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
Transcripts
Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible
Guest: Joan Neuberger on This Thing of Darkness: Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible in Stalin’s Russia published by Cornell University Press.
June 21, 2019
Soviet Anti-Americanism
Guest: Rósa Magnúsdóttir on Enemy Number One: The United States of America in Soviet Ideology and Propaganda, 1945-1959 published by Oxford University Press.
June 14, 2019
Stalin’s Short Course
Guest: David Brandenberger on Stalin’s Master Narrative: A Critical Edition of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks), Short Course published by Yale University Press.
June 7, 2019
The Stories Polish Secret Police Files Tell Us
Guest: Anna Krakus on the stories Polish police files tell us.
May 31, 2019
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
Transcript: Russia Without Putin
Partial transcript of my interview with Tony Wood about his excellent new book, Russia Without Putin: Money, Power and the Myths of the New Cold War published by Verso.
May 16, 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
Transcript: Peering Under the Rug: Sources of Information about Russia
Partial transcript of the event “Peering Under the Rug: Sources of Information about Russia” at the University of Pittsburgh featuring Mark Galeotti, Kevin Rothrock, and Maxim Trudolyubov.
April 22, 2019
Transcript: Lenin’s Government
Partial transcript of an interview with Lara Douds on the formation, functioning, and decline of the Lenin’s Council of People’s Commissars, or Sovnarkom.
April 13, 2019
Transcript: Photography in the Russian Literary Imagination
Partial transcript of my interview with Katherine Reischl on the intersection of photography and Russian literature.
March 25, 2019