The Eurasian Knot

Guest: Sasha Senderovich on How the Soviet Jew Was Made published by Harvard University Press.The post Making the Soviet Jew appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Erik Scott on defection, the Cold War, and the regulation of borders and movement in a globalizing world.The post Defection and the Cold War appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roma Shatrov is the founder of the Silent Cape Nature Park in Sakhalin. Irina Grudova is Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin. Roma is obsessed with Ainu history and culture and has dedicated the Silent Cape to revitalizing their tradition. Irina is a local Ainu activist and is skeptical of such outsiders looking to exploit her heritage. Yet Roma and Irina instantly hit it off and formed a strong bond over their mutual love of the Ainu. Rusana Novikova brings us a story about the romanticism and self-discovery at the heart of Irina and Roma’s complicated friendship, and its potential promise for Ainu and Russian relations.The post Ainu Fever appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Ilya Vinitsky on the persistence of fakes, forgeries, and frauds in Russian literary culture.The post Fakes, Forgeries, and Frauds appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Rafael Khachaturian and Richard Antaramian on Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh.The post The Cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Elmira Muratova and Michael Kemper on Islam in the Soviet and Post-Soviet contexts.The post Islam, Repression, and Memory appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer on the evolution of indigeneity and religion across the Soviet and post-Soviet divide.The post Useable Pasts? Shamans, Spirituality and Resistance appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Katya Tolstaya on theology, belief, and the remaning spiritual scars after Gulag.The post Theology after Gulag appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Fenggang Yang and Kung Lap Yan on Christianity, worship, and religious persecution in China.The post Christianity in China appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Anna Kovalova, Pitt's new Visiting Assistant Professor in Slavic Languages and Literatures, on her work on early Russian cinema.The post REEES Faculty Spotlight: Anna Kovalova appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Geneviève Zubrzycki and Jose Casanova on the place of the Catholic Church in Polish politics and national identity.The post Catholicism in Poland appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Anca Sincan and Tatiana Vagramenko discuss the how secret police files document religious belief and worship in communist Romania and Ukraine.The post Secret Police Archives as Depositories of Faith appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Catherine Wanner on lived religion in Ukraine, belief, belonging and community, and the impact of the war on religion.The post Lived Religion in Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Bruce Grant revisits his book, In the Soviet House of Culture: A Century of Perestroikas, on the Nivkhi of Sakhalin, their Soviet experience, and the complexities of indigeneity.The post The Nivkhi of Sakhalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Pride month! Misha Appeltova, Irina Roldugina, and Kate Davison join us to talk about their research on gender, sexuality and queer under state socialism.The post Queer Under Communism appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Soviet Union was a latecomer to the whaling industry. But after a bumbling start, by the 1960s, Soviet whalers were slaughtering over 20,000 whales a year. The decimation of the world’s whales in the 20th century, a genocide in which the Soviets played no small part, has had catastrophic results on the world’s ocean environments. Ryan Tucker Jones tells us about the Soviet whaling industry, the lives of Soviet whalers, their attitudes toward their craft, and the lasting trauma of the hunt the ocean’s majestic creatures.The post Red Whaling appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Mark Gamsa on Harbin: A Cross-Cultural BiographyThe post Harbin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Paul Josephson and Sharyl Corrado on conquering nature, settlement, and Russian expansion in the Arctic and Sakhalin.The post Conquering Nature in Sakhalin and the Arctic appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ed Pulford and Soren Urbansky on the cross-cultural and diverse past and present of the Russian Far East.The post The Far East appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It all started with a letter to Stalin in 1935. And when a Kremlin clerk opened it, there was a piece of shit inside.Was the turd an insult? A way of saying to Stalin, “You’re a shit. Here’s some shit”?Perhaps.But I ended Part One of a Gift for Stalin on a different note: that the turd addressed to Stalin was no slight at all. It was, in fact, a gift.A little brown present for Comrade Stalin.The post A Gift for Stalin, Part Two: The Accursed Share appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Sunday, October 13, 1935, and someone, we don’t know who mails a letter from the outskirts of Moscow. It’s addressed: “Kremlin. To Comrade Stalin.” It arrives a few days later. And when Comrade Sentaretskya, one of the secretaries sorting Stalin’s mail, got to this letter, she had no reason to worry . . . . that is until she opened it.The post A Gift for Stalin, Part One: Dear Comrade Stalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s Sunday, October 13, 1935, and someone, we don’t know, who mails a letter. It’s addressed: “Kremlin. To Comrade Stalin.”Now, there was nothing odd about people writing Stalin. They wrote to him a lot.So, when Comrade Sentaretskaya, one of the secretaries sorting Stalin’s mail, got to this letter, she had no reason to worry . . . . that is until she opened it.Just what was in this letter?Find out March 31 when The Eurasian Knot debuts with A Gift to Stalin, two episodes about a letter mailed to the Soviet dictator and what it might have meant in the Soviet Union. Available wherever you get your podcasts.The post Trailer: A Gift for Stalin appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American tourists expected few chances to meet Soviet people. You’d only see what Soviet officials wanted to show you. Touring the USSR, many assumed, was nothing more than a front row seat at a big show. And real Soviet life was hidden under layers upon layers of propaganda. So, if you wanted to see the truth of Soviet life—avoid officials and seek out “regular people.” Teddy wanted to seek out “regular” Soviet people. And he had a few chances to visit people’s homes. What did Teddy discover about “regular Soviet life and people” as a result? And what did it say about the Soviet system as a lived experience?The post Ep 5 Teddy Meets The Soviet People appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teddy had few “official” meetings in the USSR. A factory here. A collective farm there. Maybe a school or two. And there was one question Teddy’s hosts always