The Eurasian Knot

Sep 23 2024 6.3k

The Eurasian Knot Podcast artwork

To many, Russia, and the wider Eurasia, is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. But it doesn’t have to be. The Eurasian Knot dispels the stereotypes and myths about the region with lively and informative interviews on Eurasia’s complex past, present, and future. New episodes drop weekly with an eclectic mix of topics from punk rock to Putin, and everything in-between. Subscribe on your favorite podcasts app, grab your headphones, hit play, and tune in. Eurasia will never appear the same.

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A New History of Northern Eurasia

Sep 23 2024 62 mins

In college, I took Russian history classes–Early Modern, Imperial, Soviet. And all the specialty topics within those frameworks were Russia-centric, and especially Moscow-centric. And the narrative, more or less, told the story of the Russian state. This schema has become scrutinized since the collapse of the Soviet system, and increasingly since Russia’s full scale invasio

The Sound of Socialism, Part 3

Sep 09 2024 46 mins

There’s a fascinating sound object from the People’s Republic of Poland: the “sound postcard.” These flimsy, colorful, plastic rectangles could be mailed to loved-ones and friends just like any other postcard. Except they came with a bonus. Etched on the card was a poor quality recording of a popular song, and even sometimes with a personalized vocal greeting. These

Women in Russian Politics

Sep 03 2024 45 mins

Gender equality was one of the many promises of the Soviet Union fell way short of realizing. In more ways that can be recounted here. But interestingly, women played an important role in municipal governance. Women sat on soviets and did most of the mundane and humdrum administrative work. Most of these women who occupied these unpaid, and often thankless positions, were pilla

Illiberalism and Civil Society in Hungary

Aug 26 2024 50 mins

Over the last 50 years, civil society has become synonymous with the Eastern European transition from communism to liberal democracy. It was civil society that brought down communist governments. And its civil society that struggles to preserve the democratic gains since 1989. But what happens to civil society organizations and activists in illiberal regimes? How do they resolv

The Sound of Socialism, Part 2

Aug 19 2024 55 mins

What is noise? And how should we approach it as scholars, critics, and sound artists? These are questions Matthew Kendall treats in his contribution to the forum “Socialist Sound Worlds.” He says that noise, particularly the scratchy, staticky, distorted noise found in many sound recordings, can tell us a lot. It gives us place, context, personality and even alternative nar

The Sound of Socialism, Part 1

Aug 12 2024 56 mins

What are the sounds of socialism? And does socialism sound different from capitalism? This question came up after reading the forum “Socialist Sound Worlds” in the Winter 2023 Slavic Review. But whether socialism sounded different was hard to know from the forum. Though its articles dealt with sound, ironically, no sounds accompanied them. Listeners know that the Eurasian K

The Eastern International

Aug 05 2024 56 mins

The Bolsheviks’ geographical imagination of revolution did not just include the “West” but also the “East.” And the “East” in two senses. The internal east of the former Russian empire, primarily Central Asia and the Caucasus. And the external east of the colonized world–what we today call the Global South. Through the Communist International, the Soviet Union f

The Soviet Bid to Run the World

Jul 29 2024 51 mins

What drove Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War? Scholars have argued over this question during and after the end of the superpower staredown between the United States and the Soviet Union. Was it ideology? A desire to dominate the world? Spread revolution? All? None? Now, enters Sergey Radchenko with To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power, a new,

The Rise and Fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin

Jul 01 2024 69 mins

It’s been a year since Yevgeny Prigozhin shocked the world with his ill-fated march on Moscow. Soon, it will be a year since Prigozhin was killed in a mysterious plane crash. But before all that, Prigozhin was “Putin’s chef,” and one of many violent entrepreneurs at the beck and call of the Boss in the Kremlin. A good boyar, the Chef, with the help of generous state con

Russians in Latvia

Jun 24 2024 51 mins

Since the end of the USSR in 1991, Latvia’s Russian speakers have been living under what Kevin Platt calls, “border conditions.” That is, a life in the liminal space between Latvia and the Russian Federation, the West and the East, a liberal present and a communist past. And all under the darkened shadow of a more revanchist Russia at war in Ukraine. And how do Russophone