Show overview
The Sickle and the Hammer: A Socialist History of the Soviet Union launched in 2025 and has put out 48 episodes in the time since. That works out to roughly 30 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a fortnightly cadence.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 8 min and 54 min — with run-times ranging widely across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language History show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 4 weeks ago, with 11 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2025, with 37 episodes published. Published by Daniel.
From the publisher
We are often told the USSR was an oppressive, authoritarian society, lacking freedom and democracy. There were endless purges that claimed the lives of millions of “dissidents,” purges that were designed for one thing and one thing only: to keep power in the hands of those who wielded it.And as we all know, the economy was based on socialist and communist principles, which is why it barely functioned at all. There were endless famines, genocides against minorities within the nation, and an industrial base that was constantly tottering on the edge of collapse.But instead of trying to address these issues at home, the leaders of the USSR were fixated only on world domination, on spreading communism in order to destroy freedom around the world. From Europe and Asia to Latin America and Africa, the Communists were a threat to freedom the world over.…. Or were they?Learn the story of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic you’ve never heard! What was life really like in the Soviet Union? How authoritarian was it? Did a “totalitarian” state really exist? How did the economy function to meet the needs of its citizens? How were the governing apparatus structured? And were the Soviets hell-bent on world domination…. Or world liberation? Or neither?Subscribe to find out!
Latest Episodes
View all 48 episodes26 - Epilogue to Brest-Litovsk
25.a - The Socialist Fatherland Is In Danger!
25 - An Unacceptable Peace, Ratified
Ep 4324.a - Theses on the Question of the Immediate Conclusion of a Separate and Annexationist Peace
Source: https://uaio.ru/vil/35.htm
Ep 4224 - An Unacceptable Peace, Accepted
To fight or not to fight… that is the question!Please consider supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/sovietpodSources:Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks In Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.Gluckstein, Donny. The Tragedy of Bukharin. Pluto Press, 1994.Cliff, Tony. Revolution Besieged: Lenin 1917-1924. Republished by Haymarket Books, 2012.Veller, M. and Burovskii, A. Grazhdanskaya Istoria Bezumnoi Voiny. Izdatelstvo ACT Moskva, 2007.
Ep 4123 - Prologue to Brest-Litovsk
It’s that episode on the international aspects of the Russian Revolution you’ve been waiting for!Please consider supporting me on Patreon! patreon.com/sovietpodSource:Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks In Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.
Ep 3922.a - Theses on the Constituent Assembly
Source: https://leninism.su/works/74-tom-35/1583-tezisy-ob-uchretitelnom-sobranii.html
Ep 4022.b - Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited People
Source: https://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/DEKRET/declarat.htm
Ep 3822 - The Life and Death of the Constituent Assembly
This one is in the title, folks.Please consider supporting me on Patreon! patreon.com/sovietpodSources:Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks In Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.Znamensky, O. N. Vserossiiskoe Uchrezhditelnoe Sobranie: Istoria Sozyva i Krushenia. Nauka Publshers, 1976.Cliff, Tony. Revolution Besieged: Lenin 1917-1923. Haymarket Books, 2012.Carr, E. H. The Bolshevik Revolution: 1917-1923, vol. I. Pelican Books, 1966.
Ep 3721 - The Origins of the Cheka
The Cheka: vehicle of Communist oppression, or shield and sword of the revolution?Consider supporting me on Patreon: Patreon.com/sovietpodSources:Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks In Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.Golinkov, D. L. Krushenie antisovietsogo podpolya v SSSR, 1917-1925 gg. Izdatelstvo politicheskoi literatury, Moskva, 1975
Ep 36Year 1 In Review
Our show turns 1 year old today!
Ep 3520 - The Peasant Question, In All Its Glory
What do you get when you mix 18 years of theory with two separate Congresses of Peasants’ Deputies? Why, one unified Soviet government of, by, and for the masses, of course!Consider supporting me on Patreon! patreon.com/sovietpodSources:The Development of Capitalism in Russia (1899)The Workers’ Party and the Peasantry (1901)The Agrarian Program of Russian Social-Democracy (1902)The Proletariat and the Peasantry (1905)On Our Agrarian Program - A Letter to the Third Congress (1905)The Question on Land and the Struggle for Freedom (1906)The Peasantry and the Working Class (1913)Speech on the Agrarian Question (22 May [4 June] 1917)10 Days That Shook The World. Reed, John.Chresvychayny Vse-Rossiiskii Cyezd Sovietov Krestyanskikh Deputatov. Bolshaya Sovietskaya Ensiklopedia.Vse-Rossiiskii Cyezd Sovietov Krestyanskikh Deputatov.Rozhdenia Sovietskogo Gosudarstva - Chresvychayny i II Vse-Rossiiskii Cyezdy Sovietov Krestyanskikh Deputatov. Soglashenia bolshevikov s levymi eseramy.Evolutskia vzglyadov V. I. Lenina na krestyanstvo i postroenie sotsialisma v krestyanskoi strane. Vakhitov, Rustem Rinatovich.
Ep 3019 - The Struggle for the People’s Government
Never forget, kids: the support of the masses is the key to victory.Sources:Cliff, Tony. Revolution Besieged: Lenin 1917-1923. Haymarket Books, 2012.Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.
Ep 3119.a - The Decree on Land
Source: https://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/DEKRET/o_zemle.htm
Ep 3319.c - The Decree on the Press
Source: https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Декрет_о_печати
Ep 3419.d - The Situation of Worker Control
Source: https://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/DEKRET/rab_ctrl.htm
Ep 3219.b - The Decree on Peace
Source: https://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/DEKRET/o_mire.htm
Ep 2918 - Shots Fired
We’re back! But so is the bourgeoisie.Sources:Cliff, Tony. Revolution Besieged: Lenin 1917-1923. Haymarket Books 2012.Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, 2007.Reed, John. 10 Days That Shook The World. Public domain, available on marxists.org. Originally published 1919.Russian Wikipedia article, Oktyabrskoe vooruzhenoe Vosstanie v Moskve (1917). Last accessed 20 Oct 2025.
Ep 2817 - Lessons to be Learned
Wherein we find out what the point of all this was, and close the book on the revolutionary period.
Ep 2716 - Filling in the Blanks
This is the first of a two-episode retrospective on the Russian Revolution. In this episode, we discuss some of the finer details that we passed over, in order to provide a more complete understanding of the revolutionary period.