September 12, 2008
Palin Talks Russia in ABC Exclusive
Update: I posted the entire interview. Russia comes in about halfway in. Republican VP Candidate Sarah Palin finally sat down for an interview. Lo and
September 11, 2008
Levy Lies
Bernard-Henri Levy, France’s conservative philosophy guru, is a big fat liar. As soon as war broke out in Georgia, Levy rushed there hoping to reproduce
September 11, 2008
Voices Rise in Georgian Opposition
The Georgia opposition and Saakashvili supporters “are calling for investigations into what they call failures in diplomacy and warfare, and some are predicting Saakashvili will
September 9, 2008
South Ossetia and Georgia Sling Genocidal Mud
As I noted the other day, Teimuraz Khugaev, head prosecutor for the Ossetian government, announced that 1692 Ossetians were killed in the Georgian assault last
September 5, 2008