asked: “Why are you still lynching Blacks?” American racism was a global issue during the Cold War. And pointing to it was a strike at America’s Achilles heel. Soviet media devoted a lot of time to the Civil Rights Movement. And Teddy arrived in the USSR just when Martin Luther King was assassinated. So, just what was this Soviet concern for American Blacks? Was it merely a whataboutism, a way to deflect American criticism of Soviet life? Or was there something more to it?The post Ep 4: Teddy Talks about Race appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Like many Americans, Teddy judged the USSR through a consumer lens. What could Soviets buy? How much? And what was up with those long lines and shortages? Teddy wasn’t very impressed. Yet, the “standard of living race” was a front in the Cold War like any other. And Soviet communism was losing. But things were never so simple. By the late 1960s, Soviet people were consuming more than ever. They were becoming consumers just like in the West. So, what was it like to shop in the USSR? And was buying stuff part of the Soviet dream?The post Ep 3 Teddy Goes Shopping appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teddy assumed the KGB would monitor his travels around the Soviet Union. In Kiev, Teddy discovers that someone went through his luggage. And half-century later he learns his suspicions were correct. The KGB wrote a report on him, complete with excerpts from his diary. What was in this report? What did the KGB hope to learn from Teddy? And what was this vast network for keeping tabs on tourists anyway?The post Ep 2 Teddy Meets The KGB appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Teddy Roe took an extraordinary trip to the USSR in 1968. For three months, he travelled from one end of the USSR to the other. Most Americans at the time believed the USSR was their greatest enemy. Teddy was among tens of thousands who toured the Soviet Union. Why did Americans want to travel there? Why did the Soviets want them to come? What just what was the tourist experience like?The post Ep 1: Teddy Greets the USSR appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Drs. Carmen Andreescu and Alex Dombrovski on their work on mental health in Ukraine though the Global Initiative on Psychiatry - USA.The post Mental Health in Wartime Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Christian Raffensperger on the place of Kyivan Rus' in the wider European medieval world.The post Kyivan Rus’ appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Sean Griffin on his prize winning article “Revolution, Raskol, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: The 1,020th Anniversary of the Day of the Baptism of Rus” published in the Russian Review.The post The Day of the Baptism of Rus appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Victoria Smolkina and Georgyi Kasianov on the complexities of memory, history, and politics in narrating Ukrainian history.The post Between Memory and History in Ukraine appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Artemy Troitsky reflecting on his life in the Soviet and Russian rock scenes.The post The Soviet Rock Scene appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Polly Jones and Zuzanna Bogumil on memory, politics, and trauma of Stalinism.The post Working Through Stalinism appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

REEES faculty profile on Zoltan Zelemen about his research on neo-medievalism in international relations, law, and democracy.The post REEES Faculty Spotlight: Zoltan Kelemen appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Ben Aris and Ilya Matveev on the Russian economy during wartime.The post The Economic War appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Adrienne Edgar on Intermarriage and the Friendship of Peoples: Ethnic Mixing in Soviet Central Asia published by Cornell University Press.The post Mixed Marriages in the USSR appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rebroadcast of my 2016 interview with the recently departed Anne Garrels, author of Putin’s Country: A Journey into the Real Russia.The post Remembering Anne Garrels appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guests: Alessandro Iandolo and Natalia Telepneva on Soviet engagement with West Africa during the Cold War.The post Soviet Aid to West Africa appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: William Taubman on Gorbachev: His Life and Times.The post Rebroadcast: The Life and Times of Mikhail Gorbachev appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Jonathan Brunstedt on The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR published by Cambridge University Press.The post Soviet WWII Mythologies appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Olga Petri on Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siècle St. Petersburg published by Cornell University Press.The post Queer Spaces in Imperial St. Petersburg appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Timothy Blauvelt on Clientelism and Nationality in an Early Soviet Fiefdom: The Trials of Nestor Lakoba published by Routledge.The post Clientelism in Soviet Abkhazia appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Fabrizio Fenghi on It Will Be Fun and Terrifying: Nationalism and Protest in Post-Soviet Russia published by University of Wisconsin Press.The post Limonov and the National Bolsheviks appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Sarah Riccardi-Swartz on Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia published by Fordham University Press.The post Russian Orthodox Converts in Appalachia appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Ilya Budraitskis on Russia's war in Ukraine, fascism, and his essay collection, Dissidents among Dissidents. Ideology, politics and The Left in Post-Soviet Russia published by Verso.The post A Dissident Among Dissidents appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Gulnaz Sharafutdinova on The Red Mirror: Putin’s Leadership and Russia’s Insecure Identity published by Oxford University Press.The post Russia in the Red Mirror appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Brian Milakovsky on everyday life in the Donbas and the effort to evacuate civilians.The post Life and Death in the Donbas appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Adeeb Khalid on Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present published by Princeton University Press.The post Central Asia Past and Present appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Guest: Alexei Yurchak on perestroika, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the experiences of the last Soviet generation.The post Everything Was Forever Until appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming May 30!Teddy Goes to the USSR, a new six-part podcast series follows one such American, Teddy Roe, to shine light on Soviet tourism, police surveillance, consumerism, race, and everyday life through his extraordinary three-month trip to the Soviet Union in 1968.The post Trailer 2: Teddy Goes to the USSR appeared first on The Eurasian Knot. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.